[rumor] AMD Catalyst Omega Drivers

[Spanners]

So when are these drivers coming out? It has been over 24h since the OP posted this.

Someone said the NDA was Monday, which is why the articles on the first page were pulled I guess. I'd assume that it would be the same day. Do AMD have a day of the week they usually release?

 

[metalliax]

So when are these drivers coming out? It has been over 24h since the OP posted this.

I believe they are coming out on Dec 9th. This information was released earlier than it was supposed to be, by accident I think.

 

[Gloomy]

Someone said the NDA was Monday, which is why the articles on the first page were pulled I guess. I'd assume that it would be the same day. Do AMD have a day of the week they usually release?

No, it can be any day.

 

[gamervivek]

That slide very clearly states that it's compared to 13.12 drivers. What are you questioning exactly? I don't see any BS marketing going on.

BS marketing is better marketing
Anyway, techspot who broke the story did test with the latest drivers and they found performance increases, they erroneously claimed that AMD was claiming those performance improvements with latest drivers than the launch drivers as mentioned inthe slide.

 

[Despoiler]

Someone said the NDA was Monday, which is why the articles on the first page were pulled I guess. I'd assume that it would be the same day. Do AMD have a day of the week they usually release?

Updated info.

The NDA for the driver drops Monday per Hilbert @ guru3d or Tuesday per Brent over at [H]. My guess is Tuesday since AMD tends to release on Tuesday/Wed most often.

 

[Shamrock]

I'm more interested in the bug fixes (28!), and features (such as freesync, and VSR).

 

[lixlax]

Lets see if they finally got rid of the bug where the card does not wake up from zerocore state. I started having this bug at some time when I was using a 7850 and now I have it with R9 270. Its really annoying.

 

[f1sherman]

But it doesn't end there. AMD also focused on improving the driver experience by fixing a massive amount of bugs, including the top ten most reported problems such as errors during the install process, game and system crashes and black screens, and even pesky HDMI audio issues.

Contrary to those screaming "PEBKAC!!", "WATH BLACK SCREEN" and similar...

Thanks for listening, AMD :thumbsup:

I'm more interested in the bug fixes (28!), and features (such as freesync, and VSR).

Same here.
How about fixing Mantle + Vsync stutter, and having to run Mantle with Vsync off and without limiting Max Fps.

 

[el etro]

A slide that reports up to 15% performance uplift versus catalyst 14.9. Catalyst Omega is the R337 from AMD.

It only specifies Radeon GPUs and APUs, nothing more. We don't know if is only GCN1.1 and 1.2 or GCN1.0 will have the improvements too.

 

[psolord]

If AMD implements some fixes for cpu overhead in DX, shouldn't they be for all the supporting cards of the driver?

I mean do they have to take special action for r9, HD 7000, HD 5000 etc?

I wouldn't mind seeing some performance improvements on my 5850s as well. For me they are not irrelevant yet.

The other day I benchmarked Grid Autosport at ultra on my 5850s and I got 44fps for the single card and 47fps for crossfire. In crossfire mode the cpu usage was at 100% and this was a Q9550@4Ghz. I do believe it could do better.

 

[Bateluer]

If AMD implements some fixes for cpu overhead in DX, shouldn't they be for all the supporting cards of the driver?

I mean do they have to take special action for r9, HD 7000, HD 5000 etc?

I wouldn't mind seeing some performance improvements on my 5850s as well. For me they are not irrelevant yet.

The other day I benchmarked Grid Autosport at ultra on my 5850s and I got 44fps for the single card and 47fps for crossfire. In crossfire mode the cpu usage was at 100% and this was a Q9550@4Ghz. I do believe it could do better.

At some point, a company needs to drop support for legacy parts.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Lets see if they finally got rid of the bug where the card does not wake up from zerocore state. I started having this bug at some time when I was using a 7850 and now I have it with R9 270. Its really annoying.

I had the issue with a 7870, a 7950, and now a 290.

*crosses fingers*

 

[Black Octagon]

I never had that issue at all...go figure. Is it really a 'bug' (to be fixed by drivers) if it only affects some cards/hardware and not others?

 

[Galatian]

And has zero issues with the Nvidia slide which has 0 information on how they calculated their performance gain, is proven to be completely false and is perfectly ok with that.

Yet, AMD's slide which has, for all we know so far, isn't false, and has all information there to show their reference point of their calculation, and he wants to complain that THAT slide is misleading.

It's obnoxious. He made a claim, was proven false, and then still continues on this silly crusade. Get over it, you made a mistake, stop playing the victim and crying about being "unpopular". It's as hypocritical as it gets.

I started the discussion with this:

Anybody else notice the "shady" wording of their performance increase claim? It says "19% more performance since launch". For me that reads like the driver only add a few more % on the already existing performance enhancements of older drivers.

At no point there did I even bring nvidia into the game. I simply noticed that I think the marketing slide can be misleading because the big 19% talks about overall performance increase of the R9 290/x since launch and not actually the performance increases the Omega drivers will bring.

That statement was met with:

I don't think a driver will magically increase the performance by 75%. Hawai is reallyclose to leave a place to its successor. But look at all the features it is suppose to come with. I also heard about MANY bugs repairs.

We will have to wait for the release notes to learn more about it.

Which is fine and I responded with:

Oh no worries. I'm happy as well! I just recently switched to two R9 290X watercooled. Couldn't resist with these prices, upcoming Freesync (I'm up for a 4K display) and Civilization Beyond Earth using Mantle. It's just that people might be thinking this is new omega driver is similar to the nVidia driver that actually increased performance a lot, while the wording of the chart actually suggest they are looking at a 19% increase from all driver since the launch of the cards together.

I emphasized what my train of thought was at the moment. I was met with several posts asking what driver I was talking about:

could you post benchmarks of the magical nvidia driver that gave for example me a big boost in fps? this magical driver doesnt exist...

To which I responded:

Huh? Everybody forgot the 337.50 driver earlier this year?

I was then met with a discussion about this driver being full of marketing BS, which is fine but didn't really get onto the topic I had with the slide. Besides there were two cherry picked examples from Anandtech which proved that for Bioshock Infinite is was only a driver optimization and for Rome Total War II a SLI profile.

There are several benchmarks out that clearly show an increase in performance like here, here and here.

No I completely agree that the drivers was not wondrous at all. Some increase here and there, but it really doesn't give justice to the marketing slide nvidia produced. I even said so on two posts:

Well there are games that gain 10% and even more. Of course it is completely dependent on the game. Such will probably be the case with the AMD Omega driver. This is all I'm saying. Not sure why I am being put in a corner right now. I just don't think anybody should get too excited.

Besides nobody really answered my first question to begin with: how do you interpret/feel about that marketing slide?

And:

Yeah I got it: the nvidia driver was not the next best thing since sliced bread. Nonetheless it did boost performance on a number of titles. Was the marketing bad? Yeah! But so is this one from AMD. Personally I think it is even worse, because with the nvidia driver I actually did see increased performance. Perhaps not to the levels nvidia advertised, but still. All I can gather from the AMD slides is that since the launch like over a year ago they managed to get 19% more performance out of their cards in Bioshock Infinite. It has actually no relevance to the Omega driver when you really think about it.

I totally got it at that point. I was dragged into a discussion about the nvidia driver that I really didn't want to have. Yes both companies have bad marketing and I acknowledged that in my posts several times! I can still call out AMD in the respective Thread about their new driver for it, which is the discussion I started. For some the wording is very clear, but I believe it is not clear to all. But your mileage might vary.

Well I leave it at that. I'm looking forward to what ever bug fixes and performance increases I can get out of the driver. So cheers. I didn't mean to offend anybody

 

[ShintaiDK]

A slide that reports up to 15% performance uplift versus catalyst 14.9. Catalyst Omega is the R337 from AMD.

It only specifies Radeon GPUs and APUs, nothing more. We don't know if is only GCN1.1 and 1.2 or GCN1.0 will have the improvements too.

And they list a single game. So it sounds like a "driver as usual". Just with new PR.

 

[KaRLiToS]

And they list a single game. So it sounds like a "driver as usual". Just with new PR.

So cynical !! D:

Can you please wait for the release notes instead of basing a conclusion on a single slide?

There was an article that appeared for 35 minutes on a website and you are already negative about the driver.

Will you try the driver ShintaiDK?

 

[ShintaiDK]

So cynical !! D:

Can you please wait for the release notes instead of basing a conclusion on a single slide?

There was an article that appeared for 35 minutes on a website and you are already negative about the driver.

Will you try the driver ShintaiDK?

Its not me expecting more than what AMD shows on their slides.

Here is another, note, since launch.

And for APUs:

And the featurelist:

 

[KaRLiToS]

Its not me expecting more than what AMD shows on their slides.

We all know it's marketing and PR.... BUT You are making negative assumptions already...

Will you try the driver ShintaiDK?

.

 

[ShintaiDK]

We all know it's marketing and PR.... BUT You are making negative assumptions already...

Will you try the driver ShintaiDK?

.

Me making a negative one? Blame AMD, its their slides not me.

You seem to take it extremely personal everytime someone doesnt jump the hype wagon.

Now tell me, where is AMD wrong in this slide vs your estimates? It spans from 13.12 to Omega.

 

[KaRLiToS]

You really have nothing to do to post the slides again.

I don't expect much out of the performance increase, I just want some crossfire profiles and bug repairs.

Please answer this simple question ShintaiDK: Will you try the driver? If not, I wonder what you are doing here then to try to start fights? I don't take it personnal, I just don't understand what people with GTX cards come here to bash a driver that is not even out yet, in fact, we are not even suppose to know about this driver and you guys are already trying to start fights over here.

I don't see nothing hyping in el etro post, he just stated what the slide was saying.

 

[ShintaiDK]

I don't see nothing hyping in el etro post, he just stated what the slide was saying.

Its not him attacking people is it. I simply stated performance wise it was a "driver as usual" and you went personal because you expected something else.

And just search the web, then you find all slides related to the Omega driver.

 

[KaRLiToS]

Its not him attacking people is it.

Why don't you answer this simple question? Will you try the driver?

I simply stated performance wise it was a "driver as usual" and you went personal because you expected something else.

And just search the web, then you find all slides related to the Omega driver.

Why are you trying to put words into my mouth? Please quote me where I expected a lot of performance increase? Also, I am well aware of all the slides since at least 3 days.

What I don't understand is your presence here, bashing on an unreleased driver and trying to ignite wars. The usual.

 

[desprado]

Why don't you answer this simple question? Will you try the driver?




Why are you trying to put words into my mouth? Please quote me where I expected a lot of performance increase? Also, I am well aware of all the slides since at least 3 days.

What I don't understand is your presence here, bashing on an unreleased driver and trying to ignite wars. The usual.

I will because i bought R9 290X Lighting Edition.I hope PR lives up to the hype.

 

[Keysplayr]

Why don't you answer this simple question? Will you try the driver?

Why do you keep asking him this pointless question? Why wouldn't he?
Unless what you're really asking is if he has an AMD card to try it on?
And if he doesn't, why is he in this thread saying "meh" to a new AMD driver?
If that's what you mean, then say it.

Or does he have an AMD card and I don't know it. Nothing in sig. shrugs.

Shintai, do you have an AMD card to try the driver? If you don't, I'll buy a 290
for myself and try it out. I've wanted to for a while, just to play with the hardware.

 

[guskline]

Why do you keep asking him this pointless question? Why wouldn't he?
Unless what you're really asking is if he has an AMD card to try it on?
And if he doesn't, why is he in this thread saying "meh" to a new AMD driver?
If that's what you mean, then say it.

Or does he have an AMD card and I don't know it. Nothing in sig. shrugs.

Shintai, do you have an AMD card to try the driver? If you don't, I'll buy a 290
for myself and try it out. I've wanted to for a while, just to play with the hardware.

Good idea about buying a R9 290 Keysplayer. I did (twice see below) and am pleasantly surprised. I have a Nvidia GTX780 Classified in my FX8350 rig and 2 GTX 670 FTWs in SLI in my 3770k rig so I feel I have a fair and personal perspective when compairing the Nvidia vs AMD cards. Might consider swapping the 2 670s for a single 970.

I'm excited about the Omega drivers. The slide clearly shows the Omega driver increase being compared to the 13.2 driver. I doubt the increase, if any, will be that great to the latest beta driver 14.11.2?

Like KaRLiToS, I'm more interested in the improvement in crossfire profiles.