Sunday, February 2nd 2014

AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta 1.6 Posted

Here it is, the first public beta of AMD Catalyst 14.1, featuring Mantle, AMD's 3D graphics API designed to rival Direct3D and OpenGL. The driver enables the Mantle renderer on Battlefield 4, which is known to enhance performance on certain GPUs based on AMD's Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture. The driver can't be installed as an upgrade to an existing driver, which must be cleanly uninstalled first. In addition to Mantle, Catalyst 14.1 beta resolves rendering issues on a boat-load of games.

If Battlefield 4 crashes as soon as you go to options, disable your integrated graphics in BIOS or device manager.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta 1.6

The change-log follows:

Feature Highlights of The AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta Driver for Windows

Support for the following new AMD Desktop APU (Accelerated Processors) products:
  • AMD A10-7850K
  • AMD A10-7700K
Mantle Beta driver
  • AMD's Mantle is a groundbreaking graphics API that promises to transform the world of game development to help bring better, faster games to the PC
  • Performance gain of up to 45%(versus the DirectX version) for Battlefield 4 on the R9 290 Series
  • Performance gain of up to 200% (versus the DirectX version) for Star Swarm on the R9 290 Series
  • AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta must be used in conjunction with versions of these applications that support Mantle
  • It is expected that these applications will have future updates to support additional AMD Mantle features
AMD Mantle Beta driver is currently supported on:
  • AMD Radeon R9 Series GPUs
  • AMD Radeon R7 Series GPUs
  • AMD Radeon HD 7000 Series GPUs
  • AMD Radeon HD 8000 Series GPUs
  • AMD A10-7000 Series and AMD A8-7000 Series APUs
  • Enhanced AMD CrossFire frame pacing - Support for 4K panel and Eyefinity non-XDMA CrossFire solutions (including the AMD Radeon R9 280, 270 Series, 7900 Series, 7800 Series) and Dual Graphics configurations
  • Frame pacing ensures that frames rendered across multiple GPUs in an AMD CrossFire configuration will be displayed at an even and regular pace
  • Supported on 4K panels and Eyefinity configurations
  • Supported on AMD Dual Graphics configurations
  • Supported on DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications
  • Resolved issue highlights of AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta
  • Resolves ground texture flickering seen in Total War: Rome 2 with high settings (and below) set in game
  • Resolves flickering texture corruption when playing Call of Duty: Ghosts (multi-player) in the space station level
Resolved Issues
  • Ground texture flickering seen in Total War: Rome 2 with high settings (and below) set in game
  • Flickering texture corruption when playing Call of Duty: Ghosts (multi-player) in the space station level
  • Blu-ray playback using PowerDVD black screen on extended mode
  • Streaming VUDU HD/HDX content on Sharp PN-K321 (DP) causes the right-side half to flicker in and out
  • Black screen happened after wake up the monitor
  • Full screen issue at rotation in DX9 mode
  • Video window black screen when using Samsung Kies to play video
  • Crysis 2 negative scaling in outdoor scene
  • Crysis 2 has insufficient CrossFire scaling in some scene
  • Red Faction: The game has no or negative crossfire scaling with DX9 and DX11
  • Age of Conan has corruption and performance issues with crossfire enabled
  • Company of Heroes shadows are corrupted when using crossfire
  • Resident Evil 5 's performance is unstable when display mode set to Window mode
  • Total War: Shogun 2 flickering menu/text
  • Frame rate drop when disabling post-processing in 3DMark06
  • Negative Crossfire scaling with game "The Secret World" in DX11 mode
  • F1 2012 Crashes to desktop
  • Tomb Raider Hair Simulation Stutters on CFX
  • Negative CrossFire scaling experienced in Call of Duty
  • Battlefield 3 performance drop on Haswell systems
  • Choppy video playback on 4k Video
  • VSync ON Tearing with 2x1 Eyefinity SLS CrossFire
  • Far Cry 3 - Game flickering while changing resolutions
  • Display corruption and BSOD occurs when extending a display after disabling Multiple GPU SLS array
  • Flickering seen when enable three 4kx2k panels at the same time
  • No Video, just a black screen when setting Chrome to run in "High Performance" when playing certain video clips
  • Image crashed on Starcraft game
Known Issues
  • Mantle performance for the AMD Radeon HD 7000/HD 8000 Series GPUs and AMD Radeon R9 280X and R9 270X GPUs will be optimized for BattleField 4 in future AMD Catalyst releases. These products will see limited gains in BattleField 4 and AMD is currently investigating optimizations for them.
  • Multi-GPU support under DirectX and Mantle will be added to StarSwarm in a future application patch
  • Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire technology in BattleField 4 - AMD recommends using the DirectX code path when playing Battlefield 4 with multiple GPUs. A future AMD Catalyst release will resolve these issues
  • Notebooks based on AMD Enduro or PowerXpress technologies are currently not supported by the Mantle codepath in Battlefield 4
  • AMD Eyefinity configurations utilizing portrait display orientations are currently not supported by the Mantle codepath in Battlefield 4
  • AMD Eyefinity technology is not currently supported in the Star Swarm application
  • AMD testing for the AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta Mantle driver has been concentrated on the following products: AMD Radeon R9 290X, R9 290, R9 280, R9 270, R7 260X, R7 260, HD 7000 Series, HD 8000 Series, A10-7850K and A10-7700K. Future AMD Catalyst releases will include full test coverage for all AMD products supported by Mantle.
  • Graphics hardware in the AMD A10-7850K and A10-7700K may override the presence of a discrete GPU under the Mantle code path in Battlefield 4
  • Frame Pacing for Dual Graphics and non-XDMA configurations above 2560x1600 do not currently work with Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. An upcoming release will enable support
  • DX9 Dual graphics is not supported in AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta. An upcoming release will enable support
Add your own comment

108 Comments on AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta 1.6 Posted

#26
zsolt_93
So it is like having 3 different engines to acoount for? Like if we take Mantle for AMD, DX for legacy, nvidias implementation of mantle(if they are willing to embrace into developing it for their arhitecture or whatever they come up with) in the future? Then still DX will take the win as it is the least hardware dependent as everything needs to go through a wrapper layer that DX is and DX interfaces with the hardware. DirectX offers a standard compared to proprietary tech such as OpenGL does, its just the fact that all generations support different versions of OpenGL with all those minor .1,.2 versions while DX9 was the standard for 3 or 4 gens DX10 for 2 and DX11 for 3 or 4 more depending on the maker and OpenGL support was always different between generations and sometimes even between AMD and NV in the same gen. They will be always going to write the least code for the same program and not rewrite it 3 times. BF4 is an experiment probably well funded by the AMD part too and not just EA, to convert Frostbyte Engine to Mantle, but not many companies will afford to maintain 2 different implementations, even 1 is too much with the sloppy console ports that are just thrown at the PC users and then left to die.
Posted on Reply
#27
neliz
zsolt_93So it is like having 3 different engines to acoount for? Like if we take Mantle for AMD, DX for legacy, nvidias implementation of mantle(if they are willing to embrace into developing it for their arhitecture or whatever they come up with) in the future? Then still DX will take the win as it is the least hardware dependent as everything needs to go through a wrapper layer that DX is and DX interfaces with the hardware. DirectX offers a standard compared to proprietary tech such as OpenGL does, its just the fact that all generations support different versions of OpenGL with all those minor .1,.2 versions while DX9 was the standard for 3 or 4 gens DX10 for 2 and DX11 for 3 or 4 more depending on the maker and OpenGL support was always different between generations and sometimes even between AMD and NV in the same gen. They will be always going to write the least code for the same program and not rewrite it 3 times. BF4 is an experiment probably well funded by the AMD part too and not just EA, to convert Frostbyte Engine to Mantle, but not many companies will afford to maintain 2 different implementations, even 1 is too much with the sloppy console ports that are just thrown at the PC users and then left to die.
It's 2014, there are three major gaming platforms, PS4, XBone and PC. IF developers are interested in reducing costs, it's in their best interest to do so (reduced costs means shorter development cycles.)
DICE is just banking on bringing something similar to what they're working with on the PS4 to the PC which gives them some flexibility and programmability.. something developers actually seem to like. On the other hand, we have the Xbone and their implementation of DirectX. If The presentation of DICE is true, Mantle is pretty close to what they do on the PS4. For all we know, it might be easier for them to port code from the PS4 then to convert DirectX from the xbone or vice versa.

DX9 lasted for 3 gens, but there were variances between each DirectX9 version, remember 9.0c and Far Cry?
DirectX 10 was only one gen. (from an AMD perspective) and the same goes for 10.1
Posted on Reply
#28
_larry
I don't play BF4 and I don't really care much for Mantle at the moment. I'm just downloading because new drivers.
Posted on Reply
#29
progste
zsolt_93So it is like having 3 different engines to acoount for? Like if we take Mantle for AMD, DX for legacy, nvidias implementation of mantle(if they are willing to embrace into developing it for their arhitecture or whatever they come up with) in the future? Then still DX will take the win as it is the least hardware dependent as everything needs to go through a wrapper layer that DX is and DX interfaces with the hardware. DirectX offers a standard compared to proprietary tech such as OpenGL does, its just the fact that all generations support different versions of OpenGL with all those minor .1,.2 versions while DX9 was the standard for 3 or 4 gens DX10 for 2 and DX11 for 3 or 4 more depending on the maker and OpenGL support was always different between generations and sometimes even between AMD and NV in the same gen. They will be always going to write the least code for the same program and not rewrite it 3 times. BF4 is an experiment probably well funded by the AMD part too and not just EA, to convert Frostbyte Engine to Mantle, but not many companies will afford to maintain 2 different implementations, even 1 is too much with the sloppy console ports that are just thrown at the PC users and then left to die.
Not engines, API. It is quite different as an API is not a game engine, it's just the language that programmers use to dialogue with the hardware via the drivers and built in hardware features, so they can write the program just once and it will work on very different hardware as long as the drivers and the hardware are built to support those functions.
This is also the reason why sometimes fixing something to work better in a situation can break something else and the drivers require extensive beta testing before reaching a stable release.
Posted on Reply
#30
CrackerJack
I'm pretty happy with these's drivers, Star Swarm had a very nice increase. And of coarse BF4 it's fully supported, but there is a slight increase in frames. But with a game that has so many other issues, this doesn't really bother me much. By the time the issues get fix Mantle should be more stable.

:toast:
Posted on Reply
#31
HTC
CrackerJackI'm pretty happy with these's drivers, Star Swarm had a very nice increase. And of coarse BF4 it's fully supported, but there is a slight increase in frames. But with a game that has so many other issues, this doesn't really bother me much. By the time the issues get fix Mantle should be more stable.

:toast:
I think by the time them issues get fixed, Mantle will have died of old age ...


Jokes aside, a new milestone has been reached and regardless of the outcome of Mantle, it's foundations are set: this may turn out to be one of those situations of "before Mantle" and "after Mantle".

Time will tell.
Posted on Reply
#32
_larry
Metro 2033 and CS:GO seem to run a bit smoother frame latency wise with my 7950.
Posted on Reply
#33
cadaveca
My name is Dave
well....:



Ya'all can come to your own conclusions. Me, I see 100% boost with 7970 using mantle.
_larryMetro 2033 and CS:GO seem to run a bit smoother frame latency wise with my 7950.
Mantle = actual GCN driver, should have been launched with 7-series, but AMD had issues with memory management, remember? With that said, time for me to stop posting on TPU. Have fun guys!
Posted on Reply
#34
freeleacher
Blue screen 100% of the time on battlefield 4
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA800792F010
BCP2: FFFFF88009524DBC
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000002
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
Posted on Reply
#35
AsRock
TPU addict
Solaris17can someone tell me why this beta driver doesnt work flawlessly please? I dont understand it was delayed alot and released 6 hours ago. Someone help please.

on a side not WOOHOO!!
Yes these forums are starting to sound like steam forums lol.
west7because its a BETA version www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/38567/beta-version
LMAO he knows that...
Prima.VeraThose drivers broke my Crossfire again in AC4, Counterstrike and SWTOR. But now in SWTOR there is no more flickering during cut scenes...
So in each driver release you gain some, you loose some. Typical AMD...
Seriously ?, beta and not supported yet and you thought you were so special even though it did not work for AMD it would for you and you think this gives you right to yet again have a excuse to bitch and moan in a AMD thread...

GTFOOH...
Posted on Reply
#36
Blín D'ñero
freeleacherBlue screen 100% of the time on battlefield 4
BCCode: 116
BCP1: FFFFFA800792F010
BCP2: FFFFF88009524DBC
BCP3: 0000000000000000
BCP4: 0000000000000002
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 2057
From the Release Notes (you should read them sometimes!):
Current driver MUST be uninstalled before updating to AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta driver.
[...]
and Regarding Battlefield 4 under Mantle, from Known Issues:
◾Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire™ technology in BattleField 4™ - AMD recommends using the DirectX code path when playing Battlefield 4 with multiple GPUs. A future AMD Catalyst release will resolve these issues
Posted on Reply
#37
Slomo4shO
cadavecaI see 100% boost with 7970 using mantle.
You, Sir, fail at math.

57.77/38.80 = 1.4889

48.89%100%

Also, your benchmarks indicate an R9 but you are suggesting 7970... Which is it? A R9 280X?
Posted on Reply
#38
freeleacher
Blín D'ñeroFrom the Release Notes (you should read them sometimes!):


and Regarding Battlefield 4 under Mantle, from Known Issues:
Fresh install no other drivers were present at all.
My cards were seen as unknown hardware before install.
Posted on Reply
#39
kn00tcn
as usual, complaints about things breaking, but you can just use the older good dll for your broken game, making it a non issue (unless you have to frankenstein your CAPs file)

so-called beta doesnt mean a thing, most ati drivers have been the same, we have whqls with bsods & major issues, we have betas that work great

it's just a new driver branch, the little sticker microsoft puts out is irrelevant

& who waits for whql to complain about bugs? report them! amd.com/betareport
Posted on Reply
#40
cadaveca
My name is Dave
Slomo4shOYou, Sir, fail at math.

57.77/38.80 = 1.4889

48.89%100%

Also, your benchmarks indicate an R9 but you are suggesting 7970... Which is it? A R9 280X?
It's an ASUS 7970 MATRIX w/ R9 280X MATRIX BIOS.

100% in max batch. That'd be the most CPU-limited scenario.

raw FPS, sure, but that's averaged out FPS. FPS on DirectX tanks to < 10 FPS, in Mantle, it barely drops below 30 FPS. You are comparing FPS over 6 minutes of test, not every single millisecond of the test, which paints a different picture than just those numbers do.

It's all about how you analyze the results, and what gives those results. Looking at the end numbers only doesn't tell you squat. Which is why I should stop posting. :roll: Everyone will draw their own conclusions anyway. Anyone could look at mining performance AMD vs NV, then gaming performance, see the problems there, and could have expected this. Add in power consumption, and it has been obvious since day one that AMD GPUs have been far under-utilized, never mind that AMD said they had driver issues getting the most out of these chips well over a year ago, but performance hasn't increased...stability has, sure.
Posted on Reply
#41
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
Slomo4shOYou, Sir, fail at math.

57.77/38.80 = 1.4889

48.89%100%

Also, your benchmarks indicate an R9 but you are suggesting 7970... Which is it? A R9 280X?
cadavecaIt's an ASUS 7970 MATRIX w/ R9 280X MATRIX BIOS.

100% in max batch. That'd be the most CPU-limited scenario.

raw FPS, sure, but that's averaged out FPS. FPS on DirectX tanks to < 10 FPS, in Mantle, it barely drops below 30 FPS. You are comparing FPS over 6 minutes of test, not every single millisecond of the test, which paints a different picture than just those numbers do.

It's all about how you analyze the results, and what gives those results. Looking at the end numbers only doesn't tell you squat. Which is why I should stop posting. :roll: Everyone will draw their own conclusions anyway. Anyone could look at mining performance AMD vs NV, then gaming performance, see the problems there, and could have expected this. Add in power consumption, and it has been obvious since day one that AMD GPUs have been far under-utilized, never mind that AMD said they had driver issues getting the most out of these chips well over a year ago, but performance hasn't increased...stability has, sure.
He has a point though. Even if you include total frames, isn't nearly 100%, I think 50-65% would be a better estimation, which still isn't too bad tbh.
Posted on Reply
#42
cadaveca
My name is Dave
AquinusHe has a point though. Even if you include total frames, isn't nearly 100%, I think 50-65% would be a better estimation, which still isn't too bad tbh.
Oh, of course. That goes without saying. Obvious is obvious. :p
Posted on Reply
#43
Prima.Vera
AsRockSeriously ?, beta and not supported yet and you thought you were so special even though it did not work for AMD it would for you and you think this gives you right to yet again have a excuse to bitch and moan in a AMD thread...

GTFOOH...
It's a thread about the release of a new AMD driver. Doesn't say anywhere in the topic is a Mantle ONLY driver. And I just stated some facts. What's your problem?
Posted on Reply
#44
Ja.KooLit
wotevajjjjDownloaded them, when trying to get into bf4 options, the game crashes...
happen to me. disable your igpu
Posted on Reply
#45
AsRock
TPU addict
Prima.VeraIt's a thread about the release of a new AMD driver. Doesn't say anywhere in the topic is a Mantle ONLY driver. And I just stated some facts. What's your problem?
I guess my problem is common sense, this is BETA with new added stuff that there be even more of a chance of there being a issue.
Posted on Reply
#46
Steevo
Slomo4shOYou, Sir, fail at math.

57.77/38.80 = 1.4889

48.89%100%

Also, your benchmarks indicate an R9 but you are suggesting 7970... Which is it? A R9 280X?
Total frames rendered.

67% increase in performance VS, however notice the extra numbers of objects, 5% more, and as we all know geometry is compute core limited and thus not linear in scale. Once the delta is reached in DX performance per unit unit is exponential in decrease. Per unit average is still 28% higher on top of the already 67% higher performance at the higher unit per frame render.

Overall I would feel good saying it was a 75% increase, for free, so your complaint is exactly what? You didn't get in on it?
Posted on Reply
#47
pr0n Inspector
Enabling deferred context in the demo on nvidia systems gives massive performance boost according to results from forum posters on anandtech.
Posted on Reply
#48
Solaris17
Super Dainty Moderator
pr0n InspectorEnabling deferred context in the demo on nvidia systems gives massive performance boost according to results from forum posters on anandtech.
what exactly does that do?
Posted on Reply
#49
Steevo
pr0n InspectorEnabling deferred context in the demo on nvidia systems gives massive performance boost according to results from forum posters on anandtech.
AMD was involved with Nvidia in the 2013 game development conference that covered the use of DC.

developer.nvidia.com/sites/default/files/akamai/gamedev/docs/GDC_2013_DUDASH_DeferredContexts.pdf


Flushing due to state changes still pose problems, perhaps mantle address this throught the use of HSA so that the GPU is aware (pseudo aware if off chip memory controller is in use such as the ARM chip Nvidia seems to be implementing**from what I believe**) of what the CPU is working and the thread changes in process.
Posted on Reply
#50
pr0n Inspector
It's a D3D11 feature that can provide large performance increase in some situations.
Posted on Reply
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