Cat 10.8 Application Profile Update "a"

[EastCoasthandle]

There is a new Cat 10.8 "a" profile released today. According to an early review the results look promising for CF. That link has application profile at this time. But AMD's own website should have the update soon.

 

[erocker]

Do they want you do uninstall previous app profiles before installing the new ones? I currently have three different profiles installed...

*AMD says to uninstall the old ones.. so I did.

 

[streetfighter 2]

Yeah, it does look pretty awesome for crossfire users.

In this thread cadaveca mentioned that a possible explanation for the absurd performance boost was some corner cutting.

 

[douglatins]

Yeah, it does look pretty awesome for crossfire users.

In this thread cadaveca mentioned that a possible explanation for the absurd performance boost was some corner cutting.

70% and 50% improvements are bulldumping i say

 

[cadaveca]

I've verified in my own systems that AA isn't working. I do have to verify that AA is working properly in other drivers a bit better(confirmed it works in 10.7, but not others)...there are some quality issues in a few places, 100% for sure. I'm waiting for official comments from Terry Makedon on this one, though I doubt I'll get any answer from him...as I've mentioned before, he doesn't seem to like me very much, and I've never got any response out of him, ever. I even told him about the 10.8 SouthBridge drivers not being available on the AMD.Game website...guess what, 24 hours later, they still aren't up there, but I have a copy on my machine...

I contacted Sapphire about getting thier bios updates to have PDF instructions in them instead of office documents(almost every user have adobe insttalled for PDF/Flash, but not everyone knows about Open Office, or owns a copy of Office)....Sapphire almost immediately made that change.

I do try to bring real issues to companies attention, AMD hasn't cooperated since 2900XT days(UVD functions where in pre-release reviews from a few sites, 2900XT had no UVD hardware, those reviews were fake).


I'm going to start very carefully scrutinizing every driver release from AMD from this day forward. I've got alot of time on my hands to bring you guys some good, real data, and I'll endeavour to bring this info to you guys as quickly as possible.


I've got some good data on this issue so far...


And Terry, if you read this...pull your head out of your ass, and start listening to your #1 enthusiast customer. I'm sure I've been a thorn in your side for many years now, let's be men about this, and work together, instead of against each other. The ball's in your court, and many people are watching this match!

 

[EastCoasthandle]

...I even told him about the 10.8 SouthBridge drivers not being available on the AMD.Game website...guess what, 24 hours later, they still aren't up there, but I have a copy on my machine...

Negative on the chipset drivers. I recall them being there yesterday. In any case lets see how this develops. H is suppose to do another review using other games to see if the CAP involves more then just those 2 games. Unless there are user reviews out there.

 

[cadaveca]

Negative on the chipset drivers. I recall them being there yesterday.

Yeah, they did this last month too..they change the layout, and the SB driver goes missing. I'm sure it's just a basic coding error on the website, but this is at minimum, 2 months in a row that this has happened, so I ahve to say, they should stay with what works.

It's back up now though. I guess that's good news. It wasn't, about 4 hours ago, when I checked last...I just pulled my ass outta bed before making that post there up above.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Yeah, they did this last month too..they change the layout, and the SB driver goes missing.

It's back up now though. I guess that's good news. It wasn't, about 4 hours ago, when I checked last...I just pulled my ass outta bed before making that post there up above.

http://forums.techpowerup.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=37712&stc=1&d=1282964480

I honestly don't know what to tell you. I was helping someone with them yesterday. That's why I recall they were there.

 

[cadaveca]

Yes, and of course, I do have screenshot of the differing format that was there yesterday...I can also pull fullinfusion's post from last night asking for them, me looking for him, and then telling him that I twitter'd Terry about it.

But it's worknig now, so who cares. I'm not taking credit for that change... I just want everyone to be able to get the updates they need in a prompt fashion.

Another screenshot of no AA(I have about 500 of these now):

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Yes, and of course, I do have screenshot of the differing format that was there yesterday...I can also pull fullinfusions post from last night asking for them, me looknig for him, and them telling him that I twitter'd Terry about it.

But it's worknig now, so who cares. I'm not taking credit for that change... I just want everyone to be able to get the updates they need in a prompt fashion.

Yeah, I recall seeing it yesterday that's why I mentioned it. However, NP it's no big deal. Hey, let me ask you something? Have you tried TWL's uninstall apps? Someone claimed that it solved the lack of AA problem they were having. The name of the file is called Build v3.80 - Extras Only. What you do is:
-Uninstall your Cat driver
-Uninstall Visual C++ by going to: ATI\Support\10-8...\Packages\Apps\VC8RTx...\vcredist_x....\install.exe. Click on install.exe and select uninstall
-Reboot in safe mode. Place the Build v3.80 - Extras Only in a temp folder of your choice.
-Click on temp folder\extra\Force_Fullcleanup.cmd
-Click on temp folder\ati_****_cleaner_v3.2.cmd (follow the instructions. takes about 2-3 minutes or so)
-Click on temp folder\CriticalSituation.reg (this will reinstall Standard VGA Adapter for the registry)
-Do a quick look at Device Adapter from Device manger to verify Standard VGA Adapter (if not there right click on Display Adapter or the name of your PC and do a "Scan for Hardware Changes". I didn't need to do that nor should you but it's there as a "just in case".
-Reboot from safe mode back to desktop
-Install Cat 10.8 reboot
-Click on Assessment_Finalize.cmd (1-2 minutes) and reboot.
See if AA is working?

 

[cadaveca]

No, I haven't, and in fact, I will not, as most non-enthusiast users wouldn't have the slightest idea about that either.


DriverCleaner works fine. Usually, I just manually remove the same entries it does. DriverCleaner is a pay-to-play app though, and most non-enthusiast users aren't gonna buy it either. I've got paid-for copies of all those software...Everest, FRAPS, Sandra, etc...I'm fully prepared for these sorts of situations.


I'm really trying to NOT approach these sorts of things as an advanced user. I'm bloody crazy, right, certified, even, so I expect that noone else does the stupid stuff I do.


Anyway, AMD's driver install leaves ALL SORTS of registry keys...ULPS ones, CCC setting ones...OVerdrive setting ones...I'm not surprised, really, that I have some issues. That should be the first priority for ATi's driver team, IMHO.


But yeah, I just woke up a while ago, I'm abouyt to begin another round of testing here once I get my son to bed(his b-day today), and I'll go as far as a fresh Windows install, even, to make sure no stragglers are left behind.


EDIT: Also, AA is working on the player models...at times...:

 

[EastCoasthandle]

It's your choice. However, when someone else says that it fixed their AA problem it's hard to take any credence into what your are providing. No offense...

 

[cadaveca]

You didn't read the full post did you?

I will manually remove any offending leftovers. In fact, 1 system is ready...just gotta start testing to see if that fixed it. going through all those steps is stupid work, IMHO, when it only takes about 60 seconds for me to remove the problems manually.

It's also not up to me to fix problems in ATi's uninstall runtime. Sure, I'm left with the problem, so I have no choice, but that's no excuse for the craappy programming.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

You didn't read the full post did you?

I will manually remove any offending leftovers. In fact, 1 system is ready...just gotta start testing to see if that fixed it. going through all those steps is stupid work, IMHO, when it only takes about 60 seconds for me to remove the problems manually.

No, I haven't, and in fact, I will not, as most non-enthusiast users wouldn't have the slightest idea about that either.

I did however the quoted post above is the gist of it. Be that as it may I'm not seeing any AA issues though.

 

[cadaveca]

Can you post up a screen grab in either of the three places I've shown? For all I know, it could be a corrupt file in the game data...hard to say at this point what the real problem is...gotta do this step by step to ensure what the real offender is, so maybe I can give that data to AMD so they can fix it properly. Just becuase I get no response, doesn't mean I'm gonna stop giving them feedback.


EDIT: Just an FYI, ECH...I'm pretty sick right now, so if i seem irritable, it has nothing to do with you(or this situation)...I do apologize for the bit of attitude I'm reading in my own posts.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

I have no idea of what the pic(s) are of. Map, location, game, etc.

 

[cadaveca]

In the other thread, that's from the sub pen, second hall, look out at the water before reaching the bridge to cross to the other side.

Snowy pic is 2nd level, when the team squats down first meeting enemies and you "ambush" them from above, looking up the road they come from, through the tree on the left-hand side.

And it's BFBC2, of course, which is supposed to be one of the games that receives this speed boost. AS an eyefinity user, that speed boost should be enough to make eyefintiy playable with 4xAA...it was a slideshow before.


For all I know, ATi can't do anything about this AA problem. Using the rig that has only OS, the 10.8 drivers, and BFBC2, the problem is still evident.

Adjusting in-game AA makes no difference in visual quality. Will be trying forcing though CCC next....but I shouldn't have to.



See, when it comes to these profiles, ATi has said that they will not make them user-adjustable(they've hidden it in a clever spot, but I found it, and CAN adjust things), and I do beleive the reason given was that they knew the hardware the best, so were best able to configure these profiles for the end user. But, although masny people were complaining about performance issues, and reporting it to them(myself included), they've open said that because they couldn't duplicate it in the lab, they could do nothuing about it.


So, I've offered Terry one of my rigs that is having issues. They have no excuse now. But he hasn''t contacted me yet ot get the rig...so wh oknows...this gives me the impression that ther are all talk, and no action. They say they cannot duplicate it...well here...take my whole rig and find the problem, as I'm not the only one with the problem...then you can duplicate it for sure.

 

[EastCoasthandle]

See, when it comes to these profiles, ATi has said that they will not make them user-adjustable(they've hidden it in a clever spot, but I found it, and CAN adjust things)

Where is this? And, is it easy to adjust? Also is there some sort of comparison that suggests that it's not suppose to look like that?

 

[cadaveca]

I can't step on AMD's toes and reveal it's location. It's XML, so how hard is it to edit XML? VERY HARD, if you don't know what's going on, I think.

So personally, seems to me that they simple aren't willing to spend the development dollars on maknig it user adjustable...and I can't say I blame them. They need to hire more driver programmers, or find new ones to replace the current guys...I dunno...but ever since 10.1, ATi drivers have sucked big time.


And maybe it's not the profiles...I am not 100% sure at this point, but I'll give you this:

 

[EastCoasthandle]

Well editing XML isn't a problem. The issue is what does numeric values for type/peram 1, 2, 3, 5, Default, etc. A person can't just go changing them all willy nilly.


Also I don't think alpha textures do AA properly. From what I recall about BC2 the trees aren't AA'd. I can't find the actual post but here is one and here is another that says what I recall. Also remember that this game doesn't even support AA for DX9.

 

[cadaveca]

Yeah, the actual edit is easy...but you got the point, obviously.


Maybe it IS the game...then it would have been very simple to say so(but as usual, I don't even get a resposne, even long after the fact...). however, because enabling AA makes little-no difference in performance now(but it had a huge impact before), obviously something in the AA implementation has changed. Maybe the tweak screws with AA..maybe AA itself is broken...but it looks like crap.

EDIT: And that's why this bothers me. Terry clearly stated that it was cpu-side that they made fixes...but Terry...you seem to be lying...because how would THAT affect AA? Nevermind, I do understand how it would...but really? You said you couldn't duplicate the problem in-house...clearly, with the result I see now enabling AA(those results ignoring what I see as an issue, performance IS up, and up in a HUUUUGE way), you are clearly not looking in the right places.


I don't understand how a tweak for a single map, that affect cpu usage, affect AA overall, unless your driver is badly optmimized...your little one map tweak actualyl has an effect on the game 100%.


I never played in Eyefinity with AA before...because it made the game a slideshow before. Now it doesn't. Whatever that change was, it needs to be done MORE.

 

[mastrdrver]

I just now saw that [H] review and must say that I was ready to laugh really, really hard. You don't get those kind of fps increases from a driver now a days unless you intentionally had it borked from the beginning....or cut corners.

I don't think even nVidia did that well when they had their "big bang" drivers back a year or so ago.

The brown nosing going on in that thread is pathetic too. I found it very funny how all the ones with the long lists of problems were newly registered users. They all were able to explain in detail very well their repeatable problems.