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I had no idea that Catalyst Application Profiles (CAP) worked for single GPUs!

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After reading this article I was like "WTH, I thought this was only for CFX setups.".

I have downloaded them and installed them, but how do I use them? Are they automatic?
 

cadaveca

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After reading this article I was like "WTH, I thought this was only for CFX setups.".

I have downloaded them and installed them, but how do I use them? Are they automatic?

Yes, automatic.


AMD's new driver design added support for driver setting profiling, independant of the core driver. What this means is that you cna stil lget many of the benefits offered by new drivers, using odler drivers, and a new CAP(which is why they are separate downloads).

For example, 12.1, 12.2, 12.4, 12.5, and 12.6 drivers do not work well with triple HD6950's. I've tried different motherboards, fresh OSes, all to no avail.

So, I'm runnign the 12.3 driver, which does work, and then I run the most recent CAP, 12.7.

You can also look at it like the first release driver is a big huge driver, and not well optimized. Every release, they have the same driver, with optimized code paths and such, that can get a bit extra performance.

But at the same time, that driver also has settings for how things are run in the driver, things like what rendering mode is under in Crossfire, or perhaps some specialized colour settings. Maybe an app needs certain commands run before others, or omething, and the CAP contains these settings.


New CAP, new settings for running the driver. New driver = new code paths used.


Does that make sense? :laugh:
 

Phusius

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thanks for this topic, I did not know this either, I am going to install CAP now for my single 7970 lol
 

Phusius

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Yes, automatic.


AMD's new driver design added support for driver setting profiling, independant of the core driver. What this means is that you cna stil lget many of the benefits offered by new drivers, using odler drivers, and a new CAP(which is why they are separate downloads).

For example, 12.1, 12.2, 12.4, 12.5, and 12.6 drivers do not work well with triple HD6950's. I've tried different motherboards, fresh OSes, all to no avail.

So, I'm runnign the 12.3 driver, which does work, and then I run the most recent CAP, 12.7.

You can also look at it like the first release driver is a big huge driver, and not well optimized. Every release, they have the same driver, with optimized code paths and such, that can get a bit extra performance.

But at the same time, that driver also has settings for how things are run in the driver, things like what rendering mode is under in Crossfire, or perhaps some specialized colour settings. Maybe an app needs certain commands run before others, or omething, and the CAP contains these settings.


New CAP, new settings for running the driver. New driver = new code paths used.


Does that make sense? :laugh:


So is 12.3 the driver before the boost gimmick was added on to drivers? I don't fully understand how AMD cards have GPU boost now... like with the 7970 Ghz edition. it says 1000 core, but it can boost to 1050... so it just uses the extra 50 when it needs? I see no CCC option to adjust boost.
 
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Yeah caps are great. You can also install them on top of the legacy driver, even the old 10.2 legacy driver for DX9 cards.
 

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yup, they've always helped single GPU's out as well.


no one made a big fuss about it since the improvements were always included in the next months driver release anyway.
 

Phusius

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yup, they've always helped single GPU's out as well.


no one made a big fuss about it since the improvements were always included in the next months driver release anyway.

Oh, I see. Now that there are not monthly updates but still monthly CAP updates, this does matter now for some. Interesting move by AMD.
 
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I did not know this
 
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I did not know this
Well it is pretty much the purpose of having these CAP is to be able to make minor improvements without having a million hot fixes.
It works for for single GPU pretty much from day one.
 
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Well it is pretty much the purpose of having these CAP is to be able to make minor improvements without having a million hot fixes.
It works for for single GPU pretty much from day one.
Well I remember looking into this way back and it appeared that the fixes were for crossfire. Also there was no clear mention of any benefits for single GPU. I didn't spend very much time researching this but it was not obvious to me. But going back now and looking at it it is obvious now :p
 
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same here jetster... at first mention of these on single card i started having a homer moment...lol
 

DOM

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I don't even use caps with cf or single 7970 lol
 
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The CAPS give great boosts to games with shitty engines like Skyrim.
 
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I don't even use caps with cf or single 7970 lol

CAPs are included automatically with every driver release. If you actually weren't using CAPs, your crossfire likely wouldn't even function properly.

The only point to installing CAPs separately is if they contain a fix that the CAPs in the latest driver don't have, or if you are for some reason not using the latest driver (using a card that is on the legacy driver for example).
 
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