Catalyst 8.1 Beta for Vista Available
 

The beta version of the 8.1 Catalyst driver for Windows Vista has found its way onto the internet, although very few details are available so you’ll have to try it yourself to find the improvements. The driver works on both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the OS and should be compatible with all Radeon 9550 and newer cards. The driver can be downloaded here.

Source: techPowerUp! Forums

Oh... That good... Is this driver support CrossfireX in 3 or 4 way crossfire......?

I already have it on my machine,i got a small increase in my 3dmark 06 score.No problems upto now.

Anyone know where I can find a full changelog? I'd like to see how many HD 38x0 specific updates they made.

With an "unreleased" beta? I doubt it.

Oh.. This is an unreleased leaked version? I see. Didn't know that. Oh well. Lets see what kind of an improvement it gives in crysis!

I ran some Crysis tests and it gives a fair increase for me!

Catalyst 7.11 "Crysis HotFix"

Run #1- DX9 1024x768 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 27.345
Run #2- DX9 1280x1024 AA=2x, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 18.4
Run #3- DX9 1680x1050 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 20.455


Catalyst 8.1 Beta

Run #1- DX9 1024x768 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 34.115
Run #2- DX9 1280x1024 AA=2x, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 19.285
Run #3- DX9 1680x1050 AA=No AA, 64 bit test, Quality: High ~~ Overall Average FPS: 23.45

Not very bad. It doesn't help much with AA on, but with AA off you can get a fair 5FPS increase. Tests were ran in Crysis SP Demo using the benchmarking tool. I use a HD 3870 stock with a AMD X2 3800+ @ 2.7GHz on Vista Business 64-bit.

cat 7.11 Vs 8.1 ???


why not 7.12 Vs 8.1 ???


regards

When will this be available for XP SP3?

Because 7.12 isn't very stable and 7.11 "crysis hotfix" is specially designed for crysis. So if you were to go between 7.12 v 8.1 expect the FPS to be a little bit higher in 8.1 compared to 7.12. AMD themselves suggested for Crysis users to keep 7.11 installed.

thanks robo those numbers were quite useful. :)

Probably the same time its offically released. This apparently is not an official release but rather a leaked copy of a beta.

No problem :). I will do DX10 tests a bit later tonight. Hopefully the improvements are better.

i have HD3870 in crossfire and with 7.12 they run better in Crysis and all other Games than with 7.11 Htofix

btw: Crysis hotfix its specially designed for Crysis before the 7.12 released


didnt try Cat 8.1 yet , im waiting for the official version for windows XP ....


regards

I got my HD 3850 the day 7.12 came out and I can play it fine...

Thats because 7.12 increases crossfire performance. Crysis hotfix is a special driver set specially designed to improve crysis performance. AMD said for the release of 7.11 and 7.12 that if you play crysis you should stick with hotfix drivers.

Either way, it doesn't matter. I did a quick test to show 7.11 v 8.1 results, not 7.12 v 8.1 results.

I found that 7.11 was more stable for me than 7.12 so I used them. Vista gave me "drivers failed but recovered" errors once in a while followed by a BSOD.

Yea im XP, I try to play games on Vista but theres no point in losing 10-20fps for nothing.