AMD 14.11 Beta Driver Gets Released To The Press, First Impressions Revealed
Reports are that AMD has finally released the Catalyst 14.1 beta to the press. The driver is said to bring along the first release of Mantle, AMD’s ambitious 3D graphics API to rival Direct3D and OpenGL. The Catalyst 14.1 beta is said to enable the 3D renderer option in Battlefield 4, which lets you choose between DirectX 11.1 and Mantle.
TechPowerUp apparently gave it a try and they reported that the first ‘impressions’ about AMD’s mantle were nothing close to amazing. The difference between Mantle and non-Mantle systems is currently not noticeable on a Radeon R9 290 graphics card, having all settings set to 1920 x 1080 resolution, Ultra details and 4x MSAA on Battlefield 4. It is reported that the game runs smooth and well over 60 on both Mantle and non-Mantle settings. However, TechPowerUp point out that owners of a Radeon R9 270X will see a significant increase having the same settings applied, whereas on non-Mantle specs, the game’s FPS would drop below 60 FPS. Also, the driver is reported not to be optimized for any of the Graphics CoreNext (GCN) based GPUs other than Radeon R9 290 series, R9 260X, and A-Series “Kaveri” APUs.
TechPowerUp’s specs were as following: 8 GB of DCh DDR3-1333 memory, an AMD 990FX motherboard (ASUS M5A99FX-PRO R2.0, 2201 BIOS, UEFI mode); Windows 8.1 64-bit, and of course, a Radeon R9 290 (BIOS: 015.042.000.000.003747). The game settings are said to be 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution, disabled V-Sync, “Ultra” preset, HBAO, and 4x MSAA. We used the “PerfOverlay.FrameFileLogEnable 1” console command to spit out CSV files with frame-times in ms.
A 167-second playthrough on the single-player campaign chapter “Fishing in Baku,” was performed with the above specs, first being a non-Mantle test. An average frame-time of 16.26 ms, which works out to 61.5 fps. For Mantle, the same 167-second mark was performed, and the average frame-time was 14.45 ms, which works out to 69.2 fps. Overall, a 12.5 percent performance uplift was recorded. It is not much, but given the driver is still a Beta and still not optimized for anything other than the R9 290 series and R29X (if the optimization is final for those as well), we can see the 319% increase stated by AMD in the future.
Thank you TechPowerUp for providing us with this information
Ok, I love my AMD system.. but if mantle isn’t going to support my FX-8350 and HD 7950.. then I’m done with AMD.. The sheer fact that it doesn’t support my AMD gear already is fking stupid.
Ok so mantle is working fine with my system… also, with the new star swarm I got a 50% fps increase.
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 2560×1600 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