ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis

AMD has just released a new Catalyst 10.7 driver for Radeon graphics cards - we check out performance under Windows 7.

Published
Updated
Manufacturer: AMD
5 minutes & 54 seconds read time

Introduction


CATALYST 10.7 PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS




The 29th of July, how scary is that? - One month already down into the second half of the year and what a start to the back end of the year it's been. Really, out of nowhere we've seen NVIDIA bounce back with a model that everyone wants to get their hands on and while ATI at the moment continue to hold the value for money cards, when it comes to the high budget folks it looks like NVIDIA may have taken it in the most important category, the $200 bracket.

It's going to be an interesting second half and I'm sure we're going to see new models from both the green and red team. For now, though, let's look at the latest Cat drivers.


Performance Improvements

- Borderlands

Performance increases 3-5% on ATI Radeon HD 5800 and ATI Radeon HD
5700 series single card and CrossFire configurations when anti-aliasing and
anisotropic filtering is enabled

Performance increases 3-8% on ATI Radeon HD 5970 single card and
CrossFire configurations when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering is enabled

Performance increases 2-6% on ATI Radeon HD 5600 and ATI Radeon HD
5500 series single card configurations when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering
is enabled

Performance increases 2-10% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 series single card and
CrossFire configurations when anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering is enabled

Test System Setup and 3DMark Vantage


ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 99


As seen on the previous page, this month we've only got a promise of gains in Borderlands. Unfortunately we don't test that, but hopefully we see something in some of the games we do test.


3DMark Vantage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.0.1
Developer Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com
Product Homepage: http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmarkvantage/
Buy It Here




3DMark Vantage is the new industry standard PC gaming performance benchmark from Futuremark, newly designed for Windows Vista and DirectX10. It includes two new graphics tests, two new CPU tests, several new feature tests, and support for the latest hardware.

3DMark Vantage is based on a completely new rendering engine, developed specifically to take full advantage of DirectX10, the new graphics API from Microsoft.

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 20


HD 5770 - There seems to be a small bump in performance at both presets.

HD 5850 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5870 - X performance has moved a little backwards, more likely a bit of fluctuation.

HD 5970 - Here we see no real change.

Benchmarks - Resident Evil 5


Resident Evil 5

Version and / or Patch Used: Demo Benchmark
Developer Homepage: www.residentevil.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.residentevil.com/




Resident Evil 5 is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. The game is the seventh installment in the Resident Evil survival horror series, and was released on September 18. Resident Evil 5 revolves around Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar as they investigate a terrorist threat in Kijuju, a fictional town in Africa.

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 21


HD 5770 - We see a little 1 FPS boost at both resolutions here.

HD 5850 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5870 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5970 - Here we see no real change.

Benchmarks - Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

Version and / or Patch Used: Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/UK/default.aspx
Product Homepage: http://www.hawxgame.com/





Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X is an arcade-style flight simulator video game developed by Ubisoft Romania and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and iPhone OS.

The fundamental gameplay mechanics are similar to those of other console-based flight series. Players take on enemies with over 50 aircraft available. Each mission is at real world locations in environments created with commercial satellite data. A cockpit, first person, and third person view are selectable. The third person view gives the player an external view of both their plane and the target.

Set above the skies of a near-future world, increasingly dependent on private military companies with elite mercenaries who have a relaxed view on the law. As these non-governmental organizations gain power, global conflict erupts with one powerful PMC attacking the United States.

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 23


HD 5770 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5850 - Performance seems to have slipped ever so slightly.

HD 5870 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5970 - Here we see no real change.

Benchmarks - Darkest of Days


Darkest of Days

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.4
Timedemo or Level Used: Built-in Test
Developer Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com/index.php
Product Homepage: http://www.darkestofdays.com/index.php





Darkest of Days takes the player through time into historic battles in an effort to save key individuals from certain death. The battles range from Custer's Last Stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 to fighting in Pompeii as ash and fire rain down from an erupting Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD. Other locations include the battles of Antietam and Tannenberg, and a German World War II P.O.W. camp. There are different missions in every time period and the game takes about 4 hours to complete.

The game features over twenty weapons, both from the original time period as well as those brought back from the future. In addition, there are artillery weapons from different time periods to assist in battle.

Note: With the PhysX set to Medium or High Darkest of Days take advantage of the NVIDIA PhysX abilities. For that reason we will test ATI cards at the Low preset, NVIDIA based cards though will be tested at Low and High.

PhysX set to Low w/out PhysX based Card

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 24


HD 5770 - 1680 performance seems to have jumped a few FPS, 1920 x 1200 shows no change.

HD 5850 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5870 - Performance is a little wobbly, but nothing major.

HD 5970 - A little boost at the lower resolution.

Benchmarks - Far Cry 2


Far Cry 2

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.01
Timedemo or Level Used: Ranch Long
Developer Homepage: http://www.ubi.com/
Product Homepage: http://www.farcry2.com/
Buy It Here




The Dunia Engine was built specifically for Far Cry 2 by the award-winning Ubisoft Montreal development team. It delivers the most realistic destructible environments, amazing special effects such as dynamic fire propagation and storm effects, real-time night-and-day cycle, dynamic music system, non-scripted enemy A.I. and so much more.

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 25


HD 5770 - We see a little bump in performance here.

HD 5850 - Performance again seems a little down.

HD 5870 - Performance is a little up and down here with the new driver looking at the different resolutions.

HD 5970 - Here we see no real change.

Benchmarks - High Quality AA and AF


High Quality AA and AF

Our high quality tests let us separate the men from the boys and the ladies from the girls. If the cards weren't struggling before they will start to now.


Far Cry 2

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 26


HD 5850 - Here we see no real change.

HD 5870 - We see a little FPS bump, probably just a little fluctuation.

HD 5970 - We see a small bump in the minimum.


Resident Evil 5

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 27


HD 5850 - Little negative movement here.

HD 5870 - Here we see no change.

HD 5970 - Here we see no change.


Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.

ATI Catalyst 10.7 Windows 7 Driver Analysis 28


HD 5850 - Little movement but nothing serious.

HD 5870 - Little movement but nothing serious.

HD 5970 - Little movement but nothing serious.

Final Thoughts




On the performance side of things we don't see anything new out of the driver. It's funny, but when talking to people it seems that most are sitting on the 10.4 drivers still, which seem to have been the best this year. To be honest, if there's nothing that stands out for you in the release notes, there's no real reason to upgrade.

With the performance bit aside, it's worth mentioning that this driver did cause some issues. When it came to running benchmarks on our machine we quite often found coming out of a game we would just come to a black screen.

Initially I thought it was freezing so I restarted when it happened. At one point I tried the old ctrl + alt + del option and the screen came back with my options menu; I selected task manager and my desktop showed up. I could close task manager and everything went to normal.

Unless you really need to upgrade, I'm not sure I would really bother. The problems we're experiencing mean we'll probably skip these drivers in our ATI reviews. Lately I find myself mainly using the 10.5s.

Little glitches like the above mentioned one can be due to any number of things. It could just be the driver not liking something on the testbed as people haven't reported the issue I'm having. At the end of it, though, like I said, unless you really needed to upgrade, I wouldn't really bother.

Until next month, may all your frame rates be high and your games good fun!

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Shawn takes care of all of our video card reviews. From 2009, Shawn is also taking care of our memory reviews, and from May 2011, Shawn also takes care of our CPU, chipset and motherboard reviews. As of December 2011, Shawn is based out of Taipei, Taiwan.

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