ATI's Catalyst 3.8 Drivers: ATI Sanctioned Overclocking
by Derek Wilson on October 8, 2003 3:02 PM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
EVE: The Second Genesis Performance no AA/AF
It is interesting to note that we get a bit of a drop again in this game. The drop isn't a large one, but the important thing to note (though we don't have it graphed) is that the min and max fps are closer together for this benchmark. Essentially we are getting more consistent performance, even if the average has dropped a bit.
EVE: The Second Genesis Performance 4xAA/8xAF
This time, the 3.8 drivers and their overclocking goodness shine once again. The 9800XT with overdrive climes to the top here and again has a higher minimum frame rate than any of the other cards.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
62 Comments
View All Comments
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
so... 50 and 51 ... do you play your games for 10 minutes, then turn off the computer to let it cool down so you can get better fps? hell no. you play and play and play till yer done.doing all these benchmarks without letting the card cool down (whether it shows the 3.8 full potential or not) is more like what users will experience on their systems. That makes this data more useful to me than anything else they could have done.
crazy ati fanbois
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
I'm with 50. He is right.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
trying to test a temp related mod without controlling temp in the case is just assinine. This proves absolutely nothing. They themselves said they did not allow cooling between tests so they don't know how the overdrive was working. I would be more impressed with just the change in speed numbers than the fps. That would at least tell us whether the overclocking was used throughout the test and not shut off after the card got hot on the 2nd benchmark. The test had no control basis and therefore all the data is trash.Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
when the 9600 XT is going to be realased, i'm waiting for itAnonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
In your discussion of image quality, I don't seea comment on HALO. Yet on my PC (P4C 2.8,
Radeon 9800 PRO, Catalyst 3.6) I get clear drawing
errors. Looking at the sky in any outdoor scene in
level 5 or 8, it shows just a gaping hole which
should've been obscured by fog. More subjectively,
the fog in the swamps at the start/end of level 6
also doesn't work as well as on the XBOX.
What are the experiences of people with different
hardware/drivers?
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
I dont see the overdrive tab, is this only visible with 9800pro etc.My card is a 9500pro!!
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
... so they will only allow the Mhz, where every card works?Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
maybe we are gonna see unofficial moded versions of these drivers, with the overclocking limit removed :d . ATI just cant allow this difference between the users cards, when one has a "overclocker" card and gets his 10% and the other has something "allergic to speed" card lol and gets nothing. ATI just cant make the speed of the card luckAnonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
I'm disappointed that Anand didn't try to find out why overdrive didn't produce better figures.Overdrive might not overclock as much as some people want, but it should still give more impact than just 0,5fps.
Since the 9800XT is mainly an overclocked 9800Pro we should be able to accurately estimate the impact of overdrive on the 9800XT.
I suspect that we would get far better numbers if Anand had used 1024*768 instead of 1600*1200 4xAA.
Afaik overdrive only overclocks the GPU and not the memory. At 1600*1200 you are more likely to run into a memory bandwith limited situation. (Especially with all those DX8 games)
In such a situation it is logical that overdrive won't give any large increase in fps.
The other explanation is that the air termperatuur in the computer case Anand uses was very high and therefor overdrive was not able to overclock much.
In either case it is a shame that Anandtech didn't do anything at all to discover where the disappointing results came from.
(I hope nobody here actually thinks that ATI would go through the trouble of creating overdrive when it would only gain 0,5 fps)
Anonymous User - Thursday, October 9, 2003 - link
this is getting way too geeky... Anand, you are indeed the master geek. I mean in this in a good way... or am I? hahaha hust kidding. You guys sure have a lot of patience. Incredible!