Posts tagged with PC Gaming
The ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series – something for everyone!
Posted by Simon Vivera in 5:23 PM
Loading ...My neighbor in the office, Dave Baumann, and I have been keeping busy over the last few months helping to bring you some very cool products that are just in time for the holidays. He helped launch the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 graphics series on September 23, and we launched the ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 graphics series just three weeks later. When he mentioned he was writing a blog about how the community helped inspire the ATI Radeon HD 5800 series, I figured it was a great opportunity for me to write about some of the questions I get while talking to members of the community.
DirectX 11 & HD Gaming:
You may have already seen a lot on what to expect from DirectX 11, the top 11 reasons for DirectX 11, and so on. I often get asked “when will DirectX 11 titles begin shipping”. When I say “quicker than you’d expect…like now”, I get a lot of surprised looks. Having been through past DirectX transitions, I can’t remember another instance when game developers were this amped about working on a new DirectX version, with ‘AAA’ game titles lining up so quickly. One of the key reasons for the excitement from the developer community is because they feel DirectX 11 offers them some really cool features that can enable both improved game play performance and new levels of realism. Check out this YouTube video from DiRT 2 showing some of the features that Codemasters incorporated from DirectX 11, creating an incredibly realistic gaming experience:
On the titles front, I think the rapid development cycle has been aided by our seeding of ATI Radeon HD 5700 series graphics cards for several months prior to launching the product. As a result, game developers have had a chance to literally play around with the hardware and get a jump on coding awesome games that are scheduled for release in this year and throughout 2010!
Studios around the world have announced support for DirectX 11 – more than 20 titles are in development, with more to come. Here’s a small list of upcoming DirectX 11 titles, with the first two, BattleForge and S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat, available now:
- BattleForge (EA)
- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat (THQ)
- DiRT 2 (Codemasters)
- Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion)
- Lord of the Rings: Online (Turbine)
- Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited (Turbine)
Speaking of the latest games, a friend of mine recently picked up a new HD monitor (1920x1200 resolution) as the price was right (under 
$200). He tried playing some of the latest games on his new display and quickly discovered that at HD resolutions, his old video card struggled with frame rates. The ATI Radeon HD 5770 is the perfect solution for situations just like this; it easily handles today’s game titles at HD resolutions and, with support for DirectX 11, it will be able to play soon-to-be released titles as well. The best part is that the price of this card is less than the price of many HD monitors. And if you got a really good deal on those HD monitors why not splurge and buy 3 
Then you could use ATI Eyefinity multi-monitor technology to get a truly immersive HD gaming experience. Imagine being able to see your enemies as they try to sneak up from beside you in first person shooters, or seeing the whole track while driving your car in DiRT 2.
Power Efficiency:
In addition to performance and image quality, gamers care more and more about power efficiency. For the performance that you’re getting, we’ve never before been able to offer power efficiency like this – the ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card consumes as little as 16 watts at idle, almost a quarter of the power consumed by a standard 60 watt light bulb! There are lots of reasons to be happy that the GPU is using less power, one of which is the money you save heating your case – it may not be a lot but every little bit helps!
For instance, have you ever been in the middle of a crazy fire fight in Call of Duty 4 when all of a sudden the GPU fan kicks into full gear, drowning out the sound of the bullets whizzing past your head? It really takes you out of the game quickly. Because the ATI Radeon HD 5700 series uses less power (only 108 watts when gaming) and it runs cool – there is less need for the distracting noise of a loud fan.
Because of its low power needs, the ATI Radeon HD 5700 series requires only a single 6 pin power connector. If you purchased a graphics card about 2 years ago, such as a card in the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series, you’ll already have a 6-pin power connector so this card can be a drop-in replacement. It’s the perfect card for those gamers looking to upgrade. No need to gut your system when you buy a new power supply!
Media Centers
Media centers or home theater PCs (HTPCs) have been talked about a lot in the past few years. With the amount of HD content that is available on the web in the form of downloadable or streaming content, it’s easy to see why their popularity is increasing. With the ATI Radeon HD 5700, you now have the perfect card for use in your Media Center. Its low power consumption make it an ideal candidate for a media center as it operates quietly, even during HD decoding, due to the 2nd generation unified video decoder (UVD2) processing engine. A really cool feature is the ability to pass through 8-channel (7.1) lossless high bit rate audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) that is found on Blu-Ray. In the past, this would have required an additional sound board, a cost of up to $200. With the ATI Radeon HD 5700, this feature is supported without the need for any additional hardware.
We hope that you have as much fun playing on the ATI Radeon HD 5700 series as we did in building it. We’d love to hear your comments!
Simon Vivera is the product manager for the ATI Radeon HD 5700 graphics series. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst™ 9.10 Driver – What’s New?
Posted by Jay Marsden in 8:32 AM
I would like to thank Ian McNaughton for doing such a FANTASTIC job at informing and building the following that he has on AMD at Play. Ian has handed the reins of the blog covering our ATI Catalyst software suite over to me as he is focusing on adding more diverse content to AMD at Play blogs. Ian will still be monitoring this blog and will be engaging with the community where he can.
A little about me: I have been working in the GPU industry for approx 16 years, with most of that time at ATI Technologies doing many different jobs, from working in a lab testing for Hardware Qualification on ATI GPUS, to Product Marketing for ATI’s motherboard chipsets, to my current role as Public Relations Manager for AMD supporting reviews of our ATI GPUs and ATI Catalyst drivers.
The ATI Catalyst driver blogs have been gaining momentum, and interest is growing each and every month. The ATI Catalyst team is dedicated to keeping users informed about any and all updates on our drivers.
Between Windows 7, DirectX 11, and the new ATI Radeon GPUs, we are taking your visual experience to the next level with DirectX 11 support and new features like ATI Eyefinity technology. ATI Catalyst drivers are at the center of this innovation, driving new features and functions, while focusing on compatibility, and stability for all.
It is the ultimate tool for your GPU!
I have made you wait long enough – on to the ATI Catalyst 9.10 driver release!
New Features:
- Official ATI Catalyst WHQL release supporting ATI Radeon HD 5800 series GPUs. ATI Catalyst 9.10 now includes full GPU support for the award winning ATI HD Radeon 5800 series GPUs!
- Super Sample Anti-Aliasing for the ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series. ATI Catalyst 9.10 provides support for a new Anti-Aliasing method on the ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series. Users can now experience the high level of anti-aliasing image quality using Super Sampling anti-aliasing while maintaining good performance levels.
Highlights of the ATI Catalyst 9.10 release for Linux includes:
- This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems: Ubuntu 9.10 early look support
Highlights of resolved issues
- Ghostbusters video game no longer flickers between desktop and game play when anti-aliasing is set to 8X and game resolution set to 2560×1600
- Enabling Screen Space Ambient Occlusion option in “Riddick 2 Dark Athena” no longer causes the game to fail under Multi-GPU configurations
- Severe flickering no longer observed while running 3D games/samples on specific HDMI displays with configurations using ATI CrossFireX™ technology in tri and quad modes
- Desktop flashing no longer observed after driver installation and reboot with systems configured with Radeon ASIC in the primary PCIe slot and ATI Fire Stream™ ASIC in the secondary PCIe slot
- “Combat Mission Shock Force” no longer fails after a duration of game play
- Underscan/Overscan settings for TV can now be applied from the ATI Catalyst Control Center – TV Properties Adjustments page
- Changes to the “All Settings” and “Basic Quality” pages in ATI Catalyst Control Center - Avivo™ Video will now be retained after reboot
To download the driver, click here.
Discuss Catalyst 9.10 in our Forums.
See you Next Month!
Jay Marsden
Jay Marsden is a Public Relations Manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst 9.9 Driver – Everything you want to know and why you should care
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:34 PM
Loading ...Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM9.9 Driver
With last month’s release of the ATI CatalystTM 9.8 driver, we saw huge game performance increases, given that, this month the driver team focused on other applications and optimizations.
ATI CatalystTM 9.9 Driver has no new features but does have the following resolved issues:
Anti-Aliasing support for Ghostbusters
ATI CrossFireXTM support for Resident Evil 5
Graphics corruption fix for Sims 3
ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Basic mode now responds appropriately after exiting Quick Adjust Video Settings
Edge enhancement and de-noise sliders in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer lags or appears out of sync with mouse movement
Launching Hotkeys Manager in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer causes an unhandled exception error
The “Desktop Rotation” page in ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer shows additional information for the second display when the secondary adapter is connected
HDMI is now detected properly as DTV (HDMI) instead of DTV (DVI) when the HDMI display is hotplugged for the first time
ATI Catalyst Control Center no longer displays error message when specific HDMI displays are hot unplugged and hotplugged back
Intermittent failures no longer occur with Cyberlink MediaShow Espresso once a transcoding process has been completed
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: ATI CatalystTM 9.9 driver for Linux!
Support for new Linux operating systems
This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
• openSUSE 11.1 production support
• SLED and SLES 10 SP3 early look support
To download the full release notes, click here.
See you next month!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
DirectX 11 – What to expect!
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 5:01 PM
Realism like never before
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Have you wondered what all the hype around Microsoft Windows 7 and DirectX 11 is all about? We will shed some light and answer some of those questions in this blog.
Let’s start with Windows7, everyone, including my own mother, is talking about this amazing operating system. Microsoft is rumoured to be launching the successor to Windows Vista in late October. What does it mean to you the PC user?
I cover my experience with Windows 7 in this blog; in a nutshell, the experience has been fantastic. It seems that Microsoft has worked out all the kinks and quirkiness of Windows Vista and are about to launch an incredible OS for the PC. Windows 7 (when compared to Windows Vista) is designed to offer the user a much more refined experience, smaller footprint, faster response times, long battery life and a much more visually intense and enjoyable PC experience.
Wrapped up in all the new Windows 7 OS splendour is a new API (Application programming Interface) called DirectX 11. Basically, the API allows developers to program software that uses a standard set of terms to communicate with the libraries and the OS. Think of it as game developers have some new toys to play with inside Windows to allow them to deliver better software.
DirectX has been around since 1995 with the launch of Windows95, a full history can be found here.
Let me break down the features and benefits of DirectX 11 -- the main features being:
-Tessellation -- Multithreaded Rendering - DirectCompute
Tessellation is a technology that has been around for a few GPU (graphics processing unit) generations. AMD has had Tessellation support since 2001, which was then called Truform; we also implemented Tessellation in the XBOX 360 GPU, then codenamed “Xenos”. Tessellation is a feature which increases the number of polygons in an image. Basically, Tessellation enables a more lifelike image, both of objects and landscape. Back in the day characters who were CG (computer generated) looked very blocky, almost cartoon like; with the use of Tessellation, developers are now able to significantly increase the number of triangles to draw an image, thus creating a more lifelike quality in games.
Multithreaded Rendering is a feature which allows DirectX to be processed via multiple CPU threads. This means that a dual-, triple- or quad-core CPU can have a higher utilization across all cores than DirectX APIs in the past. Historically the OS would load up a single core for commands to the GPU, in essence creating an overload on the first core and under utilizing the additional cores. With only one core issuing commands to a GPU, we have seen CPUs hold back the potential performance of the GPU. With Multithreaded Rendering, DirectX will take better advantage of all the available cores. This should result in a better experience for the multi-core user because of a faster processing pipeline and increased scaling.
DirectCompute is a feature which allows access to the shader cores/pipeline for Stream Computing (graphics acceleration) type applications and physics acceleration. One of the biggest technology breakthroughs of the past 5 years has been the notion that processing can be moved from the traditional CPU to the much more parallel GPU. Simply put, the CPU manages tasks sequentially; it accomplishes a task then moves on to the next task in a very orderly fashion and with tremendous speed. Today’s CPUs can work at speeds of up to 108.8 GigaFLOPS (Floatingpoint Operations Per Second).
A GPU is designed to work with many slower cores in parallel, giving a much wider vector -meaning a wider road for more cars to travel on -- than a CPU. This allows tasks to be completed faster if the program or software is developed to take advantage of many-many cores, albeit slower ones. Today’s GPUs can work at speeds up to 1.36 TeraFLOPS, giving the GPU a significant (almost 11 times faster) advantage when the proper software is run. This advantage truly delivers on the processing capabilities of Stream Computing. DirectCompute allows easier access to the GPU’s many cores for parallel processing; if the user is running applications that take advantage of Stream Computing then the performance experience increases considerably. We are seeing transcoding as the first type of task that is seeing tremendous benefit using Stream Computing. This means if you are an avid HD video or music user you will benefit when converting files to play on your laptop or iPod type devise; Stream Computing can significantly cut down the wait-time for enjoying your converted media.
Now, if you are a gamer you undoubtedly will be asking me “What games are going to support DirectX 11″? This is always a tightrope to walk for us as we are unable to pre-announce our technology partners titles and the specs around those titles; still, we want to give the consumer confidence that we’ve been assured there will be substantial titles in the market that take full advantage of your ATI Radeon DirectX 11-compliant graphics card. So, as this blog is published, here are the future DirectX 11 games we can talk about:
Dirt2 by Codemasters
BattleForge by EA
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Call of Pripyat by GSC Game World
- Check out this early spoiler for Dirt 2 -
Some industry folks have stated that we will see more titles that support DirectX 11 then we did for DirectX 10. Some even say that DirectX 11 is the full implementation of what DX10 should and could have been, but that is subjective opinion and conjecture.
Game developers discuss the benefits of DirectX11
Windows7 and DirectX11 are right around the corner, as is the newest ATI Radeon family of graphics cards. As always, it’s our goal to blur the lines between reality and what is rendered. I believe we have made a major leap towards crossing that chasm with our ATI RadeonTM HD 5000 series products and their support for DirectX 11.
Tessellation - Minimized
With Tessellation - Maximized!
Between now and the launch of Windows 7 and DirectX 11, we will continue to uncover the technical details, as well as the visual implications, for the user experience.
At the time of this blog, AMD will be the first GPU vendor to market with a fully compliant and enabled DirectX 11 graphics product. So don’t be fooled by claims in the market about DX10 GPU’s supporting DirectX 11….
My good friend Tim Smalley from bit-tech.net has a great in-depth article on DirectX 11: A look at what’s coming – Check it out.
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst™ 9.8 Driver – Everything you want to know and why you should care
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:24 PM
Loading ...Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM 9.8 Driver
Our test system configuration is:
| AMD Phenom II 940 (3.0GHz) processor |
| Asus M3A79-T(790) motherboard |
| 4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 memory |
| Windows VISTA Ultimate SP1 64bit |
This month we are seeing a massive performance increase with a whole host of games as compared to the ATI Catalyst 9.7 driver. Detailed release notes are available for most of the game optimizations; here are the highlights:
- Battleforge DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance improves of up to 50% with the largest gains in configurations using ATI CrossFireXTM technology.
- Company of Heroes DirectX 10 performance improves of up to 77%.
- Crysis DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 10% and quad mode performance improves of up to 34%.
- Crysis Warhead DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 7% and quad mode performance improves of up to 69%.
- Far Cry 2 DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 50% and quad mode performance improves of up to 88%.
- Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. DirectX 10/DirectX 10.1 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in dual mode improves of up to 40% and with quad mode performance improving of up to 60%.
- UnigineTropics OpenGL performance improvements of up to 20%.
- UnigineTropics DirectX 10 performance of ATI CrossFireX technology in quad mode improvements of up to 20%.
- World in Conflict DirectX 10 performance improvements of up to by 10%.
Marketing sound bite: ATI Catalyst 9.8 – Open GLTM 3.1 Support
It’s fitting that last weekend AMD was in attendance at Quakecon 2009 in Dallas,Texas where the world’s most prolific OpenGLsupporters gathered for 4 days of ‘peace, love and rockets,’ that we are announcing support for OpenGL 3.1 and the following details:
This release of the ATI Catalyst driver provides OpenGL 3.1 extension support. The following is a list of OpenGL 3.1 features and extensions added in ATI Catalyst 9.8:
- Support for OpenGL Shading Language 1.30 and 1.40.
- Instanced rendering with a per-instance counter accessible to vertex shaders (GL ARB draw instanced).
- Data copying between buffer objects (GL EXT copy buffer).
- Primitive restart (NV primitive restart). Because client enable/disable no longer exists in OpenGL 3.1, the PRIMITIVE RESTART state has become server state, unlike the Nvidia extension where it is client state. As a result, the numeric values assigned to PRIMITIVE RESTART and PRIMITIVE RESTART INDEX differ from the NV versions of those tokens.
- At least 16 texture image units must be accessible to vertex shaders, in addition to the 16 already guaranteed to be accessible to fragment shaders.
- Texture buffer objects (GL ARB texture buffer object).
- Rectangular textures (GL ARB texture rectangle).
- Uniform buffer objects (GL ARB uniform buffer object).
- SNORM texture component formats.
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: ATI CatalystTM 9.8 driver for Linux!
Support for new Linux operating systems
This release of ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces support for the following new operating systems:
- RHEL 4.8 production support
- Ubuntu 9.04 production support
ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Linux Edition support for RandR 1.2
This release of the ATI Catalyst driver for Linux introduces ATI Catalyst Control Center – Linux Edition support for the RandR 1.2 extension API. The following new features are now available in the ATI Catalyst Control Center – Linux Edition Display Manager:
- Display rotation
- Multiple display arrangement and desktop sizing
To download the full release notes here.
Please report all technical support issues here.
See you next month!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
What’s a good title for a Quakecon blog?
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 1:39 PM
It has to be about the “Future”…
“Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn’t take Lorraine out that he’d melt my brain”. – George McFly
PMS Clan and a future gaming superstar on our Quakecon booth
Well, its day 2 at Quakecon 2009 and my brain hasn’t melted, but I have seen a Darth Vader or two… In thinking about the ‘right’ title for my blog, “The Future” was an obvious choice seeing as how we have packed up #Area64 and transported it all the way to Dallas.
What is #Area64 you ask, well, it’s the secret place in Austin where AMD has all of its unreleased products, engineering secrets and where we keep the flux capacitor. As one can imagine, we need to keep such a place heavily guarded and hard to find, so, what do a bunch of AMD gamers do, we packed it up and rebuilt it in the Gaylord Hotel for Quakecon. I am currently writing this blog from the heart of our mobile #area64, the sounds of next generation technology humming away behind me!
Pete and Chris from AMD showcasing our Quakecon shirts...
Wait a minute, Doc. Ah… Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean? – Marty McFly
No, we didn’t bring our time machine but I am not going to comment on if AMD has built a time machine, that’s a completely different blog. But, we did bring what we expect will revolutionize the way you play games on PC’s in the future.
How does one gain access into #area64 and who gets access, great questions, here is what you have to do:
AMD will be limiting access to #Area64 to 100 almost random gamers, meaning anyone and everyone has a fair shot at “Seeing the Future”, just follow these AMD’ers on Twitter;
@IanMcNaughton – @Tweetoe – @Catalystmaker - @AMD_Unprocessed & @Caseygotcher
We will be tweeting hints and actions during Quakecon, it could be as simple as “The first 5 gamers who meet us at XX, gain access” or “Make a short video about Why you need or should have access to #Area64 and post to Youtube, gain access”.
Or, you could simply track us down and ask for an “on the spot action for access”.
Here are the shirts we are giving away, they are unique and numbered from 1-100, if you see anyone wearing them in the halls or BYOC, you know they have “SEEN THE FUTURE”!
The Future is Awesome!
As a special treat to all the readers of my blog, via this blog, you will be the first to download the latest ATI Catalyst 9.8 driver here:
XP
Vista and Win7
[Update: Official ATI Catalyst 9.8 Drivers are available here]
Enjoy!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Wolfenstein and Quakecon 2009
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 2:00 PM
The game that started the FPS phenomenon!
Back in the early nineties, there was a game that truly defined all video games that followed, do you remember? Well, for those readers who were not born yet, the game was called Wolfenstein 3D and its introduction was a defining moment. Some believe that Wolfenstein 3D defined the FPS as we know it. I would have to completely agree!
If you were a Doom player then you can thank Wolf 3D for blazing the trail for what was, is, and continues to be an amazing gaming franchise. Fast forward to August 2009 and transport yourself to Dallas, Texas and you can relive those original Wolf 3D experiences with AMD at Quakecon 2009.
id Software has teamed up with Raven Studios to develop a new game called “Wolfenstein”. In the new game you play the original character William B.J Blazkowicz who just happens to be a super metalled out member of the Office of Secret Actions (OSA). Come on, how cool would that business card be?
Ian McNaughton
AMD
Office of Secret Actions
Will need to print some of those up for Quakecon!
The new Wolfenstein looks fantastic, I was able to score an early copy to hone my skillz in preparation for this weekend’s festivities and the game is awesome so far…
AMD will be showcasing Wolfenstein on our booth as well as in #area64.
We will also be providing live updates via Twitter and vlogs via blogs.amd.com.
#Area64 will be exclusive access only, meaning, you can try to find it, but its hidden and being kept secret. AMD will be showcasing what we lovingly refer to as “The Future”, if you want to see the future, follow me as well as @AMD_Unprocessed , @Catalystmaker, @caseygotcher and @Tweetoe for ways to get invited.
Strap in and hold on, Quakecon 2009 is about to begin!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
ATI Catalyst 9.7 Driver – Everything you want to know
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 5:23 PM
Do you regularly update your graphics drivers?
With four months of ATI CatalystTM driver blogs under our belt, we are seeing a steady engagement from the community via this blog site. Please keep up the comments and suggestions and we will endeavor to answer as many as we can. So, without further ado – let me introduce the ATI Catalyst 9.7 Driver Release!
Please report all driver related issues here.
*If you are having technical issues with your graphics card or are in need of driver support, please use the proper channels to submit those issues here.*
Marketing sound bite: ATI Catalyst 9.7 – AMD’s first official unified Windows 7 / Windows Vista Microsoft WHQL certified graphics driver for the Windows 7 RTM
ATI Catalyst 9.7 driver is AMD’s first official unified WHQL (Windows Hardware Quality Labs) certified graphics driver designed for Windows 7 RTM (Release to Manufacturing) as well as Windows Vista. Being able to have a single unified driver can enable power users to continue to support their existing OS while also experiencing the great new features of Windows 7 while running dual OS’s.
In a previous blog I highlight my own personal experience but for the purposes of this blog here are the Windows 7 highlights:
- Superior gaming performance when compared to previous Microsoft OS’s using either a single GPU configuration or ATI CrossfireXTM technology configurations
- Superior stability via AMD’s WHQL certified and unified Windows 7/Windows Vista graphics driver
- Leadership in Innovation with support for all the Windows 7 WDDM 1.1 features and ATI CatalystTM features with current ATI RadeonTM HD 4000, HD 3000 and HD 2000 series of products.
Marketing sound bite: ATI CatalystTM 9.7 – ATI CatalystTM Control Center – Enhanced user interface
When our customers provide feedback, we listen! Case in point, we have received feedback that the Catalyst GUI needed a refresh, some parts of the GUI were not efficient and required a makeover, AMD listened and delivered.
In this new beta version of CatalystTM Control Center we have a newly redesigned user interface to enhance usability and end user efficiency, which includes a newly designed Desktops and Displays Manager which will enable users to quickly configure and arrange their displays. Most of us power users have multiple monitors and as such, this will help with the frustrations of multi monitor management, especially with scenarios where a laptop is removed from a docking station prior to sleeping and returned prior to sleeping. ATI CatalystTM 9.7 has full support for Hydravision under Windows 7.
We have designed in a new streamlined look where the settings and controls are now found in the new “Graphics” and “Options” drop down menus allowing users to very quickly select different tabs and adjust the desired settings.
All of the above enhancements to ATI CatalystTM Control Center are supported under Windows 7 and Windows Vista. This beta version is the first in an exciting transition for CCC and we await feedback!
Marketing sound bite: ATI CatalystTM 9.7 – ATI Video Converter update – support for Windows 7
With the introduction of CatalystTM 9.7, we are introducing support for the ATI Video converter under Windows 7 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit versions.
With the massive explosion of mainstream consumption of HD video, owners of ATI RadeonTM HD 4800 and ATI RadeonTM HD 4600 series of graphics cards can now take advantage of the video conversion tool found in the ATI CatalystTM Control Center under Basic View. Using this video conversion tool, users can benefit from substantial performance improvements when transcoding video files.
Game Optimizations: ATI CatalystTM 9.7
Our test system configuration is:
| AMD Phenom II 940 (3.0GHz) |
| Asus M3A79-T(790) |
| 4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 |
| Windows VISTA Ultimate SP1 64bit |
This month we are seeing a further performance increase with Crysis and Lost Planet Colonies as compared to ATI Catalyst 9.6. Following are some of this month’s highlights. Detailed release notes are available for most of the game optimizations; I have simply picked a few to highlight in this blog.
- Crysis – performance gains at ‘very high’ quality presets increase by up to 8% on ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products.
- Lost Planet Colonies – performance increase of up to 7-11% when 8x Anti-Aliasing is used on the ATI Radeon HD 4800 series products
And last but surely not least, my favorite community: Linux® ATI CatalystTM 9.7
This month’s release has support for the following new operating systems:
- RedFlag DT 7.0 production support
To download the full release notes, click here.
See you next month!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
AREA 64 Presents: The TWKR…
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 11:29 AM
When fast just isn’t fast enough!
What do you get when you cross extreme engineering with extreme overclockability?
You get an AMD TWKR CPU.
**WARNING: Extreme overclocking is an activity that should be carried out only by experts, using expert tools in a safe and secure environment. Use of extreme cooling methods and materials, including but not limited to liquid nitrogen, can be extremely hazardous. Extreme overclocking is not for everyone – AMD urges caution and disclaims all liability for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury) caused as a result of or while engaged in engaging in extreme overclocking activities.
AMD’s product warranty does not cover damages caused by overclocking, even when enabled via AMD software.
As they say, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!
Matt Davis aka @dattymavis
@dattymavis and I ventured over to AMD’s “AREA 64″ with a newly minted AMD TWKR CPU to give it a testdrive under some extreme Ln2, and what ensued was pure overclocking awesomeness!
First, let me introduce to you the AMD TWKR:
AMD created a small number of limited edition AMD PhenomTM II TWKR Black Edition processors expressly for the purpose of commemorating the record performance feats with the AMD platform technology codenamed “Dragon” and AMD PhenomTM II processors. These processors are designed to reach the utmost performance barriers of the AMD Phenom II processor and operate beyond the specifications of typical production level processors.
Called the AMD PhenomTM II X4 42 Black Edition TWKR processor, it is not currently for sale, and not covered by AMD’s product warranty. This processor is provided “as is” and AMD disclaims any and all liable for any damages, of any type or character (including without limitation, system damage, loss of data or personal injury), caused as a result of or in connection with the use of this processor.
These processors demonstrate the sound engineering and superior process technology that is in each AMD Phenom II processor.
With our TWKR in hand and a solid warning from our buildings management staff, we headed across Austin to AMD’s Secret Lab – AREA 64.
The lab is fully stocked with all the hardware an overclocker could ever imagine or dream of, shopping made easy! Did I mention the 9,000 gallon Liquid Nitrogen tank outside with direct piping into the AREA 64 lab, yup, doesn’t get much better than that!
The motherboard of choice was a Gigabyte 790X.
4G of Corsair memory,
An ATI RadeonTM HD 4870 X2 GPU.
And a TWKR CPU.
Hmmm, why is it not posting???
After 20 minutes of no posting at all, we finally realized that the DIMMS had been previously whacked and were no good… Step 1: Always make sure you have working hardware!
Once we had working hardware, we fired it up and started the “slow pour” of Ln2.
The steps we followed are detailed in this blog.
Ln2 engaged! First thermos of Ln2 got us to -120C, time for thermos #2. The second pour brought us down to -139C! Time for more!
The third thermos of Ln2 brought our TWKR part down to -186.6C – Ah, overclocking bliss!
At this point in time, I let @dattymavis take over as he is the obvious safer one between the two of us…
@dattymavis jokingly dons full protective gear and looks like something out of an alien movie…
Now time to see what this badboy can do! We pushed the proc to a single core overclock of 6.42Ghz at a voltage of 1.725volts. This was accomplished just having Windows at idle. We will leave it up to the professional overclockers to push the proc’s with a heavy workload.
As for a 4-core OC, we achieved 6.2Ghz at 1.8 volts. Again, this was at a temp of -182F with a light workload.
All in all, we achieved significant frequency for a couple of hacks with unlimited Ln2.
The TWKR is not currently for sale, but is designed to make a statement to the OC community: Thank you to each and every enthusiast who continues to support AMD and fights the good fight!
Ah, the sweat smell of Ln2...
If I’m lucky, I may be able to give away some of the TWKR processors via Twitter in the coming weeks. I’m not making any promises, but follow me if you are on Twitter and you just might be lucky enough to become a proud owner of a TWKR yourself someday.
Also follow @AMDDesktop…they have some goodies for the community too!
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Real-time Gaming from the Cloud
Posted by Ian McNaughton in 5:33 PM
Will we soon game from the Cloud?
While social media has been the “new shiny toy” for some time, attracting the headlines and the VC dollars as companies and individuals try to monetize this phenomenon, another, related subject may be about to thunder and lightning. Yes, I’m talking about the “Cloud”.
For this hardcore audience, my question is: “Can you game in real-time from the cloud?”
I spent some quality time this week with Charlie Boswell, the guru behind so many cool programs at AMD. Think OTOY, LucasFilm, the digital music recording Industry, and you quickly understand that Charlie has one of the best jobs at AMD in working with these customers and technology partners. Here’s our conversation:
Ian: Charlie, thanks for taking the time today, can you give us the background on our efforts at CES around demo’ing “gaming in the cloud”?
Charlie:
Hello Ian…I’m really pumped about this so I appreciate the chance to discuss. …..here’s the deal.
At this year’s CES AMD rolled out a demo that shows how our platform technology (CPU, GPU, combined with Direct Connect Architecture) is enabling fully interactive cloud gaming. Sounds cool but what exactly is that?
Cloud computing on AMD Fusion technology allows fully interactive game play from virtually any type of client over the Internet because the heavy lifting is being done “server side” in the cloud. The user logs on, clicks open a browser and then starts blasting away. No hours of game installation, no exotic authorization dances, just instant gratification and that’s why I’m excited. My team’s role at AMD is to ensure our technology removes barriers so the user can be about his/her task rather than the technology. That is the main story of cloud computing. Enough preaching but I had to let that fly because it’s a powerful look at a better future for gaming.
The CES demo consisted of an AMD Fusion Render Node (based on AMD “Dragon” platform technology PC platforms) that hosted an off-the-shelf version of EA’s amazing “Mercenaries II” served up via the Internet. The laptop powered by AMD technology was given a URL to click and Mercenararies-II fired up. Playback was full screen at 60 frames/sec (see the video on YouTube for yourself <link>).
How is this accomplished? Is it a parlour trick? Well, this is not easy to pull-off. Jules Urbach, the CEO of OTOY, is the wizard of GPGPU. The software that made this work is from his company. He is to the GPU what Robert Rodriguez (another artist who employs AMD technology) is to digital moviemaking.
Jules is a true innovator and someone who chose AMD because we have all the pieces to make this work. We are the only one-stop-shopping platform solution for cloud computing hardware. The OTOY software harnesses the full power of the AMD platform including CPU, GPU and our Direct Connect high bandwidth interconnect.
In short, the game source code unaltered is hosted on the AMD Fusion Render Cloud hardware and served up on the web via breathtaking OTOY compression technology made possible by the AMD combined platform power. The OTOY software allows multiple instances of a game to be hosted on the AMD Fusion Render node so the solution scales for all the right economic reasons such as energy efficiency, space, quiet operation, etc.
Ian: That technology seems very cool, how is it similar or different to OnLive?
Charlie:
Yes, after the CES announcement of the AMD Fusion Render Cloud with OTOY, OnLive announced their solution at GDC in March. I was thrilled to see their announcement because it was further validation of the space. Both OTOY and OnLive have their unique business models and architectures, but they are similar in that they both require a truly scalable enterprise class backend solution. Implementing a technique I call “Invasion of the Client Snatchers” where you simply connect up a single client machine in the cloud to a user won’t work. It’s not practical or adaptable. You’re just snatching the client from the user and housing it. The Cloud server must behave like a compute cluster and scale organically with the statistical behaviour of the Internet user traffic. It must adapt to available power and bandwidth. It must scale for energy efficiency. It must allow for extensibility. This is where the AMD Fusion Render Node comes into play. You can host multiple simultaneous users on these devices and cluster them in true enterprise class style. Anyway, it’s great to see more teams jumping in. We celebrate the free market because it’s good for the user. Cloud computing is happening and OnLive is another fantastic example.
Ian: TechCrunch had an article a week ago, where they highlighted a game character jumping from a monitor to a notebook while the game was being served from 400 miles away, can you explain the technology behind that?
Charlie:
This is OTOY’s server side rendering in action. The heavy computing, drawing, and encoding are happening server-side in the cloud through the magic of the OTOY architecture host on an AMD Fusion render node. The client is entirely browser based. The bandwidth and latency required for full on interactive game play is made possible by/through the OTOY codec architecture. The performance of this codec meets the “real-time” requirements for first person shooters. Enough said. The AMD Fusion Render Architecture is the scalable foundation that could make this practical, scalable, and deployable across the global Internet.
Ian: To take it a step further, TechCrunch was given an exclusive this week that showed off the AMD/OTOY technology at work on a cell phone! Is this the future of mainstream gaming?
Charlie:
As I said a few moments ago, the uniqueness of the OTOY approach is their ability to serve to a variety of client types: smart phones, PDA, thin client, etc., etc. This is a great proofpoint that the heavy lifting is all done server side on OTOY-AMD Fusion Render Cloud. This is one future for Cloud Computing…turn it on and play. You never get exposed to the seedy side of technology (drivers, installation, updates). All that stuff is under the street just like in Disneyland. This is the future I want….Walt Disney had this figured out a long time ago.
Ian: So, gaming in the cloud is real, when might we see availability?
Charlie:
Ian, you’re seeing some of the promise now. We expect that you’ll see implementations later this year and full-on deployments in 2010.
Ian: Thanks Charlie, one last question, What’s next?
Charlie:
Let me answer that loaded question first by stating the cloud offers the planet at least the hope of a better user experience. My cause celeb on the past 10 years has been to help lobby for a better user experience by shielding the artist from both the tech and its culture. Technology can be unbelievably needy. Example, “hey man, you forgot to load the latest driver or OS update.” I don’t want that ever even said in my presence. I reject that. That is an example of technology sitting on top of humanity. The cloud is going to help eliminate the entire culture that perpetuates useless complexity. The revolution is next because the users demand it. The revolution is next because the economics demand it. If you only market to the geeks, the numbers don’t work do they…..
Simply put and a great way to close out this blog. Feel free to comment, both Charlie and I will be actively monitoring the comments and replying.
Cheers!
Ian “Cabrtosr” McNaughton
Ian McNaughton is senior manager of advanced marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.
Cheers!