AMD Catalyst 12.7 BETA Benchmark

My assumption that with AMD’s new driver release calendar we should expect a driver (whql, beta or leaked) each week seems to be correct so far. So far we’ve only had a “semi official” release (the first 12.6 Beta) and a couple of leaked drivers, no official releases thus far.

The last couple of leaks showed that AMD gives Skyrim increased attention, both 12.6 Betas that followed the first 12.6 Beta showed good FPS improvements with Skyrim, let’s see if this one follows the same path.

The build date of this driver is 12 June, the same date on which 12.6 9.00 was created, just as a fun fact, 9.00 was built 6 hours later than this 12.7 Beta 8.981.2 one. Pretty strange because AMD specifically said that they made their release calendar change because they don’t want to work on two different directions and focuses their force on one line, apparently they still have their attention divided…

Anyways, let’s compare this 12.7 8.981.2 Beta driver against the latest WHQL driver (12.4) and the best performing driver so far, 8.97 18 April.

Prior to installing a driver, a sweep was done in safe-mode using Phyxion Driver Sweeper.

All 3 drivers are tested in 5 synthetic benchmarks and 5 games.

• 1. 3DMark06 1.02 Professional Edition - 1680×1050 – 2xAA – Anti Aliasing Quality = 0 – 4xAF – Shader Model 2.0 = Return to Proxycon + Firefly Forest – HDR/Shader Model 3.0 = Canyon Flight + Deep Freeze – 2 Runs.
• 2. 3DMark11 1.0.3 Professional Edition - 1680×1050 – 2xMSAA – 4xAF – Graphic Tests 1-4 – 2 Runs.
• 3. Unigine – Sanctuary 2.3 – 1680×1050 – 2xAA – 4xAF – High Shaders – Ambient Occlusion = OFF – 2 Runs.
• 4. Unigine – Tropics 1.3 – 1680×1050 – 2xAA – 4xAF – High Shaders – Ambient Occlusion = ON – Reflections = ON – 2 Runs.
• 5. Cinebench x64 11.5 – 3 Runs.
• 6. Crysis 2 1.9 using Adrenaline Benchmark Tool – Extreme Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xAA – Hi-Res Textures – Central Park – 3 Runs.
• 7. Metro 2033 using Update 1.2 Benchmark Tool – Very High Settings – 1680×1050 – 16xAF – No AA for DirectX 9 and 4xMSAA for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 – 3 Runs.
• 8. DiRT 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xMSAA – 3 Runs
• 9. Battlefield 3 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 4xMSAA – 16xAF – Multiplayer @ Strike at Karkand (32p map, Large Conquest), main street: US Deployment -> B Flag – 3 Runs x 60s.
• 10. Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim v1.5 – Ultra Preset – 1680×1050 – 8xAA – 16xAF – Tested in the area East of Rorikstead – 3 Runs x 60s.

All synthetic benchmarks were ran 2 times except Cinebench (3 runs), all games were ran 3 times.

Table of Contents:

Page 1 – Introduction
Page 2 – 3DMark06,3DMark11,Cinebench and Unigine
Page 3 – Crysis 2, Metro2033, Battlefield 3, DiRT 3 and Skyrim
Page 4 – Conclusion

Page 2 – 3DMark06,3DMark11,Cinebench and Unigine