AMD has released the Catalyst 14.1 Beta driver (even for Linux) but you should, first, read Ryan's review. This is a little less than what he expects in a Beta from AMD. We are talking about crashes to desktop and freezes while loading a map on a single-GPU configuration – and Crossfire is a complete wash in his experience (although AMD acknowledges the latter in their release notes). According to AMD, there is even the possibility that the Mantle version of Battlefield 4 will render with your APU and ignore your dedicated graphics.
If you are determined to try Catalyst 14.1, however, it does make a first step into the promise of Mantle. Some situations show slightly lower performance than DirectX 11, albeit with a higher minimum framerate, while other results impress with double-digit percentage gains.
Multiplayer in BF4, where the CPU is more heavily utilized, seems to benefit the most (thankfully).
If you understand the risk (in terms of annoyance and frustration), and still want to give it a try, pick up the driver from AMD's support website. If not? Give it a little more time for AMD to whack-a-bug. At some point, there should be truly free performance waiting for you.
Press release after the break!
AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta for Windows and Linux are now available |
The latest available AMD Catalyst Windows Beta and Linux driver can be found here: |
Highlights of AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta Windows Driver |
o Intermittent stuttering or stability issues may occur when utilizing Mantle with AMD CrossFire™ technology in BattleField 4™. A future AMD Catalyst release will resolve these issues o Notebooks based on AMD Enduro or PowerXpress™ technologies are currently not supported by the Mantle code path in Battlefield 4™
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Highlights of AMD Catalyst™ 14.1 Beta Linux Driver |
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Get the latest news on AMD Catalyst ™ – follow @CatalystCreator on Twitter |
Catalyst 14.1 beta drivers
Catalyst 14.1 beta drivers have broken crossfire completely for me. Even tried disabling and reenabling crossfire as well as cleaning out the drivers completely and reinstalling.
Crossfire with Nvidia cards
Crossfire with Nvidia cards is a little difficult.
Sorry I should have
Sorry I should have specified. Im using 2 R9 290Xs
Should be called
Northon
Should be called
Northon Ghost Edition
ops
Norton Ghost
or
Acronis
ops
Norton Ghost
or
Acronis True Image Edition
Finally! Crossfire
Finally! Crossfire (7970(gigabyte) + 7970 (Powercolor)) with eyfinitey and frame pacing which seems to work. Played 30mins of Crysis 3 and it seems to run a lot smoother. 30fps no longer looks like 15 fps and you can now tell the difference between crossfire on and crossfire off)
Drivers installed with out issue. I note that AMD no longer provide (or at least did not reference) a driver removal tool, so I followed their instructions with regard to using add remove program via Control Panel (presets remained intact and functioning, yay). Noticed that windows live still wakes my second card from sleep, but at least it now only runs at 300mhz rather than full bore (1030mhz, toasty). All this only 9 months after I bought my second card, hmn not cool.
Haven’t got BF4 so not so not too bothered with/about mantle yet. Just wanted frame pacing so I could benefit from having a second card.
Do I need a fix for DX9, probably not, others might however. Do I expect a fix, Yes. Why – as an act of good faith and good engineering.
I wonder how Star Swarm does
I wonder how Star Swarm does with Mantle. The BF4 tests where a mild let down to be honest. But great for people where their CPU is the bottleneck.
Star Swarm is specifically
Star Swarm is specifically designed to employ more draw calls than usual, I’ve seen some people double performance in that benchmark comparing DirectX to Mantle.
It’s probably not quite unbiased because of the way it’s set up, but it does show off the potential quite nicely.
“Enhanced AMD CrossFire frame
“Enhanced AMD CrossFire frame pacing – Support for 4K panel and Eyefinity non-XDMA CrossFire solutions (including the AMD Radeon R9 280, 270 Series, 7900 Series, 7800 Series) and Dual Graphics configurations
Frame pacing ensures that frames rendered across multiple GPUs in an AMD CrossFire configuration will be displayed at an even and regular pace
Supported on 4K panels and Eyefinity configurations”
YEEEEES !!!!!!!!! My 7990 and my Eyefinity configuration are so Happy 😀 😀
But but but wait a second, i read another thing :
“Frame Pacing for Dual Graphics and non-XDMA configurations at resolutions above 2560×1600 do not currently work with Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4. An upcoming AMD Catalyst beta release will enable support”
COME ON SERIOUSLY ? On every game execpt THE game i play righ now ?
14.1 drivers trumpeting
14.1 drivers trumpeting Mantle support. Does this mean that Linux/Steambox will have mantle support? I was thinking previous press releases said Mantle was Windows Only.
Which would be better? A Steambox with Mantle, or a Steambox with G-Sync?
14.1 gives me some weird
14.1 gives me some weird artifacting on my taskbar. Couldn’t handle it, downgraded back to non-beta drivers. I’ll try AMD’s next attempt to actually get a functional release out.