Home › News › Gaming
AMD updates Catalyst drivers, Battlefield 3 beta begins today
Hot on the heels of the latest GeForce beta driver release, AMD has issued its own update to the Catalyst driver series optimized specifically for the Battlefield 3 beta. The Catalyst 11.10 preview driver is essentially a hotfix release and includes better Battlefield 3 performance for 5000 and 6000 series users (single GPU and Crossfire), 5x1 Eyefinity support, and improvements to the Vision Engine Control Center (previously known as Catalyst Control Center). Here's the full list of changes:
- Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series for single GPU configurations
- Improves performance in Battlefield 3 Open Beta release for both non-Anti-Aliasing, and application enabled Anti-Aliasing cases on CrossFire configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
- Enables support for Eyefinity 5x1 display (portrait and landscape) configurations using the AMD Radeon HD 6000 and AMD Radeon HD 5000 Series
- Vision Engine Control Center: User Interface enhancements have been implemented for the CrossfireX, GPU Overdrive, and Information Center pages.
You can download and install the AMD Catalyst preview driver here. The Battlefield 3 open beta isn't set to kick off fully for another couple of days but, as promised, those who pre-ordered the game through Origin or purchased the Limited Edition of Medal of Honor will be getting early access today -- check Battlefield 3's system requirements here.
Players will be limited to the "Rush" game mode on the map "Operation Metro," where one team must attack two M-Com stations while a defending team tries to prevent them. Since the beta is multiplayer-only, gamers will have to wait until the full game launch on October 28 to play the single player campaign.
Related Stories
User Comments (13)
Post a comment|
Guest
on September 27, 2011 8:14 PM |
I got a BSOD when i tried to install it. trying once more. update1: hurr, "Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using Catalyst Control Center." Rebooting. update2: seems to be working fine now. Gonna try BF3! update3: Very big increase in FPS from my 5850. The game runs much better now! Thanks! |
|
Guest
on September 27, 2011 11:42 PM |
I pre ordered the game a month back and now its only 1 month more to go and i realized that playing Battlefield 3 on my 3 yr old 8800gt wont do justice to the game and to me. So I ordered Asus 560Ti 1GB DirectCu2. Now bring it on baby. |
|
Guest
on September 28, 2011 2:34 AM |
1st guest how much framerates increase do you got??? |
|
Arris
on September 28, 2011 2:37 AM |
Updated while I was installing the BF3 beta. So not sure what performance increases it gives to crossfired 5850s, although it did reduce my Deus Ex peformance to 1 FPS, a blue screen with white text on it. Don't seem to be the most stable drivers. I'll keep them on my desktop for BF3 beta but think I'll keep the current AMD drivers on other machines. Also noticing a little breaking up/flickering in the beta, almost sure it is likely to be a problem with crossfire. |
|
Guest
on September 28, 2011 2:42 AM |
arris if you cant post your increase in frame rates then post your current fps with settings you are using and your hardware because i am worried that i will not be able to run BF3 at max settings on my hd 5870(of course without tesselation, DOF) |
|
red1776
on September 28, 2011 4:21 AM |
If the EA Rep isn't telling tall tales, it sounds like a 5870 will get you medium settings. |
|
Arris
on September 28, 2011 4:25 AM |
arris if you cant post your increase in frame rates then post your current fps with settings you are using and your hardware because i am worried that i will not be able to run BF3 at max settings on my hd 5870(of course without tesselation, DOF) I'll chuck FRAPs on my machine at lunchtime (in the UK CPU: Intel i7 2600K @ 4.6Ghz (currently at default 3.4Ghz after motherboard change) Mobo: Asus P8P67 Pro B3 Revision Mem: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866MHz Video: 2 x MSI HD5850 Twin Frozr II (CrossfireX) HDD: Crucial C300 128GB SSD, Seagate Momentus XT 500GB Sound: RealtekŪ ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit If I have time I'll disable crossfire and report how it performs with a single 5850 as well. System as above with both 5850s in Crossfire: Outdoors in Metro level - 50-75 FPS Indoors in Metro level - 75-120 FPS 1920x1200, All settings at top level of Ultra or High depending on setting. MSAA x 4. Will try one card when I get a chance. |
|
Guest
on September 28, 2011 8:47 AM |
Hey Techspot, will you be making a performance review of the beta? Please do! Thanks! |
|
Guest
on September 28, 2011 10:51 AM |
thanks arris for posting your framerates please post with single 5850 if you can I think that my 5870 will maintain 30+ fps outdoor at max settings as xfired 5850 give almost 1.5-1.8x performance of 5870.... |
|
Arris
on September 29, 2011 2:49 AM |
This article (http://www.pcgameshardware.com/aid,847209/Battlefield-3-Bet |
|
Arris
on September 29, 2011 8:21 AM |
http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic167179.html - TechSpot BF3 discussion thread. Posting here and in that thread at the moment. Just found that even with CF I joined some games this afternoon and got 50-60 FPS indoors. My guess at this moment is that the graphic options that I changed weren't applied until I restarted the game completely. I'm sure now that the game is open beta for all we'll get some more scientific benchmarking reports. |
|
Guest
on September 29, 2011 1:20 PM |
Is there not an Windows Vista version of this Video Driver Update? |
|
Arris
on September 30, 2011 4:13 AM |
Is there not an Windows Vista version of this Video Driver Update?  Please tell me! Won't it use the same driver as Win 7? Oh and another update. It was the AA settings eating my FPS, must not have been applied before a restart of the game! |
) and update this post with my performance. I never got around to investigating the settings in game last night, just left them at whatever the default was.Most Popular
| Trending | Featured |
-
iOS 5.1.1 untethered jailbreak tool released, supports 4S, iPad 3
-
After five days, Facebook ranks as worst IPO flop of the decade
-
Rumor: Windows 8 RC will launch June 1, will ship with Adobe Flash
-
Rumor: AMD "Piledriver" FX CPU production to begin Q3 2012
-
Is Apple's USB wall adapter really worth $29?
Editors' Laptop Picks
Subscribe to TechSpot
Get free exclusive content, learn about new features and tech breaking news.
