Widescreen Gaming Forum

I was planning to write something up for the release, but the day job has been killing me this week. I've been using previous beta versions of the Bezel Compensation driver for a while, and the feature is much appreciated. I've got some feedback on the implementation that I will be giving to the ATI folks.

I do have the same slide decks referenced in the articles linked to, and will be starting a Wiki Article where we will keep a running catalog of driver improvements and previews. Just wanted to let everyone know that ATI has been in close contact with me, and are leveraging our (mine and the Insiders) expertise and input on a number of topics.

Nice to see a major company listening to it's end users and actually make some use of the info. Hopefully 10.3 will be their first implementation of BM and things will only get better with the feedback they'll get. For sim racers hopefully the idea men will follow iRacings lead and add their own BM into the options, we can have the best of both worlds then.

Dice.

Of course, the proof of this concept is in the pudding, namely how fast ATI can release profiles for new games after they hit retail shelves. If they can't release these profiles within a day or so of a new game hitting user's hard drives then the old complaints about driver support will continue, to be assuaged only by allowing users to create or edit their own profiles - Something which ATI hasn't written off as a feature to be added in the future incidentally; rather, they're simply confident that it won't be required at this present time. Only time will tell, and we'll certainly be keeping an eye on how expedient ATI can be at updating their profile list over the coming months.

Doesn't storing Crossfire profiles in un-obfuscated XML imply that users are basically gaining full control over them? If AMD proves an inability to to release profiles in a timely fashion, can't a user-provided app take over that function?

PS: I recently had a run-in with some Mobility Radeon driver issues on a 24" iMac in BootCamp. It will be nice to have them a little more idiot-proof.

Also:
*It's great that official Crossfire-Eyefinity support is finally here

*Bezel correction looks great, but I have to wonder about games with fixed items on screen. I think you're likely to want to be able to tweak this to different levels on a per-game basis, or maybe even have some additional virtual resolution that you can pan around. GUI customization certainly just became a more important feature for game designers.

*Still no PLP support planned?

*Does support for virtual resolution bezel control make it easier to implement non-identical resolution support (with the neglected pixels being virtual) in the future? I'm thinking specifically of people who want to use landscaped 1920x1080 + 1920x1200 + 1920x1080, or similar combinations.

*Changing the gam/gpu/single display paradigm must be tough work, make sure to feed and care for your driver team. Walk them and clean their cage weekly.

I've created a running changelog for the Catalyst drivers where I'll post the relevant Eyefinity features as they are released/previewed:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/wiki/ATI_Catalyst_Eyefinity_Feature_Changelog

Press 10.3 drivers leaked. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33959849.

I'm not at home so I can't try it. Sweet, bezel management for the masses.

Press 10.3 drivers leaked. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33959849.

I'm not at home so I can't try it. Sweet, bezel management for the masses.

Sweet! I may just go ahead and get a 5870 now instead of waiting. I'll wait for some people to report back first though. :cheers

EDIT: This probably deserves its own thread or at least to be listed in the top post.

The bezel management works as advertised and demonstrated in the pre-release drivers.




...of course, I promptly turned it off cause I'm weird and don't dig it, but yeah, :rockout & :cheers

Also, I mentioned that Crysis was choppy for me in 10.2. Things have smoothed out consideribly there. Still low rates (29-30), but hey, that's Crysis. It's smooth and that's what matters.

BFBC2 is no noticable change from 10.2 (working really good for me, AA * VertSync via CCC)

Still need to test profiles and overdrive/flash issue (I only get flash if I OC with CF). I do not believe that is a SW only issue (need Bios), but I'm not real worried about that. It came stock @ 850/1200 and that's all I expect it to do 100%. Would rather run higher though of course especially since the chip runs relatively cool for me (~67c @ load currently)

Bezel management works great and I love the way it is implemented. Make sure you don't overclock your card while adjusting or the screen will flicker like crazy.
One thing left to wish for is a hotkey to toggle bezel management although I don't know how feasible this is.

Eyefinity is now the way multi-monitor is meant to be played! :D

Holy cow, I'm seeing huge performance gains with the leaked 10.3 over 10.2 and 10.1 in DX11 DiRT2... My benchmark suite is still running but I'll post the numbers later. The performance in most other games tested is back to the levels of 10.1, as 10.2 was a minor hit for alot of older games...