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Review: AMD Catalyst 'Omega' Driver

by Ryan Martin on 9 December 2014, 05:00

Tags: AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacmjz

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Testing methodology

HEXUS Driver Test Bench

Hardware ComponentsHEXUS ReviewProduct Page
Processor Intel Core i7-4790K (quad-core, overclocked up to 4.40GHz) June 2014 Intel.com
Motherboard Asus Z97-A May 2014 Asus.com
Memory 16GB GeIL EVO Veloce (2x8GB) DDR3 @ 1866MHz September 2012 Geil.com.tw
Graphics Card AMD Radeon R9 290 (4GB) November 2013 AMD.com
Power Supply Corsair AX760i - Corsair.com
Storage Device Hynix SH910A 256GB SSD August 2014 SKHynix.com
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T October 2010 Corsair.com
Monitor Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) - Philips.co.uk
Operating system Windows 8.1 (64-bit) October 2012 Microsoft.com

 

HEXUS Driver Benchmark Suite

Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike and Fire Strike Extreme
Gaming Benchmarks
TitleSettings at 1,920 x 1,080 (FHD)
BioShock Infinite AA Enabled, Ultra Preset inc. Depth of Field
Crysis 3 4xMSAA, Very High Textures, Very High System Spec
Grid Autosport 8xMSAA, Maximum Quality Settings (Soft Ambient Occlusion On, Advanced Lighting On, Rear View Mirror Off, Global Illumination On)
Tomb Raider FXAA, Ultra Quality Preset, TressFX Disabled
Total War: Rome II Extreme Preset

Notes

To analyse the performance of AMD's new Omega driver we compared it to the WHQL 14.4 driver release of May earlier this year, providing a six-month gap between driver revisions. Tests were run three times and frame-rates were recorded using Fraps. AMD's Radeon R9 290 was left in its stock configuration with the 'uber' BIOS mode activated.