Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH

Zardon · Dec 5, 2009, 04:08 PM

Read The Review here
__________________
Our sister site Gamingheaven reviewed Dirt 2 a short while ago and today we have a look at the performance of the PC version in DX11 mode when paired up with the stunning new range of ATI Series 5 graphics cards. I have been playing the PC version of Dirt 2 for the last week or so and it really is a stunning racing game, with state of the art graphics combined with the same fantastic gameplay we experienced with the console version.

comp_ali · Dec 5, 2009, 05:42 PM

Great test , you tried all setting on every ATi 5xxx single and CF which is very helpful and sure it took a hell of time. can't stop dreaming of 5970

I wish there were some full size screenshots at maximum setting

swimtech · Dec 5, 2009, 05:44 PM

Thanks so much for the time you took with this Allan, and the thoughtful presentation of the card's Frames Per Second in both single and Crossfired configurations set together in the charts - makes the benefit of the second card easy to line up with the eyes.

Too bad the 5850 card is not only still unavailable for the most part, but is selling for more than $50 above the original MSRP when they do make their brief appearances for sale.

Judas · Dec 5, 2009, 05:48 PM

hmm

we'll see how the single 5770 i've got runs 2048x1152

BlueMak · Dec 5, 2009, 05:57 PM

Thank you for the test.
All the cards are looking good. You can't go wrong with any of them.

IvanV · Dec 5, 2009, 07:23 PM

Thanks for the comprehensive test, the 5000 series are without competition outside their own ranks at the moment, so it's great to see how each possible configuration stacks against the others.

I found comparison between 5770 CF and 5870 interesting. At a glance, they seem equally powerful: a 5870 has 1600 shaders at 850MHz and the two 5770s have 2*800 shaders also at 850MHz; the 5870 has memory at 1200MHz connected through a 256-bit wide controller, and each of the 2 5770s have their memory connected through a 128-bit controller and clocked at the same 1200MHz. To my surprise, 5770CF performed noticeably better in terms of average framerate than a 5870 in all resolutions when there was no AA, it was still slightly faster (in all resolutions) with 2xAA and then it fell behind the 5870 when 4xAA was applied (again in all tested resolutions).

swimtech · Dec 5, 2009, 09:13 PM

That's a good eye on the comparison - evidently too the extra memory bandwidth does give the 5870 more "low end torque" to keep the minimum frame rates up though.

Dual 5770's are a good value too, at $340.00 compared to the 5870 at $410.00. The 5770's are starting to creep up in price a bit now too, darn...

Allan's mainboard does dual x16 PCIe bandwidth video, not dual x8. I think I remember the difference under stress can be about 10% of the FPS rate.

comp_ali · Dec 5, 2009, 09:31 PM

Good news that Ati 5xxx series arrived here except 5970HD , bad news is 2x5770 = 5870 in price.

SeraphicSorcerer · Dec 5, 2009, 09:57 PM

I am actually impressed the 5970 in non crossfire beat the 5870, with it's lower clocks, Is it the extra ram????

Nice review as always... You work to much, but I enjoy the results Allan.

humonous · Dec 5, 2009, 10:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeraphicSorcerer

I am actually impressed the 5970 in non crossfire beat the 5870, with it's lower clocks, Is it the extra ram????.

the 5970 is basically 'in crossfire' with a single card, as its two (well basically) 5850s. crossfire X is two 5970s, so 4 5850's

SeraphicSorcerer · Dec 5, 2009, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by humonous

the 5970 is basically 'in crossfire' with a single card, as its two (well basically) 5850s. crossfire X is two 5970s, so 4 5850's

That can't be right, it's suppose to be 2 5870s on a single board. It has 3200 steam processors that's 2 5870s.

It's got lower clocks, so I'll contend it is using something from the other die, however, I wanted to know what, as there is also a performance boost in CFX mode.

Zardon · Dec 5, 2009, 11:10 PM

The 5970 (codename 'Hemlock') is a dual GPU graphics card and it has two of the Cypress GPU's which power the HD 5870 - they are clocked lower however. Each of these GPU's has its own 1GB 'bank' of memory. That said, the 5970 is actually closer to two 5850s than it is to two 5870s. The GPUs on the 5970 dont have any functional units disabled so the 5970 should be slightly faster than a pair of 5850s in terms of shader and texturing capacity.

The reason a single 5970 outperforms a 5870 SeraphicSorcerer is because a single 5970 card is running the game in crossfire mode with two cores against a higher clocked but single core 5870. The additional memory might also help at the highest resolutions with high levels of AA in specific games - which seems to be the case in Dirt 2.

Its also worth bearing in mind that the peak memory bandwidth of a 5970 is a staggering 256 GB/s compared to the 5870's (still staggering) 153.6 GB/s. The peak shader arithmetic is 4640 GFLOPS on the 5970 and 2720 on the 5870.

Incidentally I hope some of you guys who are lucky enough to have a 5000 series card have played Dirt 2 - what a brilliant game.

Chaos · Dec 5, 2009, 11:52 PM

I will be checking it out this coming week. I have a 20" Dell upstairs that I may combine with a 24" and 26" each set to 1680x1050 and try the new triple monitor config, i wish it worked with XFire but i will see if 1 5850 cuts it. For those interested on how it's configured Sapphire has a video on you tube

iPlayer · Dec 6, 2009, 01:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swimtech

Dual 5770's are a good value too, at $340.00 compared to the 5870 at $410.00. The 5770's are starting to creep up in price a bit now too, darn...

5770s are at around $250 per, while 5870s are at $550 here. : /

IvanV · Dec 6, 2009, 01:41 AM

I suppose that the prices are a little unstable because of the shortages, especially in smaller markets that are otherwise quirky. Here (in Serbia) 5870 is around €320 (~$470), but the 5770 is rather nicely priced at €135 (~$200) and the 5850 could actually be the best buy at around €210 (~$310). That's assuming that the cards are actually in stock as it seems a bit too good to be true that almost every small retailer has 5870s and usually more than one brand.

SeraphicSorcerer · Dec 6, 2009, 02:12 AM

Erm, Actually, I just realized you were running 2 5970s together when you tested, for some reason I thought you were only running one core off of the 5970 itself. haha. God I'm tired. Sorry haven't slept much, I got it now.

Driverheaven is the only ones with a 5xxx in stock thanks to the GOTY :P

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

The 5970 (codename 'Hemlock') is a dual GPU graphics card and it has two of the Cypress GPU's which power the HD 5870 - they are clocked lower however. Each of these GPU's has its own 1GB 'bank' of memory. That said, the 5970 is actually closer to two 5850s than it is to two 5870s. The GPUs on the 5970 dont have any functional units disabled so the 5970 should be slightly faster than a pair of 5850s in terms of shader and texturing capacity.

The reason a single 5970 outperforms a 5870 SeraphicSorcerer is because a single 5970 card is running the game in crossfire mode with two cores against a higher clocked but single core 5870. The additional memory might also help at the highest resolutions with high levels of AA in specific games - which seems to be the case in Dirt 2.

Its also worth bearing in mind that the peak memory bandwidth of a 5970 is a staggering 256 GB/s compared to the 5870's (still staggering) 153.6 GB/s. The peak shader arithmetic is 4640 GFLOPS on the 5970 and 2720 on the 5870.

Incidentally I hope some of you guys who are lucky enough to have a 5000 series card have played Dirt 2 - what a brilliant game.

suiz · Dec 7, 2009, 03:06 PM

This game is awsome runs great in my Laptop ASUS M51VA with HD3650 the only thing you have to do is use the Mobility Modder and the desktop drivers.
And the only thing i need is a nice joystick because using the keyboard is a little pain!

Excellent review like aways.

BTBJP · Dec 7, 2009, 11:46 PM

Hi,

Just wondering if you encountered any problems when installing two 5970s with the dirt 2 hot fix drivers?

I have two 5970 with the beta 5 driver on windows 7 64bit and it runs great in 4GPU Crossfire but when I install the Dirt 2 hotfix driver I get all kinds of problems and BSODs with atikmdag.sys.

Then if i use driver cleaner and instal the beta 5 drivers again its back working fine.

Performance in everything with the Beta 5 driver is great except for dirt 2 which is very annoying as its the current game I am trying to play.

Its also worth noting that I can install the dirt 2 hotfix driver on a single 5970 and it works fine. Put a 2nd card in and it all goes to #$%@.

Should I be worried or just wait for the next driver release?

Thanks a lot for any help!

Spec:

i7 965 @ 4ghz
Asus P6T Deluxe V1 (1701 Bios)
2x PowerColor ATi HD 5970
6gb Corsair 1333
3x 64gb OCZ SSD Raid 0
X-Fi Elite Pro
Dell 3008 30"

Thanks again!

Zardon · Dec 8, 2009, 12:33 AM

hello - no I didnt have any issues - can you send me your DXDIAG and ill report it to AMD for you email zardon (at) driverheaven.net and ill file it as a potential issue.

That hotfix massively increases performance with those cards in Dirt 2 - I noticed 10-20% performance increases with some configs.

BTBJP · Dec 8, 2009, 12:49 PM

Hi Zardon,

I sent you an email with dxdiag, did you get it?

I have just done a clean install of Win 7 Home Premium 64bit.

Ran windows update, installed dirt 2 hotfix drivers and reboot. BSOD atikmdag.sys

In device manager it says for each of the 4 5970 listed.

"Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)"

If I install the Beta 5 driver it all works fine again.

I am now re-downloading the hotfix driver from ATI just to check nothing was corrupt.

Edit: Still not working after redownload, driver cleaner , reinstall.

If I remove the crossfire bridge it seems to work ok with the hotfix driver but BOSD at windows login if i put it back on.

Thanks for your help.

Edit:

Had a bit of a google search and found someone with the same problem.

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...5&postcount=39

Then some guys post this

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...7&postcount=44

http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...2&postcount=46

I am now just wondering Zardon if you got the drivers from this page http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...rformance.aspx
or if you got them sent from ATI with extra 5970 support?

Thanks again

Zardon · Dec 8, 2009, 02:01 PM

Hi, yes I got your email, ive passed it onto AMD with a report.

BTBJP · Dec 8, 2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

Hi, yes I got your email, ive passed it onto AMD with a report.

Thanks a lot, it is much appreciated!

I look forward to hearing what they have to say about the matter.

I am now back on the Beta 5 driver with 4 GPU Crossfire working flawless just no Dirt 2 support.

BWX · Dec 14, 2009, 10:52 AM

hmm, are there some screenshots of the differences between the high and ultra settings with a dx11 card (and its specific affects) in this game?

Dec 5, 2009, 04:08 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Read The Review here __________________ Our sister site Gamingheaven reviewed Dirt 2 a short while ago and today we have a look at the performance of the PC version in DX11 mode when paired up with the stunning new range of ATI Series 5 graphics cards. I have been playing the PC version of Dirt 2 for the last week or so and it really is a stunning racing game, with state of the art graphics combined with the same fantastic gameplay we experienced with the console version.

Dec 5, 2009, 05:42 PM	#2
comp_ali Sniper Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 10,469 Rep Power: 339 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Great test , you tried all setting on every ATi 5xxx single and CF which is very helpful and sure it took a hell of time. can't stop dreaming of 5970 I wish there were some full size screenshots at maximum setting Last edited by comp_ali; Dec 5, 2009 at 05:47 PM.

Dec 5, 2009, 05:44 PM	#3
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Thanks so much for the time you took with this Allan, and the thoughtful presentation of the card's Frames Per Second in both single and Crossfired configurations set together in the charts - makes the benefit of the second card easy to line up with the eyes. Too bad the 5850 card is not only still unavailable for the most part, but is selling for more than $50 above the original MSRP when they do make their brief appearances for sale. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Dec 5, 2009, 05:57 PM	#5
BlueMak HH's Asteroids' Dominator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Hellas->Macedonia->Thessaloniki Posts: 13,465 Rep Power: 349 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Thank you for the test. All the cards are looking good. You can't go wrong with any of them. __________________ The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm *Sic semper tyrannis.*

Dec 5, 2009, 07:23 PM	#6
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Thanks for the comprehensive test, the 5000 series are without competition outside their own ranks at the moment, so it's great to see how each possible configuration stacks against the others. I found comparison between 5770 CF and 5870 interesting. At a glance, they seem equally powerful: a 5870 has 1600 shaders at 850MHz and the two 5770s have 2800 shaders also at 850MHz; the 5870 has memory at 1200MHz connected through a 256-bit wide controller, and each of the 2 5770s have their memory connected through a 128-bit controller and clocked at the same 1200MHz. To my surprise, 5770CF performed noticeably better in terms of average framerate than a 5870 in all resolutions when there was no AA, it was still slightly faster (in all resolutions) with 2xAA and then it fell behind the 5870 when 4xAA was applied (again in all tested resolutions). __________________ If anyone has Portal 2* and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Dec 5, 2009, 09:13 PM	#7
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH That's a good eye on the comparison - evidently too the extra memory bandwidth does give the 5870 more "low end torque" to keep the minimum frame rates up though. Dual 5770's are a good value too, at $340.00 compared to the 5870 at $410.00. The 5770's are starting to creep up in price a bit now too, darn... Allan's mainboard does dual x16 PCIe bandwidth video, not dual x8. I think I remember the difference under stress can be about 10% of the FPS rate. __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Dec 5, 2009, 09:31 PM	#8
comp_ali Sniper Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Egypt Posts: 10,469 Rep Power: 339 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Good news that Ati 5xxx series arrived here except 5970HD , bad news is 2x5770 = 5870 in price.

Dec 5, 2009, 09:57 PM	#9
SeraphicSorcerer HardwareHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Florida Posts: 2,295 Rep Power: 156 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH I am actually impressed the 5970 in non crossfire beat the 5870, with it's lower clocks, Is it the extra ram???? Nice review as always... You work to much, but I enjoy the results Allan. __________________

Dec 5, 2009, 11:10 PM	Thread Starter #12
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH The 5970 (codename 'Hemlock') is a dual GPU graphics card and it has two of the Cypress GPU's which power the HD 5870 - they are clocked lower however. Each of these GPU's has its own 1GB 'bank' of memory. That said, the 5970 is actually closer to two 5850s than it is to two 5870s. The GPUs on the 5970 dont have any functional units disabled so the 5970 should be slightly faster than a pair of 5850s in terms of shader and texturing capacity. The reason a single 5970 outperforms a 5870 SeraphicSorcerer is because a single 5970 card is running the game in crossfire mode with two cores against a higher clocked but single core 5870. The additional memory might also help at the highest resolutions with high levels of AA in specific games - which seems to be the case in Dirt 2. Its also worth bearing in mind that the peak memory bandwidth of a 5970 is a staggering 256 GB/s compared to the 5870's (still staggering) 153.6 GB/s. The peak shader arithmetic is 4640 GFLOPS on the 5970 and 2720 on the 5870. Incidentally I hope some of you guys who are lucky enough to have a 5000 series card have played Dirt 2 - what a brilliant game.

Dec 5, 2009, 11:52 PM	#13
Chaos Number Nine Join Date: May 2002 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 5,268 Rep Power: 167 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH I will be checking it out this coming week. I have a 20" Dell upstairs that I may combine with a 24" and 26" each set to 1680x1050 and try the new triple monitor config, i wish it worked with XFire but i will see if 1 5850 cuts it. For those interested on how it's configured Sapphire has a video on you tube __________________

Dec 6, 2009, 01:41 AM	#15
IvanV HH Assassin Guild Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 5,914 Rep Power: 333 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH I suppose that the prices are a little unstable because of the shortages, especially in smaller markets that are otherwise quirky. Here (in Serbia) 5870 is around €320 (~$470), but the 5770 is rather nicely priced at €135 (~$200) and the 5850 could actually be the best buy at around €210 (~$310). That's assuming that the cards are actually in stock as it seems a bit too good to be true that almost every small retailer has 5870s and usually more than one brand. __________________ If anyone has Portal 2 and hasn't played the co-op and wants to do me a favour, let me know (PM me or whatever).

Dec 7, 2009, 03:06 PM	#17
suiz HardwareHeaven Newbie Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Spain Posts: 7 Rep Power: 0	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH This game is awsome runs great in my Laptop ASUS M51VA with HD3650 the only thing you have to do is use the Mobility Modder and the desktop drivers. And the only thing i need is a nice joystick because using the keyboard is a little pain! Excellent review like aways.

Dec 7, 2009, 11:46 PM	#18
BTBJP DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Hi, Just wondering if you encountered any problems when installing two 5970s with the dirt 2 hot fix drivers? I have two 5970 with the beta 5 driver on windows 7 64bit and it runs great in 4GPU Crossfire but when I install the Dirt 2 hotfix driver I get all kinds of problems and BSODs with atikmdag.sys. Then if i use driver cleaner and instal the beta 5 drivers again its back working fine. Performance in everything with the Beta 5 driver is great except for dirt 2 which is very annoying as its the current game I am trying to play. Its also worth noting that I can install the dirt 2 hotfix driver on a single 5970 and it works fine. Put a 2nd card in and it all goes to #$%@. Should I be worried or just wait for the next driver release? Thanks a lot for any help! Spec: i7 965 @ 4ghz Asus P6T Deluxe V1 (1701 Bios) 2x PowerColor ATi HD 5970 6gb Corsair 1333 3x 64gb OCZ SSD Raid 0 X-Fi Elite Pro Dell 3008 30" Thanks again!

Dec 8, 2009, 12:33 AM	Thread Starter #19
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH hello - no I didnt have any issues - can you send me your DXDIAG and ill report it to AMD for you email zardon (at) driverheaven.net and ill file it as a potential issue. That hotfix massively increases performance with those cards in Dirt 2 - I noticed 10-20% performance increases with some configs.

Dec 8, 2009, 12:49 PM	#20
BTBJP DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Dec 2009 Posts: 3 Rep Power: 0	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Hi Zardon, I sent you an email with dxdiag, did you get it? I have just done a clean install of Win 7 Home Premium 64bit. Ran windows update, installed dirt 2 hotfix drivers and reboot. BSOD atikmdag.sys In device manager it says for each of the 4 5970 listed. "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)" If I install the Beta 5 driver it all works fine again. I am now re-downloading the hotfix driver from ATI just to check nothing was corrupt. Edit: Still not working after redownload, driver cleaner , reinstall. If I remove the crossfire bridge it seems to work ok with the hotfix driver but BOSD at windows login if i put it back on. Thanks for your help. Edit: Had a bit of a google search and found someone with the same problem. http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...5&postcount=39 Then some guys post this http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...7&postcount=44 http://www.rage3d.com/board/showpost...2&postcount=46 I am now just wondering Zardon if you got the drivers from this page http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles...rformance.aspx or if you got them sent from ATI with extra 5970 support? Thanks again Last edited by BTBJP; Dec 8, 2009 at 01:39 PM. Reason: New Info

Dec 8, 2009, 02:01 PM	Thread Starter #21
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH Hi, yes I got your email, ive passed it onto AMD with a report.

Dec 14, 2009, 10:52 AM	#23
BWX unplugged Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: USNY Posts: 19,669 Rep Power: 110 System Specs	Re: Dirt 2 DX11 Performance - ATI @ DH hmm, are there some screenshots of the differences between the high and ultra settings with a dx11 card (and its specific affects) in this game? __________________