AMD Catalyst 11.1 and 11.1a Hotfix

BoySCouT

E.M.I.
What is the difference between the two drivers? If I have the Catalyst 11.1 installed and want the 11.1a hotfix, do I uninstall the 11.1 and then reinstall the 11.1a hotfix, or can I install the 11.1a over the top of 11.1 (I bet I know the answer)? This is a bit confusing. Thanks.
 

TheCrimsonStar

Tech Monkey
I just uninstall the one I don't want, then install the next one. I had MAJOR issues with 10.12..it cut my fps more than in HALF. I would get 30 fps in a game I would normally get 70-100 in. 11.1 works perfect for me, and all I did was download it, uninstall 10.11 then install 11.1 and it works fine. Haven't tried the hotfix yet. What's the difference?
 

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
I thought you could install 11.1a over 11.1 but I may be wrong. The difference is that there are select games that will experience a performance increase when using a 6800. I'm looking forward to seeing if there's any improvement on DX11 performance in Metro 2033 and the boost in Black Ops is a nice plus even though the game drives me insane most nights.
 

Optix

Basket Chassis
Staff member
I don't have any but it's nice to know that there will be extra processing power if I need it although running at 1680x1050 with a 6850, even at stock is more than enough muscle.
 

BoySCouT

E.M.I.
I am interested in the performance increase (if any) for my 6950. If I get time this weekend, I'll try to do some benchmarks and then post results between 11.1 and 11.1a.

For Radeon HD 6900 and AMD Radeon HD 6800 cards:
3DMark Vantage improves ~7%
3DMark06 improves ~3%
Call of Duty Black Ops improves ~20% at 4xMSAA and up to 35% at 8xMSAA
Riddick Assault on Dark Athena SSAO performance improves ~20%
Unigine Heaven OpenGL performance improves ~10% at moderate, 30% at normal and 100% at extreme tessellation levels

AMD Radeon HD 6800 cards:
Aliens vs. Predators improves ~9% at 2xMSAA and up to 20% at 4xMSAA
Batman Arkham Asylum improves ~4%
Crysis Warhead improves ~2-4%
Metro 2033 improves ~28% at 4xMSAA

AMD Radeon HD 6900 cards:
Battleforge DirectX 11 performance improves as much as 6%

From AMD's site...
AMD Catalyst™ Driver 11.1a Hotfix Features:

Performance improvements for AMD Radeon™ HD 6900 & AMD Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards
AMD Catalyst Control Center – New Tessellation controls
Gives users control over the tessellation levels used in applications
AMD Catalyst AI Texture Filtering updates
The High Quality setting remains unchanged: This setting provides reference quality filtering from AMD hardware
The Quality setting now matches the High Quality setting in all respects but one: it enables an optimization that limits tri-linear anisotropic filtering to areas surrounding texture mipmap level transitions, while doing bilinear anisotropic filtering elsewhere. This optimization offers a way to adjust filtering performance without visibly affecting image quality
The Performance setting has also been updated. It now provides a smooth filtering option that is designed to eliminate most shimmering while preserving the detail provided by anisotropic filtering.
 

BoySCouT

E.M.I.
Just finished installing 11.1a Hotfix after running some benchmarks with Unigine Heaven (thanks to a recommendation by Kougar), 3DMark11, 3DMark06, X2-Rolling Demo, and FurMark. Will run benchmarks tomorrow with 11.1a drivers and post results. Funny, TriXXX and ATI Overdrive still report drivers as 10.12 not 11.1 or 11.1a.
 

Rob Williams

Editor-in-Chief
Staff member
Moderator
Ugh, and I the only person getting frustrated with AMD's driver releases lately? I had to install like five different drivers the other night on a PC before one "clicked" (HD 6970). It's so frustrating. AMD's releases have been horrible the past couple of months in terms of stability and reliability.
 

Kougar

Techgage Staff
Staff member
From what I recall the 11.1a hotfix were the first actual "update" drivers released to begin resolving performance & bugs with both the latest 6800/6900 cards. If you're running newly launched hardware it's best to grab the newest graphics driver updates ya can usually. :)

I don't track AMD's drivers closely as their release schedule is entirely too confusing. They really need to either release drivers when available, or be far more proactive in building future GPU support into their monthly driver releases as the current situation just gets more absurd with every new model launch.
 
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