AMD Display Driver 9.12.0.0 dramatically better than 13.152.1.8000 with TPA

Prior to some changes today, I hadn't updated my AMD Display Driver in a very very long time. (I didn't know it at first, but I found out later that prior to my changes today, I had been using "AMD Display Driver" with Version "9.12.0.0", and date of 12/9/2012.) Although my performance with TPA and this driver (and my HD 7770 graphics card) had been excellent, I thought I might as well follow the lead of others in the threads here and use the latest drivers from AMD site.

On the AMD site, the choices displayed today are
1). Catalyst Software Suite whql version (so their non-beta version) with Catalyst Release date of 9/18/2013, and Catalyst Revision number of 13.9.

2) Catalyst Software Suite "Latest Beta Version", with Catalyst date of 11/7/2013, and Catalyst Revision of 13.11 Beta.


I then downloaded and installed that 13.11 Catalyst Beta version that had Catalyst date of 11/07/2013. During the install it showed that it included "AMD Display Driver" of 9.012.0.000. When I went to test with TPA the performance with it seemed identical to what I already had with TPA prior to today. I then did driver properties, and I was surprised to see that it had an old date of 12/09/2012. I decided to do a System Restore and bring everything back to what it was before. I then did properties on the restored version and it showed that I had already been using prior to today, "AMD Display Driver" of 9.12.0 with release date of 12/09/2012.

I then downloaded and installed the Catalyst Software Suite whql 13.9 with Catalyst date of 9/18/2013. During the install I was surprised to see that this older Catalyst driver had an "AMD Display Driver" of 13.152.1.8000 which was a much larger version number than that of the Beta . A check of properties after installed showed "AMD Display Driver" as 10/8/2013, with 13.152.1.8000

Then I tested with TPA. I found that this AMD Display Driver" of 13.152.1.8000 had a much worse picture than before. The jaggies were extremely bad, especially when the table scrolled. The FPS were still the same as before though at around 60.

In Windows I did a rollback driver, and it went back to AMD Display Driver of 9.12.0.0 with Driver date of 12/9/2012. A retest with TPA showed the Jaggies gone, and back to the very nice display I had prior to today.

My Findings:
1) AMD Display driver of 9.12.0.0 has a much much better picture than 13.152.1.8000.
2) For some reason, the new Nov. 7, 2013 Beta Catalyst has AMD Display Driver 9.12.0.0, while the Sept 2013 Release Catalyst has AMD Display Driver 13.152.1.8000.
3) The above findings are strange.

Weird. I have the Nov. 7th beta driver and it shows 13.250.18.0 as the driver version in system properties.

Same here

For me, AMD Display Driver 9.12.0.0 ALSO dramatically better than 13.250.18.0

You great folks have resolved one mystery. I went back to look at the downloads I had on my PC. The Beta I had was indeed wrong. I had somehow downloaded the mobility beta (amd_catalyst_13.11_mobility_betav9.2.exe). Since I have a Desktop PC, it appears that mobility version never got installed and my original version number of 9.12.0 was still showing up instead (including during the install process). However that did not happen with the Release version of 13-9_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe, which had caused my jaggies. Just now, I did download the correct Beta version - amd_catalyst_13.11_betav9.2.exe, and installed it. System Properties shows Driver Version 13.250.18.0, with Driver Date 11/7/2013, so matching all of you. But unfortunately TPA looks terrible with it also, again seeing all the jaggies. Rolling back to my 9.12.0 with date of 12/19/2012 makes TPA look great again. My concern is how am I ever going to update my AMD Drivers, without wrecking my TPA display?

By the way, Jeff or anyone that can answer. Is it possible for me to insert an image directly into my post (without doing it as a URL). I went through some of the general forum information, and I wasn't clear on that. (Earlier, I was going to post a screenshot of my System Information of my graphics driver like you and Biff did.) - Thanks, Mark

Upload your image here http://postimage.org/. It's free, no registration required.

Use the IMG tag for images in your post or click on the "insert image" icon.

Thanks Biff!

I have been able to test back and forth between AMD Display Driver 9.12.0.0 and 13.250.18.0 (by using Automatically Search For Updated Driver (since I had it installed once), and the reverse by Rolling Back Driver). I have discovered that as long as I turn off AntiAliasing and PostProcessing in the TPA configuration utility, both versions look roughly the same. They look fair as far as jaggies, but not the best. The difference is that with 9.12.0.0 I can turn On PostProcessing, and set AntiAliasing to 16, then 9.12.0.0 looks better than without those settings. (At that point I find it to be a very good display with 9.12.0.0, PP=ON, AA=16X.) But with 13.250.18.0, with PostProcessing set to ON, and AntiAliasing set to 16, the display in TPA becomes very bad.

I know nothing about PC graphics, so my opinion probably isn't worth much... but I guess TPA is using DX9 and using very old and simple post-processing effects. It's a very "last-gen" game. This possibly means that graphics drivers from a few years ago are more compatible with the game than newer drivers, which are designed to run the latest DX11 games with all their bells and whistles.

SqueakyG said:

I know nothing about PC graphics, so my opinion probably isn't worth much... but I guess TPA is using DX9 and using very old and simple post-processing effects. It's a very "last-gen" game. This possibly means that graphics drivers from a few years ago are more compatible with the game than newer drivers, which are designed to run the latest DX11 games with all their bells and whistles.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input SqueakyG. I hope I wasn't confusing with my earlier posts, but the version that works so well isn't from a few years ago. The version that works well, Display Driver version 9.12, is dated Dec. 19, 2012. I found the release notes on the AMD site for this one: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion131.aspx
(That page says, Last Updates: 1/15/2013)

But perhaps since then in 2013, that AMD has modified the drivers in the way you hypothesized. If that's the case, the release of DX11 by FarSight will be even more useful to fix the problems people are reporting.

Note: I don't know of any way to get to old downloads of the drivers themselves on the AMD site.

FYI to everyone, I am now back to using that 9.12 version exclusively for my best display, and I have Ball Reflections=High, AA=16x, and PP=On. I am not using RadeonPro anymore, which doesn't seem to help either way for me.

seattlemark said:

Note: I don't know of any way to get to old downloads of the drivers themselves on the AMD site.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is one of my problems. Another one is, that my up to date driver gives me better performance in other games.
So, I don't really want to downgrade.

Thanks for the heads up on this Mark and the rest of you who've posted to this forum. I have a feeling I will need refer back to this thread soon this soon.