For players with AMD graphics cards

[Xernicus]

Heya ET players,

I just wanted to alert you to an update for the AMD Catalyst driver that you should not install.

 

As some of you know, with the technology for GPUs rapidly changing, support for our beloved aging games is starting to fade... in terms of our FPS rate.

 

I got a rude awakening to that, after I updated the drivers for my AMD Radeon HD6570, hoping that it would fix a problem in another game (it didn't).

 

From what I can gather (based on my own experience, and the AMD forums),
AMD Catalyst version 13.9 is the last to support W:ET in all of it's glory. I updated from 13.4 to 13.12 and I could barely get about 20fps. Setting the r_primatives variable helped, but only boosted it to around 50fps. For the record, I'm used to 90-125fps (125fps being the maximum set in the cvar).

 

I tried changing all of the MSAA settings, 3D settings, overclocking settings (who the hell would even need to overclock for ET? lol), etc. Nothing really helped.


There might be something I'm missing out here (please say so, if I am missing something huge), but for now watch those driver updates.

[b0rR*4cHo]

How do I not update this because the computer I just got has this -.-

[Xernicus]

How do I not update this because the computer I just got has this -.-

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2269/amd-catalyst-13-9-software-suite-vista-7-64-bit/mirrors

 

This says Vista/7 on TechpowerUp but will work with 8 no problem, as AMD designed it to.

[excedo]

This affects all cards? Since a friend of my got a R9 280x and playing sometimes ET.

 

Also as far I know ET is a more CPU based game and using OpenGL which shouldn't effected by drivers that bad?

Edited March 19, 2014 by Motafied

[Ann!b@l]

Make sure that vsync and multithreading optimization are manually forced on disabled. Sometimes, from an update to an other one, default settings change.

Edited March 19, 2014 by Ann!b@l

[S3ti]

Afaik you can place other opengl dll versions in the game folder so ET uses that first, for AMD they are called atioglxx.dll.

Never tried it though but worth a look I guess...

[doctordan70s]

Thanks I wont update again till i research this.

[JoeDirt]

Heya ET players,

 

I just wanted to alert you to an update for the AMD Catalyst driver that you should not install.

 

As some of you know, with the technology for GPUs rapidly changing, support for our beloved aging games is starting to fade... in terms of our FPS rate.

 

I got a rude awakening to that, after I updated the drivers for my AMD Radeon HD6570, hoping that it would fix a problem in another game (it didn't).

 

From what I can gather (based on my own experience, and the AMD forums),

AMD Catalyst version 13.9 is the last to support W:ET in all of it's glory. I updated from 13.4 to 13.12 and I could barely get about 20fps. Setting the r_primatives variable helped, but only boosted it to around 50fps. For the record, I'm used to 90-125fps (125fps being the maximum set in the cvar).

 

I tried changing all of the MSAA settings, 3D settings, overclocking settings (who the hell would even need to overclock for ET? lol), etc. Nothing really helped.

 

 

There might be something I'm missing out here (please say so, if I am missing something huge), but for now watch those driver updates.

Running latest beta drivers here without issue, its clearly not a driver issue but a setting issue. You did type in /r_primitives 2?

[Xernicus]

Running latest beta drivers here without issue, its clearly not a driver issue but a setting issue. You did type in /r_primitives 2?

I typed in /seta r_primitives 2 and did a vid restart. Like I said, it did improve- but I was only getting around 1/2 of my original FPS rate.

 

I did not try out the latest beta drivers, I'll set up a system restore point and give them a go.

Wouldn't be surprised if I need to reconfigure my cvars in ET or some settings/profiles in the CCC after updating the driver though.

 

Thanks for the tip on trying the beta drivers.

[meow]

What does r_primitives do?

 

Mine's at 0 in my cfg and I have no fps issue. Just curiosity.

[Xernicus]

What does r_primitives do?

 

Mine's at 0 in my cfg and I have no fps issue. Just curiosity.

It changes the rendering method. I believe that normally it is set to 0, and the available options are 0, 1, and 2.

[Quovadis]

0 is auto . Suposed to select best of 2.(obviously doesn't since last amd drivers)

Don't know what are the differances between 1 and 2 though.

[S3ti]

What does r_primitives do?

 

Mine's at 0 in my cfg and I have no fps issue. Just curiosity.

 

r_primitives [-1|0|1|2]

-1 = skips drawing

0 = uses glDrawelements if compiled vertex arrays are present, or strips of glArrayElement if not. (cvar r_ext_compiled_vertex_array "1")

1 = force strips

2 = force drawElements

 

There are even more and some look pretty weird, but they are locked ingame afaik.

[I_am_Ace]

I had this issue a few weeks ago when I updated my AMD drivers. r_primitives 2 worked for me. Sorry it didn't work in your situation, but just so others know it does work in some cases.

 

I agree the best thing is probably to not update if you can remember to avoid it, tho.

[++Sl@yer]

I had to roll back my drivers to get more than 20 fps. I was running 13.9, not the most recent release either.