Dumb question on ATI CAPs

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by enoy21, Aug 24, 2011.

  1. enoy21

    enoy21 Guest

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    Are this strictly for Xfire users ? Do they provide any benefit for single card losers like myself ?

    And why is there a Bannana give the Jailhouse Welcoming Party to the Lemon on the right side of this box ?
     
  2. JonasBeckman

    JonasBeckman Ancient Guru

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    Now and then there's profiles for more general usage but the majority of things are Crossfire related as you mentioned though unless they cause issues in some specific game I recommend having them installed and keeping them updated.
    (Latest versions now correctly prompts for a restart also, unsure if it's still needed to remove the previously installed one or if it's replaced - earlier this caused a rather large list of CAP entries in the add/remove feature under the Windows control panel, haha.)
     
  3. kn00tcn

    kn00tcn Ancient Guru

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    people still asking about CAPs, it's getting old

    the benefit for single cards is when for example things like AA get disabled if forcing it causes a problem

    edit: wow is that jbeckman from nfoh :nerd::approval::bounce::cheers:
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2011
  4. JonasBeckman

    JonasBeckman Ancient Guru

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    I'm not that active on forums and other communities any longer actually though a few years back I was on Tweakguides until that closed, I'm getting more and more inactive though due to lack of time and in general nowadays I prefer just reading the various sites and forums I browse around on.

    Anyway there will always be people new to these sorts of things so it's understandable there's questions like this, would be neat if ATI had a better FAQ or other guide or general overview but these are fairly basic if I understood them correctly, just a few profiles packed in this sort of registry "blob" overwriting the main driver files, as it does not restart the GPU (WDDM via Vista, Windows 7) it does however require a restart to properly apply.

    Ideally I'd have wished it to a more open structure not entirely unlike the advanced profile views in Nvidia's NVCP settings though even those are not entirely unlocked without third party utilities and there's a few rather good utilities for ATI as well for this sort of work.
    (I am not entirely certain just how much these profiles do or actually contain compared to the driver level code but I assume it works as a sort of quick fix while the driver monthly cycle progresses, then again I have a few complaints on other ATI stuff as well, updating the .Net framework of the CCC to v.4 for example to really get memory usage and start up times trimmed down and of course responsiveness, then there's the reported well known bugs and oversights like not having a D3D tripple buffering option, questionable VSync driver support and how options can be a bit locked on some hardware like Catalyst AI being impossible to disable via normal means on newer GPU models for example, then there's the OpenGL issues and probably much more but both vendors and likely Intel's integrated stuff have their own shares of flaws and issues of course.)

    (I prefer stability over shortsighted optimizations and hacks as well so to me fixing the drivers and utilities like CCC and the others are more important than just speed improvements, of course it should never impact visual quality either unless the user chooses to enable more aggressive optimizations like say scaling down the new tessellation slider, more control with Catalyst AI would be great for this, of course there's other problems also like fixing Crossfire up and better support for newer games and applications but we'll see what happens in the next few years I guess.)

    Anyway perhaps a bit much but I suppose there's things to consider like time available for different tasks and of course budget possibilities and to be fair the drivers work pretty well by now but they can always improve. :D
    (It's constant work though not surprisingly with new releases and newer hardware being introduced, it's easy to guess, speculate and point out things but I believe they're pretty well aware of most of these more obvious things already and if things were so easy to fix it would have been attempted but these monthly gradual improvements slowly but surely get things fixed, ha ha.)

    Hope the question has been answered somewhat though, other people can likely give more specific and detailed answers as well. :)
    (Also good job with the profile list on your website Kn00tcn, it's quite handy.)
     

  5. Rich_Guy

    Rich_Guy Ancient Guru

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    The CAPS are only for Xfire users.
     
  6. Rich_Guy

    Rich_Guy Ancient Guru

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    The CAPs are only for Xfire users. :)
     
  7. JonasBeckman

    JonasBeckman Ancient Guru

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    Mostly but not entirely.
    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/10-9_readme.txt
    (Updated profiles, not just for Crossfire.)

    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/10-11_CAP2_readme.txt
    (One of the few that adds AA support for a game, hah.)

    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/11-3_CAP3_readme.txt
    (Improves image quality but also disables Crossfire in one game.)

    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/11-5_CAP5_readme.txt
    (Bugfix for Witcher 2.)

    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/11-6_CAP3_readme.txt
    (Another one that disabled Crossfire profiles for these two titles.)

    http://www.rage3d.com/cap/profiles/11-6_CAP3_readme.txt
    (Incompatibility fix for Fear 3.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2011
  8. perosmct

    perosmct Banned

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    CAPs are for both cfx and single card users...

    next user that will tell different should ban his brain with a title "mega noob, i am dangerous to tell my opinion"...:bang:

    it changes 2 basic files from the driver database, it is not something extra...:no:
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2011
  9. alphaproxima

    alphaproxima Active Member

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    What this guy said. And be careful there are many trolls in these forums
     
  10. Rich_Guy

    Rich_Guy Ancient Guru

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    I always thought they were both, as when they first started doing the CAPs, they were for both single and Xfire, but CatCreator said on his Twitter a couple of months ago, that they were only for Xfire users, so id just assumed they had changed them.

    EDIT: found this from CatCreator later on :-

    Thats pointless, as if i don't want AA on in the CCC (if the game already has AA settings), then i just select Use Application Settings for the AA in the CCC, ive never needed a CAP to do that, unless in some games, the AA is forced on still, whichever setting you use in the CCC.
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2011

  11. enoy21

    enoy21 Guest

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    So.....

    Since I have a single care and really don't set anything in the drivers , I don't use CCC but use ATI Tray Tools and set everything to application preference so I can set it different in the games depending on needs.

    Should I be installing these caps ?



    Second thought , would I be better off performance wise to force it system wide and NOT through the application ? ( AA and AF )


    Third thought, I've seen people suggest setting Catalyst AI to advanced , but in ATI Tray Tools I don't have an advanced option. I have performance/quality/highquality. It's currently set on default of Quality.
     
  12. Rich_Guy

    Rich_Guy Ancient Guru

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    Theres no harm in installing them :)
     
  13. perosmct

    perosmct Banned

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    or enabling AA such old days on StarCraft2 and DarkSiders...:)

    don't do anything AMD says...catalystcreator knows as much as catalystmaker...(he didn't know what stuttering is...)

    so...

    like we install latest drivers, i don't see any harm to install 2 latest files:biggun:
     
  14. enoy21

    enoy21 Guest

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    Do the latest caps supersede the previous ones ? As in they still contain all of the previous fixes ?
     
  15. stone-eye

    stone-eye Guest

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  16. enoy21

    enoy21 Guest

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    I assume that the caps are included in the next release of the driver as well. So Version 11.8 should contain all of the caps from 11.7.

    I'm just looking for anything that may help with Bad Company 2 performance at this point.
     
  17. asder00

    asder00 Don Di Driver

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    Nope.
     
  18. enoy21

    enoy21 Guest

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    So..... If what you are saying is correct. Lets play out this example.


    Driver 11.4 released
    Cap 11.4 vs 3 contains BFBC2 profile for removing screen tearing

    Driver 11.5 released




    You lose the 11.4 cap you installed and the performance increase that came with it ? That doesn't make much sense to me.

    Or am I totally misunderstanding how the caps work since I've never used them ?
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2011
  19. adrock311

    adrock311 Guest

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    Has anyone with a single card ever noticed any performance DECREASE after installing CAPs? I haven't, just wondering (since they are written primarily with crossfire in mind ).
     
    Last edited: Aug 25, 2011
  20. perosmct

    perosmct Banned

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    never that is gonna happen...the only decrease may happen to CFX users but on single gpu only good/wellness they offer...there will never be negative scaling...
     

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