Radeon Adrenalin Edition 18.1.1 WHQL Download & Discussion

Below is a list of AMD's planned GDC 2018 sessions;

Engine Optimization Hot Lap (Presented by AMD)

Join this session for a profile and trace-guided race through gaming engine AMD GPU usage, and leave with a better understanding of how to hotrod your Vulkan or DirectX 12 engine.

Optimizing for the AMD Ryzen family of CPU and APU processors (Presented by AMD)

Join AMD Game Engineering team members for an introduction to the AMD Ryzen family of CPU and APU processors followed by advanced optimization topics.


Taking the Red Pill – Using Radeon GPU Profiler to Look Inside Your Game (Presented by AMD)

In this talk, we're going to take the Adrenalin red pill and use the Radeon GPU Profiler to step behind the API curtain into the low-level reality of the hardware.


The Art of Profiling - Radeon GPU Profiler & RenderDoc (Presented by AMD)

The Radeon GPU Profiler introduced by AMD in 2017 has fast become the go-to tool for detailed performance insights for Vulkan and DirectX 12 applications running on Radeon GPUs. RenderDoc is the de-facto standard frame debugging tool across all APIs. These two great tools are very powerful individually, but together they deliver a compelling ecosystem for debugging and profiling your applications.


Simulating and Rendering Physically-Realistic Curly Hair (Presented by AMD)

This session will introduce a procedure to create physically-realistic - and very fashionable! – curly hair, based on the TressFX algorithm.


Real-time ray-tracing techniques for integration into existing renderers (Presented by AMD)

AMD is developing several tools and open libraries like Radeon ProRender and Radeon Rays to allow real-time ray-tracing rendering, enabling the production of photo-realistic images and many different types of lighting effects with high performance on any combination of CPU and GPUs. This presentation will cover how to use this open ecosystem for any rendering application.

 

Unfortunately that was only true with win10 CU. For whatever reason disabling GameMode only works on some games in win10 FCU. One has to right click on the game/app .exe go to Compatibility and check off Disable Fullscreen Optimizations.

It takes enabling FSU in order to bring up GameBar in order to use Game Mode. I'm not fully sure if Game Bar will still function correctly once FSU is disabled. However, it's clear that FSU helps inhibit Game Bar which is a good thing if true.

Furthermore, since win10 FCU the list of games have expanded beyond UWP Exclusive games:
https://forums.xbox.com/en-us/thread/8d058178-2329-4513-bc0a-1506c2942dad
Fullscreen mode is another name for fullscreen optimizations.

Partial List of games that MS has 'optimized'
(This list is being updated all the time.)

Spoiler: List of Non UWP Games

• Aion
• Arma 3
• Battlefield 1
• Battlefield 3
• Battlefield 4
• Call of Duty: Black Ops II
• Call of Duty: Black Ops III
• Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
• Civilization V
• Civilization VI
• Company of Heroes 2
• Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
• Crusader Kings II
• Dark Souls III
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
• Diablo III
• Dishonored 2
• Dota 2
• Elite: Dangerous
• Europa Universalis IV
• EVE Online
• F1 2016
• Fallout 4
• Fallout: New Vegas
• Far Cry 4
• FIFA 14
• FIFA 17
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Football Manager 2016
• Football Manager 2017
• Garry's Mod
• Grand Theft Auto IV
• Grand Theft Auto V
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Grim Dawn
• Guild Wars 2
• Hearts of Iron IV
• Hitman
• Killing Floor 2
• League of Legends
• Lineage II
• Mad Max
• Mafia II
• Mafia III
• MapleStory
• Mass Effect 3
• MechWarrior Online
• Metro 2033
• Metro: Last Light
• Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
• Mirror's Edge Catalyst
• NBA 2K16
• Need for Speed
• Overwatch
• Paragon
• Path of Exile
• Payday 2
• Planet Coaster
• PlanetSide 2
• Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare
• Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
• Project CARS
• ROBLOX
• Rocket League
• SMITE
• Star Wars: The Old Republic
• StarCraft II
• Team Fortress 2
• TERA
• Terraria
• The Elder Scrolls Online
• The Sims 3
• The Sims 4
• The Witcher 2
• The Witcher 3
• Titanfall 2
• Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege
• Tom Clancy's The Division
• Total War: Attila
• Total War: WARHAMMER
• Warface
• Warframe
• Watch Dogs 2
• World of Tanks
• World of Warcraft
• World of Warplanes
• XCOM 2

Why such a large number and growing? IMO this could lead to the path of enabling 'TruePlay'. However, this just makes more games compatible with win10 ecosystem. But that's just my opinion.
​

Since many AMD users, such as myself, have had problems with borderless/window mode in the past I thought it was worth mentioning. "Part" of how fullscreen optimizations work (as it's forced to enable by default) is as follows (from my understanding):

It suppose to forces a game to run in borderless fullscreen mode even if you selected fullscreen mode in the game's options. Ever saw task bar still show up on the bottom of your screen after alt-tabbing out of game and going back into game? Well that's fullscreen optimizations working right there. It's not a bug it's a design. With it enabled there may be some performance loss, could make the game stutter more, frametimes more variable, and there may be some performance loss.

Anyone recall people were blaming AMD for borderless or window mode degradation. Well, it wasn't AMD's fault after all. Also, could explain, in theory why some where having problems with CF setups. Before you blame the drivers disable full screen optimizations on everything. Yes, even in your favorite web browser, Origin, Steam, Ubisoft, everything!

Having done that this driver has been beautiful. No problems what so ever. As it should be. But if you are noticing any stuttering, slowdowns, low fps disable the feature. The drivers are fine IMO. Just disable FSO.

But what does fullscreen optimizations actually do? Well it allows you to get alerts and messages while you gaming. For example: if you have win10 calendar enabled and you've set it up to let you know of your favorite TV shows etc. It will give you a notification that it's about to come or alert you when needed even while gaming. Yes, I've gotten them in BF1, BF4, etc. It's not UWP exclusive. With FSO disabled it has the potential to minimize your gaming session to alert you at desktop.

Sorry about being so long winded. But I wanted to let people know that the drivers weren't at fault for some of the issues experienced as a result of FSO. Perhaps AMD did/does need some sort of work around FSO but ultimately AMD was not a contributing factor.

List of Problems that's I've read about with FSO enabled by default:

Spoiler: List of Issues with FSO Reported

-Streaming issues
-mGPU setups
-Control panel AA methods such as MLAA
-Stuttering/hitching
-Low Frame rates
-ICC Profile issues
-Vsync issues...don't know how it was barely discussed in my previously linked thread

Edit: found something else of interest

 

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/14735022/fs/14781154
On the right "disable fullscreen optimizations" on the 3dmark.exe is ticked

 

This is the correct behavior when FSO is disabled. You don't have one or 2 test improvements. Everything improved! Which, IMO is a rarity in FireStrike using the same drivers. Therefore, I am glad to see you are gaining from it. Which further proves that there was nothing wrong performance wise with past-present drivers. Performance gains may depend on driver, IE: December 2017 drivers may yield more results, for example, at the cost of any enhancements/fixes found in current drivers.

Do you have GameMode enabled or disabled? Because from my understand FSO is a separate thing from Game Mode.

Game Mode works similiar to Bitsum's Process Lasso. From what I've read GM takes all background processes and puts them into an isolated core that is not dedicated for gaming. It removes background process from working on the same core you are gaming with. I've read that with Game Mode enabled it can divide up the cores:
75% for gaming
up to 25% for background process
Or there about. Not sure how accurate that is.

If you have a 4 core processor this is not ideal as you only have 3/4 of them for gaming (Mind as well invest in Process Lasso IMO to reduce background process to a single core if possible). But if you have an 6 to 8 core processor then it's more then ideal as long as you have good single thread performance. IMO.

Which brings us back to this driver release. There is potential untap performance people are not aware of until they do the aforementioned tweak.

 

DVR is enabled. I haven't touched the registry. Win+G doesn't work in fullscreen but probably Game Mode is disabled. I'll enable it and report back

 

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/14735022/fs/14781154/fs/14781629/fs/14781653
OK...
1st Test: GM Disabled/DFO unticked
2nd Test: GM Disabled/DFO ticked
3rd Test: GM Enabled/DFO ticked
4th Test GM Enabled/DFO unticked

 

1st Test: GM Disabled/DFO unticked
This is the configuration of a good majority of PC gamers out there who are not aware of this tweak. In your example this gave the lowest performance

2nd Test: GM Disabled/DFO ticked
This is the configuration of good majority of PC Gamers "in the know". There is some improvements but more can be had.

3rd Test: GM Enabled/DFO ticked
However, with the 3rd test this appears to be where the overall score increase the most. There is no doubt some marked improvements in your 3rd test results.There is marked improvement in your 3dMark Score, Combined Score and Combined Test. See a trend? It's not the individual results. It's the total of those individual results. For now it could be referred as a peculiar anomaly which isn't found on regular 3dMark results nor in retest of 3dmark results using the same drivers.

4th Test GM Enabled/DFO unticked
Seems like the 4th test with GM enabled with FSO/DFO unticked yield the best individual results out the bunch (even though there is margin of error). This appears to be MS's way of compensating. Overall score is not bad at all. But if you are a bencher you want the highest score possible.

Some improvement in physics and individual graphics tests. But from the shouting of the interwebs complaining about this. It's on a game to game bases. Meaning what you gain in one game will turn around and be less then ideal in another game. Furthermore other issues that are not tied in to performance alone. If and when you upgrade to Ryzen 1700X, for example, I believe that test 4 results would vastly improve as you have more cores. But that's my theory.

In conclusion:
With some deductive reasoning and critical thinking one could conclude that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

But to be objective the results between configs are not major. Some are within margin of error. What you should notice is less stutter/hitching though.


Best Config for your PC Setup using Firstrike: Use Test 3 Configuration
IMO, with your current setup AMD drivers are providing you the best experience. To further enhance that experience use task manager to stop/disable any unwanted/non essential processes.

 

I Have a good installation of Windows. I always do. I only use it for gaming so it's clean. And it does perform very well. Much much better from when i bought it. Through the years, both Microsoft and AMD, did improve many things and to be honest i'm amazed by the improvements i have seen up until now. Especially performance.

Now.. back on benches. I run Assetto bench 2 times
GM Enabled/DFO Unticked:
POINTS: 15120
FPS: AVG=103 MIN=30 MAX=143 VARIANCE=2 CPU=74%

GM Disabled/DFO Ticked:
POINTS: 15257
FPS: AVG=104 MIN=43 MAX=143 VARIANCE=1 CPU=75%

 

I don't see how this relates in anyway to this thread as it all reads like AMD"s promotional material. Could you please stop with the off topics?

 

That's a huge difference in min's. Game play has to be much smoother with GM Disabled/DFO Ticked. What are you getting with GM Enabled/DFO ticked?

 

GM Enabled/DFO Ticked:
POINTS: 15161
FPS: AVG=103 MIN=27 MAX=145 VARIANCE=2 CPU=75%

GM Disabled/DFO Unticked:
POINTS: 15422
FPS: AVG=105 MIN=74 MAX=124 VARIANCE=0 CPU=74%

Best combo is windows default it seems for Assetto

 

Indeed! GM Disabled/DFO Unticked looks to offer the best results for Assetto for you.
Although I'm not sure if that MS default. I thought it was GM Enabled and DFO Unticked. But I get what your are saying.
Looks like MS is getting their optimizations straight on certain games with your target PC Setup.

Since Assetto needs all the "Horse Power" that your PC can give it appears to be the reason why it scored the highest out of the other 3 configs. It also appears you didn't have any background processing issues. So having GM enabled was no benefit to you. That makes sense

Very interesting indeed. Thanks for your hard work in this!

 

^^ Yup as i said earlier.
Best to have it on default, and only thinker the Tick/un-tick DFO

===

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\GameBar]
"ShowStartupPanel"=dword:00000000
"GamePanelStartupTipIndex"=dword:00000003
"AllowAutoGameMode"=dword:00000001
"UseNexusForGameBarEnabled"=dword:00000000

===

 

I'll try your reg settings tomorrow. Now it's bed time
GN and happy settings hunting guys!

 

Here is what I got with current drivers and Forza 7 built in benchmarking app at 1440p. MLAA enabled through Crimson. 4 Runs each for a total of 16 runs. Max and averages were within 2 fps on all runs. However, I noticed deviations in Minimums. So, I used minimums to obtain the following averages:

Game Mode Off, Full Screen Optimization Off....................72.425 FPS <--min's
Game Mode Off, Full Screen Optimization On....................72.375 FPS <--min's
Game Mode On, Full Screen Optimization Off....................72.05 FPS <--min's
Game Mode On, Full Screen Optimization On....................70.25 FPS <-min's

For me having Game Mode Off and On, Full Screen Optimization On created the most stutter. There was no noticeable performance gain with Game Mode Off, Full Screen Optimization Off. However, the animations of characters, Racing, etc is smoother.

 

How do you set a UWP app to use switchable graphics?

 

Tried these settings on Assetto and the results:
POINTS: 15401
FPS: AVG=105 MIN=8 MAX=144 VARIANCE=0 CPU=75%

 

AC's bench is really unreliable for the min FPS value because of a dip that can happen right at start, giving you those very low numbers on a instant that won't reflect in the avg.

 

Thanks for the heads up!
But I don't understand what you mean exactly by "all is digital now"
Could you share more details about that?

Thanks

 

Yeap... I know that. But i always get almost the same results. That is:
GM Disabled/DFO Unticked:
POINTS: 15422
FPS: AVG=105 MIN=74 MAX=124 VARIANCE=0 CPU=74%
(min fps always around 74 and max always around 124)

And Onna's reg settings:
POINTS: 15401
FPS: AVG=105 MIN=8 MAX=144 VARIANCE=0 CPU=75%
(same thing. min always around 8 and max always around 144)