Is anybody using AMD's new HD7970 for FFXIV ?

[Franzisca]

Hi there

What the title says, I'd like to know if anybody is playing FFXIV with the new HD7970 and what your guys performance is like. I was looking forward to get one of the new generation GPU's for various reasons and since Nvidia wont have their flagship out until Q3 2012 the AMD card looked interesting.

I found a video where somebody showed off the 7970 with the official benchmark.
CrossFire doesn't work in window mode so we can assume this is his single-card score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJQ7s6WrwzU

What I don't understand is according to all benchmarks around the internet the 7970 is about 20% faster on average over the previous generations top card GTX580 yet my 580 is leaving this guys score in the dust with just a slight factory OC while the rest of our PC builds is nearly equal (both Z68/LGA1155 based rigs).

Thats what I got running the benchmark again after watching the AMD video:

FFXIV_Benchmark_02-2012.jpg

Is FFXIV, at least with the current engine, so much pro-Nvidia biased?

Thanks in advance and best regards

[Coldfire]

The benchmark is pretty much nvidia biased and does not work as a benchmark for the current ffxiv anymore since so much in the engine was changed. And getting a new generation highend card shortly after its release is pretty much gambling.

[Laraul]

Because you two have different PCs. With different software. And different Hardware. And different region settings. Everything's different. You wanna see how that card would score compared to yours you will have to get one yourself.

[Franzisca]

Our PC's are actually nearly the same in everything except for the graphic card. The difference between i7-2600k and i5-2500k can be ignored the i7's multithreading has zero impact. I got my question answered however, somebody at hardocp ran the benchmark with both cards as well and it seems like the 7970 performs worse in certain older directx9 games and especially in the old xiv bench.

Thanks, thread can be closed.

[Zephir]

Probably benchmark are good, but i suggest to pay a big attention on ATI card, especially on a strange game like FFXIV.

AMD have a bad point in driver efficiency and you must pay attention to this becouse if catalyst development team don't consider FFXIV you can have a problem, and must start to search custom driver and other.

[Coldfire]

Custom drivers are dead. People usually just forget to install the catalyst application profiles and that's why some games don't work for them as they should. Besides this is not just an AMD problem, it applies to Intel and Nvidia too. It's safe to assume that 2.0 will have a place in a future CAP update.

[DarkChops]

Probably benchmark are good, but i suggest to pay a big attention on ATI card, especially on a strange game like FFXIV.

AMD have a bad point in driver efficiency and you must pay attention to this becouse if catalyst development team don't consider FFXIV you can have a problem, and must start to search custom driver and other.

FFXIV is one of a few handfuls of Eyefinity Certified games, which usually means they set it as a priority. I always buy high end AMD, and I've NEVER had any Driver issues that were as irritating as the one time I tried to go Nvidia. As far as the 7970, I wish I could tell you. I am still running 6970x2, graphics are stunning on 3 monitors with eyefinity. I don't see a need to upgrade yet. I would wait for 2.0 when the rebuild the graphics engine again, especially since you have a 580. IMHO the 7970 would only be a hair better.

[Zephir]

Yeash, true, but when we are talking about a "non" famous game with very clear problem of graphic engine optimization, i have moooooooore fear if i use an ATI/AMD card...not for the card in real (that is very very good) but for the "famous driver lack of competence" of AMD/TI team.

[Zephir]

I have nothing against ATI, On famous and mainstream game there isn't problem, but is better to not watch benchmark if you talk about "secondary" game with lack of optimization