[Omari79]

o i had C9.11 installed (via windows update)

Dirt 2 benchmark @ 1270 x 720P max dx9 settings 4xAA 16XAF
FPS = 35.1

then i uninstalled C9.11 from the control panel and installed C9.12

But stupid windows 7 rebooted and kept my C9.11 So what i did was

1- My computer
2- Device manager
3- HD3850
4- update driver
5- update by browsing folders
6- opened C9.12 instillation folder and installed C9.12
7- checked driver details and its updated to C9.12 alright

rerun Dirt 2 benchmark @ 1270 x 720P max dx9 settings 4xAA 16XAF
FPS = 36.5

i said whatever...1FPS increase let me try a different approach

so

1- Booted into Windows 7 safe mode
2- used driver sweeper
3- uninstalled everything ATI
4- booted into normal windows 7
5- installed C9.11....NOT C9.12
6- this time windows accept a normal installation procedure since it didn't have anything in it's registry to install its own HD3850 driver (in device manager there was a message next to the HD3850 icon that registry for this device is either missing or corrupted) but that message went away after i installed the C9.11 drivers

SO

rerun rerun Dirt 2 benchmark @ 1270 x 720P max dx9 settings 4xAA 16XAF
FPS = 44.5

what just happened?

Note: I use ATT for overclocking and GPU control panel, and uninstall and install the program after each Catalyst driver installation

Note2: I always run my benchmarks after overclocking my GPU to 783C and 864M using ATT and i use GPU-Z to make sure that the overclocking has taken effect

Edit: just checked other games too...they have much higher FPS now...specially the cursed NFS:Shift, it used to run like crap on 1270 x 720P Max settings 4xAA 16XAF(even after patch 1.2)...now the lowest FPS i get in this game is 38 FPS and there is no Frame skipping, game is smooth as butter

[jokers_greg]

Correct me if maybe I read this wrong... but isn't this a good thing? lol.
I'm surprised a 3850 is running that well btw, surprisingly good fps

[Omari79]

Originally Posted by jokers_greg

Correct me if maybe I read this wrong... but isn't this a good thing? lol.
I'm surprised a 3850 is running that well btw, surprisingly good fps

Oh its a great thing but this result was just unexpected

I mean are the variables are the same every time

same overclock
same game settings
same GPU driver

But depending on how you install the driver, you may gain or lose 20% in performance.

Driver sweeper is the way to go from now on

and don't look down on the HD3850 512DDR3, the card is old but its a relatively strong card that can max 99% of the games on the market @ 1440 and below res with 4XAA and 16XAF and still get a min of 30+ FPS

[jokers_greg]

Originally Posted by Omari79

Oh its a great thing but this result was just unexpected

I mean are the variables are the same every time

same overclock
same game settings
same GPU driver

But depending on how you install the driver, you may gain or lose 20% in performance.

Driver sweeper is the way to go from now on

and don't look down on the HD3850 512DDR3, the card is old but its a relatively strong card that can max 99% of the games on the market @ 1440 and below res with 4XAA and 16XAF and still get a min of 30+ FPS

oh sorry, i didn't notice the low resolution, that's why I was so surprised! But yeah, this has been known about drivers. Especially on older cards, newest drivers may make things worse rather than better, but it can work the other way too.

anyway, enjoy the FPS boost!