AMD launching Omega Driver Package

[The Joker]

So over the last few days some rumors were popping up about a new amazing AMD driver package.
The driver package is a complete overhaul of the catalyst control center. Bringing with it new goodies that look mighty impressive.

Also talking about a nice performance increase on their upper tier gpu's.

The Catalyst Omega driver boasts some serious performance improvements in many hardware configurations due to a more efficient design. AMD states that you can expect up to 19% more performance than the previous driver (Catalyst 14.11.2) when running games on high-end graphics cards, and up to 29% more performance on APU-based systems.

The other awesome app coming with these drivers will be AMD VSR (Virtual Super Resolution)
Its pretty much exactly the same as Nvidia's DSR app. For those that aren't familiar with it the app it actually downscales resolutions to your 1080P Monitor, so if you are playing a game like BF4 which supports 4K resolutions you'll now be able to downscale it to 1080P.
Meaning you'll be able to play @4k resolution on your normal 1080P Monitor.

Couple of other new goodies also being introduced but we'll have to wait till Monday to find out about those.

Unfortunately AMD had all the articles ect removed as its prepping to launch the Omega driver, everything is pointing to a December 9th release.

[FarligOpptreden]

I haven't really seen the point in downscaling a resolution. Other than reducing jaggies ala AA, what other benefits are there? You'll suffer significant performance impacts for just about no visual difference to running at native 1080p.

[The Joker]

I haven't really seen the point in downscaling a resolution. Other than reducing jaggies ala AA, what other benefits are there? You'll suffer significant performance impacts for just about no visual difference to running at native 1080p.

Well for one you can drop AA completely when running @4K so even though you'll take a performance hit with the massive res you should still be able to jam it because of not needing to run AA. On top of that you can run older games with VSR/DSR meaning you can squeeze more graphical goodness from your fav titles from way back when. It also simulates SSAA for games that don't have AA support.

Then there is also the fact that most people have good 1080P monitors and don't feel like dropping R10 000 on a 4K monitor

I've personally owned 2x 4K monitors and I must say I really enjoyed them, that said it does take a huge gaming setup to run 4K with maxed settings.

1 thing I didn't mention in the OP is that these Omega drivers are the launch drivers for AMD's Freesync (NVidia G-Sync).
AMD has Samsung and a couple of other major companies on board with this.

[FarligOpptreden]

I'll have to read up on most of the stuff you just posted there. No idea what Freesync or G-Sync is.

[The Joker]

I'll have to read up on most of the stuff you just posted there. No idea what Freesync or G-Sync is.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/g-sync
There you go, some light reading for you.

It pretty much takes away micro stuttering and screen tearing. Making your games run incredibly smooth.

Freesync is pretty similar except for you should be able to use it on any monitor unlike G0Sync which requires a physical hardware change and the only monitors supporting G-Sync right now cost an absolute fortune.

For those interested there is talk of new 4K Ips panels coming from Samsung and Asus which will both support Free Sync.

[FarligOpptreden]

Interesting to se AMD punting the "free" and open technologies like that and Mantle. Now we just need more developers adopting them. We need more Havoc physics in games to downplay the current PhysX trend.

[The Joker]

Interesting to se AMD punting the "free" and open technologies like that and Mantle. Now we just need more developers adopting them. We need more Havoc physics in games to downplay the current PhysX trend.

Mantle is gaining a lot of momentum at the moment.
More and more developers are opting for it and those that haven't should just look at BF4 and see what a huge difference it makes.

TressFX 3.0 is also coming with the Omega driver package, can't wait to see games using this tech. It'll be amazing!!

[HavocXphere]

What kind of gear will benefit from this? Only R9 series or earlier too?

[The Joker]

What kind of gear will benefit from this? Only R9 series or earlier too?

Well from what I've read before the stuff was taken down it'll be mainly for the R9 series and AMD's APU's that will be getting a 29% boost in graphics performance.

[HavocXphere]

wow - thats quite a decent boost.