An argument for keeping current with your AMD/ATI drivers

**WileECyte** · 03-18-11, 08:09 AM

Tom's Hardware has an article where they took the Radeon 5870 through a series of benchmarks testing the performance driver releases from AMD/ATI over the last year of releases. The benchmarks clearly show that keeping your drivers up to date is beneficial for performance.

AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Before And After A Year Of Driver Updates : One Year Worth Of Drivers

**Potemkine** · 03-18-11, 05:25 PM

Really interesting read for those technically inclined. While overall, the results aren't particularly, stellar, its a great improvement for the price.

On one hand, driver updates are probably going to give you less real-world performance than the best-case release notes would otherwise have you believe. On the other hand, driver updates are free. Trading up from a Radeon HD 5870 to a 6950 gives you a roughly 6% bump in Metro 2033. But getting that small increase costs you an extra $250.

From: Final Words : AMD's Radeon HD 5870: Before And After A Year Of Driver Updates

**HeavyG** · 03-18-11, 08:09 PM

I haven't read the article yet, but when I had my ATI 4850s in Crossfire, I certainly noticed a difference with driver updates. This was mainly due to the Crossfire profiles that would be released along with the drivers. It took many attempts to find the sweet spot. It often involved using the outdated driver/profiles because AMD would not get it right with the new release and I would actually lose FPS.