AMD rolls out Catalyst 15.11.1 for Fallout 4 and Star Wars: Battlefront

Autumn traditionally means high season for games, and 2015 is no exception. Several heavy titles have had and will have a premiere before the turn of the year, which also requires quick feet from the graphic designers to be able to deliver well-polished experiences.

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1 SweClockers tests Catalyst 15.11.1 in Fallout 4

1.1 Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro, Catalyst 15.11 beta

1.2 Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro, Catalyst 15.11.1 beta

1.3 Download AMD Catalyst 15.11.1

1.4 Related posts:

The latest is AMD, which with the Catalyst 15.11.1 beta is refining the support for four heavy games. These are Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, Star Wars: Battlefront, Call of Duty: Black Ops III and not least Fallout 4, all of which will have better performance and optimized functionality.

The fresh 15.11.1 beta is probably one of the last Catalyst drivers ever. Before the end of the year, the software suite will be replaced by Radeon Software Crimson, which will take over the baton with a new interface and refined performance.

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► Read SweClocker’s graphics performance test in Fallout 4
► Read the review of Fallout 4 at FZ

SweClockers tests Catalyst 15.11.1 in Fallout 4

When Fallout 4 was launched, the editorial staff’s Kenneth Lindqvist sat and used figures for a plethora of popular graphics cards. A common denominator for the Radeon models, however, was the older driver Catalyst 15.11 – not today’s updated 15.11.1 beta.

Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro, Catalyst 15.11 beta

	1 920 × 1 080	2 560 × 1 440	3 840 × 2 160
Low	77/72 fps	77/72 fps	54/49 fps
Medium	72/67 fps	65/60 fps	35/33 fps
High	55/51 fps	53/50 fps	31/29 fps
Ultra	55/51 fps	45/42 fps	26/25 fps

The values come from SweClocker’s winter computer, which with the Core i5-6600K under the hood means a well-balanced gaming machine for most people. The result was that the Radeon R9 390 loses ground to the Geforce GTX 970 at low graphics requirements, at the same time as models catch up and gradually step over at higher loads.

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Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro, Catalyst 15.11.1 beta

	1 920 × 1 080	2 560 × 1 440	3 840 × 2 160
Low	79/74 fps	79/73 fps	55/49 fps
Medium	73/68 fps	66/66 fps	36/34 fps
High	56/52 fps	54/51 fps	32/30 fps
Ultra	55/51 fps	47/44 fps	27/25 fps

With AMD’s updated and optimized driver, there are clear differences. These are not overwhelming improvements, but a few extra frames per second can be measured in most scenarios. For the standard test at 1440p and Ultra, for example, the increase is 2 fps, or about 4 percent.

A look at the rendering times reveals a slightly smoother basic curve. However, the difference is small, and since Catalyst 15.11 already gave a good result, it is not about any direct perceived difference.

However, the nails that periodically appeared with the older driver remain. The subjective effect is that the game jerks a bit, something that is not experienced in the same way with the Geforce GTX 970.

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Download AMD Catalyst 15.11.1

The latest Catalyst 15.11.1 beta optimizes Radeon cards for the titles Fallout 4, Star Wars: Battlefront, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. The driver works with Windows 7 or later in both 32 and 64 bits. The software is available for download from AMD’s official website.