Testing the latest Sandy Bridge graphics drivers

The latest 2361 build driver for the Sandy Bridge graphics shows a big improvement in Quake 3 Arena Demo and Crysis Pre-Beta GPU benchmark. I've tested synthetics to see if there were any other changes. Intel claims depending on the system, settings, and benchmark, there can be up to 43% gain with the 2361 driver.

Quake 3 Arena Demo: 13-14% gain at low settings/resolution/19-21% gain for high settings/resolution
Crysis Pre-Beta: 26% gain

(MB for the synthetic tests mean MB/s. For the Quake 3 tests, I've ran them 3 times each, per time demo)

Core i7 2600K
DH67BL
2xDDR3-1333 Corsair XMS
80GB X25-M G1
160GB Seagate 7200RPM
Windows 7 64 bit

15.21.10.2291

Quake 3 Arena
-640x480 Normal: 336.8/336.6/337.6, 337.6/337.2/337.1
-1280x1024 High: 209.2/208.9/209.8, 207.9/209.8/209.4
3DMark06 Vertex Shader: 175.440Mvertices/67.767
Fillratetest 1.13: 12058MB/14924/17883/1537MTexels/3071
SiSoft Sandra Lite 2011.2.17.47 Graphics Memory Bandwidth:
7.72GB/15.75/3.78, 15.75GB/75.65%/5.54GB/2.58GB
Crysis 1024x768 Low GPU: 46.98
FFXIV: 134

15.21.13.2342

Quake 3 Arena
-640x480 Normal: 335.0/334.2/335.4, 336.9/337.7/336.5
-1280x1024 High: 209.8/209.2/209.3, 208.3/208.6/208.9
3DMark06 Vertex Shader: 176.735MVertices/67.840
Fillratetest 1.13: 12101MB/14922/17861/1541MTexels/3075
SiSoft Sandra Lite 2011.2.17.47 Graphics Memory Bandwidth:
7.89GB/16/3.87, 16GB/77.24%/5.76GB/2.6GB
Crysis 1024x768 Low GPU: 47.10
FFXIV: 138

15.22.1.2361

Quake 3 Arena
-640x480 Normal: 381.1/383.1/384.0, 385.3/385.0/380.6
-1280x1024 High: 249.6/250.6/250.7, 252.5/253.7/253.0
3DMark06 Vertex Shader: 176.770MVertices/67.867
Fillratetest 1.13: 12126MB/15124/17893/1565MTexels/3067
SiSoft Sandra Lite 2011.2.17.47 Graphics Memory Bandwidth:
8GB/16.15/4, 16GB/77.62%/5.81GB/2.62GB
Crysis 1024x768 Low GPU: 59.49
FFXIV: 142

 

Nice to see Intel adding some tweakings.
Could you try running the Unigine Heaven GPU benchmark too?

Do two runs, both all low but change between DirectX and OpenGL on each run.
Im curious to see if Intel OpenGL performance has improved since the last time i tried one.

 

According to the release notes on the 2361 driver, the previous versions can't even run OpenGL mode with Unigine Heaven. I'll test it later. For now, Quake 3 is an OpenGL game.

Edit: Looking at another benchmark I did, this time for OpenGL. It tests for geometry throughput. With the 2361 driver, the throughput is increased by anywhere from 3x, to sometimes over 5x! The 2361 notes say it enables OpenGL 3.1 support and hardware T&L/VS. Though gains in DX games tells me there are gains related to DX too.

 

Dont really care for Quake 3, because that runs on everything modern now. xD
But still nice to hear OpenGL improvements.
Maybe il finally look into a ULV Intel rig next year.

 

That's what makes testing Quake 3 so interesting. It's a very old game and optimizations specific to games don't take effect. So we know if the gains are there, it would be elsewhere too.

 

You wondered about Unigine Heaven, here it is:

Unigine Heaven(Default settings, except renderer and resolution)

2342-

DX10:

800x600 - FPS: 18.1, Score: 456, Min FPS: 12.9, Max FPS: 30.8
1280x1024 - FPS: 7.9, Score: 200, Min FPS: 5.0, Max FPS: 13.7

OpenGL:

800x600 - FPS: 11.8, Score: 298, Min FPS: 5.8, Max FPS: 22.0
1280x1024 - FPS: 5.4 , Score: 137, Min FPS: 2.6, Max FPS: 9.9

2361-

DX10:

800x600 - FPS: 17.9, Score: 452, Min FPS: 12.5, Max FPS: 30.3
1280x1024 - FPS: 8.0, Score: 202, Min FPS: 6.1, Max FPS: 13.8

OpenGL:

800x600 - FPS: 13.5, Score: 340, Min FPS: 9.4, Max FPS: 21.7 (+14.1%)
1280x1024 - FPS: 6.8 , Score: 170, Min FPS: 4.9, Max FPS: 10.3 (+24.1%)

Running on OpenGL mode with 2341 has rendering errors that isn't shown with 2361. Some parts of the map doesn't have lighting at all, and white geometry shapes occur in some of the tests.

Also more Crysis runs

Crysis GPU benchmark

2342-

-800x600 Low: 48.91
-1024x768: 47.02
-1280x1024: 42.42

-800x600 Med: 24.30
-1024x768 Med: 22.90
-1280x1024 Med: 18.41

-800x600 High: 17.44
-1024x768 High: 14.31
-1280x1024 High: 10.17

2361-

-800x600 Low: 64.46(+31.8%)
-1024x768: 59.47(+26.5%)
-1280x1024: 46.79(+10.3%)

-800x600 Med: 31.71(+30.5%)
-1024x768 Med: 25.72(+12.3%)
-1280x1024 Med: 18.70(+1.6%)

-800x600 High: 18.98(+8.83)
-1024x768 High: 14.42(No gain)
-1280x1024 High: 10.21(No gain)

 

Can you possibly test BFBC2 with the new SB drivers? If they ever make such a thing, I'm hoping a small (11.6" or less) inexpensive SB machine could run it at least on low at 720p.

 

This test won't be repeatable, because its a multiplayer play. Tested using FRAPS.

Old Man Rush Server
24-27 players
Port Valdez
1 Round
1024x768 Low
31 fps(18-45 fps during play)

The release notes of the driver said the gain was only 7%, so it won't make a huge difference. Plus you'd want to cut the numbers by 20% or so unless opting for the higher end chips. Even more for ULV. Guessing with the ULV chips you'd end up in the low 20's.

 

Thanks for posting the Unigine Heaven scores.
Seems like they really want to improve OpenGL. ;D

 

Anyone mind doing some testing with 3Dmark?