Check out the 13.2 preview on The Tech Report

The Tech Report got a preview 13.2 beta driver for review: http://techreport.com/review/24218/a-driver-update-to-reduce-radeon-frame-times

New latency fixes incoming!

Check this quote out from the Skyrim page:

"The improvement here is easily perceptible while play-testing the two driver revs. The motion feels much smoother overall with Catalyst 13.2, and little things, like the plants swaying as you walk, become appreciably more fluid."

Average frame rates for the HD 7950:
12.11 beta8: 71FPS
13.2 beta2: 71FPS

So, the same frame rate but a smoother experience? I now believe in latency fixes. This is that idea that GCN owners just couldn't put their finger on, that whole idea that Nvidia is just some how smoother at the same frame rate. Well, not anymore

Ah, another great quote from the Borderlands 2 page:

"The spikes are generally no larger than 40 ms, so they're not a huge hindrance to fluidity. Subjectively, however, those spikes contribute an unsettled feeling to the gameplay, a certain strangeness to the movement in this game. The new driver eliminates that pattern of quasi-regular spikes."

And a quote from Andrew Dodd, Catalyst guru at AMD, on the last page:
"The driver does not yet contain the new video memory manager. Our intention is release a new driver in a few weeks, which does include the new Video memory manager, which will help resolve latency issues for DX11/DX10 applications."

 

that AMD guru quote scares me a little.
I certainly hope I can play Starcraft with no latency issue at all when I get mine in a few weeks time.

Damn, so many waitings at my side of things, Visa, waiting for laptop (well, just ordered yesterday lol), waiting for AMD driver to fix the 7970m problems...

 

So does this mean we will have to wait until the next driver update to see if it fixes or help minimizes the Enduro issues?

 

It scares you in a good or bad way? It excites me, because it means that once the new memory manager is programmed, most games will start looking a lot more fluid at all frame rates. I am guessing we will see that driver in mid to late February, while the first 13.2 beta could come late this month or early February.

Additionally, not all games will have latency issues. It seems to be a problem with newer games. Starcraft probably doesn't have any issues, so I think you'll be good.

13.1 WHQL probably won't do much for Enduro issues, but you never know if 13.2 beta will have fixes for Enduro. I think AMD wants to get the memory manager rewrite nailed first, because that issue affects all GCN video cards, and is top priority in my opinion. I can't say when AMD will introduce more improvements for us, but I am sure they are still well aware that there is more to be done for the mobile cards.

 

Overall it sounds very promising.
I am one of many happy 7970M owners, so any improvements just make me happier.

 

Always delaying, that makes for more than an year with card-breaking problems on the 7970m. Seriously, AMD.