Latest graphics drivers (15.22.50.64.2209) producing a sharp drop in WinSAT benchmarks

[idata]

I just updated to the latest Sandy Bridge graphics drivers from September 2011 on Windows 7 x86-64.

After updating to the latest drivers, I noticed a drop in the WEI score. When I looked at the raw benchmark figures (which you can see by running WinSAT from an elevated command prompt, i.e., "winsat formal -restart clean"), I noticed that the two "Direct3D Geometry Performance" figures (one for D3D9, one for D3D10) dropped very sharply: by about two-thirds. E.g., from 90 frames/sec down to just 30 frames/sec.

This was a huge drop in this specific benchmark, so it is definitely not the result of random variations. This drop was quite consistent across multiple runs and across multiple computers. Furthermore, when I downgraded the drivers to the April drivers, these benchmarks returned to normal. They dropped again when I upgraded back to the September drivers.

Is there a bug in these drivers?

[DArce]

Hello,

I have tested the same drivers with one of our laptops featuring Intel® HD Graphics 3000 (processor i7-2820QM) and there is no performance decrease.

The results on the Windows System Assessment Tool running the Formal Assessment through the command prompt shows:

Direct3D Geometry Performance 171.74 F/s with latest driver169.26 F/s (with previous version)Direct3D Geometry Performance 121.84 F/s with latest driver120.09 F/s (with previous version)

The latest version tested is 8.15.10.2509 and the previous version used is 8.15.10.2361

The summarized WEI results are:

In this particular case, I suggest you to check directly with your computer manufacturer to obtain a customized driver for your system if you continue to have performance problems when using the generic drivers on our site.

[idata]

Unfortuantely, those are not the kinds of results that I see. Both computers are self-built desktops, so there are no specialized drivers.

Just to make sure there wasn't some misconfiguration in the software or drivers, I just tested this again with fresh installs of Windows 7 SP1 x64 on spare partitions, installed the drivers using the installer, and made no changes of any kind to the driver settings, and I'm still seeing these drops in benchmarks between the driver versions.

I guess the big difference that I see here is that I am using a "6EU" processor. Here are my two machines:

Machine # 1:

* Board manufacturer: Gigabyte

* Chipset: H67

* CPU: i5-2400

Machine # 2:

* Board manufacturer: Zotac

* Chipset: H67

* CPU: Pentium G620T

Both machines run Windows 7 SP1 x64. Both machines exhibited the same performance discrepancy (even the same amount of drop) between the April and September drivers.

As you know, both the i5-2400 and G620T contain the lower-end graphics with only half the GPU execution units; maybe this is something that affects only those GPUs? Or maybe it's something that only affects desktop Sandy Bridge and not mobile SB?

[DArce]

Fair enough, let me look around for a similar system and try some extra research on this.

Thanks for your patience