Best CCC and CAP? (also new 3DMark Vantage results)

Ok so I realized that I am on CCC 11.6 with 11.5 cap4! What is the best set up for the following games:

Skyrim, Dead Island, Deus Ex: Revolution, Cyris 2 and GTA 4?

I have searched the web pretty thoroughly for information but haven't found much help.

From what I have been able to find so far I think CCC 11.10 is still the most ideal? which I've downloaded and am ready to do a clean install, but dont know which cap is the best.

If so what CAP best with 11.10?

New 3DMarkVantage run in progress:

Intuiting that the Flextronics PSU was the culprit as I was unable to OC the GPU's beyond 800/1100 without BSOD in Crysis 2 and Witcher 2 I recently replaced with a brand new Delta and am now able to OC my cards at 850/1200 @ 1.1V with no BSOD in Crysis 2 (this is a good stability test, rig may make it through a 3DMark test but still get BSOD in this game) and am getting a marked improvement in framerate, like BIG TIME. Like I have everything on EXTREME (1920x1200) and it doesn't drop below 40 FPS, ever. Usually in the 50's. Whereas before the EXTREME settings were unplayable.

Running 3DMark Vantage the GPU score increased from the 17k that resulted in the score in my sig (18300) to 19k but my CPU was throttling, massively, the temps for core 0 were at 100 C and my CPU score reduced from the previous score of 18k or so to 14k.

I plan on doing another run later after updating my ccc to 11.10. Im thinking that if there is no throttling this time around it may approach 20k....If throttling again will repaste? and play with CPU screws, although last time playing with screws while monitoring with RealTemp didn't yield any results.

Idle temp of recent run, CPU: 32 C.

Idle temp, GPU's: 42 and 39 C. Max temp: 76 and 72 C.

ThrottleStop settings: 27, 26, 26, 25 TDP/TDC 95/85, 0% BIOS OC. ~3.6 GHz.

How do I take a snapshot of my screen so I can enter the M17x Hall of Fame if I get a good run?

Im loving the performance of this thing with the latest OC, Crysis 2 looks gorgeous in all Extreme and 1920x1200. Most games with the exception of Skyrim are running extremely well.

I am only getting the hot CPU temps with 3D MarkVantage, playing GTA 4, which we all know is extremely CPU intensive, and with the graphics settings at 60, 60, 40@ 1920x1200 the CPU doesnt get over 90 C, so no throttling. Playing Cryis 2 the CPU temps dont exceed 84 C.

IT FEELS LIKE 20K.

Im thinking that the increase in GPU clockspeed is asking the CPU to do more work so when it enters the CPU test after the GPU test the CPU is a bit warmer than before.

I initially purchased my rig refurbished from ebay with a 720qm and a single 5870, not knowing any better, I at least did enough research to ensure that a RGB screen was a part of my purchasing criteria. If Im not mistaken, this CPU-GPU combination can attain a 11k Vantage score. So to have doubled the power of this thing, by swapping the CPU and adding 2nd 5870 and overclocking has left me very satisfied.

My M18x R1 envy has diminished quite a bit, and Im loving the RGB.

 

Oh I knew you guys would help, meanwhile Ive attempted to install ccc 11.10 and hahahaha now my windows looks like its in safe mode and my internet browser is devoid of color. Hahahaha! I love the process of changing the ccc version every so often, its so painless. Pure delight.

Googling the various search terms until Im blue in the face is even more of a delight. No you no what is more of a delight? Having to do the 16 step process, involving 4 consecutive reboots to change the AMD display drivers only to lose quick button display functionality and get a new and "improved" safe mode look. And then, thinking that well hmmm, something mustve gone wrong, let me do it all over again! And hey guess what 2 hours have gone by! Pure delight.

Im lovin it!

Maybe it will get lucky and use its Go Go Gadget fan array to soften its landing after test flights begin. But first I will continue to google the various search terms "white windows welcome screen" "updated ccc to 11.10" "M17x R2" for another hour or so.

Wait a minute, I am a "Notebook Consultant"! Certainly I know how to do something so "simple" as updating the ATI display drivers!

Thank heavens for system restore, there should be a warning label accompanying a purchase of any computer with AMD hardware:

"Warning, a degree in C+ programming is highly recommended to use this device"

I am on 11.10, ccc is working now, through System Restore I revived some files/registries that were obviously critically important to Firefox and Windows Explorer but now I am unsure as to whether or not I have a clean install.

The flickering in Crysis 2 seems to have disappeared. I believe I am on 11.9 CAP4 but after System Restore I attempted to remove it and start the 16 step driver update process afresh and I was treated to the "Safe Mode" look, where the taskbar and everything else looks as it would in Safe Mode only youre not in Safe Mode.

So I did System Restore again.

From this experience I learned that even if driver update instructions are followed to the letter problems can happen and from now on I will not be clearing the registry or erasing data in safe mode with driver sweeper after uninstalling an existing video driver. I will just update the drivers and hope for the best.

This experience took roughly 4 hours of my life away, spent doing something completely avoidable had the manufacturers of this hardware engineered user interface simplicity and drivers that are easily updated into its design.

If, and that's a pretty big if, I ever get a new rig, I will not, ever again, use AMD/ATI hardware.

I still don't even know what the best drivers are to use at the moment, I failed to find adequate information and asking here was another big waste of time.

So I hope 11.10 and the CAP: 11.9 CAP 4 (hopefully properly installed) work out for me.

Thanks for all the help.

THIS IS RIDICULOUS: What am I creating artificial intelligence? Am I programming a smart house? No I am updating an AMD video driver, and guess what, I still had to perform System Restore, not once but twice!

Proper AMD/ATI Driver Install -

Proper AMD/ATI Driver Install

AMD/ATI is starting to catchup with NVIDIA on their hardware support. Drivers for ATIs cards are being released much more often than before, but sometimes the Driver Installation proccess can be a royal pain, especially on laptops with switchable cards option like the m17x or m18x.

This guide will be divided in 2 parts, the first one with only a few and easy steps to follow with an optional part that works 90% of the times and will ensure a clean install. This one is directed to any AMD/ATI GPU user

The second part of this guide will is intended for m17x and m18x owners with switchable cards option and are unable to install latest drivers following the first part method. Sometimes updating drivers on these laptops can prove to be extremely difficult and forces their owner to ramain on Dells drivers.

*But before doing anything download and install Microsoft Frameworks 4.0 because is needed for an optimal operation of CCC.-


First part:

1. Uninstall old drivers via Control Panel -- ATI Catalyst Install Manager.

2. Boot into safe mode and run DriverSweeper. Reboot.

3. Clean registry with CCleaner. Reboot.

*

These are the minimum requiered steps, but if you want to ensure a clean install follow with these before installing your new drivers

*

4. Check that c:\Program Files\ATI Technologies\ is empty.

5. Check that c:\Program Files\ATI\ is empty.

6. Check c:\Windows\Assembly\ to see if there are any files with Public Key Token of "90ba9c70f846762e" (Sort by Public key token to get a easier view). If any exist, uninstall by right clicking and selecting uninstall (can be done on multiple files at once).

7. Check that c:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE is empty (requires modifying folder settings to temporarily show hidden files and folders).

8. Using Regedit, assure that these registry locations are empty:

HKCU/Software/ATI/ACE

HKLM/Software/ATI/ACE

9. Reboot.

10. Install Catalyst driver package 11.10.

Second Part:

** Start from a clean base - remove the existing drivers through Control Panel (and/or Device Manager, if needed) until both display cards are identified in Device Manager as Windows VGA devices.

** Restart in Safe Mode (F8 at the boot screen) and run DriverSweeper (selecting only AMD - Display).Restart when prompted.

** Run CCleaner Registry Cleaner multiple times until it reports no issues. Restart (optional).

** Install the Dells latest Drivers downloaded from Dell page:

M17x

M18x

** Installation of the Dell drivers is necessary because it includes the drivers for the Intel IGP; the ATI/AMD reference drivers do not include any drivers for the IGP, so it will continue to use the Dell drivers throughout.

** Check that all is installed and working properly with the Dell drivers. Right click on desktop and click on Configure Switchable Graphics. Close or minimize any open programs and switch to the IGP. Then switch back using the same process. You want the discrete (ATI) card to be active.

** Download the reference drivers you wish to install. The Cat 11.10 WHQL set will do fine.

** Install the ATI/AMD drivers as you normally would. Ordinarily, one of two things occurs:

(a) Occasionally (rarely) it just installs cleanly, tells you to reboot to complete the process, reboots with the new drivers and you're done.

(b) More often, when it finishes the installation, it just sits there without directing a reboot. When you attempt to restart manually, you get a BSOD during the shutdown phase. Very odd, but perfectly normal in this context. Hold down the Power Button to force shutdown.

** When you restart, one of two things occurs:

(a) It starts cleanly and reboots into Windows at normal (1920x1080) resolution. This should mean that the 11.10's are now installed and active. Check CCC>Information>Software to confirm that the Catalyst Version (second line) now says 11.10.

(b) More often, it will restart into Windows using the Windows VGA Adapter (low resolution, limited colors, ugly), with a notice that the ATI 6900M does not have the necessary drivers. Go to Device Manager for the 6900M Series card, and it will probably say that it cannot start because the driver is not digitally signed (or words to that effect), but it will show the proper driver.

** Restart, pressing F8 rapidly at the boot screen (do not hold F8 down continuously) and select "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement." It will boot cleanly into Windows with the new drivers active, as reflected in both CCC and Device Manager. Sometimes that's all it takes, but not usually. Reboot normally to see whether Windows now accepts the new drivers. If you boot into Windows at normal high resolution (1920x1080), then you're finished.

** However, if you reboot back into VGA resolution, then there's more to be done. First, try reinstalling the 11.10's over themselves. (Go to c:\ATI\Support\11-10_mobiility_vista_ Win7, etc (or whatever folder you unpacked the 11.10 D/L into) and run Setup.exe.) I'm not sure why this works except that the second installation will not encounter conflicts with the previous drivers, but usually it does, especially with official WHQL drivers.

** If, after the second installation of the new drivers, they still don't take and Windows starts once again with the Windows VGA Adapter/resolution, then reboot using the F8/Driver Signature Disabled routine. When Windows starts with the new drivers active, launch Catalyst Install Manager and select Uninstall-Custom. Deselect All and then highlight CCC, click Select and proceed to uninstall CCC. Reboot using F8/Disable Driver Sig. Then, using CIM, select Install-Custom and install CCC (CIM will also automatically reinstall CIM and the display driver when CCC is installed). Exit and reboot.

** You should finally have the new reference drivers (with the associated CCC) installed and working. Check CCC>Software>Information and Device Manager>Display Adapters>Properties>Driver to confirm. Also switch to the Intel IGP to test the function.

Ha ha ha ha! Skyrim still plays like crap! Well I'm done playing with my AMD friends for a while, at least I wasn't driven to the level of madness where the Go Go Gadget fan array was tested upon an M17x R2 test flight.

 

Holy macaroni! LOL rep+ for all this effort

Vulcan, caps are rolled into latest drivers so there is no need to download caps separately unless you want to remain with an old driver version. From what i have seen...12.2 are the best ones so far

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst122Previewdriver.aspx

 

Agree 12.2 is the best so far. Been running it now for a bit over a month and have had nothing but great results with it.

 

I hear your pain Vulcan. Props for the excellent testing and write-up!

I believe drivers in general are hit or miss. I can reinstall my drivers the exact same way 5 different times, and each will have a different result as to how well they perform (or even succeed in installing.)

As to Skyrim, it is a problem for many, MANY people here. Getting it to work on 11.10 drivers is very hit-or-miss. Skyrim has a TON of tweaks your need to implement, and has taken me DAYS to configure the INIs so that performance and graphics quality work hand in hand. If you want a copy send me a PM.

Another note on Skyrim - NO driver works completely on my m17xR2. From 11.10 to 12.2 with all the caps in between. What I am forced to do is stick to the 12.2 drivers, and create my own Xfire profile that says "AFR friendly". It then uses both cards at full speed, but then I have to live with yellow flashing save and journal menus whenever I hit esc. If I use a Radeon Pro profile, rename the TESV.exe to Bioshock or Fallout, or even use a custom dx9.dll, the program will crash. So Skyrim still takes quite a bit of baking to get it to work. If all of the rest of your games are flawless, congrats! That is still quite an achievement.

You could also try to install the 12.1 cap 3 set that was recently posted, and see what performance gains you might get.

Good luck!

 

Hey thanks guys, yeah the drivers were driving me mad! Thanks also for the rep+ slick dude! Ok so I am on 11.10 and 11.9 CAP4, I heard people were getting a lot of BSOD's with the 12.xxx driver updates, is it safe to try them now? I may try 12.2? What cap?

I have just had to stop playing Skyrim altogether, a pity because I was so close to dual enchantments, I was only 1 level away! I hope I can return to it soon. In the meantime, Dead Island is running great and is a good game in its own right.

 

^^ just install 12.2...no cap. Worse case you go back to 11.10 cap 4

 

Ok will try 12.2, thank you for the help, also I posted this in another thread, pertaining to my issue with core 0 overheating, in retrospect I now am certain that I did a poor paste job as I recall core 0 was always on average ~10 C higher than the other cores. Being new and unfamiliar with i7 being utilized with ThrottleStop I attributed this to the fact that Core 0 and Core 1's multipliers are both 27. This wasn't the case, after testing Crysis 2 last night for roughly 2 hours without a hiccup my temps across the board were 71 C. OUTSTANDING. I must note that my ambient temps are a bit lower, around 50-55 F here in an unheated storage unit in San Francisco (more on that here on my blog)

My latest 3DMark Vantage score without the issues of core 0 hitting 100 C: 19,307. (settings in sig)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/561350-official-alienware-m17x-benchmark-thread-part-4-a-227.html

I am going to try a 3% BIOS OC without the additional voltage later, if it makes it through a vantage run, WinPrime 55 and Crysis 2 I will retain those settings which are good for a mid 19k run as shown in the post above. I may play around with a 5% BIOS OC +75 mV too, but I really like the low temps of the reduced voltage.

 

STOP THE PRESS!

I did a vantage run today with the GPU's flashed at 875/1200 @1.1V that resulted in a 19,519

Feeling adventurous I then tried a run with 3% BIOS OC and no additional voltage that resulted in a frozen screen.

So thinking if "Im going to up the voltage might as well go 5%" I did another run but then it too crashed.

On the 3rd run I reverted to 3% BIOS OC and the additional 75 mV but that run too ended in failure.

This led me to conclude that I am back to where I started with the old Flextronics PSU, and that the culprit isnt heat but wattage starvation.

So I am back on 875/1200 and no BIOS OC, I am actually very satisfied seeing as how I increased the performance of my rig in 3DMark Vantage terms from 18,300 to 19,500 by replacing the old Flextronics PSU with frayed wires with a brand spanking new Delta allowing me to OC the cards beyond 800/1100.

Will "test" Crysis 2 later on this evening, even on the moderate 850/1200 OC it looks beautiful in 1920x1200 on all "Extreme" settings with the frame-rate seldom if ever dipping below 40 FPS. Whereas before with the same settings there was considerable stutter and low FPS with the same settings, with it only being playable on "Very High".

Now I hope the new 12.2 AMD driver helps alleviate some of the problems I have been having with Skyrim etc etc.

 

That's a really nice increase in your vantage score...its way higher than mine

 

Thanks, it may be, but I believe that there are R3 scores with a single 580M and a 2960 processor that are a tad above 20k, so its not as though the R2 overclocked is by any means the most powerful notebook.

And on to the bad news, which is that "testing" the 875/1200@ 1.1V flash in Crysis 2 resulted in failure pretty rapidly.

I reverted to 850/[email protected] and out of curiosity I tried a 3% BIOS OC @75 mV and that too crashed, but only after like 45 minutes of playing Crysis 2.

So Im back on the most recent stable clocks, which I have played Crysis 2 solidly for over 2 hours on, and with CPU Temps not exceeding 72 C across the board and GPU temps of 68 and 78 C respectively:

850/[email protected] and no BIOS OC, ThrottleStop multiplier settings, 27,27,26,25, TDP/TDC 100/88.

I assume that a few things could be happening with the 3% OC BIOS that resulted in a BSOD in Crysis 2:

1. Intersecting points in time in the game when there is a demand for 100% CPU and 100% available GPU processing power, which given the existing TDP/TDC settings result in BSOD for lack of available current.

2. Heat, the PSU, although sitting on a concrete floor with ambient air temperature of 55 C is heating up and some of the components are not conveying as much current as they would absolutely cold. I am assuming that for the sake of attaining high 3DMark scores most perform them with a completely cold PSU and rig.

3. A combination of these factors, being mutually inclusive.

I am going through all of the trouble with relating my experiences here as I know I have begun playing with OC settings relying heavily on what others have reported success with, so that others interested in overclocking a similarly configured R2 could have more information at their disposal.

So, for the time being, the aforementioned settings are fairly solid and still result in a Vantage score of 19,307, not too shabby for a 5 year old laptop.

I have considered doing another run with reduced TDP/TDC settings, maybe by like 10 W or so each, and increasing the OC BIOS to 3 or even 5%, but I have a feeling that this will be like "robbing peter to pay paul" with no measurable increase in performance and the additional 75 mV resulting roughly in a 10 C increase in max CPU temps (see above).

Again, it already endured a Vantage run with 3% BIOS OC @75 mV (19,470) but then locked up Crysis 2 after ~45 minutes of gameplay.

I am curious as to whether those who attained Vantage scores in the 20-21k range used external monitors to have another 20 W at their disposal. I am pretty close to the ragged edge with these clocks in terms of power availability, heat wise with the repaste I am in no danger, the CPU max temp didnt exceed 72 C across the board during the 19,307 run. But with the additional 75 mV in conjunction with 3% BIOS OC CPU max temp was 89 C. Not worth the marginal score increase, and it also failed to endure more than 45 minutes of Crysis 2.

Im open to any suggestions, I would love to get more out of my rig but I believe I am pretty close to the limits.

P.S. I tried 12.2 and got to experience the pain of driver updating described earlier in this thread all over again, complete with a system restore.

Instead of following the 16 step process noted earlier, I just did the following with the same results.

1. "Express Uninstall" of existing video driver through AMD install prompt.

2. Reboot, task bar and the rest of windows looking like "safe mode"

3.Reboot into safe mode, using Driver Sweeper, selected "AMD components or something which is at the very top of the list", selected "analyze", with all items selected clicked on "sweep" or "clear" or "annihilate" or whatever. Process completed with a warning of "desktop gadgets not available in safe mode" or something.

4. Reboot, Install 12.2, reboot, task bar etc still looking like "safe mode".

Oh and it got hung up on the Windows 7 "Welcome" screen for like 5-10 minutes, I am not exaggerating. And then it wouldn't let me select "Enable Crossfire" in CCC, it would just switch back to "Disable Crossfire" on its own.

5. After much profanity I performed system restore and am back on 11.10 with 11.9 CAP 4.

I was hoping to use 12.2 to see if there was any improvement in GTA 4, as it seems the game is bit choppier on 11.10