Dell ATI 4870/5870 Driver Discussion

Like i said, apologies if it came across as impatient.....just that this is my 1st Alienware laptop and after spending thousands i am anxious for something to address these issues.
I apologise to you Brian if this how you took my post, it really wasnt a dig at you as i also did say its great that you are here and yes, it isnt a part of your job requirement but to whom else do we turn to when tech tell us there is nothing wrong?
I fully appreciate what a full work load feels like and greatly appreciate your voluntary visits here to keep an eye on things so from that viewpoint, i give you my thanks.

Once again, apologies if i came across as impatient....take all the slack you want.....i for one dont care how long it takes just as long as we hopefully get a fix.

Steve.

 

I just signed off on the ATI beta driver that will be posted on support.dell.com later tonight or tomorrow. It is version 8.761. A couple comments...

Please remove anything ATI from your Programs section and make sure that you don't have any ATI cards showing up in device manager. Basically, do a complete uninstall of whatever ATI drivers you have on the system before installing this package.

Enhancements:
1.Driver updates
2.Support for new game titles
3.Fixes reported power management issues (Sleep and Hibernate)

Known Issues:
1.Can cause 3D Mark 06 lock-ups
2.Disabling Crossfire might cause the screen to go blank

Engineering tested the following games and was unable to see any flickering, distortion or artifacts on the following games:
• Left 4 Dead
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Just Cause 2
• Trine
• Mass Effect 2
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Resident Evil 5
• Team Fortress 2
• Red Faction: Guerrilla
• AlienSwarm
• StarCraft 2
• Crysis Warhead

We're working with ATI to develop a more frequent driver release cadence for these cards.

If you experience any issues, please post here (or new thread if created by Batboy), and please be sure to include all the requested details...

Thx.

 

Thanks for your help, im sure most everyone hear is thankful that you are taking the time to help out.

 

Thats great to hear Brian,

Thank you for all your hard work and as I said before, sorry if my post came across as ungrateful for your efforts - that is soooo not the case, i think we ALL are extremely grateful for everything you ave done.
I am awaiting a replacement so I will keep an eye on how the other guys find the new beta drivers......

One question for you would be : do we need to follow the above procedure if we have dell stock drivers installed?

Thanks for your continued support.
Regards
Steve

 

As soon as the new driver goes live I will create a discussion/feedback thread - lets use it to provide feedback (positive or negative) for Brian to take back to Engineering.

I'm glad to see some thanks go out to Brian as well. I'm sure his lack of response to the 'Where is the update?" over the weekend is probably due to the fact that it was the WEEKEND. Most tech folks have Saturday/Sunday off.

It is also nice to hear that AW is working directly with ATI to -

Thanks for the update Brian!

 

THREE CHEERS FOR BRIAN!!!! HURRAH HURRAH HURRAH!!! - well done and thanks again.

 

8.761 aka Catalyst 10.8 beta which goes above and beyond any expectations I had. Thanks Brian for being here and getting something done. You deserve a pay raise for going out of your way if this isn't part of your job description. Least someone at Dell is doing their job. BTW do you know if the matching Crossfire profiles will also be posted with the driver?

 

Quick question how do you know that the driver is 10.8 beta?

 

Oh wow. Seems like a reward for our pain.

My opinion of Alienware Customer Support (at least in US - in AUS its non-existant) has just gone up a notch.

Thanks Brian, good work.

As other people have already said though - more updates along the line makes for happy customers, even if its just to show your presence, and that you are still here.

We customers are like psycho needy girlfriends. Do you love us? Do you still love us? How about now? Do you love us now? LOOOOOOVE UUUUUUUS!!!!

Anyway, again, nice work!

-Ash

 

looks like my timing is perfect!

 

I second that opinion. ^^^^^ Thank you Brian for being here on this forum and going above and beyond what you are paid to do. We need many more just like you working with Alienware/Dell customers (aka psycho needy girlfriends).
Much appreciated.

 

I'll be sure to pass on your thanks to the engineering teams as they are the ones doing all the real work to bring these releases forward. I'm just helping to filter all of the information out here into something concise for them.

In response to the questions posted, I don't know about the Crossfire profiles, but I can ask or I'm sure you can tell me once you install the new drivers. As far as installation, it is always a good idea to back out any previous drivers before installing a new one just to me safe.

Looks like I may have not gotten to this early enough today, so it probably won't be posted on support.dell.com until tomorrow.

 

Looking forward to it. If the profiles are needed, we can always use the ones posted on AMD's website.

 

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!!! I realize that what you do for us here on NBR is purely voluntary and I myself apologize for any pestering that you endure from us on a daily basis. I want to say that I appreciate everything that you are continuing to do for us as this is NOT part of your job description and that your dedication to helping your and the company that you represents customers is in-fact above and beyond your normal workload. If it weren't for you Brian NONE of these issues would be acknowledged so thank you in that regard sir!

Just a quick question, do you by any chance know if we will see a WHQL release of the driver in the near future?

Also, do you have any knowledge of a vbios update that might include SLI support for the R2 in the future?

Thank you for any acknowledgement to this post.

 

Predator:

Vbios = Graphics card bios.
Bios = System/notebook bios.

No Vbios update to the HD5870m will give you SLI in the motherboard. I think you mean a Bios update.

-Ash

 

Thanks for the correction Ash, I get mixed up sometimes. If i'm not mistaken I believe that I made the same mistake in another post? I do mean a bios update that will contain support for SLI in the R2. Apologies for the mix-up everyone!

 

Much appreciation for your effort on this Brian. I hope someone at Dell/Alienware is taking notes on what excellent customer service really means.

Without you I doubt we would have seen (or even heard whispers of) updated drivers in the foreseeable future.

 

My order is in diagnostic phase and should ship out tuesday or wednesday and get here the next day (next day shipping). This is FANTASTIC! Please post here about whether the drivers work well or not. Otherwise, I'll just try the 10.7 as aforementioned.

 

Thank you Brian, for all your help.

 

Thanks a lot, brian (and all engineers behind it)

You're saying this kind of work isn't part of your required job.... Thing is, it should be a required part of everyones job. EVERYONE from up high to down low should feel like you seem to feel. A customer's pain is your pain (as long as the customer is having a point ( and isnt being a Jerk))

Seriously, is there any way we can thank you for your support and getting them to bring service in their heads?
Like i said before, you can win a customer once, but you can lose him every day... Well, you've won me back

 

Thanks Brian, your help is appreciated!

 

Yeah Thanks Brian to keep us inform !!! I try this driver will help us, Mafia 2 démo is out, hope it'll help

 

and? did it work?

Brian replied my PM saying they will look in to it.

 

Sort of... when i do the AMD GPU Tool fix, i dont seem to get errors but doing so causes noticeable frame-rate drop in SC2.

Tech support called me replying to my email to them. They said they are aware of this type of issue and will be sending me a new graphics card.

 

These drivers couldn't have come at a better time. I just ran the Mafia 2 demo benchmark and the fps was terrible, I got an avg of like 21 fps with the details on high at native res. Even when I turned the settings down to medium the framerate didn't improve much.

 

Im quite excited to see how they work (or hear about it anyway lol). Would be good if someone experienced can post an "idiots guide to installation" once they are up - for us less experienced members, I reckon it would be invaluable.

Still keen to hear how you guys find performance once they go live on support.....I'm keeping my eyes peeled!

 

This is great news!

And I want to add my thanks to Brian too. I know he's not required to be here, but the fact that he is, is appreciated by us!

 

Awesome thanks brian and engineers

 

saywhat?
then please pm me the issue details on that, because then it seems like i need a new card as well....

 

new graphics cards and drivers, the same day?
*faint*
Glad my CS guy wasent pulling my leg when he said a few days until a new driver release

 

Lot of flickering with 10.1 dell driver in mafia 2 so this one come with a big hurry up time

 

Engineering promoted the drivers externally about 15 minutes ago, so they should mirror here within the next couple hours at the most.

 

Are these drivers going to show up as an optional video driver? I'm guessing since it's beta you can't replace the older ones until these are out of beta.

Thanks again for all the help. Everyone here really appreciates it.

 

Yes, they will be listed as beta. The A rev will remain.

 

Thanks, found them on the ftp site:

 

Thank you Brian for your hard effort. I hope these drivers will fix most of the major issues we had with the official dell drivers ingame or the issues in windows for those that used the official ati drivers.

Anyway i'm soon finished downloading them and if there are still any issues, i try to post them in the official thread for these beta drivers BatBoy already created.

For those that can't wait for official announce on the dell support site, from Dells FTP: http://ftp.us.dell.com/video/AMD_NOTEBOOK-BETA-DRIVER--AM_P01_R277759.exe

Enjoy! (I hope )

 

Are these drivers for 5870s?

I'm getting like 26 FPS on Plants vs Zombies, which is pretty unacceptable. I have 10.7s right now, thoughts?

 

I've opened up the other thread and added the link now since we can reach it via support.dell.com.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...r2-aw-amd-8-761-beta-driver-discuss-here.html

Discuss away and be sure to note any issues for Brian and AW re: install issues, game problems, etc. Be detailed if possible.

 

the flextronics 240WPSU that shipps with some laptops has been known to cause problems, I've had one with similar issues as well. Ask for a replacement and try to get the Delta PSU if possible, as these seem to be a bit more reliable.

 

Try the beta dell driver. Main forum, sticky.

 

Install ati profile

 

Can someone explain to me what the deal with profiles is? I'll be getting my m17x soon and I have no clue what the profiles are all about. I don't care about putting my computer into sleep mode or unplugging it in.

All I care about is how to get the MAXIMUM game performance. I intend on installing 10.7 when I get my M17x. It seems that the new beta drivers may have a few issues with FPS flux.

 

it's the list of default Crossfire settings to use per game, there are several different kinds of SLI and CF, the 'profiles' update this list for optimal performance.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/479539-m17x-r-2-strange-streaking-screen.html

Brian, I outlined an issue I had with my previous M17x, and now that I have with the system exchange I was sent, in the link above. Everyone on his forum seems to think I'm mad as a hatter, but i find it unlikely that I would receive two M17x's that have the same hardware anomaly.

I don't think it's much of a driver issue, since I notice these random streaks with all drivers, including stock dell ones.

 

so i did a clean format, wiped everything.

after installing the dell drivers for the 4870's from support.dell.com, i have this problem:

closing the lid causes the computer to go to sleep just fine, but upon re-opening the lid, the screen is blank except for the mouse pointer.

Anyone else have this issue? Putting a computer that uses this much power all the time to sleep is quite essential for me.

 

I just signed off on the new Dell ATI beta driver, version 8.763. It will hopefully show up online in the near future! I'll be in touch with those of you are going to test the beta VBIOS in the near future, possibly later today but more likely tomorrow morning.

Batboy, please start a new thread so we can keep track of this new version and any issues that are experienced.

Thanks!

 

Damn Brian you're delivering. You probably set the bar too high for the next AW quality guy that comes around lol.

 

Thanks alot Brian, as always you do a fantastic job at the moment (well i'm new here xD)

Can't wait to test and see if we finally have another stable driver that works with the latest games. I hope it's based on official 10.8 whql drivers that include some few fixes from all those preview and 10.7a driver.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...x-m17xr1-m17xr2-driver-discussion-thread.html

 

hello guys!
recentrly i bought Alienware m17x-r2 hd 5870 crossfire.
the problem is that both my video cards are installed correctly and on ccc appear crossfire enabled.but when i run gpuz it says i have crossfire available but its disabled.
i run a lot of test with furmark and it appear only one gpu is working.
i have dell drivers for video card released in 03/05/2010
i forgot to say even in games crossfire won't work....
any suggestion?