***M18x - AMD Crossfire (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems) Discussion Thread***

On AMD's site they have a 13.3 beta mobility driver and 13.3 beta. Which one Is okay to install?

 

thanks - I'll give it a look.

 

Hi guys, just a quick question. Ive an M18X R1, will an HD7970m fit in it. There are plenty of installation vids online but Dell wont say yes itll work. Ive CF 6970m at the mo and want to upgrade,. Thanks.

 

It sure will fit in. Have a look at Mr. Fox's teardown/guide on how to do it: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...dge-cpu-heatsink-7970m-crossfire-upgrade.html

 

Hey Mr Fox,

I have tried what you said. It was unfortunately without success. Both graphics cards are recognized in the BIOS. Windows will not boot. Even after a new installation. If I had removed one graphics card, Windows starts normally. I don't know whats the reason for that.

 

Usually when a system will only boot with a certain card installed, it means the other card is malfunctioning. I have personally experienced this, as well as seen it many times.

 

Dell already replaced both graphics cards. The mainboard as well. Still the same issue. Can a faulty graphics card nevertheless be the problem?

 

Hey Guys,

What are you using to overclock the ATI's? I was going to use MSI Afterburner. Also whats a decent overclock, nothing crazy...maybe a bit conservative to avoid issues?

Mike

 

Yes, it sure can. I am assuming the left GPU is being left in place and it boots with the right GPU removed. Try putting the right GPU in the left PCI-e slot and see if it fails to boot. (You'll have to swap the heat sinks to do this.)

Unless you are going to be benching, the 7970M CF should not need to be overclocked. It's not all that advantageous for gaming. There is a wide range among them, and some don't overclock well at all. You can try bumping the core up to 950Mhz or 975MHz and see if they are stable. No need to bump the memory clocks if you're not benching, as it will not have an appreciable effect on gaming.

 

First of all, sorry if this seems like a stupid question.

What are the telltale signs that a video card has gone sour on me? I have been playing a couple of games recently and they keep hanging. First the screen will either freeze or have tons of artifacts. After that, the screen goes blank. The only way I temporarily fix it is when I do a hard reset.

Help please?

 

Hi Vergil. Does this happen with all games, or just the couple? Are your GPU core/memory clocks stock? If so, is your BCLK setting stock (100MHz)? Increasing BCLK too much often leads to system hangs, freezing, video and audio artifacts.

If all of those settings are normal (stock) does the problem still occur with CF disabled? It may be something as simple as the CF bridge cable having a bad connection on one end, or the cable may need to be replaced after many months of baking where it passes over the top of heat sinks.

 

I remember trying out the AMD Overdrive back then but the options never really became changeable. I haven't tried disabling crossfire but will do so now and return with the results.

As for when it happens, I've only played 2 games recently, DmC and Prototype 2. Both were played through Steam. This problem has occured before, but even when I already experienced it, I never encountered it on my Origin-based game which is Crysis 3.

 

Also check your temps just to be sure your GPUs are running cool. Did you recently change drivers? If so, did the problem develop following a driver update, or persist across multiple driver versions? What video drivers are you currently using?

 

When I had the problem, it was 12.8. I switched to 12.10 and so far it's okay. My clocks are all at stock and the temps don't get near 80 C which I think is fine. I tried both crossfire and single card and it seems fine either way. I don't know if this has any connection, but I disabled smartscreen.

 

So you're in good shape now with 12.10?

Yes, below 80°C is good.

Not sure how or why Windows 8 Smartscreen would affect that, but I suppose anything is possible. I always disable UAC in all versions of Windows and I have also disabled Smartscreen crapnology in Windows 8.

 

Hi all, I am still getting the freezing that I reported at boot followed by atikmpag.sys BSOD even after a complete uninstall. I can't seem to figure this one out. As reported, if I boot without the power cable plugged in, everything is happy. I have also tried turning off ULPS and forcing crossfire auto-link but that didn't resolve the problem either.

 

That has happened to me in the past. Make sure you are using Driver Sweeper instead of using windows Add/Remove programs.
Make sure you also update your Display Drivers to VGA manually first like in this picture. So basically make sure you do the clean instal method to the last detail. Also try using any of the newer AMD driver 13.1 and beyond.

 

As of now, everything seems well. I just hope it stays that way. Thanks for your help again Mr. Fox.

 

Done and tested. The Notebook turns on, but the screen keeps black. Nothing else happens. The graphics card seems to be truly defective.

 

Ah man, that's a bummer. Sorry to hear that Brother HaT-Trick.

I guess the silver lining is that you know for certain which of the two GPUs is hosed if the machine runs with one of the GPUs in the primary PCI-e slot, but doesn't when the other GPU is installed in the primary PCI-e slot. That certainly leaves very little room for speculation that one is good and the other is not.

 

I'll try driver forcing on the next re-install. I did do a double driver sweeper run on the last reset.

 

PWn3R, You shouldn't need to force anything to work. Just make sure you:

First, change your Display Drivers over to VGA
then use Driver Sweeper,
then go to Safe Mode and repeatedly run CCleaner's Registry tool until everything is fixed,
then reboot to normal Windows and install CCC (try 13.3 beta 3)


Try and communicated back what you have/haven't done and be a little more detailed with your reply and the steps you have taken if you can.

Let me know you this works for you. I have had problems with BSOD's over the past year - from booting from battery to installing mismatched CCC's I have found this particular Driver/Install method to work 100%

 

FYI, the driver removal process that I used to use when I had AMD cards worked very well for me. I wrote the exact procedure some time back and below is the post I made - you might find it handy when trying to clean install video drivers.

 

Stevie I was looking for that link. I didn't realise you did the original post.
I used it 100% until I started getting BSOD from using the Windows uninstaller. That's why I only use driver sweeper and kind of 'ized' your process lol
Thanks for digging it up +1 Rep

 

No worries, Tbone - glad you optimized it for your own use. It's always good to tweak things to your own liking, right?

 

Yep, right you are... A little 'tweakidge' never hurt anyone... :thumbsup:

 

Although I initially said that everything seems okay regarding my GPUs, it seems as if it isn't the case. I've encountered the problem once again. What really puzzles me is the fact that it does not happen with my Origin-based games. It only happens with my steam-based games. Any thoughts on why this happens?

 

Virgil, why don't you try a newer driver like 13.3 beta *? They're magic.

Maybe also try be-installing steam.

 

I tried this and the steps from Stevie below to the letter. Same problems. However, I FOUND THE PROBLEM, and it's a STUPID one. My computer boots so fast, that it is firing up the Curse client as the machine is enabling CrossfireX. Curse client uses graphics acceleration and is bombing it out with a BSOD. There is nothing in the dump, but as soon as I disabled Curse on boot, the problem went away. So, anyone else getting BSOD on boot, turn off Curse client on startup if you have it.

 

That's great you figured it out - glad it's working sweet now!

 

@TBoneSan

I've reinstalled Steam and used the 13.3 Beta drivers. So far so good. I just hope it stays that way.

 

This makes me wonder how many other folks are experiencing a problem like this that has nothing to do with alleged 'poor' quality of AMD GPUs and drivers that was actually a third party problem.

 

Great news Vergil, I hope it stays that way for you too. I think you'll be ok with these ones. I'm really happy with the them. They are fast and stable, not too much more I can ask for right now.

I do hear hear you. I had my HP printer drivers cause me issues when I first got my machine.

 

Well, at the same time, loading GFX acceleration at that point in boot shouldn't be able to cause a BSOD.

 

I actually just installed the 13.3 drivers as well, I was having some issues with choppiness, and I finally figured out it was just powerplay using the battery saving mode, I put it back to full performance and all is well.

 

When did this start? It certainly sounds like a driver problem

You could try to rollback to factory settings using AlienRespawn to see if the problem persists with the drivers loaded from factory.

 

Anyone using the new drivers released yesterday?

13.4 released

13.5 beta.

 

Scratch that, neither 13.4 or 13.5 beta detect my 7970M's

 

So, the 13.4 and 13.5 are NO NO ? :/

 

Ive tried a bunch of different things but regardless of what I do it never detects the 7970M's

 

Ok found a link in the M17x forum:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...d-catalyst-13-5-beta-2-13-4-whql-drivers.html

Go here, they have separate the Mobility drivers it seems. Dont remember having different links for mobility before.

Anyways trying the 13.5 beta 2 mobility right now and will report back along with the 13.5 CAP profiles.

 

The results can vary user to user. The only way to really find out is the try them on your system...
Just remember to make a restore point before you try

 

Well I did some quick testing

Started with 13.5 beta 2. Did a full clean installation and added the new CAP profiles.

Just tested with the following games:

Mechwarrior Online
Crysis 3
Bioshock.

Performance was very jerky on all 3.

I then clean installed 13.4 WHQL drivers.

Tested the same 3 games and everything was super smooth. No crashes yet. Will test more. Seems the 13.4 drivers are on par, if not a hair better then the 13.3 beta 3 drivers.

 

Come AMD release new drivers I'm always a little scared.
I might try these new ones out this weekend.

Might I add, if you have windows (spyware) updates on - be very careful... They can be ruthlessly destructive. I thought id switch them on and give them another chance to prove their worth and was met with the classic AMD BSOD. I wasn't able to restore or patch in the drivers after that. I was lucky I had made a recent system image.

 

Strange, I was having issues with the 13.4 they were working well for a bit then randomly on my desktop the screen went black and both my cards were no longer detected. Uninstalled, used driver sweeper, installed 13.5 and everything is smooth and no crashes yet.
Sent from my SGH-T999 using Tapatalk 2

 

Ok, after months of wonderful use, I am finally having issues with my 7970 CFX system. I don't know if it is GPU related or something else...was hoping you guys might have some input.
Here is the specific issue that I am seeing.
Every once in a while, I will be gaming and my laptop will just blank out. The colored keyboard lights still stay on, but the LCD goes blank and my system freezes, I lose my network connections, external peripheral connections, etc. I have to hard power the laptop off and power it on again and it seems to work fine.
It is pretty random, though for about three nights in a row it would happen at the exact same spot, on Diablo 3, fighting againt Diablo, as soon as he would send us into the shadow world, and right there my machine would quit. It happened a few times in a single night and then again a few nights later in the same spot in the game.

Tonight I saw it happen less than one minute into my first Payday heist of the night, so it is not like my machine was working hard or overheating...
I have a M18x R2, 3920xm, 7970CFX, 16GB 1600MHz Corsair RAM, Crucial 128GB Msata boot drive, 2x256GB (Raid 0) Crucial M4 SSD (for games), looks like I am running Catalyst 12.10

it doesnt seem to happen when I am not gaming, but I don't not game on this very often....

anyone have any ideas? anyone see this before?

 

I've never encountered anything quite like that. It's worth updating your drivers and seeing if that fixes things.

 

According to AMD Auto Driver Detect, I have the latest drivers for my system. Is there a better way to get newer ones?

 

Im sorry but I think one of your GPUs is probably dying.

 

I don't think they are dying since it freezes in the same spot in Diablo every time. To me that stinks of a software/driver problem.
Do you have windows auto updates on by any chance? If so I can almost guarantee that's your problem, otherwise you need to try clean installing your drivers. I am writing from my iphone so I can't link you now but if you go to the beginning of this thread you should find a clean install guide. I recommend you follow it to the very last detail.
Let us know how you go and we'll try our best to get you out of this mess.