Dell ATI 8.763 (M15x/M17xR1/M17xR2) Driver/AMD 5870 VBIOS **READ POST 1 AND 2!!!!!**

Hi guys, first post here. Firstly i too have installed the new beta drivers and flashed the new vbios. Is there anyway of reinstalling the 8.763 without the computer crashing? I think maybe it tried going back to the previous 10.7 as i dont think i used the method outlined in this forum for changing drivers. Performance seems sluggish at times, however this seems to fix when i reboot. BC2 has seen a performance decrease. Everything else is fixed it seems.

Thanks guys

 

i believe u need 8.763+ccc its all in one installation need em before u flash or else u bsod. After u do that try this maybe works for ya open up CCC and under teh 3D tab slide the bar to the right where it says standard all way to quality wierd but i was very sluggish without using the custom settings in ccc enable. Cat 10.8 + 8.763 have problem some say just install the beta ccc that comes with ur driver package

 

I played L4d2 alot today guys and i think i notice abit of sluggish very slightly i might be tripping but im almost sure that it kinda got abit sluggish during massive horde and in fires can somebody test this out its very slight but i can notice it.

 

Have you tried benchmarking your system? Run 3dmark 06 and post the score.

 

Since you flashed your VBIOS, there is currently no way of having other drivers installed prior to <10.8, so the only drivers you can use at the moment are dells beta 10.8 8.763 or the ati reference drivers 8.762 and default vga driver. If you try any previous Catalyst Version, the system will start into windows with a BSOD. A fresh windows install will take care of unwanted driver interference with the new vbios upon deinstalling catalyst software, so you can install something else. Cheers.

 

Hmm strange issue this morning, after playing around with catalyst alot yesterday evening, i let my system run thru the night with the display closed.
I oppened the laptop and it was not in sleep mode, display was off and came back with the screensaver running.

Was just running furmark and noticed that in 640x480 resolution, the performance was only 40fps, where i should normally get a min. framerate of 80 fps. Also GPU-Z was showing both cards throttling from idle clock speeds 100/150 to 700/1000 when i ran furmark, but both GPUs were only used like 80%.

So to fix this problem, all i did was deactivating crossfire in CCC, accept, Enable it again, accept. And Furmark was back to normal again, was even showing a min fps of 100

 

hey guys is this normal i just ran a 3d mark
3DMark Score 13329
SM 2.0 Score 5006
SM 3.0 Score 7160
CPU Score 3136
im on i720 qm 5870xfire beta 8.763 vbios+driver

 

Is this Vantage?

I just ran Mafia 2 benchmark again with everything set to max, and vertical sync on. No screen tearing during benching. Average FPS was 46.3.

Gonna do Vantage run now. Will edit result into this post, stay tuned. I have almost same specs.

Ok here my results:

Visual Observation on max points at the end of the 4 tests;
GPU Test 1: ~4280 frames
GPU Test 2: ~6430 frames
CPU Test 1: ~44000 operations
CPU Test 2: ~180 operations

Here the screenie, good GPU score for not O/C'ed:

 

If its 3dMark06, my original 720qm/crossfire 5870/4gb 1333 was getting 13300 - 13800 when i tested in out the box....sounds right to me AFAIK.

Vantage was P12048 cpu 10753/gpu 12552

 

I had the 8.763 drivers installed, i tried to reinstall them after the vbios to clean registry etc. I now know that wasnt a good idea and system crashed and restored itself back to prior setting. Everything is working however i cannot open CCC

 

ok so im on par than all seems ok than i ran another test on L4d2 i took the sync off was gimping my fps now no sluggish perf

 

Hey Tid try this when u open up the driver 8.763 again like if ur reinstalling do a custom uninstall only uninstall the ccc leave the driver than reinstall the entire package using express install. If u run into more trouble blue/black screens just use safe mode disable cards than reboot normal mode and reflash/ reinstall driver w/e is needed.

 

Hey thanks. Reinstall CCC, driver and audio after unistalling just CCC?

 

i did just to make sure lol but i think its already installed u did custom yea just ccc. Just do express install np

 

R2 running new beta vbios and Dell's 8.763.

I just ran 3d mark 06 and scores 12036.

Out of the box stock I scored 15004.

Will run Vantage next.

Just scored 6554 overall in Vantage.

 

so like -3k score with vbios and 8.763?

 

What do you mean with sluggish? with vertical sync on the framerate will always cap at 60fps. Also it eliminates screen tearing.

 

Worked a treat, thank you!

 

Vsync on is always a bad idea unless you use triple buffering. Radeonpro lets you use triple buffering for nearly every game.

 

I was getting very slight kinda lag in fps when massive horde or massive horde + fire was near i think was just a fps drop or something not sure was very slight.

 

Oh i see, so a real perfomance issue, not just about the cap... Is there any other possible way to eliminate screen tearing, without setting v.sync on? Not that it disturbs me to set v.sync on, but i would like to see no tearing at higher fps.

 

Im not completly sure man but i know that if i move setting on ccc like cata AI or the other one not set to max from default it will tear and lag up so i have ccc default settings and check the custom setting box i havent seen any tearing anymore since i did that all looks fine

 

Ok, i'm testing this on Starcraft 2. What i got so far is when i deactivate Catalyst AI, it will only perform on one card (100%). And i also have tearing there. If i set it to standard, the game is kinda stuttering incl. tearing and if i set it advanced it's not a big difference either. Also i have 2 GPU-Z running in the background and they record, that both GPU's are only used like 75%, that can't be right

Really the only thing so far that works in SC2 is to enable V.Sync. And i tried so many options enabling disabling one by one, to see which one would have an influence.

 

I am getting terrible screen tearing in games and of flash player. How can i reinstall the drivers without crashing?

 

Nope as per my post, 3D Mark Vantage

 

As for going back or changing drivers. Usually the method i use to clean the drivers from my system to prevent any potential conflicts is:

1. Device manager, uninstall the two ati vid cards under display (ticking delete driver software)
2. Before rebooting, Express uninstall of ati catalyst manager and application profiles.
3. Reboot
4. Run driver sweeper to clean ATI files.
5. Run CCleaner to clean left over ATI reg entries.
6. Reboot
7. Install whichever video drivers you wish.

 

Ive done further testing regarding my issue with random red pixels around the screen when i have ATI catalyst or crossfire enabled in any 3D game or Application.

Strangely enough using new vbios and dell 10.8 drivers if i force in ccc only the option AA x16 it clears the problem.
I swear ive tried this option before on pretty much all the driver versions however using the old vbios.
Any other AA settings and the red pixel corruption comes back.
Changing other settings in the same section makes no difference only that one particular setting.

Testing games:

SC2 slows to a crawl doing this running around 10-15fps at the menu screen due to AA being set to 16x.

WOW doesnt seem to care the problem is fixed and frames are awesome around 30-40 in dalaran.

Mafia II takes a slight performance hit but still respectable 40fps.

Really strange that only forcing 16x AA fixes an issue that has plagued me through every driver release and bios's till now.

Anyone else encountered something like this?

Note: im trying to get a screenshot of it, but for some reason the screenshots dont show the problem despite me seeing it with my own eyes on the screen.

 

I tried uninstalling but since i have the new vbios and beta drivers it comes to the end of the express uninstall and blue screens. Windows has to repair and restore itself. So i cant actually get beyond the uninstall.

 

I think that's the only AA mode that actually works with CCC and Dells Beta driver for SC2, if i use AAx16 along AFx2 i get about 20fps ingame. Only 1 Card will be activated. AAx16 is applicated from what it looks like. In reference ati drivers 8.762 along with 10.8 and 10.8a profile installed, it is possible to enable custom AA below 16x i think. Also i'm gonna revert back to those, performance was so much better with the catalyst profiles active in my oppinion...

 

Hi gang,
Joker, thanks for responding to my post a few days back about getting the new vbios.

I have an issue though that I couldn't seem to find a resolution for on the thread -- I had installed the new dell driver, and then followed the flash process (via bootable USB drive) to resolve the sleep/bsod issues. All that worked fine but when benchmarking with 3dMarkVantage, my score went from 12980 to 6669.

anything obvious leap out at anyone as a possible cause (i confirmed, re-enabled x-fire to be sure, but no luck there)

thanks,
Samuel

 

Back on reference drivers 8.762 (10.8 WHQL) with App Profiles 10.8 and 10.8a and Woohoo finally got SC2 with AAx4 and AFx16 to work on Ultra Settings, without V.Sync without Stuttering, without tearing or any flickering and great performance for that visual quality (40-60fps), now i won't change any settings anymore in CCC until i finished the game for the second time. Yay

Edit: Drool, i'm definetly on the right settings now with 4x AA and AFx16. Tested the Mafia Benchmark again and it ran very smooth from image quality point of view. Everything set to max. disabled V.Sync and AA on Ingame, settings looked to be applied, to 4x AA. Average FPS was 39.2 Rank D. Will test another 2 runs, with 2x AA once and AA diabled in CC and see what i get.

Edit2: I should have just leaved that as it was lol Now the Benchmark was terrible working, and i got like 20fps. Also in windows i can see GPU-Z throttling the card from 100/150 to 500/1000, up and down WEIRD lol



Edit: Problem solved itself for yet to be researched reasons

 

So maybe I missed something here, How exactly do you change the AA settings for SC I'm not seeing the option in the Options window? or is this done through the CCC.

Also anyone have a link to those latest CrossfireX profiles that everyone's using.

 

Of course i can only tell from my experience, so far, i think you cannot force AA via CCC (only there for SC2, not ingame) with the Dell Beta Drivers 8.763 (someone prove me wrong).

The only way i'm currently able to use AA in SC2 is with the ATI reference drivers and their according catalyst apllication profiles (cap)10.8 and 10.8a on the new VBIOS. Works within CCC and AA+AF are applicated properly.

Edit: Alright i was able to reproduce my scores in the Mafia 2 Benchmark with AA off and on, and forced via CC to 2x and 4x. Here my results:

AA OFF AF16x ingame, CCC settings for AA and AF set to application controlled: 46.5 fps

AA ON AF16x ingame, CCC settings for AA and AF set to application controlled: 41.9 fps

AA ON AF16x ingame, CCC settings for AAx2 and AFx16 custom set: 39.6 fps

AA ON AF16x ingame, CCC settings for AAx4 and AFx16 custom set: 39.3 fps

Looks like IF AA is application controlled in CCC and set ingame to ON, the game is runned in an AAx1 mode.

 

Hey there nice testing.

So do you recommend using the AMD 10.8 with profiles 10.8a combo or the dell drivers with 10.8a combo?

On a side not strange thing I just saw was the ATI crossfire logo came up when I ran fifa10 lol. ODD ehehehehe.
Cheers.

 

Definetly, AA and AF is properly forced in my oppinion, just did another Mafia 2 run (kinda like that fast benching, also in visual terms)

I runned it this time:
AA ON, AF16x ingame, CCC settings for AAx8 and AFx16 custom set: 38.4 fps

I also noticed the increase of heavy tearing along raising AA level, also setting AFx2 in CCC did not seem to have any influence on the AFx16 ingame option, might need to change that once ingame to say for sure.

So that said, i kinda feel more comfortable with them, as i have a full release note on what should work and what not, also i'm more comfortable with the feeling the app profiles are applied correctly. I really had many strange behaviours especially with SC2 and Dells Beta Drivers. So i'm not going back to them for the time being.

Edit: Another thing i would just mention is that i actually did the same scores (~0.3fps difference actually, ati better) for application controlled settings with both ATI and Dells drivers, the only difference was i couldn't force any AA in CCC. Can someone please verify this with the BETA drivers installed? Use in CCC application controlled for both AA and AF once, run the benchmark, write down the average fps, close game, open CCC set AA to 8x, run benchmark again, write down fps, please leave a post here, thanks.

 

Oh okay thanks for the info. Good to know.
I think it would make sense too that the profiles would work great with the AMD drivers straight out. Not to sure how they really run with Dells drivers. Seeing as Brian said others did experience slow downs and what not as well.
I so far haven't been blown away by any performance levels with the dell drivers.
Cool I might give the AMD 10.8 drivers a go.

I would run the mafia 2 test for you but as you know my mafia 2 benchmark is screwed up somehow. It always seems to be running in super low clocks and I score a rank of E 8fps LOL. Hopefully someone else is able to try it out. Oh yeh I'm still seeing that dimming of the screen brightness every time i exit and quit out of mafia 2.

Also about this AI catalyst? What exactly is that setting? If it was related to Nvidia settings whats the Nvidia equivalent or doesn't it have one? What is the best setting I should leave it on in order to best utilise Crossfire?? Disable or standard or Advanced? Thanks.

Cheers.

 

Well you can jump back a few pages, i think i posted the runs with and without profiles installed releated with the Beta Driver.

Hmmm, now that you mention it, i will test ATI drivers without profiles now *g*

SC2 was performing much better with the profiles installed and reference drivers, atleast when application controlled, my fps was 60 to around 100 fps (100 in the dark ) and no tearing.

Edit: And since i don't have other windows issues regarding sleep/hibernate/booting up from battery, i leave it like it is for now, as im anxious about FFXIV Open Beta hitting soon and it's release later in mid september. I think this setup is very promising, and i'm confident, it'll work out with this new vbios (very grateful for that Brian, gotta give that man another rep+ if i can lol). Cheers!

 

ehehe yeh cool. Brian really came through for us that is so AWESOME. Oh whens the open beta start? Can anyone just jump in and give it a go since its open?

Just trying to feel my way through being back with ATI again.
What settings in the CCC 3d tab do you recommend I set everything too? ie for AA i have them all set to application preference. I think that would be best. Minimaps? Catalyst AI? and others?

Cheers.

 

Ok here's my ideal performance settings i got about 45-115 fps in SC2 ingame with AA set to application controled, AA-Mode Multi-Sampling, AF Application Controlled, AA-Mode Multi-Sampling, Catalyst AI Standard, Mipmap High Quality, under ALL: Vertical Sync, OFF if not applied by the application, and Triple Buffering ON.

Edit: Triple Buffering was On not Off, seems to eliminate Tearing Problem without setting V.Sync ON. Also was AI set to standard not advanced. It's correct now in this post.

 

Ah okay cool I have everything set the same except Catalyst AI. What exactly does that Catalyst AI do? Hinders performance much? Do you know its Nvidia equivalent? if it has one.

Cheers.

 

Hah, strange, i checked again after playing SC2 and it was set to standard, tried it on Advanced and tearing was back, set in Catalyst AI.
Also i have no clue what it does for real lol Looks like it manages some functions, but what exactly, i can't tell you.

 

eheh true true. I've been doing a little digging and it seems its some driver tweaks or something. Not exactly to sure. Apparently for our crossfire setups we need to have it set on to at least standard otherwise crossfire will be disabled or something like that I read. Setting it to standard is also apparently the default setting and should work well for most things. Setting it to advanced is supposed to provide more image quality and lower the FPS.
I'm not too sure really what its all about but that is what I have read about it so far. So I guess I will leave it on and set to Advanced; if I have any trouble I will just set it to standard.
Cheers.

 

I just noticed something very strange, may be important to know. Normally i have a Furmark run at 640x480 without AA or anything.
It runs at 80fps to ~170fps.

But there is kind of a second state with crossfire, and it also looks the same when i observe it via GPU-Z, same clocks atleast.

The FPS was 100-201 in windowed mode, way faster somehow.

So where i had previously tearing again in SC2, the tearing was gone in that state. Also when the system was kinda run in the slower state of Multi-GPU-Mode i didn't have the same good performance.

Only noticed now from Furmark. I have to reproduce the steps to see how i solved that. Gonna start with a Shutdown and a Reboot and see in what state the system boots up.

 

There seems to be one heck of alot of tweaking and fiddling and changing things going on here.....isnt the vbios and dells driver supposed to work or is it not working? You guys are testing soooo many different games with this driver, that driver, differenct CCC settings its hard to know EXACTLY what your findings are....

Very confusing!

 

If you don't change anything it works, maybe You can't find out if you don't change anything in the settings provided for you to change

 

computers forums have been this way since.... computers have been this way.

 

Hahaha, yeah i suppose so! - i guess what i am looking for is some form of definitive answer to the question really....question being "Does this new vbios with Dell driver get the job done?"

OR - Are there problems with this partnership now?? - which is better, new vbios with ati drivers or dells drivers...(obvioulsy gotta have the vbios to get rid of the sleep issues)

 

Hey Guys, I found something very very interesting thing, with Furmark concerning the Catalyst AI, which i seem is the major culprit for some people seeing good or bad performance.

The 2 States concerning Multi-GPU-Managemnent. Check out the pictures, upon changing the entry Catalyst AI from Advanced to Standard in Command Center (CCC) the system goes from State1 into State2. When the system is in state1, the system performance nicely. With the state2, not so much anymore.

State 1 - Catalyst AI Advanced (Note Average 124fps)



State 2 -Catalyst AI Standard (Note Average 100 fps)



Now, the funny part, restoring back to state 1 It's not as easy as just set it back to Advanced again, and it works right away again, nono, that would be way too easy, right ati?

So here's how to get back to state1, and to max. system performance again.
Go into CCC, set back the entry in Catalyst AI to Advanced, Accept the setting. Go to CrossFireX Options, Disable Crossfire, Accept, Enable Corssfire, Accept.

(If you can only Disable CrossFire and not Enable it again, upon Catalyst removing the CrossFireX entry, restart, go back into CC, enable it again and now you should be in State 1 again.)

AI should be restored again to Advanced, verify with Furmark running faster again.

Cheers!

 

But I have already flash the vbios two days ago with the system A05.Install ATI 10.8 8.762.So I do it wrong?

 

Great find. Good testing results.
I too just noticed that running different games and benches now I finally see the ATI crossfire logo in them. Before they were never there. Hence the lower performing results and numbers. I have now also read that apparently it is good to set Catalyst AI to Advanced when running benches and testing of that sort. Cheers.