Envy 17 3D and AMD Catalyst Drivers

Are the normal Catalyst 11.2 drivers OK to use with this machine? I am noticing that on the HP download page that the driver package is much larger! Is this to do with the 3D element? I have not used AMD / ATI graphics in a very very long time because I always felt that they did not support mobility drivers enough.

Thoughts?

Thanks

 

i am using the official ati/amd mobility drivers only, and can only recommend them, if you want optimal gaming performance. they work the same (or better) with 3d, since 3d is being processed by the tridef software, and not the gpu driver.

also, hp's catalyst doesnt get updated monthly, ati/amd ccc does.

 

Necrophyte

Thanks for the answer. I like updated drivers for many reasons. BTW...what version of the Tridef software comes with the machine. The Tridef website says 4.4

How do you get your drivers. I went to the website and you have to download a program that scans your hardware and lets you download? I do not see any Mobility catalyst driver packages...Just the CCC separate download

Any suggestions?

 

go to ati/amd.com > support & drivers > from the drop-down list pick notebook graphics, mobility radeon 5000/6000m > OS. there youll get the catalyst install manager that automatically downloads the most recent mobility catalyst + driver. by going to game.amd.com, you only get the desktop drivers.

since i installed a fresh copy of win7 ultimate, i had to install the tridef software by myself, as well, but it turned out to be very very well configured, as after the installation, when you should have been asked to register/activate it (you have to pay for it), a message came up that as an owner of an HP ENVY 17 3D i can use the tridef software for free! so i have the most recent one from tridefs website now - dont remember what version was pre-installed on win7 home premium when i got the envy.

 

Very helpful information...Thank You!!!

Bob

 

Does anybody know if the new drivers support *dynamic" SG?

 

SG = smartgart or switchable graphics?

smartgart probably not...

dont know whether "dynamic" switchable graphics is something not already introduced into the catalyst drivers, but for ubuntu theres something like that coming up with 11.3:
Upcoming AMD Catalyst 11.3 to Solve Ubuntu 10.10 Multiple Graphics Issues - Free device drivers Download

else for windows i am quite sure its a hardware related question, not a driver related one.

 

btw heres a short look at 11.4

A Look at AMD's Catalyst 11.4 Driver: Introduction - Techgage

 

@necrophyte
Dynamic SG = Dynamic Switchable Graphics.

AMD's solution is supposed to be more in line with Apple's implementation, as opposed to NVidia's Optimus. I have not heard about such an implementation for AMD on either Windows or Linux. The Envy 17 was supposed to be the first laptop to feature this, however i have yet so see any substantiated proof of this.

Regarding the 11.3 Catalyst drivers, there is no specific mention of IGP/GPU switching in regards to laptops. They only make reference to "multiple graphics", which could mean anything from Eyefinity to supporting multiple graphics cards.

 

Can i ask how you bypassed the system check with the official catalyst installer. I am running a clean install of windows (but activated with the hp key) and am getting told that my system is not compatible. Also, if I get the official drivers to install will it automatically provide for switchable graphics or is this something special for the HP Envy driver package? A quick reply would be much appreciated.

 

dont know what you mean by system check - i also have a freshly installed win 7 ultimate and everything works fine with official catalyst drivers, same as on a desktop.

regarding switchable gfx - my envy 17 3d doesnt have switchable graphics, so i dont know, but afaik theres a sub menu inside the ccc that handles it, if present.

btw: http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/562517-custom-switchable-graphics-driver.html

 

The release notes for the 11.3 drivers on the AMD website states:

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

Any notebook launched after this driver release
Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

Anyone with the new Envy 17 3D will not be able to install using the automatic download installing (the 1.1 MB file). It took several tries but I finally installed it using the packaged driver but CCC did not install correctly (.dll error every time I tried to run it). I decided to roll back to the stock drivers and will just live with occasional flickering in some of my games. I really wish AMD officially supported laptops with switchable graphics or at least a way to disable switchable graphics through the BIOS.

 

ok, then you should wait for amd or hp to release a compatible driver.

the most recent ati driver is the 11.4 rc2 preview driver (also compatible with mobility gpus) released yesterday, you can try it, maybe it works.

 

I saw someone posted the other day in one of these threads that the new video drivers actually disable the brightness buttons, is this true? If so, I'd want to stay away from updating my video drivers until they fix it.

KJ

 

Joe...It is true! While I had my Envy...I updated the video drivers to 11.2 I stil had switchable graphics, but the brighness hot buttons on my keyboard no longer worked. I was OK with it, for I set my brightness in the power applet in Control panel and usually leave one setting for power and one for battery...didn't bother me

 

im using 11.4 rc2 (8.84.2) and my brightness function keys work normally

 

Sweet!!!! Guess its fixed.


KJ

 

Do you have switchable graphics?

 

Before I returned mine I installed the 11.4 drivers. The on screen display did not respond to key presses (but oddly it did show when windows auto dims/undims the display AND it works fine using the Intel GPU). It will allow for the other functions to work like volume/turning wifi on or off/mute/ keyboard lights but will not show those actions on screen.

Personally I'm thinking this is an issue with their On screen display software more than the Cat 11.4 drivers but at any rate the OSD doesn't work still when using the new driver. On the other hand I had no strange blinking or anything odd when switching graphics it seems like that is fixed at least.