Workstation drivers for 7690xt

I returned the Envy 15 due to the same issues everyone else had. Best Buy does not carry the 15 any more, so I got the 17.

I am going to be using it for CAD work and I was curious if I could install the workstation driver found in the firepro series on the 7690xt. From what I understand, the drivers are the only thing that separate the consumer and professional graphics cards.

Is this possible or should I just get a workstation laptop?

 

you definitely can install firepro dirvers for the 7690m xt, however there might be some difficulties at the moment due to the yet unreleased firepro versions of the new radeon 7000 series.

1. thing you have to find out is the mobility firepro equivalent to the 7690m xt. since there arent any radeon 7000 equivalent firepro gpus yet, and the 7690m xt isnt a "real" 28nm radeon 7000m gpu, but a rebranded 6770m, you should find the mobility firepro equivalent to the 6770m.

it may be the mobility firepro m5950 from some specs i have just compared quickly, but dont take that for granted.

2. download the mobility firepro driver (most recent one, best would be a reference one, not a notebook vendor specific)

3. find out the hardware id/device id of the 7690m xt and the equivalent mobility firepro gpu. best done in device manager > 7690m xt > properties > details tab.
7960m xt should be 6740 (VancouverA); the mobility firepro equivalent is probably also called VancouverA with the same device id 6740.

4. add the hardware id of the 7690m xt to the driver files so the driver treats the 7690m xt as its mobility firepro equivalent.

this is a bit complicated as the drivers differ a lot, but here is a bit of a guideline that may be correct, or may not be 100% accurate, but mostly correct (last time i did that was back in 2009 for my 8510p and elitebooks, so lots of things may have chaged):

go to the subfolder of the firepro driver Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF
and open the CL######.inf & CW######.inf files

there under the
[ATI.Mfg.NTx86.6.0]
section find the
"%AMD6740.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverA, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6740&SUBSYS_........
line

and add
"AMD Radeon 7690m XT" = ati2mtag_VancouverA, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6740
OR probably better
"%AMD6740.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverA, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6740
(not sure, as the new drivers dont seem to have the full gpu name anymore, but this ""%AMD6740.1%" thing)
below that line in a new line. you may have to add the additional &SUBSYS_.... info of your 7690m xt as well.

save both .inf files.

this tells the driver to be installed for the 7690m xt, too, and not just for the already listed mobility firepro gpu, which isnt present in your envy.

then you may already install the drivers using the update driver option inside the device manager under properties of the 7690m xt, or already try installing using Setup.exe.

since the drivers for windows 7 and the 64bit drivers in general have a bit of a different structure than older 32bit drivers for winxp, i am not sure whether there is something else necessary to make the Setup.exe install the driver, too, together with all the other features that already get installed without any driver modification.

there used to be INSTALL.INI & CX_######.INI files in the ATI\SUPPORT\[Current Version]\Driver\Driver\ folder, where you would have to add the device id in the 0x#### form to a specific list to make the Setup.exe install the driver for the corresp. gpu, but this doesnt exist anymore.

just try installing using the Setup.exe, and if it doesnt offer you to install the driver, then install everything else and install the driver directly through the device manager > 7690m xt > properties > update driver > point to the above modified .inf drivers.

that should do it - make the firepro driver treat the 7690m xt as its equivalent mobility firepro driver with all its professional features not available with radeon drivers - hope you understand what i explained.