New Switchable Graphics Driver!!

Hi all,

I recently noticed from this thread

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=461001

that Catalyst 10.3 beta has been leaked. The thing with this new driver it's the first driver in which ATi will begin supporting mobile graphics cards again. (They also support switchable graphics)

Well, I decided to try these out and I installed them on both Windows Vista and 7 (T400, ATI 3470). (You don't need any Intel Drivers to still have switchable graphics still working, the ATi driver takes care of it) After a reboot, I noticed a couple of things...

Switching graphics cards still works and is MUCH faster than before- it takes like 2-3 seconds now. You don't even need power manager to switch graphics cards anymore (but you can still use it if you like)- all you have to do is right click on the desktop and click "Configure Switchable Graphics" and choose what to switch- you can even configure the driver to automatically switch between ATi when plugged in and Intel when you're on battery.

A new "Hydravision"- section on the driver is now present, where you can have multiple desktops- an interesting feature that I have yet to fiddle around with some more.

Performance is noticeably improved from the previous Lenovo drivers. Games seem to run smoother, and the WEI score in Vista went up (4.6 to 4.7 lol).

Power consumption is about the same. However to my dismay, the Windows 7 glitch when you come out of standby and both graphics cards are running is still not fixed- and my battery life is still crappy in windows 7, but everything's fine in Vista.

Although the driver's still in Beta, I have experienced no crashes at all with my T400 with HD3470. You get new features and better performance. So I would suggest you all to give this new driver a try!

 

Nice find!

 

I'm going to try them immediately!

 

I read the news about the new Catalyst Anatech and felt sad because I just assumed this would never work on our T400's and T/W500's. Your news makes me feel better I'm going to wait for the official release though

 

I wouldn't think it is for the ATI in the W500 (mobility FireGLl v5700...am i right or not?) Is it on the list? Anyone tried it?

 

So I assume lenovo has not opted out of this scheme then, I will wait till the proper release and try them as I don't think lenovo would release anything updated unless stability was at risk and it isn't.

My T500 games fine as it is for what I need on a laptop but if their may be perofrmance increases other than palcebo it might be worth trying out.

 

Would like to see an update for the W500 FireGL card.

 

The official release should be coming in March or so. But on my T400- there has been ~4-5 fps boost in COD MW2 on the same settings from before: the differences are noticeable and i have had no stability issues yet.

I don't think FireGL has the same drivers as the Radeon's but hopefully ATi will update those in the future too...

 

Would be interesting if Audio over DisplayPort through a HDMI adapter on T/W500 is working now with this driver as it was announced for Catalyst 10.2.

I think there would be a great interest on this.

 

Argh... buzzkill. Yeah its a different driver according to the ATI... er um AMD website, at least for the FireGL desktop cards. Let's cross fingers Lenovo is aware of this.

 

Although a performance boost would certainly be nice, my biggest problem with the current drivers is the problem where both graphics chipsets are active when waking from sleep in W7 - it's a real annoyance that made me seriously consider sticking with Vista. Too bad these drivers doesn't resolve that issue. Thanks for the heads up, OP.

 

Remember these are beta drivers, so I would not surprised if not everything worked as it should.

But now that ATI/AMD will seemingly also publish switchable drivers maybe we should complain to their support about the sleep issue?

 

Exactly what I was thinking
Good to see ATI working on switchable graphics support.

 

This is GREAT news! Thanks for the heads up. I always felt the manual switching with Power Manager was almost useless.

 

I much prefer manual switching - and it works very well. One has easy control over which gpu to be in use, according one's very specific needs. I agree the Vista drivers were better, but concept still works well. Lack of SG in 510 series (bar one 410s) is big step back.

 

@ OP,

Since the new drivers have the ability to switch graphics in the Catalyst Control Center, I wonder if it's the Lenovo Power Manager that's the cause of the 'waking from sleep' glitch in Windows 7.

Is it possible for you to test this by uninstalling the power manager and use the ATI internal switching and see if the standby issue still remains?

 

Perhaps this is better for some. I’m glad you like it, but it really only makes sense for this operate depending whether AC is available or not—and this is where the current progress is being made. Why would anyone want to run the lesser video card while on AC power? Perhaps there are some cases where someone would want to run the greater video card while on DC, but I expect this to be the minority (especially for Lenovo’s target market). In any event, manual operation could always be an option.

The way this has been implemented has always been flawed (though Lenovo publicly declared this largely inept feature as their Intellectual Property). I look forward to seeing this, finally, done somewhat correctly.

 

In Vista I used the "lesser video card" most of the time on AC power, as it ran cooler than the ATI gpu, minimizing fan use - unless I actually needed the ATI. With the flawed Win7 drivers, on the other hand, the ATI uses the fans LESS, so I leave it on all the time on AC. But it shouldn't be so - the Intel in Win7, as with Vista, should run the fan less.

It is only the present flawed Lenovo-supplied Win7 SG drivers that is preventing SG from working as intended.

 

Anyone successfully able to install this on their T400/500? Mine installs fine, but I lose control over my brightness and switching o the intel graphics just causes the screen to flicker a lot. It eventually gives up in switching and sticks with ATi graphics.

 

I would also like to hear about people who have tried it on the T500. Usually I like to try these kinds of drivers out myself, but I currently need my machine to be stable and cannot afford to play around a lot (at least for some time).

 

When they are fully released I will install them and see how it goes. My thinkpad is my secondary machine and I can afford to have it play up a little.