7970m Logging Thread, Games with Utilization Issues (Only post logs, NO questions please)

Thought all people agreed the 7070 even with enduro bug is far more powerful than the 675m

 

Well, yeah, it's more powerful than the 675m. The 675MX is a new Kepler card with about 20%more power than the normal 675m. I was just thinking if enduro were crippling the 7970 by 50% at times, then it would only be achieving the same potential as a card that is half as powerful. The 675MX is probably 25-30% less powerful, so wouldn't that mean it would beat the performance of a 7970 at half gpu utilzation?

Either way, hypotheticals don't matter any more, I ordered the 7970 lol. 3rd time I've changed my order, but Xoticpc has been totally gracious and helpful through the whole process. I can't recommend those guys more

 

AMD is committed to bringing Enduro up to standards over a period of a few driver releases. You can expect the 7000m series to be working near flawlessly by early next year (though already utilization issues are being fixed), while the GTX 600m series is already working pretty well. The 7970m should still be a bit faster than the GTX 675MX. Either way I would recomend, honestly. The 675MX is probably the best deal out of all current Nvidia mobile choices.

 

Tranta I would be reluctant to push people towards going with AMD whilst we havent seen that hotfix yet. I went with 7970m and kept my 7970m based on on someone else's recommendation on these forums and ive had nothing but ballache because of it for last 6 months. AMD have been very poor so far when it comes to delivering their fixes or diagnosing this issue - end users on the internet forums were quicker to figure out that its a PCIe bandwidth issue before they did... lets see this hotfix first, there are already indications that it doesnt fix under utilization completely so it would appear its more of an optimization / improvement, rather than a complete fix.

 

Come on. AMD has known about the issue and its source for ages. In order to prevent the knowledge of the issue spreading further among potential customers, they were working on a fix in secret. To me it seems obvious that there is no simple to fix for the issue, and it will take more than 1 patch to get rid of it all together. Still, this patch shows that the problem can be treated with software updates, and given AMD's current situation, they have no option but to fix the issues.

 

"AMD have just come back to me with this:-

'Yes, there is a 7970M + Enduro utilization issue which we have been working to fix around the clock. We are putting the finishing touches on a Catalyst hotfix which we plan on posting this week.

I will send you a follow up note when it goes live.'"

Source: **AMD Enduro Utilization & 7970M FIX IS COMING SOON!!** - Overclockers UK Forums

 

I sure hope its fixed to its true potential considering I took a leap of faith and ordered the thing. AMD can rest assured that I will never buy another single AMD product as long as I live if they leave me hanging on this one. In the past a majority of my purchases have been AMD on GPU and CPU fronts. Granted I'm only one guy, but I'm always vocal about what I believe in and use.

 

I'm cautiously optimistic about the situation... I think that ordering the 7970 may have been the right choice for the long run, assuming the issues get ironed out eventually. To be honest, I needed a laptop NOW, because my other one broke last night and I make a living by working off of a computer. The hotfix is a positive sign, and even if I'm not completely satisfied with the gpu I can always upgrade to next year's nvidia cards once they're out. I haven't been waiting for 5+ months for a fix that is yet to drop like a lot of you guys, but I can certainly understand and empathize with how frustrated a lot of you must be right now. I'm trying to remain positive for right now. I have no way of knowing for sure what my experience with the 675MX may have been had I waited for it, so no point stressing over the decision any more... I'm just excited that my 9150 is finally on the way!

 

Hell yeah, "internet fist bump." Welcome to the 7970m owner's club, where history happens every day.

Interesting. That makes me a bit more at ease, as it means AMD has the potential to make their own copy engine just as good if not better than the Optimus Copy Engine.

 

Lol thanks bud. I have you guys to thank for the fix, as you all have been working hard to make the issue known and lobying for all the 7970 owners out there. Im happy to join the club

 

All great news, still worried about the very small FPS increase at high resolutions. But, at least it will allow some decent FPS by dropping resolution or level of detail (it really depends a whole lot on how high different settings were at max resolution, where GPU may really have been maxed out or close to it)

 

His you may think of as alpha version, it wasn't even packaged correctly right. Though it also seemed there were issues with installing the drivers. I don't trust Jarred's assessment tbh. We'll see how it is when it's released and here at NBR who actually like Clevo notebooks and our 7970M can run our own benchmarks.

 

Is is very important to realize that we don't know how this driver works in all situations, and we don't know the lows, just the averages. I would bet you that Skyrim ends up being more stable besides having the slightly higher frame rate that was recorded. Hell, a 6FPS boost in Skyrim is actually pretty freaking good. The difference between 50FPS and 56FPS can be very noticeable in any high action FPS game.

I just don't get why we aren't more excited. The results are so great for an alpha. How can you not trust Jarred, hulawafu77? Are you saying that this is all a lie and that he never tested the hotfix?

 

I'm not more excited about this fix due to the fact that AMD has handled the whole issue so badly. It wouldn't surprise me if average framerates only increase by a small amount. I have lost pretty much all faith in them as a company.

 

seriously, get real man. it has taken how many months to get this hotfix? this isnt alpha anymore, but a pre-release of the actual driver that is coming in next week. do you think this partial fix will increase or decrease internal pressure from AMD to further address this problem? and if the problem loses priority in AMD's eyes how long do think we will wait for further improvements? usually when programming any sort of optimizations you find that after initial performance increases it becomes harder and harder to find ways to squeeze out more performance, where the last few % will take you longer than getting the first 50%...
I am willing to bet you real money that we still wont have a complete fix before Christmas (where performance is within 1-5% of non enduro 7970m)

 

I am already real. Do I need to keep quoting that line stating that the AMD driver team as been working very hard for the last couple months putting this driver together? These things take time. AMD made a mistake back in early 2012, but we should be over that by now. AMD hasn't done any thing wrong during the past couple months. If you are upset that the driver we have been begging AMD for is finally coming, then what was the point of even asking for it? I repeat, these things take time.

I will repeat from my last post, that is only a list of seven games that Jarred tested, and even then, there are some huge performance boosts, especially at medium/high details. Let us wait until Jarred tests in more detail and/or until we get our hands on the driver. I will repeat from my last post, we don't know what the lows were of the testing, just the average.

I am not willing to make any bets, but I have at the least a positive outlook on a situation that objectively is looking positive. AMD wants us to be happy, but if we respond to positive progress with this hate, how do you think AMD will respond?

 

Nvidia would've handled it the same way if it was them, so take them off your podium

 

Actually it took Nvidia a lot longer. But then this type of technology has matured a lot more before Enduro came on board. But I agree, there is no way anyone can say Nvidia handled their Optimus issues better, since it took them far longer than AMD has to rectify it. It's just too bad AMD wasn't on board with switchable earlier, so I give credit to Nvidia for adopting this technology early on.

And I don't think for even a minute that Nvidia drivers are better. They both have their faults. And I truly think, anyone who thinks otherwise, is just plain liar or has some very extreme eye blinds. This Enduro issue is the first time I got upset at AMD or ATI for drivers really. For my Asus, I blame that all on Asus.

 

nvidia's optimus never had issues with under utilization, they knew about PCIe bottleneck in 2009 and took steps to work around it. They've had issues with the wrong GPU being used for games.. which is a lot different from the problem we were having.

 

And it's just as bad. And actually Optimus notebooks did not perform as well either, Optimus did take a hit on performance, so be wrong on that.

And this is really the first time there are notebooks using switchable graphics with the flagship GPUs. Before Optimus was used on mid-range or thin and light notebooks. AMD is working on the fix and yet you just keep on going on and on how horrible AMD is. It's getting old, what more do you want? AMD to go back in time and implement Enduro 3 years ago?

Anyway, I stand by it, anyone who thinks Nvidia is better for driver support is absolutely delusional.

 

i am happy that there is a driver on its way, but you are acting like this is some sort of privilege and that we should be eternally grateful to AMD - I paid for a working product and even with this semi-fix of a driver I have spent over half of 7970m lifetime arguing in forums because my games run like sh!t.
and to be fair, my response has always been been pretty neutral and more along the lines of "lets wait for the release before celebrating". I cant deny that it irritates me somewhat when people are already letting AMD off the hook, despite the fact that we havent seen that fix yet. Maybe you are forgetting that it took months of dragging AMD through mud to get any results out of them, - with deleted and locked threads, consistent denial that there was a problem, etc; and now people are very quick to remove that pressure. I've worked in the tech industry long enough to know that lack of pressure usually means slow results with hard to fix issues - and you have to admit this one fits that description. complaining and demanding what you've paid for is the only way you force progress in these cases.

nobody here will play at 1366x768 or 1600x900 resolutions because upscaling will make your games look like crap, 1080p results are the ones that matter. but I said it myself, those benchmarks are poorly made, we need to see average fps and utilization charts.

we hardly respond with hate, we just give them sh!t that they deserve for releasing a faulty product. again, without this pressure we would not have this hotfix being released in a week or so.

 

I just don't see the point you raging so much still. And it's obvious AMD has been working on fix before even Jarred knew about it. TBH, the person who helped most was caveman-jim I think, not Anandtech nor Tom's Hardware.

We're getting a fix, AMD is committed to providing support for switchable graphics, so why are you still raging? This is time when most people would be happy with the results of getting the news out.

 

how am I raging? all I said was wait for the fix before letting AMD off the hook.

 

More good news, all paths point to the HOTFIX...

Failwheeldrive, be at ease with your decission, i have received my P150EM with 7970M just three weeks ago and i havent stopped playing (actually that has kept me less active in this forum). And i have no beta drivers, nuttin. The card works great, i am actually addicted to one of the most "affected" games: Borderlands 2, but even seeing some low GPU %s and some slow FPS here and then i am already at level 14 and keep enjoying the game. And i started it just to test some user's complaint about the FPS beeing horrible and stuff. One just needs to turn the physX to LOW and it works great. Radeon is known to poorly run physX and that has nuttin todo with all the enduro scramble.
I have also tested several other games and all run perfect IMHO (crysis 2, DIABLO III, witcher 2, starcraft II, NFS the run, Skyrim), all in the highest settings and 1980x1020 res.
YES they should and WILL run better (at least some wich actually have GPU utilization issues), but i am really not sure i will notice it after (30 to 50 FPS diff ain really noticeable if the min fps dont go to low)
The only game i game i havent tested is BF3 multiplayer, since i dont own it, i think thats the game that has raised most complaints. So if you have time to play some other games you probably would think... what's all the fuzz about....
The card is GREAT and will only get BETTER.
My only worriies are being fired because i have left my job pretty unattended... lol

Yes, i dont include myself because i am only participating for a month or so, but there are some real anchor men in here.

DITTO

Some of us should really take legal action against AMD for psychological damage.....
I can just add to arcticjoe:
Wait for the fix and then retake your stance, as for now we have good news and the path is the right one.

 

The GPU doesn't run physx on non-Nvidia cards. The CPU does.

 

good to know, i can only say that with physx high the gpu usage and FPS become an issue in borderlands 2, in medium not so much and in low the game is fully playable in maxed settings at 1920x1080 (AA 16x and so on)

 

There's only a few trouble spots where my frames drop below 30 so I just leave it on medium. Main offenders are the Bloodshot den (both maps) and Caustic Caverns.

Edit: I'll be checking out Dishonored when it comes out and post what kinda framerate I get on that.

 

I can add some extra info. The piece of software, a driver actually is probably what they call the 'copy engine'. It's nvpcifilt.sys, you can see it in Device Manager in the Nvidia driver files list, among the Non-Plug-and-Play drivers and as one of the drivers for the PCIe 2ndGen port to which the Nvidia card is attached, where it is curiously listed as unsigned (probably for the sole reason it is not listed in the *.inf for that port). It is also listed as the 'device upper filter' on that port. Of course, I'm just guessing, so I may be wrong, but that driver certainly does some stuff on the PCIe bus.

 

Well as expected we're still waiting on AMD for this fix...

 

Indeed, and I haven't seen the 7970m rally group this quiet for so long.

 

Was expecting someone to post on monday when the clock turned 00.01 UTC +14

 

I guess we are all waiting for the driver coming out this week, or at least supposed to, its not really an official info. If it doesnt we will be vocal again i guess.
In my own case i have been busy playing 80% of the day and working the other 20% (so i wont get fired... lol), i am really happy with my new P150EM, and Borderlands 2 is a really enticing game. I dont really check the GPU usage anymore, only card and CPU temps (i play with the numbers on screen everytime), specially in firefights were if i start checking the %s i get killed pretty soon, lol.
I wont say there is no issue, but i really can play so fluently all games i have tested so far, that i am waiting for the drivers seated and relaxed, i havent even installed 12.9 and wont probably install any drivers until they are non beta, happy with 12.8.

cheers
Voz

 

Dishonored perf anyone ?

 

Locked at 60fps for the first few hours. Got tired and couldn't play anymore last night.

 

Runs like a dream. You can even add SSAA to make it look better. The game isn't demanding. My card usually runs pretty hot 90/92c while playing Borderlands 2. With Dishonored I have yet to break 80c.

 

HI there

AMD inform the fix is implemented, tested and working. They hope to make the hotfix available to the public in the coming days.
**AMD Enduro Utilization & 7970M FIX IS COMING SOON!!** - Overclockers UK Forums

 

I am so ready.

 

and they said trinity+7970m perform better than 3920XM+7970m.........

 

The hotfix can't come soon enough. My laptop will be here tomorrow

 

Very nice system you got coming.

It is incredible on how far GPU has come in just a few years. The 5870M was a 128 bit with only 16 ROPs. Wasn't capable of double precision compute, don't think. The 7970M now 256bit, 32 ROPs, and double precision beyond even the best desktop hardware just a few years ago. It's just incredible. 16x PCIE 2.0 and now at 3.0, and our hardware is DX 11.1 ready. All this for only 180 watt. Incredible. Not only that, we have LCD options that are better than anything that was available back then for gaming laptops.

 

Yup performance for dishonored are great, here some tweaks for a nvidia GPU Dishonored Graphics (TWEAKS) - Steam Users' Forums
Pretty sure we could do the same in our lousy catalyst

EDIT: nvm I'm using SweetFX now :thumbsup:

 

Thanks

What I find really impressive is the capability of mobile platforms. Sure, there has always been some compromise in performance when choosing a laptop over a desktop, but that compromise seems to be smaller than ever to me. The 7970m and 680m offer incredible power in a mobile package. Sure, I'd be able to build a monster gaming rig for what I paid for my NP9150, but this machine is able to handle anything I throw at it without sacrificing mobility. I couldn't be happier with the decision to get this notebook

 

Hmm wasn't the new Enduro hotfix driver supposed to be released this week? Where do we go to check for it? This is annoying.

 

AMD has not actually officially said that the patch will be out this week. Official statement is this month. Follow the catalyst creator's tweets.

 

You're right. But then you would also have to assume then, AMD lied to Tom's Hardware, AnandTech and OVerclock UK or pretty much anyone who inquired when the hotfix would be released.

Anyway someone on Guru3D spotted 10/12/2012 APU drivers on AMD site:
AMD Embedded GPU and APU Driver for Windows XP/Vista/7/Win 8

Probably not it, but whatever, I'll give it a try.

 

Pretty sure you will spot it on this page when the time comes!

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/Catalyst-Hotfixes.aspx

 

the driver zip file seems broken

 

Don't think it would have to include any lying. AMD might have said them that they are likely to get the drivers out this week or smth. When information goes through intermediaries, it has a change to get misinterpreted and warped.

It is usually a good policy not to state the day for a driver release, since a sh*t storm always breaks loose when a deadline is not met.

 

No one ever said it would for sure be here by now, and especially not AMD. It was only caveman-jim and the guy from the UK overclockers thread that suggested it was ready to go out soon. Anyway, it is better to have a stable driver, so I accept that AMD is taking the time to make the hotfix worth releasing. They have probably been testing the hell out of it and are realizing some problematic bugs still exist.

 

More likely, they are taking 2 hour long lunch breaks, and playing cubical warfare pranks on each other. I'm so ready for this!