AMD 12.11P (7970m Performance) Driver Install Guide

*Update 11/22/12* The black screen issue is affecting most of the people that I have talked to. I recommend the AMD 12.11 beta driver ( http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx) if you cannot get 12.11P to work well enough, and with it you can apply the same install process found below.

*Update 11/19/12* When the black screen issue is triggered, the problem only affects applications set to run on High Performance in Catalyst Control Center. If you try changing a game or application to "power saving," that application will run fine without a black screen, but only with the HD 4000 performance. There seems to be an issue with the AMD drivers properly switching over to the Intel drivers. Gkrules mentioned on page 4 that installing the Intel display driver from 10/2/2012 ( http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=22019&lang=eng) instead of the latest driverset solved the issue where games would run fine on the first restart after installing Intel display, but then go back to black screening on the next restart.

*Update* It seems that previous Intel drivers have been causing the black screens a few have been seeing. To solve this, see step *7 in the first set of instructions.

Hello fellow mobile users! As many of you may know, the newest driver developed specifically for the 7970M was released on November 14th, 2012. The new package includes the long awaited DirectX 9 performance enhancements in addition to the DirectX 10 and DirectX11 performance improvements implemented in the the 12.11 beta series. So far, most users are reporting more stable performance in DirectX 9 games, and there is indeed less flickering! It is rumored that Clevo is working on their own version of this or one of the newer AMD drivers, so keep a lookout.

I will show you the simplest and safest way to install 12.11P.

If you are using any AMD driver set, from stock drivers to 12.11 beta7, follow these steps:
1. Download the AMD 7970M 12.11P driver here: AMD CATALYST
2. Disable every feature included in your antivirus/firewall software. This step is crucial, and I will tell you that the first time I tried installing 12.11P with my antivirus fully enabled, I got errors in installation, and I eventually had to do a system restore because my drivers were so messy and wouldn't work properly with games. On my second time around, with all Norton features disabled, the installation went smoothly.
3. Go to control panel, then uninstall a program, then select "AMD Catalyst Install Manager, select "change," and custom uninstall all of your current AMD driver components.
4. Restart
5. With your antivirus and firewall still disabled, start up the 12.11P installation package as an administrator. Install every component. Installation should result with a green check mark.
6. Restart, make sure that games work fine, then go ahead and re-enable antivirus and firewall features. Make sure that you start games with Windows power and the Sager utility in performance mode! Additionally, don't use driver fusion for most installation cases. Only use it if you are in a dire situation, because I feel it may have messed my configuration up a little bit.

*7. If you are having black screens when opening up games, first download the latest Intel HD Graphics driver here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...rs+with+Intel®+HD+Graphics+4000/2500&lang=eng
8. Go to control panel and uninstall "Intel HD Graphics Driver"
9. Restart
10. With your antivirus/firewall software features disabled, install the Intel 15.28.8.64.2875 driver package (win64_15288.exe)
11. Restart
12. Games should now start up fine. Go ahead and re-enable your antivirus software if you can restart multiple times without having any issues with games.

If you had an issue with installing 12.11P, the steps that I personally took may help:

After realizing that games would go black instantly with 12.11P on my first go, I decided to uninstall, run driver fusion, and reinstall 12.11P. Not a good idea. I tried it again but with 12.11 beta3, and then I started having BSODs and more installation errors like CCC not being installed. This is what I did to solve the problem:

1. I performed a system restore to the day before I installed 12.11P. Everything went smoothly except for the fact that CCC would not start up anymore, despite the fact that it originally was starting up on the day I restored to.
2. Next, I uninstalled 12.11 beta3 through the AMD install manager in control panel.
3. I restarted in safe mode and ran driver fusion on both Intel display and AMD display components.
4. After, I restarted in normal mode, put in my Sager installation disc, and installed those trusty stock VGA drivers.
5. I restarted, disabled antivirus components, and then uninstalled the stock AMD driver components through the AMD install manager in control panel.
6. Next, I restarted and installed the 12.11 beta3 driver package. Installation went fine with a green check mark and games worked. PHEW!
7. I repeated steps 5 and 6 but with 12.11P. As you know, it ended up going fine this time, and now I am running 12.11P in a stable fashion with no BSODs.
You probably want to skip steps 5 and 6 and go straight to 7. I only made the process longer because I wanted to make sure that 12.11 beta3 worked first, because I knew that that driver package was relatively stable.

I hope this helped you!

 

huge problem for me with 12.11 P Driver I cant see GPU temp in Hwnfo , I cant see temp in Afterburner OSD during game.

 

I think that has been happening since 12.11 beta came out. If you record values with Hwinfo, the data will include GPU information.

 

I cannot see the images you posted. Can you post links?

Edit: I am not sure why the post above me was deleted.

 

thanks mate, i saved your methoid for future record, i did pretty much the same you did, will try with antivirus off next time, but for now even with yellow finish i am having no issues and the drivershows installed an d working.
rep for you.

 

I can't seem to get this Enduro performance driver to work. I always get the same behaviour, everything works fine after the first reboot, then on subsequent reboots I cannot run any application that's set to High Performance in CCC. The applications just crash. I can always reproduce this by re-installing the Intel drivers. Everything works fine on the first reboot only, then any other restarts cause the same as above.

At least the BSODs are finally gone. But if I can't run anything set to High Performance it doesn't help much.

Any tips?

Edit 1: I tried following the steps above, I don't think it worked. :/

Edit 2: Some of the games give me this black screen you mention (i.e. nothing is rendered).

 

Even after following steps 7-12 you had no luck?

 

Yeah, I did and no luck. I'll try driver fusion and installing over stock drivers but at this point I'm one step away from re-installing Windows. I am starting to believe I've just messed up the Windows drivers.

 

In my case after one reboot i launched BL2 and the game did not open (no error messages or black screens), it just opened a window (you could see it in the tray area) but never opened the launcher (where you press play).
After this my notebook reported windows updates, i left them download and install, they were mostly microsoft NET Framework 4.0, after the installs i rebooted and everything went smooth from then on.
You might want to try uninstalling net 4.0 or higher you might have installed in your PC, then search and download microsoft net 4.0 and reinstall it, and leave windows update it accordingly (mine did twice). I did this once (when i installaed beta7 tho), and maybe the AMD installer messes with it? I am not sure, maybe it just wasnt properly updated when i installed 12.11p.

i think its worth the try, these drivers DO work after you get them installed, the thing is we have all messed with our drivers so much that its hard to find out exactly which of many mistakes or errors we currently have in our windows.

 

I tried this too, didn't change anything. All applications set to High Performance still crash. I'd really like to avoid re-installing Windows but I think I'm running out of options. Every single method of clean or otherwise install of this driver has the same behaviour, it breaks after the 2nd restart.

Also, on the first reboot after installing the Intel drivers, my screen goes blank for a few seconds with a cursor flashing on the top left when logging into Windows. It seems the driver seems to kick in at that point, and everything works fine. Until the next restart at least...

The 12.11 betas caused BSODs for me. Maybe it has to do with the BIOS version? What BIOS version are you on people?

 

I'm still getting BSODs when the laptop is started plugged in.

 

Which BIOS version do you have?

 

Do you think BIOS could be affecting the stability of these drivers? I'm on 1.00.04 and I'm having major trouble.

 

It might. Better not to rule it out before people post some data about their BIOS versions and experiences with these drivers.

 

I am on 1.00.04 BIOS. And I also have the black games. The Intel re-install works for after the reboot required for the install any reboot after that the problem comes back.

 

i have newest version of bios from mysn.de and using this guide i got 2 bsods just after first restart and till now all looks good no bsods for now. But i am disapointed about dx9 it didint imoproved at all men of war game still unplayable.

 

You have very old bios. Bios v 1.00.05 introduced support for amd 7970M and nvidia 680M , so you likely your mother borad is not support your card. If you need to upgrade to newest bios , then you must install v 1.00.05 first then go to latest bios .

 

My BIOS version for my NP9150 is 4.6.5 from 6/18/2012 and everything is working fine. If Sager doesn't post a new BIOS in their support section, then I don't install it, because they obviously don't want me to.

 

Bios Revision: 1.00.04bls1
KBC/EC firmware: 1.00.05

 

Just tried this. When I restart my resolution is screwed up. When I try to go into the CCC I get the following error: "Catalyst Control Center cannot be started. There are currently no settings that can be configured using CCC."

 

Honestly, I would only advocate doing all of those steps if you initially have problems installing over the old drivers. It's just a huge waste of time and usually problem-free. I see a bunch of people getting BSODs, errors, and so on when they're uninstalling, reinstalling, and doing all other crazy things without even trying to just install over.

 

Installing over may not replace the driver though. The 12.11P driver itself is an older revision compared to the newer 12.11 betas, and so the installer will consider a current 12.11 beta7 or beta8 driver the most up to date and not install the 12.11P driver.

Other than that, I agree that if installing over results in no issues it is fine. I like to uninstall because I like to make sure that no extra files are left behind from the previous installation that may cause a conflict with the new installation. And remember that AMD designed the Catalyst install manager to safely uninstall driver configurations.

In the end, I am disappointed that even this driver ended up being hard to get working, and am discouraged when a method works for some but not others. The driver isn't labeled as a beta, but it isn't labeled as 12.11/12.12 or WHQL certified either. I wonder if Microsoft denied WHQL certification for this one, and so AMD just had to release as-is?

To GaresTaylan, do you happen to have the latest .NET framework installed?

 

can i ask why with this driver i am geting p score 5300 and with another beta driver 6300?

 

What about a guide to install drivers under Linux?

 

Yes I did. I had to go the fusion route and that appears to have fixed everything.

 

Think I might have to do a clean install, if i try to uninstall the amd display driver it goes blackscreen during the process and doesnt come back out (even if i try to install the new one and restart i get a bsod on startup), if i try to install the new intel display driver It gets stuck on the windows initializing screen on startup. anyone got any ideas other than a clean windows install?

 

The way I did this was Intel drivers first then AMD.

I uninstalled Intel HD, restarted, installed the new drivers, restarted.

I then uninstalled AMD drivers, restarted, installed the new drivers, restarted.

Everything is perfect on my end. Not a single hiccup.

 

That is not the reason why it's not posted... They only want Sager customers to be able to install the BIOS/EC and since ANYONE with the Clevo model can install em, they require you to prove you are a Sager customer. That is all. All you have to do is write an email to tech support, include the serial number of your laptop. They will reply with the EC/BIOS attached.

Simple and easy.

That is not how WHQL certification works either. AMD has publicly stated they will not provide monthly WHQL drivers anymore and will only release a WHQL when they feel enough improvements have been had to release one.

Anyway, WHQL certification just means it goes through MS lab. It takes 2 weeks to do so. That means WHQL drivers are usually a few weeks old, so if AMD/Nvidia wants to release a beta driver quickly for updates on games like Black Ops 2, they have to forego the MS certification.

Hope that helps.

I agree, this is the best way. Since the Intel HD 4000 is the primary GPU, you need the drivers for Intel first. If you want to upgrade the Intel drivers, and leave the AMD drivers, it gets wonky. So it's best to uninstall intel, uninstall AMD first. Then restart. Install Intel, restart. Then install AMD, and should be fine.

+rep, hope you continue to encourage people to not do complicated things, and keep it simple stupid.

 

I highlighted that part because that's the very reason why I did it the way I did.

 

I have a problem, I installed 12.11 enduro performance drivers on my Clevo 150em with 7970m, the problem is that there is no gpu monitor that works / shows my temperature. how do I fix it, and the fans usually get stuck going high after example BF3 gameplay

 

Has anyone fixed their black screen problem? Installing the newest Intel driver fixes it for one reboot, then the problem comes back.

 

No, I'm still having the same problem no matter how I try to install these drivers. I contacted my laptop manufacturer (pcspecialist.co.uk) asking for instructions on how to install this specific driver and I was told not to install it because it's been causing many issues. I was also told that Clevo is working on releasing their own version of this driver shortly and that I should wait for it.

I am currently on 12.11 beta 8 which causes a few BSODs now and then (if I start Windows with my laptop plugged in), but I've managed to handle that pretty well for now.

 

Clevo is working on their own version! That sounds super cool. If 12.11P isn't WHQL certified right now, I hope Clevo will be able to get their version checked out. If Clevo does a good job, we will finally have a performance driver with the stability of the stock Enduro drivers .

The black screen thing is pretty hard to find the root cause of. It is pretty much as unpredictable as the BSODs. I was going fine until today, when Skyrim for some reason opened with a black screen. I did install some of the latest Windows updates yesterday, and that could have caused a problem (see screenshot of updates installed) . It is possible that the action of opening a game can trigger the drivers to screw up, forcing one to reinstall Intel or even both Intel and AMD. Luckily, reinstalling Intel did work again, and I will continue using that method if I get the black screen issue.

 

Hmm I had the same problem too, not only the fan but also the GPU working after closing the game, which keeps the temperature always high. I can manually fix it by launching a game (which is set at "High Performance"), wait a few seconds for the fan to be turned off and turn the game off right away. It is quite annoying, I didn't have the same issue with the beta 6 driver.

 

I got my black screen problem fixed.
First, I updated the BIOS that my Clevo reseller gave me. That did not fix the problem.
After rebooting a few times (with the black screen problem still there), I tried reinstalling everything according to the directions in the OP. That also did not work.

The fix:
I uninstalled the Intel driver. Restarted. Then I downloaded and installed the older Intel driver (win64_15287). Now I no longer have the black screen problem.

 

Good to know. Strange that the latest Intel sometimes won't work while the one released right before it can.

 

I just updated my EC and BIOS versions (to 1.02.11 and 1.02.14) respectively, and I sort of managed to get the Enduro performance diver to work - but only IF I start up the laptop unplugged from the ac adaptor. I got a BSOD when installing again, but for now all seems to work well provided I start unplugged then plug the power once I've logged into Windows. Not sure if the BIOS update changed anything, but maybe it's a thing to keep in mind.

Edit: Aaaaand I just managed to get the black screen problem again out of the blue. This is hopeless, I'll just wait for the Clevo driver.

 

First couple of days with this driver it was working great. Last night I got the black screen and rebooted the laptop. Worked okay again. So I figured it might just be a hiccup. This morning it happened again. So rebooted a couple of times and still getting the black screen. So I disabled the 7970m. rebooted and i guess intel driver's weren't sticking because i got the 1024x768 resolution. so i just reinstalled intel, reboot, still got the 1024, enabled the 7970m and rebooted. now it's working again. weird.. very weird...

 

I just want to update everyone that any game I play now crashes. As soon as I launch a game, if it has music or any audio it would loop and force me to use CTRL+ALT+DEL to end it. I'm going back to non-7970M-specific drivers. I'm on Win 7, BTW.

UPDATE: Before I go back to beta drivers, I'll try downloading the older Intel drivers first see if that works.

UPDATE #2: I guess the fix to the black screen and the game crashes (Steam games and others) is the same as suggested on page 4 of this thread. That is, do not update your Intel display drivers to the latest. Keep the old one. See the link in the OP for the older Intel display drivers and use that to pair with the 12.11P.

UPDATE #3: Fail. Going back to betas. Problem came right back. It comes and goes. I opened DOTA 2 and the Valve music at the beginning just kept looping.

UPDATE #4: Latest beta (8) + latest Intel display drivers = win.

 

Win? Hmm.. I'm going to try this now.

Currently I'm on Sager's original Intel drivers & the Performance Driver for the 7970M.

Poor performance in NFS Most Wanted & even worse in Assassin's Creed III. The FPS just drops down to 40s or even to mid 30s. Makes the game very unpleasant to play. Is anyone else facing similar issues?

 

My method: (Running: Original Sager Drivers for both HD4000 + 7970M)
1. Uninstall AMD CCC & Drivers through CP
2. Restart
3. Install the Performance CCC & Drivers
4. Restart.
5. Attempt to start CCC (Gives an error message)
6. Uninstall only the CCC
7. Install the CCC from Sager's Drivers
8. Restart.

 

Yeah, you can install the new CCC, you just have to delete the user.bib file. I forget where it's located, but I had that same issue and someone helped me out in the 7970 enduro logging thread which will have the file location.

 

12.11P was fine the other day when I tested it (BF3), but with Steam and Blizzard games, it kept crashing. I don't know what happened but I needed to play with my guys tonight so I had no time to try to make it work. I just went with beta and latest Intel drivers.

 

I've changed my paste I'm monitoring temp to see differences. Is beta8 shows temps?

And also; beta8 is VERY unstable for Skyrim. CTD's and corrupted graphics (especially sky) everywhere.

 

I am getting BSOD's with AMD 12.8 (nov16) when I try to OC with Afterburner 2.2.0.
Also Furmark doesn't seem to detect the GPU load or temperature, just like Afterburner, but the performance is 7970 grade and not HD4000 so it's switching.

I was running stock AMD 12.6 on my BTO P170EM and uninstalled them the normal way.
I didn't run in safe mode, I didn't check for remnants of CCC either.
I first installed the latest Intel drivers for the HD4000, rebooted, then the AMD 12.8 drivers from November 16. (so NOT the Enduro performance driver).

Before (on 12.6), I could simply OC with Afterburner 2.2.0, but now (on 12.8) when I select an OC profile it goes to BSOD as soon as I click 'Apply'. And as I said, no temp or load detection anymore.

I am clueless. Games work. It's all stable. But when I try to OC... BSOD...
I did use the 12.8 drivers with .NET4, but that shouldn't make a difference I think.

Anny help would be greatly appreciated.

 

I don't play Skyrim so I can't test that. And no, I can't see temps or anything on Afterburner. Just fps.

 

Try firing up Kombuster first. then open up Afterburner.. You'll get to see temps.

 

Still nothing. Not that I care, BTW. I just want to play my games. The 12.11P for 7970M just doesn't work. People say they get black screen but for me it crashes every game whether it's the current Intel drivers or the one before it. The betas I've never had any problem with. But I can say for both that I've never gotten a BSOD.

 

I decided to give the so called 'performance' drivers a chance, even though they're a little older that the 12.11b8.
And lo an behold, it works! I can see GPU load, temps, over clocking works again.

Unlike other people I don't get any BSOD's with the 12.11P... Which makes me wonder what goes wrong with others...

 

That drivers won't activate 7970M after some time. Max 2 reboots.