Best 7970m drivers for p150em?

So a while back I just found some driver that worked ok, the performance wasn't amazing but did what I needed it to and the Enduro features were mostly working.

I decided it was time for a format, so why not update the drivers too.

Which are the best ones out there right now? I am open for custom drivers, the biggest problem I have right now is the bug where the fan for the 7970m won't turn off after the GPU has, until you sleep or reboot.

And also if you could provide a quick guide for the best install method from scratch.

Thanks a lot

 

I think the fan problem is a BIOS issue, meaning no driver will fix it. You can turn off the fan by opening a program using the 7970m and then closing it. I'm still using 13.1 and they have worked well for me.

I went from stock to 13.1 by

uninstalling intel driver, then amd drivers,
installing newest Intel driver (at the time), then installing the 13.1. Had no problems.

 

Yes, as far as I know, that is in relation to the fan profile rather than the driver.

 

Well it seems no big changes have happened... Thanks for the help

 

Yep, install the 13.1 over the stock drivers is your best bet at this point.

 

I'm still on 13.1 WHQL as well. I didn't know it is still the best, but I haven't upgraded because it seemed everything after was questionable. Also, there hasn't been a new AMD driver in at least a month. The newest is still the 5/28/2013 13.6 beta2 driver.

 

Before I couldn't find any way to install Intel recent driver (with new interface) with AMD Enduro driver without a problem, so I had to use old Intel driver 2932.

Yesterday I just tried installing the Windows 8.1 preview, which already has Intel driver and AMD 7970M driver (dated 02/2013) inside. All that I did was to install the 13.6 beta 2 catalyst manager (without checking the driver box, so as to prevent overriding the existed driver in Windows 8.1). The results have been very good so far, I can notice significant performance boost in comparison with the combo Intel 2932 + AMD 13.6b2 driver, and no more problem as with the combo new-interface-Intel + AMD 13.6b2 driver.

If you are already on Windows 8.1, I reccommend to give it a try. If not, just stick with the combo Intel 2932 + AMD 13.6b2 driver.

Sorry for my bad English, hope this help

 

Do you mean the vbios? Because my 680m turns off after exiting a game, fan and all, so it isn't the comp bios...

 

The fan stays on because the temp sensor turns off with the card, and does not register the card cooling down (as far as I know). Perhaps the 680m cools down quicker than the 7970m. At least its supposed to run cooler.

 

Hmmm interesting, my fan turns off pretty much as soon as I exit the game. I was under the impression that the fan turns off as a result of the card turning off and they are linked? However I do remember when I had the 7970m that it would behave in a similar manner to what's been described. Maybe it is specific to the AMD card? Who knows.

 

Typically, the fan does not turn off immediately as soon as the card turns off. It turns off as soon as the temperature dropped below the set temperature. The GPU card is never truly turned off. It's just not being used and idling at a low frequency.

 

^ Is this the case with Optimus as well or just Enduro?

 

I'm planning on doing a clean install with latest official Intel driver and this AMD driver:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/721900-amd-catalyst-13-x-13-150-0-0-may-23-a.html

Can somebody tell me that this AMD driver is good enough? Good utilization and stable temperature under load?

Or should I use this one:

AMD Catalyst

Which one is better?

 

has anyone tryed the new 13.8 beta drivers ? i haven't heard anything about single gpu improvements besides with metro last light.

 

I use the 13.6 beta 2 drivers. Seem to work perfectly for me, everything I run works as expected(top notch that is).

To install, simply uninstall your old drivers and install these. Do not install them over your old drivers as it can lead to CCC control panel crashing.

@hasgard, there doesn't seem to be a lot of single gpu improvement in the new driver. However, as I may point out, we are already seeing this card working almost close to optimal levels now. At stock clocks, it is now beating the 680m on most current titles.

If you are interested though, try out leekm's enduro fix. He has reported slightly improved framerates on a few games. Give it a go and let us know what gains you get(or not).

 

Really? Evidence of this?

 

Review Update: Radeon HD 7970M vs. GeForce GTX 680M - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

well, here is the proof. You will notice that the only games where the 680m has an advantage is where fps are already well beyond 60fps.

However, benchmarks can be tricky and results can be different depending on the choice of games selected for the test.

That said, I think it is safe to say that both cards are on atleast on the same level with stock clocks

 

Damn! Time to put my 7970m back in !

 

haha, that! and then you can turn the backlit keyboard to RED to feel the change xD

 

Unless you feel like putting your tweaking hat on instead

 

Nah not quite savvy enough to do too much tweaking beyond simple software OCs haha.

 

I may be wrong, but I thought the 680M (generally) beats the 7970M at max stable overclock with stock voltage. I know the 680M blows the 7970M out of the water once you get into voltage mods though.

 

Well this is the reason I mentioned 'on stock clocks'. All the same, I'm not too much into overclocking the components on my laptop when they are already working pretty fine as it is on current games. My understanding is that most folk will avoid overclocking for fear of ruining their warranty or worse.

And then, while you can declare the 680m the winner for OC performance, you have to wonder what levels are safe and actually worth it when considering long term gaming. Most people just clock it high just to get their 3dmark score and then back. I;d like to see just how much a decently OC'ed 680m can improve ingame performance over extensive playing periods with temps in control. sadly benchmarks like that are hard to find =(.

 

Stock voltage is totally safe for the 680M

 

I'm still running 13.1 WHQL and Intel 2875.

Is there a stable combination that is worth upgrading to?

 

Worth trying the new 13.8 betas.

 

AMD 12.8 beta2 / Intel 3165 works very well in my NP9150. I don't notice any huge changes, but it is always nice to be up to date. All I want now is for older games to activate the 7970M. It's like there is a barier right at 2004 where any games made prior will only work with the Intel GPU, even when the game is set to high performance in CCC. This problem has existed since day one in mid 2012.

 

It's really just poor design and engineering. I can't believe Enduro engineers could possibly be proud of their work. Clevo only made it worse too by not giving us the ability to bypass it. Enduro seems to always error on the side of integrated graphics when it should most definitely be the other way around. All they need to do is make it possible for the user to have full control over GPU deactivation and then everything would be great. Just leave it up to us instead of some wonky system that doesn't do what it's supposed to be doing. I can say, because of this, my future laptops will have nVidia cards in them and that's disappointing because I definitely want to use AMD graphics, at least currently.

 

While I agree that there is no excuse for games from pre-2004 to not run on the D-GPU, I am curious as to which games you are having trouble with.

The oldest game I play is probably COD4. It is from 2008 and considered ancient xD.

The easiest solution ofcourse is to have an option to force the D-GPU on through a driver option.

 

The first two Splinter Cell games, Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Invisible War . All of those are from 2004 or before, and none open with my 7970M. I've already beaten three of those, and I now want to play Deus Ex: Invisible War, but it runs at 35 FPS on the HD 4000.

Halo PC works on the 7970M, so it isn't all games from back then, but a lot.

There is no way to force the 7970M to be used. All I can do is assign "High Performance" to specific games in CCC.

 

Hello from fogy Amsterdam,

I updated from 13.1 to the latest 13.8 beta2 yesterday and all is fine so far. After installing the AMD driver I also updated to the newest Intel 4000 integrated driver 9.18.10.3165 off Intel home page.

Games like Crysis 3, Star Trek 2013, Medal of Honor 2010 and 2013, Strike Suit Zero play perfect without problems/artifacting. The automatic integrated/dedicated graphics swithching works flawless. Utilisation is 89-99% in Crysis 3 SP, before I always had 80-85%.

Overclocking wise no problems whatsoever. Good driver. Respect to AMD.

 

That is probably a bad spot to be in. However, I'm sure you agree it could have been a lot worse. Better old games have problem with the 7970m than new ones =). 35fps is probably on the playable side of the spectrum.

However, I am not legitimizing AMD's lack of attention to old games. They should definitely work on this front too. A part of me is just glad that the new games work without a hitch most of the time (compared to last year) =)

 

Interesting how you say it could be worse. Do you come from a time when it really was worse? Because this whole Enduro thing is the worst experience I have ever had relative to my experiences with AMD GPUs since the Radeon HD 4000 series. I'm dissatisfied with the performance issues from last year, but that doesn't come close to a game not opening with the correct GPU. Especially AAA titles from the past.

It is good to see the positive side, and I am usually one of the people to see it, but imaging that it could be worse is like getting a D on a paper and imaging that you could have gotten an F. Maybe I am just over reacting and being an idiot by trying to counter your argument. I think everyone does that a lot.

At the moment I am going through a lot of classic older franchises and working my way up. Hopefully when I hit the newer titles (Deus EX HR, Splinter Cell Blacklist, etc) my experience will get better. I really don't know how the newest games have been effected by driver updates as the newest game I've played since 13.1 WHQL came out is Max Payne 3.

 

I would always add an EXE manually after installing a game and build up the list that way.

 

You are not being an idiot. You have every right to complain if the games you want to play are not working properly. You are even entitled to give it a D due to your situation.

All I'm saying is, for most folk, the grade is probably an A or a B- at max, since modern titles run buttery smooth.

And while I'm pretty sure your experience will improve as you come along to the newer titles, you should try out what meaker recommended by manually adding the .exe file to the list in the driver.

 

I'm not sure how to do that and/or why it would work. Does this involve writing "blank.exe" in some .ini file?

 

nah. It's pretty easy.

1) Open CCC
2) Goto Preferences
3) Select Advanced
4) Now click on the Gaming option
5) Click on Add
6) locate your game folder and select the .exe file.
7) Change any settings if required.
8) Try out said game with a warm 'I'm feeling lucky' feeling in your heart

Tell us how it goes =)

 

I just tried it, and I am getting the same result. The game still only activates the iGPU.

And as a tip for P1*0EM laptop owners, do not download the AMD 9.1.0 7970M driver in Clevo's download section. I tried it out and it made various programs crash, including Steam and Flash player. I went to 13.4 WHQL and everything seems to be working fine. Funny how AMD's reference drivers are more stable than drivers made for our specific laptops. I do have Clevo's Intel 2875 driver installed with no issues. The newer Intel driver was causing iTunes to crash.

 

Which game is it and are you monitoring your GPU activity?

 

Hi guys :hi2:,

Pardon this silly question, but may I know how you updated the drivers for the intel hd 4000 and the radeon 7970m?

I have a P150EM running on windows 8 64-bit and I don't seem to be able to update the drivers beyond 13.4 WHQL for the 7970M and stock drivers for the HD4000 (which is 9.17.10.2817). I keep getting the blue screen no matter what I try. Could someone guide me on what drivers do I need to install in what order to get it working?

 

Oh nvm, I somehow got it working. I have installed 13.8 beta 2 and 9.18.10.3165 for HD4000. So far, so good.

If this helps others, I installed 13.8 beta2 over stock drivers, it crashed many times and somehow it installed successfully after trying many many times (i don't know if it helps installing the components one by one i.e. CIM then CCC then drivers but that's what I did). Then, I restarted and the display went weird because windows stopped both the HD4000 and the 7970M (yellow exclamation mark in device manager). I just ignored these warnings and installed the latest HD4000 driver and restarted and it worked.

 

Deus Ex: Invisible War. This is a game that would easily be running at 200 FPS on the 7970m.

When I had 13.8 beta2 installed I would use the CCC monitor to determine which GPU was being used, and it always showed Power Saving (iGPU) while Deus Ex: Invisible War was running. I noticed that at a low resolution, FPS is ok, but at the higher resolutions FPS drops significantly, to the low 30s. I'm not going to play the game at 1024x768, and I am not going to play at high resolution with a choppy 35 FPS. Obvious sign that the HD 4000 is running, as its major weakness is VRAM quantity. Same thing happens with Clevo drivers, 13.1 and 13.4.

But this isn't limited to Invisible War. It happens with those other older games I talked about too, including the first two Splinter Cell games and the original Deus Ex. I guess no one knows about this because no one plays a lot of older games.