Sager NP9170EM Stock 7970m drivers ---> AMD 13.1 driver, help walkthrough

Hey so I've got the Sager NP9170EM that I got back in May of last year. At one point around Thanksgiving I tried to update the graphics drivers to a newer beta version, but I got a couple BSODs so I rolled those back and haven't played around with it since.

I contacted my reseller and he said that the only "official" Sager drivers are the same stock ones. But I've read a lot on the forums about people having better gameplay experience and so forth s with some of these new drivers though and really want to try to update again. I'd be super pleased if I could get Shogun 2 Total war to recognize that I have a dGPU so I can crank the graphics settings up to ultra. With the current drivers (and enduro) it only picks up the intel card and won't let me set the graphics past "very high" settings.

When I go the the AMD site and punch in my card type and so forth it just downloads a "driver detection tool" which, when installed, just gives me an error about not recognizing my manufacturer's model type (I forget the exact wording).

So my question is can anyone walk me through exactly what I need to do to update to the newest stable drivers? Do I need to update my intel integrated graphics card's drivers as well? It's all a bit fuzzy to me.

 

I would be very interested in ths as well.

 

This is what I did to install 13.1 WHQL driver.
I assume you have Windows 7 64bit, right?

1) Download 13.1 WHQL driver from this website
http://www2.ati.com/DriverS/mobile/13-1_mobility_vista_win7_win8_64_dd_ccc_whql.exe (this is for windows 7/8 64bit)

2)Download the latest Intel drivers.
The windows 7 64bit version can be found here:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Det...rs+with+Intel®+HD+Graphics+4000/2500&lang=eng

3) Download CAP2 profile (OPTIONAL).
Here is the link for Windows 7 64bit:
AMD Radeon

Once you have downloaded both drivers, lets get to bussines,

>>>>Unplug your PC for the whole process to avoid any BSODs<<<<

1) Uninstall AMD driver: go to control panel and uninstall programs. Select AMD Catalyst and uninstall express (all amd products).
Restart when asked.

2) Uninstall Intel driver (in this part, when i uninstalled the amd driver, the intel driver was gone too, but if you still have it, just uninstall it. If they are already uninstalled, avoid this step)
Tick the box that deletes the driver all together
Restart.

3) Install the intel driver.
Restart.

4) Install 13.1 whql driver. Use the express auto setting (NEVER change the installation folder)
Restart.

5) This is optional, but you can also install the CAP2 profile, which gives improvements to Far Cry 3.
After installing it, Restart.

That should be it. You can go to device manager, search for the 7970m driver version, it should say 9.12.00 (thats what mine says)
You should do a backup, in case that you have to reinstall windows, but thats the worst thing that can happen lol.
Once you are completely sure about this and you have no questions, you shall begin with your driver adventure

"Installing or updating drivers is always a risky proposition, but the more you do it you learn the tricks there are" -Vozier

 

This looks good. Thanks for your feedback. I'm actually at the hospital using my secondary computer right now as my wife just gave birth to our first baby boy! So I'l tinker around on this a little later in the week.

Is there any one else who did it this way and it worked out for them as well?

 

I have updated the 12.11 beta drivers in that way and it worked for me. I did a complete reformat for the 13.1 driver

Would add though that when uninstalling the Intel drivers through device manager be sure to tick the box that deletes the driver all together.

Some people also advise uninstalling kombuster and fraps if they are installed.

Almost forget to say that make sure to disable all anti virus and firewalls when installing amd and also run the installation as an administrator.


Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

 

Yeah forgot to mention that youu have to tick the box when deleting the intel driver. Although i did the installation with my antivirus and my firewall on, so ill guess it could work too.

 

One other follow up question. If I do a windows system restore point before I go through this process can I revert to that point and have it wipe out any / all changes made? Just in case I mess something up during the whole thing.

Or are any of these changes "more permanent" and stick even through a system restore?

 

According to what i've read, if you do a system restore to the point where you had your old drivers, any change will be removed. You can use System Restore to return to your previous driver version if you create a restore point prior to installing the driver.

Im not 100% sure anyway.

 

Well first of all, congrats on the baby boy!

A system restore will revert back to old registry values, thus it should - in theory - revert to the previous driver as well (and if it doesn't, you can still use the roll back option in Device Manager, or back up your current registry prior). It only doesn't affect user data and programs.

 

I seem to get mixed remarks on the Restore process and it's exact, actual effects, though.

 

Well I did the update yesterday and it all worked! I haven't had any BSODs yet, but haven't noticed a SIGNIFICANT improvement anywhere. Also the control center looks the exact same as it did before the patch.

Also in the control panel it shows "AMD Catalyst Install Manager" as version 8.0.903.0, not the 9.0 whatever version. Did I perhaps download the wrong file?

Also when I go in to the catalyst control center it has the same exact look / interface as my old one? any insights?

 

Have you checked the 7970m in the device manager? you can see the driver version there

 

Good call. I checked in the device manager and it has it listed as v 9.12

 

I recommend you to do some 3dmark11 tests, use the performance one. You should get around P6500. I got P6555 with 13.1 drivers.

 

This worked wonders, but the switchable graphics section of the catalyst control center is gone! Now I have no idea how to turn on my graphics card!

 

I would recommend re-installing the driver (13.1 right?). If that doesnt work, i would recommend installing the latest beta driver (13.2 beta6), following the same steps EXCEPT the 5th one. No need for CAP2.

Also, you can follow this guide. Its about deleting all amd driver leftovers in a safe way. It fixes a lot of CCC problems. I used it, and my machine is working perfectly.

how to properly uninstall ATI/AMD Software Drivers for Graphics Cards.

Oh, and dont use any programs like driversweeper, they can mess up your machine.