So... 7970M Driver Update

Are you seeing any difference in terms of utilization?
Are these the same as the drivers that are supposed to be released at 3PM?

 

Before the 12.11 the I couldn't play BF3 at medium or low because of the low gpu usage.
But now I can and it runs great.

I play Skyrim with 70 mods and the Gpu usage was always high. So I didn't see any improvement.

Lineage 2 always played crap and the gpu usage was always at 20.
And now with the new drivers it may got a little better I think. But still feels choppy. Don't know if it's an utilization problem or not.

I am installing Sleeping Dogs right now i'll post the results when it's done.

 

Thanks! I'm very eager to see if utilization goes up for Minecraft, which was always stuck at around 20-25% for me

 

I already posted this in the logging thread so just in case somebody missed it:

Great news guys. I just tested the leaked driver. I knew what I should do right away to see an improvement immediately. F1 2011 benchmark was so heavy affected that it ran 32 fps no matter what resolution I choose or what settings.
Now I loaded the benchmark maxed out 8x aa and fps from 60-70. However msi afterburner wont let me see usage and clocks like before even with kombuster on and set to high performance.
For those trying to install it heres what I did. I came from the 12.9 bete where you had to install the intel driver first and than the amd driver, so I just uninstalled the amd and installed the new one, works no problem, except I cant see the temperature nor the clocks.

For those who have other drivers :
1, uninstall amd driver, restart. If it dindt uninstall the intel driver, uninstall that one as well.
2, Some say that driver sweeper deletes some important files, so for those ho dont wanna use driver sweeper do this :
how to properly uninstall ATI/AMD Software Drivers for Graphics Cards.
But from my personal exmperience , I never had any problems with driver sweeper
restart
3, check device manager and display adapters, you should have two standard vga adapters, one with an exclamation mark, If not uninstall them through device manager and restart again
4 download the intel hd driver from intel page and install it
restart
5, install the asders 12.11 leaked driver or wait for the release that should be here any time now.
restart
6, If you find out how to monitore ussage and clocks let my know

I didnt try any other game, jut this one to see right away if somethings fixed, and reported .
will try other games and report back.

EDIT: just tested bf 3 caspian border 64p. much much better. Put everything from low to ultra right away and didnt drop below 36 fps even in heavy gunfight and explosions. in normal combat ultra around 45 fps.!!!!!!!!! even more. On high medium no problem to maintain constant 60..
EDIT 2 : Also tested crisis bud just for few secons and it also looks much better.

 

i saw some said the mem clock still high when idle and make the card hotter, have you checked this?

 

for bf3, do you have anti-aliasing deferred/post on maximum? also anisotropic filtering on 16X?

 

I wish I could check that, msi afterburner isn't shoving anything. I also read that somewhere. Also cant check usage only fps.

 

Yop it was maxed all the way 4x aa and 16 anisotrphy. Perfect performance if you ask me.

 

Great news. I assume we are still waiting for the "fixed" release?

 

this sounds good, i might upgrade to 7970m, only $450 and i could sell my old 675m

 

Thank you wingman4ever, great to hear. Apparently some of the general GCN improvements did rub off onto the 7970m in Enduro enabled configurations.

AMD will repost at 3PM ET. That is the driver we will be benchmarking after work/school today.

Now, I wonder if we will be able to see afterburner values. Those are kind of important if you ask me.

 

It's not available just yet on support.amd.com. Whats the best place to get it?

 

People say that the official launch will occur today, 3PM PT (Pacific time).
Therefore, it should be on AMD's website within 3 hours

Edit: For now, you can test the leaked driver (not the final version), kindly posted by the user asder00 here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sag...es-only-post-logs-no-questions-please-51.html
Link to leaked driver: http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/4431252/file.html

 

Actually its Eastern Time and thus my timezone.

 

Actually there is a controversy about it (ET ou PT).
On rage3d I read that will be released at 3pm PT.
Source: Catalyst 12.11 is coming... 10/22 3PM ET - Rage3D Discussion Area

PS: Despite the title shows ET. In the post they talk specifically PT

 

AMD Catalyst 12.11 Beta 3 9.01.8 – BenchmarK3D

 

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/beta/AMD_Catalyst_12.11_Beta3_dotNET4.exe

 

Nice.

Release notes about enduro issue:
"AMD Catalyst Mobility 7970M performance for AMD Enduro™ Technology supported platforms has been substantially improved for DirectX 10 and DirectX 11 applications. An updated driver for 7970M users featuring AMD Enduro™ Technology with additional DirectX 9 performance improvements will be released soon."
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalystSoftwareSuiteVersion1211BetaReleaseNotes.aspx

So, they only fixed the problem concerning the DX 10 and 11

 

yeah but hardly anyone plays DX 9 games.could probably use your HD 4000 or 3000 to run DX 9 games fluently

 

This driver doesn't seem to work at all for me. Nothing seems to launch off my 7970M. I've uninstalled my AMD drivers, Intel Drivers, Driver sweeped, installed intel, restarted, installed the AMD ones, restarted. Nothing

 

could you give us the link for the intel drivers, i tried some but didn't work /:

 

I got the ones for win 7 off the intel website

 

i'm also on the website should i get the drivers for for 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ Processors with Intel® HD Graphics 4000/2500 version 15.​26.​12.​64.​2761 ?

 

Wow, I'll post some numbers later but all I can say for now is wow. This is good.

 

So for the non-leaked drivers, does Afterburner work on it?

 

Apparently not.
It seems to be a bug with all affected cards: http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?t=33995452
I think that an afterburner update should fix this.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gam...-amd-ati-radeon-ccc-12-11-beta1-driver-7.html

see if that works

 

What are the proper Intel drivers? 8.951.6.0?

 

This seems to have severely cut my performance. In GW2 my gpu won't run higher than 53c making me believe that the utilization is awful. For windows experience index, it now registers a 5.8 / 6.9 or so. Frame Rate in GW2 in lion's arch on max settings is like 10fps, while on the auto detect i get 22-25. Outdoors alone i get at most 35 fps. Nothing seems to recognize the graphics card anymore. Kombuster doesn't seem to run properly. GPU-Z is all weird about it (hardly launching most of the time), Afterburner is all whack. Nothing seems to get my Card to run higher than 53c. That's like 30% usage at best. Seriously disappointed right now.

 

I would also like an answer and link please.

 

No changes in BF3, maybe even worse... I'm a little concerned right now.

 

I installed this over my 12.9 drivers. Is that alright?

 

Afterburner won't work, but things have improved. I did a fresh Windows 7 install, and simply installed the driver after everything else. Oh, and BF3 has been vastly improved. Will post something more meaningful soon.

 

Everything else meaning every driver including the Intel and AMD graphics? Where did you download them? What version?

 

Yeah. No luck with the "-xcl" setting (rebooted and everything).
I'm seeing performance increases across the board though.

I wonder if I can play Borderlands 2 with physx on med/high and not experience frame drops. That's the next test.

 

Just clean installed OS and everything on the Sager CD except for the AMD graphics drivers. I used the download link provided here and after a BSOD, I restarted in safe mode, then restarted normally. Everything has worked since.

Edit: I didn't address the intel issue. Clean installing Win 7 Ultimate, I didn't even bother looking up the intel drivers. Device manager showed intel there and a generic VGA device, which of course I downloaded the AMD driver for.

 

Check Caustic Caverns for me!

 

I am seeing significant performance improvements for Saints Row 3! Sleeping Dogs demo is also super stable now. At least in the demo, FPS is well above 60FPS (with AA at normal), even in the more taxing areas.

Still the same GTA IV performance, mainly because that is a DX9 title and this current version does not include the DX9 improvements. My install steps:

1. Download the the AMD 12.11 driver here: AMD Catalyst
2. Download the Intel HD 4000 15.26.12.64.2761 graphics driver: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=21430&lang=eng
3. Download Driver Fusion here: Driver Fusion - The Complete Driver Solution
4. Uninstall all AMD files through the Catalyst manager (you can access this by going to the Uninstall a Program section in Windows and selecting "Change" on the AMD option)
5. Restart, and install Driver Fusion
6. Restart in safe mode (type in msconfig in run, go to the boot tab, and select safe mode), run Driver Fusion and delete both AMD Driver and Intel Display Driver files
7. Restart in normal mode (uncheck safe mode in msconfig), install every component in the AMD 12.11 package
8. Restart in safe mode (you have to one more time or you will get a BSOD on normal startup), install the Intel HD 4000 8.15.26.12.64.2761 driver
9. Restart in normal mode and you will be good to go

*Update* I edited this to add Intel Display Driver. Make sure you do not delete the Intel Chipset drivers in Driver Fusion!

 

Nice got that up and running and GW2 seems to run beautifully. My only thing now is I can't get MSI afterburner to work anymore...

 

Hi Guys!

Long time follower here.. but seldom poster as I seem to manage to find all my answers among the threads.. Keep up the good work and I'm proud of our community here.. =)

Just one question though, I didn't upgrade from the stock drivers. But when I uninstalled it to use these new drivers, It didn't uninstall properly. I got the question mark at the end. But I still went through, and used driver fusion. As the steps above. When It installed, I stilll got the question mark at the end. With the warning.

Is that okay? or should I re-do everything again?


thank you!


Sev

 

The question mark is in the device manager? If so, double click on it and post what it says.

 

I just did a quick test of 64 player Caspian Border on BF3.

Earlier, I did a test before upgrading as a control. I used the FRAPS benchmark tool.

Min: 21
Max: 75
Avg: 39.542

I did the same test after upgrading:

Min: 40
Max: 86
Avg: 57.565

That's approximately a 20 FPS (45%) difference in average FPS!

Also note: these tests were done on the settings recommended for me with the previous driver version.

+rep, worked perfectly

 

Just to add my notes to your post... only this variation stopped the BSODs for me and prevented my VGA fan from being constantly active.

1. Download the the AMD 12.11 driver
2. Download the Intel HD 4000 15.26.12.64.2761 graphics driver
3. Uninstall all AMD files through the Catalyst manager, including the Intel driver
3a. I had some difficulty with Intel's drivers' insisting on remaining installed, so I deleted them via the Device Manager after step 3.
4. Restart in normal mode - you should have an awful resolution and two standard VGA adapters in device manager.
5. Install the Intel HD 4000 8.15.26.12.64.2761 driver.
6. Reboot in normal mode. Windows' Aero will likely be disabled. The Intel HD graphics system tray icon will be missing.
7. Install every component in the AMD 12.11 package (I omitted the transcoding drivers/software...)
8. Restart in normal mode and you will be good to go

Early results: 3DMark06 (anyone remember how this Enduro issue was first identified haha?) is up to >22500 from 20000 for me. 3DMark11 P score is in excess of 6500 . I will try to post game results later.

 

Good notes.

Sigbin, did you follow through to the last step?

 

Hello,

I tried your first set of steps and it worked at first, but then after any restart I would end up in a BSOD.

You second set of steps don't end up in a BSOD but 7970M now has a question mark in the Device Manager and CCC doesn't run and pops up an error instead.

Any tips?

 

Yes. I did. Through the last number and did it twice. It might be an isolated case. I was able to get it to work. The device manager said it was installed properly. But after the catalyst installation, I got an error message. So I viewed the logs but it said everything was a success. No error messages there. And I got my first BSOD after about 2 mins.

So i repeated your steps. But this time, the uninstallation went fine. Got the green check mark in the end.
Installed everything. But the question mark with the warning again after the error. And a BSOD every after second restart.

So I tried the steps from DocOccam above.

Got it running okay so far. Using it right now. Will try a couple of restarts and update if necessary.

Thank you TrantaLocked for the steps. =) a new learning experience for me

 

I followed TrantaLocked's method and everything seems to work after step 9 until I tried to reboot one more time and there's my BSOD again. After that, pretty much BSOD every time. I may have to try your method but am too tired tonight to go through it. Just want to clearify a few things from your steps.

3. Uninstall all AMD files through the Catalyst manager, including the Intel driver Is there an option to uninstall Intel driver within Catalyst manager? I can't remember it or am I reading it wrong?
3a. I had some difficulty with Intel's drivers' insisting on remaining installed, so I deleted them via the Device Manager after step 3. Did you use Driver Fusion at all?

Thanks

 

If you use the option when uninstalling the AMD drivers that says something like "Remove all AMD drivers" (last option), it will remove your Intel driver as well.

It appears the main difference between DocOccam's method and Tranta's is the order in which you install the AMD and Intel drivers. Does this make a difference?

 

I got 57 fps average on bf3 caspian border too, running with high settings and vsync on.
Did you try run it with ultra settings?

 

If you are able to install the Intel driver and you still get BSODs, I guess I got lucky. Note that I was getting BSODs until I installed the Intel driver, and I could only get into Windows to install it if I booted in safe mode. Refer to my step 7. After that point, I kept trying to reboot into normal mode, and right when I logged in I would have a BSOD. I force shut down and tried Safe Mode, and from there I had no BSODs, installed the new Intel package, and rebooted in normal mode.

I just want to make sure you guys are not deleting the Intel Chipset drivers in Driver Fusion. You just want to delete the Intel and AMD Display drivers. DocOccam does not include using Driver Fusion in his steps, and besides that the order he installed the Intel and AMD drivers was different but I don't think it makes a difference. His method is likely the safest since it shouldn't result in any BSODs.