Catalyst 13.1 drivers are out

[bruce]

I'm using FAH 7.2.9 (or at least I think this is the latest version because I could not find any updates)

There's a new version that's out today -- but it won't change anything with regard to hardware/driver issues.

[shiroi_kage]

There's a new version that's out today -- but it won't change anything with regard to hardware/driver issues.

So is it that the new drivers are too different, or do you just need to compile the client for the new drives?

[Wubbbi]

Hello =)

I am using a AMD HD 5770 GPU with the current driver and Windows 8 64bit.

Also I am using the current version of folding@home.
So far so good. Everything seems to work. But I have 1 problem.
My GPU load is only 41%! Why?
Can someone help me?

Greetings

[Joe_H]

Which version do you consider the "current driver"? In any case, 12.8 is the latest version known to be stable for folding. Persons have hacked the install of later versions to get them to work, but not running at close to 100% is one of the known issues with releases after 12.8.

[Wubbbi]

13.1 9.012-121219a-152192C-AT
is my current driver

is it bugged? :/

[Joe_H]

So is it that the new drivers are too different, or do you just need to compile the client for the new drives?

The folding core would have to be recompiled and re-certified to work with the changes in the drivers and the OpenCL SDK. Those are not part of the client, just downloaded and use by the client as it handles WU's to be processed. That is not going to happen as often as new drivers are released by AMD-ATI. Whatever the changes that were made in the drivers or SDK, those were made by AMD-ATI and caused working OpenCL code in the folding core to not work as it did before. They are aware of the issue, how it is fixed is mostly up to them.

[Joe_H]

There are two long threads about issues with the AMD/ATI drivers. They have information on the problems involved, the workarounds others have used, and details on getting the drivers properly installed if you revert to an earlier one. I will merge your post with the first topic, and suggest that you take a look through them both.

Catalyst 13.1

12.10-12-11 Drivers bad for folding

[shiroi_kage]

13.1 9.012-121219a-152192C-AT
is my current driver

is it bugged? :/

The drivers don't seem to be.

It happens that every once in a while a new set of drivers would come along that would require some applications to be modified or recompiled to take advantage of them. Same with games; sometimes a new driver will screw with a game's performance until the game is patched. Most of the time, however, developers of anything tend to have received the drivers in some form and have readied their applications for it.

This seems to be a case of the client not being able to use the drivers, not the drivers being buggy.

[shiroi_kage]

So, I got things back to normal again. Driver fusion to remove everything, AMD uninstaller to remove SDK runtime, install SDK v2.7, install 13.1 drivers to lock all the other slots in (DESELECT SDK when doing so, otherwise you'll need to use the uninstaller to remove the SDK once you're done because it would have updated it), then use 12.10 installer to update the SDK (or any later driver installer)

The point of all of this is to make sure that you have an old SDK so that you can use driver installers to update it without having to fiddle much with the rest of the package's drivers and whatnot. Installers should not mess with up-to-date stuff.

[JimF]

Still another feature that Microsoft has favored us with, which you probably already know, is that they like to download and install new drivers right after you reboot from removing the old drivers. I have found that the MS WHQL drivers can interfere with installing the new AMD drivers you want; sometimes you get stuck with a system that does not fold. So it is best to disconnect your PC from the Internet when updating drivers (or turn off all automatic updates, for whatever good that does you).

But wait, there is still more: MS has ingeniously devised a search for drivers already on your disk, so that even if you disconnect from the Internet, you may have an old driver installed before you can install the new one. One solution for that is to check in Device Manager to see if an unwanted driver is there (the default VGA driver is the one you want), and then not only uninstall it, but deleted it from the drive. Then (maybe), the new driver will install properly. There are people out there who get paid to dream this stuff up.

[lordglenn]

Just wanted to update everyone, I just tried 13.2 beta 5 and it is running my gpu in the 84-98% range now. much better than the previous drivers. I hope the improvements make it into the final driver version.

steps going from 13.1 are
uninstall CAP drivers,
uninstall 13.1 driver,
reboot to safe mode and run driver sweeper removing amd driver leftovers, reboot to normal mode,
install 13.2 beta 5

[DarkFoss]

@JimF, from what I can tell Windows 7 stores a copy of pretty much every certified AMD driver version I've ever installed. They seem to be located in Windows>System32>Driverstore>FileRepository/ For example the 1st driver I installed when I installed Win 7 was cat 11.6 the folder it's stored in is named c7128243.inf_amd64_neutral_e8689e621d43b823>B127441
From what I can see it's the complete uncompressed installer files ready to re-install at a moments notice..I have at least 6 old certified AMD vga drivers listed in the device manager besides the current one and the standard vga driver to choose from.
Once I make a new system image and verify that it's working I'm going to delete those folders 1 at a time and see for sure if they disappear from the managers list of drivers to choose from.
I've had an old driver re-install in the past..only by selecting the standard vga from the list after un-installing the AMD drivers then re-boot disconnected from the internet seems to work consistently. No uninstaller I know of searches and removes files there.

[JimF]

I've had an old driver re-install in the past..only by selecting the standard vga from the list after un-installing the AMD drivers then re-boot disconnected from the internet seems to work consistently. No uninstaller I know of searches and removes files there.

Yes, the uninstallers only get rid of your current driver. It is almost enough to make me want to try Linux. At least I think they don't try to over-engineer everything for you, but I could be wrong as they try to be more like Windows.

[DarkFoss]

true but linux doesn't keep old drivers they uninstall cleanly..I've had no issues there outside of the occasional user error. Currently running a virtual install for my smp folding Win 7 has issues with trying to fold both the gpu and cpu with my amd 8120 even with the patches.

[art_l_j_PlanetAMD64]

Yes, the uninstallers only get rid of your current driver. It is almost enough to make me want to try Linux. At least I think they don't try to over-engineer everything for you, but I could be wrong as they try to be more like Windows.

Yes, the whole Linux experience is much less stressful than having to use Windows. I have five (5) Windows machines, and eight (8) Linux machines (soon to be 9, I'm installing Debian v6.0.6 on the 9th system as we speak), and the constant frustration and high blood pressure caused by Windows trying to "help you" at every turn, is completely absent in Linux (in my personal experience).

What a joy it is, to just plug in a new graphics card [that uses the same driver], and it just works! No more spending an hour (or 2 or 3), fighting against Windows doing the extremely stupid (my opinion) thing about replacing your perfectly good driver with something that looks like it belongs on the Sunday morning children's cartoon shows!