AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta and Catalyst Feature Preview For Windows 8

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AMD sends word that the new AMD Catalyst 12.6 Beta drivers are now out. The company says it is also moving away from its monthly Catalyst release plan. AMD says the goal is to ensure that every Catalyst release delivers a substantial benefit to our end users and, even though you won't see a new driver every month, they will continue to use the current Catalyst naming convention (Catalyst: Year.Month). The AMD 12.6 Beta CAP1 can be found here.

Resolved issue highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 12.6 Beta:

  • AMD Radeon™ HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Tri-CrossFire™ configurations + Eyefinity BSOD when launching a DirectX application.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800 Eyefinity/Multiple Display configurations BSOD when using desktop applications.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7900, AMD Radeon HD 7800, and AMD Radeon HD 7700 cards hang when system goes to sleep.
  • Tearing on Eyefinity configurations when different display connector types are used.
  • Poor Elder Scrolls: Skyrim CrossFire scaling seen in AMD Catalyst 12.4 (back to CrossFire scaling found in AMD Catalyst 12.3).
  • AMD Catalyst Control Center – intermittently missing Overdrive page.
  • AMD Catalyst Control Center – missing GPU Activity gauge.
  • AMD Radeon HD 7900 CrossFire Configuration – system hang after cinematic in Call of Duty: Black Ops.
  • Crysis 2 -random system hangs when run in DirectX 9 mode.
  • Heroes and Generals: Blocky corruption in scenes with smoke effects when run in DirectX 11 mode.
  • Disabled HDMI audio when the connected HDTV is powered Off/On.
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So driver releases are now going to be released in a similar fashion to CrossfireX profiles (as in, several months after games come out)? This does not bode well for Radeon owners IMO.
 
GuruX said:
So driver releases are now going to be released in a similar fashion to CrossfireX profiles (as in, several months after games come out)? This does not bode well for Radeon owners IMO.
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No it just means that they will be releasing drivers when they have a reason to and not simply to be in accordance with some arbitrary schedule. They've already effectively moved to this anyway since beta/preview drivers come out all the time.
 
This pretty much cements my decision to jump ship.
Nothing against AMD / ATI, but my single day with a pair of 670s was almost enough to convince me.
The best cards in the world are nothing without equally adequate drivers.

While delaying an already delayed fix to "get it right" is terrific, why has it taken this long?
 
Catalyst Command Line Interface has stopped working. Any ideas? When I first tried to install these my screen started flashing Red, Blue, White, over and over in a loop. Now I got it to successfully install and I get the above error.
 
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
 
JeffyB said:
This pretty much cements my decision to jump ship.
Nothing against AMD / ATI, but my single day with a pair of 670s was almost enough to convince me.
The best cards in the world are nothing without equally adequate drivers.

While delaying an already delayed fix to "get it right" is terrific, why has it taken this long?
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AMD releases a much anticipated bug fix (finally no tearing in mixed-mode eyefinity, fixed 7xxx series CF, etc.).
Cements your decision to jump ship.

Am I missing something?

It sounds like AMD is moving to a release schedule that is much more similar to nVidia's. The fact of the matter is that both brands need to work on their drivers. For example, I can't even get official nVidia drivers for my 650m - they don't exist and the card has been out for weeks.

Glad that you are enjoying your 670's...
 
Rizen said:
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
Click to expand...

Hey, stop doing that, people will have nothing to complain about!
 
Rizen said:
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
Click to expand...

It will be the same shitty releases only a few months apart now.
 
-Sn1PeR- said:
AMD releases a much anticipated bug fix (finally no tearing in mixed-mode eyefinity, fixed 7xxx series CF, etc.).

It sounds like AMD is moving to a release schedule that is much more similar to nVidia's. The fact of the matter is that both brands need to work on their drivers. For example, I can't even get official nVidia drivers for my 650m - they don't exist and the card has been out for weeks.
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I was a launch day buyer of 2 7970s and had to wait months before the flagship cards got official drivers. For all the hate Nvidia gets from some of its other consumer unfriendly practices (such as TWIWMTBP), at least their drivers are more likely to work on release or in unofficial pre-release. Moreover team green's crucial hotfixes at least have the appearance of coming out in a more timely fashion when dealing with gaming emergencies. So, overall, Nvidia gets a pass on this issue even if it is not entirely deserved.
 
Why does it say "For Windows 8"? Driver page only lists win7/vista/xp/linux

Has anyone noticed the performance go up in skyrim?
 
BoogerBomb said:
It will be the same shitty releases only a few months apart now.
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That has nothing to do with the frequency of their driver releases, though. This can only make things better, it can't make things worse.
 
Not surprised at all. Their driver quality has gone to shit in the last 9 months or so. Almost back to the pre-Radeon levels.

They must have fired most of their driver guys, or they don't have enough of them to keep up.

Shame AMD! Between this news, and some of the advancements Nvidia have made recently, I'm seriously considering moving over to them... This is big for me, as I've been using ATI/AMD for my GFX cards since the Radeon 9700 Pro days, wow 10 years!

BTW, I'm happy for a driver update every 2 or 3 months, but only if it brings real advancements, fixes and features. After all, how is the HW transcoder doing in the 7x00 series??? It's there, but AMD say they don't have the resources to code the software/driver to properly expose it! This just tells me that the budgets have been cut to the bone, and they are starting to fall behind. How long until the same budget cuts affect the GPU design stage as well?
 
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Can confirm that the tearing issue with mixed display adaptors (DP, with HDMI or DVI) is fixed!
 
Rizen said:
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
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Except the radeon drivers don't work well, and when they show up it's infrequently compared to nvidia's constant betas with occasional WHQL. Nvidia's drivers just plain work for people who own these high-end solutions :D.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Except the radeon drivers don't work well, and when they show up it's infrequently compared to nvidia's constant betas with occasional WHQL. Nvidia's drivers just plain work for people who own these high-end solutions :D.
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i remember them working very well when vista came out. What was responsible for over 1/4 of the bsod's when vista came out?:rolleyes:
 
GoldenTiger said:
Except the radeon drivers don't work well, and when they show up it's infrequently compared to nvidia's constant betas with occasional WHQL. Nvidia's drivers just plain work for people who own these high-end solutions :D.
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Pumping out two releases and maintaining separate branches of code certainly isn't helping them, though, is it? NVIDIA doesn't have constant betas either. They release a beta every 4-6 weeks or so. I agree NVIDIA has better drivers than AMD does, but I'm sure part of the problem has been AMD's process. I think this is a step in the right direction.
 
Rizen said:
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
Click to expand...

This. ABSOLUTELY this. It really seems like people aren't understanding how this is actually beneficial in the long run.
 
Rizen said:
I like how people are complaining about this, yet this is exactly what NVIDIA does. They release a WHQL certified driver every few months, with betas released in between. Why would you fault AMD for doing the same thing? If anything, it means you will be getting more stable releases, rather than AMD trying to rush out a driver every month to meet an arbitrary schedule that they imposed on themselves.

This is a good thing by all accounts.
Click to expand...


I don't think either the monthly or occasional schedule is inherently superior. Both can be successful but proper resources have to be allocated and management has to be committed. The idea of a regularly scheduled goal for the developers can focus and drive them. I think Microsoft's monthly Windows patches works pretty well. But if management isn't focused on each month having meaningful bug fixes and updates, it can become a pointless exercise where the goal become to release something every month rather than squash bugs and improve performance. The same pro vs. con applies to an occasional schedule. The lack of a firm target can mean nothing gets done in a reasonable time frame. Or the removal of the pressure to meet an artificial deadline can mean you can take the time to properly code and not push something out for the sake of pushing something out.

The idea AMD was on a monthly schedule that they're now abandoning is a bit idealistic. Although that was their model, beta drivers were released with far greater frequency during the months following the 7900 series launch (I bought a 7970 during launch week). The barrage of drivers undermined one of the rationale for the monthly schedule which was to relieve users of having to be on the watch for the latest unpredictable drop of drivers. Sure they released WHQL drivers pretty much every month but all the beta drivers, so-called "preview" drivers and hot fixes shot a lot of holes into the monthly schedule. It hasn't been pretty. The shift to the new architecture seems to have been a really steep learning curve for the AMD driver team. I had the 5850 and 4870 before and never had driver issues until the 7970.

2012 was suppose to be the year that AMD improved its drivers. I remember articles at the end of last year and beginning of the year where promises to do better were expressed. Six months in and I don't think anyone at AMD should be happy with the driver team's performance this year. Things seems to have settled down finally but it took far too long. Simply changing to an incremental release schedule won't be the magic solution if it's not accompanied by focus, increased resources, better management and coordination between the software and hardware teams or whatever was off. I guess hope springs eternal but I don't think this news means anything by itself. Time will tell.
 
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ddarko said:
I don't think either the monthly or occasional schedule is inherently superior. Both can be successful but proper resources have to be allocated and management has to be committed. The idea of a regularly scheduled goal for the developers can focus and drive them. I think Microsoft's monthly Windows patches works pretty well. But if management isn't focused on each month having meaningful bug fixes and updates, it can become a pointless exercise where the goal become to release something every month rather than squash bugs and improve performance. The same pro vs. con applies to an occasional schedule. The lack of a firm target can mean nothing gets done in a reasonable time frame. Or the removal of the pressure to meet an artificial deadline can mean you can take the time to properly code and not push something out for the sake of pushing something out.

The idea AMD was on a monthly schedule that they're now abandoning is a bit idealistic. Although that was their model, beta drivers were released with far greater frequency during the months following the 7900 series launch (I bought a 7970 during launch week). The barrage of drivers undermined one of the rationale for the monthly schedule which was to relieve users of having to be on the watch for the latest unpredictable drop of drivers. Sure they released WHQL drivers pretty much every month but all the beta drivers, so-called "preview" drivers and hot fixes shot a lot of holes into the monthly schedule. It hasn't been pretty. The shift to the new architecture seems to have been a really steep learning curve for the AMD driver team. I had the 5850 and 4870 before and never had driver issues until the 7970.

2012 was suppose to be the year that AMD improved its drivers. I remember articles at the end of last year and beginning of the year where promises to do better were expressed. Six months in and I don't think anyone at AMD should be happy with the driver team's performance this year. Things seems to have settled down finally but it took far too long. Simply changing to an incremental release schedule won't be the magic solution if it's not accompanied by focus, increased resources, better management and coordination between the software and hardware teams or whatever was off. I guess hope springs eternal but I don't think this news means anything by itself. Time will tell.
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Whoa. Absolutely agree. Well said.
 
These seem really nice on my 7770. On the previous Cats I got some weird flickering in dark areas on the desktop or in game.. Gone now. These also seem a lot smoother now. Sort of like when they got shit together on the 5xxx series drivers. Games aren't running better, but they feel smooth now.
 
Just saw a review of crossfire with cat 12.4 on ocaholic and they were way better.
now to wait for 12.6 bench.
 
AMD is too poor to hire competent programmers for their drivers.

every subsequent driver has more bugs. WTF MAN!


they even have a website to report catalyst bugs, but they still seemingly don't do shit to fix it
 
dr.kevin said:
AMD is too poor to hire competent programmers for their drivers.

every subsequent driver has more bugs. WTF MAN!


they even have a website to report catalyst bugs, but they still seemingly don't do shit to fix it
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Not sure what the reason is, but I am confident it has nothing to do with finances. I'm guessing they just don't think it's as important as other things. Who knows. These 3 7970's I have are great, and the first AMD cards I have purchased in probably 5 years, but will most likely be the last ONLY because of shitty ass drivers.
My 260's, 470's 580's and 680's didn't have the problems that these do. Nice work AMD.
 
GoldenTiger said:
Except the radeon drivers don't work well, and when they show up it's infrequently compared to nvidia's constant betas with occasional WHQL. Nvidia's drivers just plain work for people who own these high-end solutions :D.
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301.42 Bug List
VSYNC causes drop in FPS every 30 seconds on GTX 600 series cards - We’ve root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though and will not be available until our next major driver release in June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable vsync via the NVIDIA Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.

Full Geforce 600M notebook Verde driver support is targeted for our next major driver release

UI and sky flickers in Tera Online - Reproduced. No ETA for fix.

3D clock speeds drop when playing games with certain factory overclocked graphics cards - We are investigating the cause of this bug. ETA fix for next major driver release.

Dirt 3 fails to launch with FXAA and 3D Vision Enabled - Scheduled for next major driver release

Enabling AA via NVCPL does not work with 3DTV play resolution (NVCPL Vsync On). - Scheduled for next major driver release

Unable to enable multi-displays mode while in multi-GPU mode with Geforce GTX 295 with all drivers after 285.62. - Scheduled for next major driver release

FXAA when applied globally cause Windows Live Mail text to be blurry. - Scheduled for next major driver release

Binary Domain graphic corruption - This is a game bug. Our developer relations team is informing the developers of this game of the issue
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Posted 22 May 2012 - 07:27 PM
Hi,

My thred : http://forums.nvidia...howtopic=229948


Driver fails to install/complete errors:
If the NVIDIA display driver installer fails to install because of some type of install error, please provide the following information:
1) Desktop/notebook make or model (if you have a custom PC, simply note Custom PC and provide your motherboard make and model)

Desktop with GTX 480 + Custom PC P7P550 LE motherboard with the lasted firmwire update.

2) Please indicated the previous driver version you were using

260.10 and i reinstalled it without any issue...

3) How was the driver installed?

-Express Installation everytime

4) Microsoft UAC is disabled


5) Have you used any registry cleaner/optimizer/security tool since the last successful NVIDIA driver installation?

Tuneup utilities but i removed it from my cpu while ago

6) Are you using any anti-virus program? If so, which one?

Microsoft security essential

7) Which driver version were you updating from?

260.10 ==> 301.42

Just wanna add that with the 260.10 i've go no problem to uninstall and reinstall it

This post has been edited by ryansoldat: 22 May 2012 - 07:30 PM
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Omg i hope you are kidding:(.Like "thousands" people reported this issue here and how it's happening but you can,t reproduce it.Try playing some stream from twitch.tv and play a 3d game at the same time alt tab between them from time to time but then exit the game continue to watch the stream and after some time start the game again and that's when the clock bug happens for me at least. That's how it happens to me it's not always, not more than one or two times per day but i am quite sure it's related with flash streams or videos.For me it happend so far the most in World of Warcraft Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3.And since this bug have never happend in 296.10 and the drivers before why don't you roll back the clocks behaviors to this drivers for GTX 500 series.

This post has been edited by fearunbg: 22 May 2012 - 07:38 PM
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Gigabyte GV-N460SO-1GI BIOS 70.04.13.00.01(original)
GPU Clock always 50MHz(original: 815 MHz) :angry:
went back to the 296.10
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Posted 22 May 2012 - 09:39 PM
Black screen during the install, which never returns to windows.

After a reboot can hear windows starting, nothing is displayed.

All drivers since 285.62 have this issue.
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Performance decrease in Batman AC from 62 avg fps to 41... terrible!
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I just like to know when will I be able to upgrade without breaking DirectX support prior to 9. I'm still stuck on 268.03 drivers on XP and 167.xx on Win7.

This post has been edited by filipetolhuizen: 23 May 2012 - 01:10 AM
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Posted 23 May 2012 - 01:33 AM
went back to the last set of whql drivers. while FXAA works great and looks better and runs better then the swtor AA, there is problem with it being on and Vsync, causeing frame rate to drop/get capped at 30 fps which in turn makes the game run in slow mode while framerate drops to 30
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Posted 23 May 2012 - 04:29 AM
Using Win7 64-bit.

I run dual Zotac GTX 580 3GB AMP2 in SLI and all games have massive performance drops with 301.24 beta and now 301.42 WHQL drivers. I made a similar complaint in the beta driver thread.
Going from 90-150 FPS on games such as BF3 down to less than 12. Dota 2 from the capped 120 to less than 60. Red Orchestra 2 from around 80 stable to 11 constant.

MSI afterburner reports when vsync is disabled that my GPU's are using 99% of their resources on all games; the temperatures are lower than normal, but the VRAM in question is less than that used in my 296.10 settings. On 296.10 it caps at 120 fps on Dota 2 beta and is only using less than 50% of my GPU usage and temps are at ~55 degrees celcius instead of 300 series 35 celcius [what my pc idles at in 296.10], but it is actively using more VRAM and resources to run the game.

Turning on/off ambient occlusion, adaptive/regular/none v-sync, on/off SLI, etc. doesn't change the low frame rate I get on these drivers. I didn't notice artifacts in any game however.
note: I haven't bothered to downclock because I think others have made it apparent that is indeed the issue.

Running prior and reverting to 296.10 seems to fix everything and all my programs and games run perfectly.

This post has been edited by anti 4u2nV: 23 May 2012 - 04:30 AM
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Youtube plays blackscreen with pixelated top section. Right clicked the movie and UNCHECKED hardware acceleration, videos play again.

This is on my GTX580.

Seems like this got buggered with the this driver.
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Posted 23 May 2012 - 11:23 AM
I have a gts 250 and after updating to this driver the UI and sky flickers in Tera Online.
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1) N/A - Poor performance effects all 3D rendered games/applications
2) As Above
3) N/A
4) Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD3 (rev. 2.0) BIOS F11 (08/10/2010)
5) See Attachments
6) Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64
7) Corsair HX650W 650 Watt PSU
8) 4GB DDR3 1600MHz Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C9 [Corsair 4GB Kit (2x2GB), PC-12800 (1600MHz) DDR3, XMS3, 9-9-9-24, Dual Channel Kit]
9) Last known working driver - GeForce 296.10 Driver WHQL (March 13, 2012)
10) I do not have a 3D monitor, therefore I do not install the 3D Vision/Surround drivers.
11) Poor performance is reproduced by just playing any 3D rendered game, no matter what circumstance.
12) Factory Overclocked
13) Not running SLI
14) Single Display
15) Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer
16) All 3D rendered games/applications
17) N/A
18) Poor performance both Single Player and Multiplayer

I have replicated that with the new NVIDIA 301.42 WHQL driver installed, it has caused it to half utilise my Gigabyte GeForce GTX 460 SuperOverclock's GPU Core Clock. As all games run like 15-30 FPS on lowest settings. When with the previous WHQL driver (296.10) FPS was fine, no matter what game.

Also re-running the Windows Experience Index caused the graphics/gaming subscores to drop, as shown below.

296.10 WHQL driver
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irst time posting, long time fan

i am using msi gtx 470 and the game goes to bloody slide show when using the new drives (301.42)

using the old 296 driver solved the problem

anyone else with this problem? hope there is fix soon, thanks.
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Plus loads more
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=229953&st=0&p=1411754&#entry1411754
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=207
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=256
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showforum=246
 
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I have 2x5870 in xfire. The only time that I switched drivers was to use the one (11.4 ?) that gave the 5 series xfire ability for Skyrim. Done playing Skyrim and went back to the 10.2's.
 
Vagrant_Zero said:
You mean of the millions of people that use Nvidia cards some will inevitably have issues?

Unpossible.

:rolleyes:
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The same goes for AMD, the point is not to generalise and come out with exaggerated blanket statements.

It just works is as bad as what some Apple users try to claim.
 
So.... do tri-fire 7970s now play stutter-free in eyefinity in BF3? I unloaded my cards already but wondered if the problem was driver or just the hardware arrangement of CF as opposed to SLI.
 
I sent a ticket about the HDMI power cycle issue more than a year ago now. They insisted the problem was on my end.
Finally a fix.
I can now upgrade drivers.
 
blandead said:
Has anyone noticed the performance go up in skyrim?
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Yep, played some Skyrim last night on my 7970 CF setup and performance seems to be improved... don't have any benches to compare but the experience "feels" smoother, especially in large outdoor areas and cities like Markarth.
 
I haven't tried playing with it but I am only getting "tearing" on my left monitor. I use 3x24in + a 32inch setup. dual 6950s user here.
 
If you honestly look at AMD since the 7970 was released, they had already gone to an "as-needed" driver release schedule.

They were quite behind and really haven't been on a monthly schedule since December.

I think it's a good idea to just be done when it's done, and use betas to fix isssues.

That said, AMD made a statement to improve the driver situation, just after the 7970 release, so far it doesn't look too good for them.

I hope they straighten things out.:D
 
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