CAT: 13.10b Worth It

[PcGuy78]

Hello [H] users; been a while since my last contributions which can be attributed to the new love that I'd developed for my rig. For a "chip maker", AMD has alwas listened to it's following--even if it takes 5years!! Regardless they've earned a permanent spot in computing greatness. With that small snippet inserted we'll switch attention to this 13.10b suite-SWEET! 1st word coming to mind with "thanks" and "keep it up" following closely behind.
After the 1st boot with the 13.10b I noticed better -- well everything. From the CCC gui load time to the amount of pause between res swaps( I perform a ton of these daily), everything about this BETA software eludes to the advent of a new AMD-especially in the software dept. And YES, I am a fan of AMD>Nvidia, but this thread is simply to state that AMD continually IMPROVES. That aspect of their business model proves they not only are serious about the future, but also remain faithful to the tech they introduce to the computing sector. MY rig's still running 2x5770's and they "feel" better than new. Finally, I can honestly attest to "smoothness" and "sharpness" in one design. I've yet to see AMD rendering 3D this smoothly all the while saving our beautiful planet one innovation at a time. LONG live AMD!

P.s.
Seems like enabling GPU scaling is necessary whn using varying aspect ratios. I tried a few res changes and got black screens on GTA-IV loading. Also swapping from native [16:10 1680x1050] to [4:3 1440x1050] in CS"GO envoked a garbled screen similar to the effect of unsupported res garble on the old CRT monitors. FUnny that this garble was only on the CS:GO display while my desktop monitor remained stable--weird. Easily fixed by enabling the GPU scaling and 2nd'ary scaling option under "Digital Flat Panel". Hope this may allieve any symptoms experienced by res changes. Kudos AMD!! Any word on the nxt series GPU's? I'm interested in TWO!

--heheh guess which component is bn'n the system atm??

 

[Dan]

hm, i dont think i have it yet. ill download it for my 7970 tonight

 

[Tanquen]

I don’t know, I still have lots of issues. CCC crashes often and then I can’t change presets, you still (after years) have to switch to standard view to make a preset or it won’t save all the settings, second GPU almost always at 99% usage, can’t switch CrossFire on or off, mouse courser still gets corrupted. These and numerous other issues should have been fixed years ago. Don’t get me wrong, fixing stuff is great but I had my 7970 for almost a year before they fixed the X79 motherboard crashing and the fixed some of the DX9-10 corruption. Been building PCs and upgrading them for a long time and my new system with the 7970 is the worst build I’ve ever been through.

 

[PcGuy78]

Interesting that those cross platforms have some cfx issues. Cross-plat as in INTEL cpu a/AMD SB Chipsets. Ive noticed the sigs of those w/issues are of this config. Maybe it's INTEL haterade? Remember the older s939 nVidia/ATi halfbreed. Unlike the INTEL counterpart, this config had 0 issues w/PCI-e. Granted that mobo has 1 x16 slot. Could be an issue w.the mixed breed... Also, now I know most of us are avid powerusers here so please bear w/me on this next segment. Are you running identical GPU's? Even a variance in those BIOS can invoke improper usage. Here are the pics from my 5770's . Activity and useage are normal. The temps are a lil higher because I'm gaming atm. Took a min to respond here because this useage issue bothered me for a while until both BIOS were synchronized. In order for synchronization both GPU BIOS(s) required flashing. OR maybe just the 2nd card, but I was goin' [H] that day so every possibility went checked.

~~GPU#1:

~~GPU#2:

All clocks on GPU2 scaling properly and Identical temps which all dual GPU owners know is a feat in itself!
==============================================================

Also, Tanquen, which version of CCC ran your GPU's properly before attempting the 13.10b?

 

[Tanquen]

Same make model vintage, identical. Don't know, saw it first on 13.10 and only ran them a few hours but it was at 99% all the time. Even after a reboot. I went back to 13.8b2 and it was good again. I have seen that it will show 99% at times. Don't know why. Also I could not change the CrossFire setting in 13.10. Once I went back to 13.8b2 I could. ??? Just looked at it now and the GPU2 page is missing most of the info. Not seen that before. I just want it to work. You would hope that any driver AMD releases could always read an AMD cards status, always.

 

[PcGuy78]

That overuseage symptom is an unfortunate incompatibility issue once plaguing this setup as well. Only fix was a bios flash for Card two; which rendered the cfx unstable... pffft bad luck. Your GPU-z, under the 13.10b showed both gpu's @x16 for the pci-e lanes? Throttling happens when the lanes are bottlenecked.
On the bright side 13.8b steps bounds away from previous drivers and Im speaking solely on person experience. There's a nice article here on [H] I'd skimmed through detailing AMD's latest successful effort at removing microstutter. Either suite seems accpetable at this point. Only reason I even switched was because the 13.8's rendered 3D so cleanly that I had to see what was under the hood next.
Hopefully more hardware designers/manufacturers adopt a similar insight into longevity of their products. imho we allowed too much tech into our sectors.

 

[Priller]

With the new beta drivers I have noticed a little bit of improvement but not much since I am still waiting on the eyefinity driver to be released.

 

[killernerd]

I don’t know, I still have lots of issues. CCC crashes often and then I can’t change presets, you still (after years) have to switch to standard view to make a preset or it won’t save all the settings, second GPU almost always at 99% usage, can’t switch CrossFire on or off, mouse courser still gets corrupted. These and numerous other issues should have been fixed years ago. Don’t get me wrong, fixing stuff is great but I had my 7970 for almost a year before they fixed the X79 motherboard crashing and the fixed some of the DX9-10 corruption. Been building PCs and upgrading them for a long time and my new system with the 7970 is the worst build I’ve ever been through.

not to mention the issues these cards had with X58 chipsets... I bought 2 within 1 month after they got released and it took the derps at AMD over a year to get the drivers to a usable level.

BSODS
hardlocks
display driver crashes
flickering
stuttering
corrupted graphics
etc.

When contacting support they were so stupidly sure that the fault was with my machine and not their drivers.
So, i upgraded my old x58 system to a new X79 system. But, obviously, the issues persisted.

yeah, fun times.

 

[dook43]

not to mention the issues these cards had with X58 chipsets... I bought 2 within 1 month after they got released and it took the derps at AMD over a year to get the drivers to a usable level.

BSODS
hardlocks
display driver crashes
flickering
stuttering
corrupted graphics
etc.

When contacting support they were so stupidly sure that the fault was with my machine and not their drivers.
So, i upgraded my old x58 system to a new X79 system. But, obviously, the issues persisted.

yeah, fun times.

I had a 7970 and 7950 crossfire working great on a Rampage II Extreme. Launch 7970 followed up by April 2013 7950s.

 

[PcGuy78]

Seeing the last few replies semi-reaffirms my suspicions that INTEL/AMD combos experience issues w/Catalyst drivers. Question: Are owners of AMD CPU/GPU based systems experiencing the same issues as INTEL CPU users? Converselyy, are nVidia drivers problematic on AMD based systems? Still wondering if that may be an avenue worth investigating.
I noticed different system behaviord while briefly running my rig w/a 460Gtx(1GB). It was perfectly stable, just noticed more black screens b4 the windows logo during startups and an initial screen flash anytime BIOS pages were changed. Weird to say the least but not detrimental to performance. Kind of a signal that the two technologies, AMD & nVidia, were recognized differently by the chipset.

 

[LakeErieWater]

Thanks for posting, didn't even know 13.10b was out, downloading now.

 

[killernerd]

I had a 7970 and 7950 crossfire working great on a Rampage II Extreme. Launch 7970 followed up by April 2013 7950s.

sure, they work fine now. But for the first year (almost) the system was so unstable that i actually took one out and had it collecting dust for a couple of months.

And even after that the stability and performance were "meh" at best. I believe they first implemented a "fix" for the "occasional hang on x58 and x79 systems" with the 12.11b drivers but it took untill the 13.1 or 13.2 drivers for my system to become reasonably stable.

The first really good drivers (for me) were the 13.4, after those i haven't had a single crash or issue with my cards.

So I bought both those 7970's in early januari 2012 and it took them untill late 2012, early 2013 to get them working decently in cf. And only now am i truely enjoying them with custom cf profiles and frame pacing.

so yeah.

Seeing the last few replies semi-reaffirms my suspicions that INTEL/AMD combos experience issues w/Catalyst drivers. Question: Are owners of AMD CPU/GPU based systems experiencing the same issues as INTEL CPU users? Converselyy, are nVidia drivers problematic on AMD based systems? Still wondering if that may be an avenue worth investigating.
I noticed different system behaviord while briefly running my rig w/a 460Gtx(1GB). It was perfectly stable, just noticed more black screens b4 the windows logo during startups and an initial screen flash anytime BIOS pages were changed. Weird to say the least but not detrimental to performance. Kind of a signal that the two technologies, AMD & nVidia, were recognized differently by the chipset.

correction: they used to have issues with x79 and x58 chipsets (so yes, Intel mobos and cpus). For me, the 13.10b have been superb. Stable, good performance and no frigging stuttering (thanks to the framepacing option)!