Catalyst 10.1 is out

Domingo said:
multi-channel PCM still screws up over 96000 Hz.
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Agreed. ...I get problems (with channel dropouts and distortion) above 24 bit / 48 KHz. ATI must not pay attention to their forums because this issue was discussed in multiple threads. Really disappointing that it isn't fixed and the audio drivers are from November.

Even more amusing is that under "Fixed Issues" they put:

"Loss of HDMI signal may no longer occurs when viewing Blu-ray content"

C'mon... It's not fixed if it "may" still happen!

We waited until the end of January for 10.1s and this is what we get?
 
Seems like my eyefinity game play is a bit "smoother" feeling across the board with these drivers... but it's possible I am trying to feel that also.. projecting.. what have you. ;)
 
yeah, l4d2 is for sure better on my single 5870.. with 16x AA and 4x AA (all other settings max) in that fire part when you come out of the elevator it used to get a little jittery but now it's pretty smooth there... very impressive for one gpu doing all that rendering real time. the only thing I notice is that in that building, when I get near a wall the FOV is so wide that I can see through wall on the side I am next to.. seems like a bug with l4d2 because it doesn't happen in any other game..
 
I can't help but feel that all games are playing MUCH smoother now on my 4890.
 
criccio said:
I can't help but feel that all games are playing MUCH smoother now on my 4890.
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They worked on performance on last-gen instead of focusing on fixing major issues on current gen? Excellent!

(not a knock on your last-gen, still a great card...)
 
PynkFloydd said:
Agreed. ...I get problems (with channel dropouts and distortion) above 24 bit / 48 KHz. ATI must not pay attention to their forums because this issue was discussed in multiple threads. Really disappointing that it isn't fixed and the audio drivers are from November.

Even more amusing is that under "Fixed Issues" they put:

"Loss of HDMI signal may no longer occurs when viewing Blu-ray content"

C'mon... It's not fixed if it "may" still happen!

We waited until the end of January for 10.1s and this is what we get?
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I had to jump through a lot of hoops to get Blu-Rays to work well on my system. I went on AVS forums and had to have their gurus create an EDID override driver for my receiver. That finally enabled bistreaming. It's still shaky sometimes, but at least it works. For audio drivers, I've just started using the Realtek HDMI driver. The latest one (12/15) enables "always on" PCM audio and a lot of configuration options.

With the 5870 multi-channel PCM audio, it seems like it can only handle a certain quality of audio and system activity before it goes bonkers. I had mine at 16/96 (24/48 also works, like you mention) and that was my sweet spot. If I go higher, whenever I open more than 1-2 windows audio will start jumping around to the wrong speakers or getting scratchy.
 
Looks like all my benchmarks from the 9.12 CATs (3DMark Vantage, DiRT2, Borderlands, etc.) actually got worse with the 10.1s. They also failed to fix the vertical black bars in the Unigine Heaven demo. :mad:
 
lol...another "Hotfix" the day after a real driver release comes out. Oh ATI, my journey back to the red side has certainly been filled with potholes.

Anyway, to install the hotfix, just install it over the 10.1's. It's a full driver release, it's just not WHQL'd. They did this last month, too.
 
Domingo said:
With the 5870 multi-channel PCM audio, it seems like it can only handle a certain quality of audio and system activity before it goes bonkers. I had mine at 16/96 (24/48 also works, like you mention) and that was my sweet spot. If I go higher, whenever I open more than 1-2 windows audio will start jumping around to the wrong speakers or getting scratchy.
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Luckily, my receiver plays nice with bitstreaming. ...although since I route HDMI to the receiver and use a DVI port straight to the TV, I have to disable the 2nd output to get HDCP to authorize protected content.

Your PCM issue sounds 100% like mine. If I touch another window it goes crazy. I can leave settings at multichannel and 24/192 but I can't touch anything else while something is playing. I've also had (ATI) driver crashes when fast forwarding a ripped mkv file. I didn't have any of these issues with PCM using the 4870 I had.

I saw something where people are having luck manually editing how Powerplay adjusts clock settings. I've tried using Asus's overclocking utility to manually lock in settings and had no luck.

It'd be nice if a company wasn't able to advertise a feature (like full bitstreaming and HDMI audio support) unless it worked 100%.
 
Caution advised with these drivers and a 5970.

I think I figured out whey they 'fix' the dual-GPU L4D2 bug, suddenly allow vsync to work in Eyefinity resolutions and halve framerates in just about every benchmark.

Is there a way to check if both your GPU's are being utilised on a 5970, in games?

EDIT: Just tested. Using 9.12 hotfix and 'disabling catalyst AI' to force it to use one GPU core also 'fixes' L4D2 dual-GPU bug, fixes vsync in Eyefinity and halves framerates. I think the 10.1's are simply breaking dual-GPU support in Eyefinity and not fixing anything.
 
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The issue of it setting the wrong 2d clocks when using 2 monitors AND overclocking still has not been fixed.

Seriously now....
 
Domingo said:
lol...another "Hotfix" the day after a real driver release comes out. Oh ATI, my journey back to the red side has certainly been filled with potholes.

Anyway, to install the hotfix, just install it over the 10.1's. It's a full driver release, it's just not WHQL'd. They did this last month, too.
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How is that different with nVidia's beta drivers? Ati releases a WHQL driver once a month but now it is getting better with hotfixes and betas as well.
 
Jimboski30 said:
the hotfix did? im having that problem with my 5870s dual monitor the primary is messed...
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Not running the hotfix, and it doesn't sound like we're having the same issue at all.

The Sleep/Resume issue that many were having the the HD3200, was that it would just display a black screen when you attempted to resume from sleep. The only way to bring it back was a hard-reset.
 
Unknown-One said:
Not running the hotfix, and it doesn't sound like we're having the same issue at all.

The Sleep/Resume issue that many were having the the HD3200, was that it would just display a black screen when you attempted to resume from sleep. The only way to bring it back was a hard-reset.
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ah tru my bad... im having the same issue as post 65, 66, and 71.. anyways thx for fast reply and i guess ill continue waiting for them to fix my issue along with many others haha
 
Spoke too soon, HD3200 just failed to resume from sleep mode. Back to the 9.08's

Good job ATi :(
 
Didn't read through all the posts, but these drivers seem to fix my L4D2 glitch. It was the "multi-gpu" stutter that would force you to alt-tab out at the beginning of every new map. I didn't realize how used to it I was until I started alt-tabbing by habit for no reason yesterday while gaming.
 
The 10.1's bring back the big mouse pointer issue for me. Going back to 9.12. Thanks for nothing ATI.
 
defy said:
Didn't read through all the posts, but these drivers seem to fix my L4D2 glitch. It was the "multi-gpu" stutter that would force you to alt-tab out at the beginning of every new map. I didn't realize how used to it I was until I started alt-tabbing by habit for no reason yesterday while gaming.
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Yes it seems to fix it by disabling your second GPU permanently! Check some framerates. I'm getting half frames with 10.1 drivers but hey, it seems to fix the 'dual' GPU bug. :D
 
alg7_munif said:
How is that different with nVidia's beta drivers? Ati releases a WHQL driver once a month but now it is getting better with hotfixes and betas as well.
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It still boils down to one real release a month. ATI's betas truly are betas. They're unfinished versions of what's coming later that month. The real version only comes once a month and is simply a polished version of the earlier beta. The "hotfixes" tend to be the same as that final version only with one additional fix that wasn't submitted for WHQL. With Nvidia's beta drivers, they come every week or two and each set tends to fix 2-3 things, and are more or less fully functional but they simply don't have WHQL certification. Want a fix for a problem? I'd rather wait 1-2 weeks and get lots of little fixes than wait an entire month and get 2 releases in 24-hours that are 99% the same.
 
I will just hold off these and stick with the 9.12s until these are more polished
 
Finkus said:
Caution advised with these drivers and a 5970.

I think I figured out whey they 'fix' the dual-GPU L4D2 bug, suddenly allow vsync to work in Eyefinity resolutions and halve framerates in just about every benchmark.

Is there a way to check if both your GPU's are being utilised on a 5970, in games?

EDIT: Just tested. Using 9.12 hotfix and 'disabling catalyst AI' to force it to use one GPU core also 'fixes' L4D2 dual-GPU bug, fixes vsync in Eyefinity and halves framerates. I think the 10.1's are simply breaking dual-GPU support in Eyefinity and not fixing anything.
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If you're having issues with the 30hz vsync try D3Doverrider (bundled rivatuner, I wish you could just install it by itself tho).. it works for me pretty well when I run into that bug.. I leave vsync off in the game and turn on D3Do (vsync and trip buff enabled) and it works pretty well. Obviously, only works for direct3D games..
 
Finkus said:
Yes it seems to fix it by disabling your second GPU permanently! Check some framerates. I'm getting half frames with 10.1 drivers but hey, it seems to fix the 'dual' GPU bug. :D
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I'm not sure it disables it permanently... but I did note that after installing the 10.1 suite that Crossfire was disabled. Enabling crossfire didn't seem to stay 'checked' until after a restart.
 
revenant said:
If you're having issues with the 30hz vsync try D3Doverrider (bundled rivatuner, I wish you could just install it by itself tho).. it works for me pretty well when I run into that bug.. I leave vsync off in the game and turn on D3Do (vsync and trip buff enabled) and it works pretty well. Obviously, only works for direct3D games..
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Hmmm. I don't have a 30hz issue, but vsync has been really problematic for me in general for the 5870. I'm going to have to give this a try.
 
Balthazor said:
I'm not sure it disables it permanently... but I did note that after installing the 10.1 suite that Crossfire was disabled. Enabling crossfire didn't seem to stay 'checked' until after a restart.
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Do you know if, when crossfire came back for you, that L4D2's bug came back, of vsync disapperead in Eyefinity? These were the bugs that I most wanted to fix but they only seemed to get fixed when one GPU core is working. =/
 
Domingo said:
It still boils down to one real release a month. ATI's betas truly are betas. They're unfinished versions of what's coming later that month. The real version only comes once a month and is simply a polished version of the earlier beta. The "hotfixes" tend to be the same as that final version only with one additional fix that wasn't submitted for WHQL. With Nvidia's beta drivers, they come every week or two and each set tends to fix 2-3 things, and are more or less fully functional but they simply don't have WHQL certification. Want a fix for a problem? I'd rather wait 1-2 weeks and get lots of little fixes than wait an entire month and get 2 releases in 24-hours that are 99% the same.
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:D ATI's betas are betas but nVidia betas are not? :D If ATI's betas are unfinished, how come you can install it and it runs fine?
 
Can any 5970 users confirm that they can get both GPU cores working with this driver? One of mine is clearly not switching back on when games are started, as per 50% framerates and mysterious fixing of all the dual-GPU bugs (L4D2 new map bug, Dirt2 stuttering, Dirt2 windscreen splashes bug etc.etc.)

You can only disable catalyst AI with the 5970. I can see no way of switching on the second GPU on the card. This driver just kills it off, it seems.
 
alg7_munif said:
:D ATI's betas are betas but nVidia betas are not? :D If ATI's betas are unfinished, how come you can install it and it runs fine?
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Nvidia's betas are far closer to a normal driver that simply isn't WHQL'd. Pretty much like ATI's "hotfix" driver. Look at the ATI betas for 10.1 (and 9.12) and make note of how many people on here (and Guru3D) that people are saying "this broke X number of games, do not install these."

I'd say it's a different term even though they're both called betas. Nvidia's are more of a non-WHQL hotfix, while ATI's are literally an unfinished version of the driver due later that month. Just because you can install something doesn't mean it works well. I can write an installer for a program that doesn't work at all.
 
Domingo said:
Nvidia's betas are far closer to a normal driver that simply isn't WHQL'd. Pretty much like ATI's "hotfix" driver. Look at the ATI betas for 10.1 (and 9.12) and make note of how many people on here (and Guru3D) that people are saying "this broke X number of games, do not install these."

I'd say it's a different term even though they're both called betas. Nvidia's are more of a non-WHQL hotfix, while ATI's are literally an unfinished version of the driver due later that month. Just because you can install something doesn't mean it works well. I can write an installer for a program that doesn't work at all.
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So can can accept nVidia releasing betas but you were complaining about ATI hotfix, which are additions to their monthly WHQL drivers?
Domingo said:
lol...another "Hotfix" the day after a real driver release comes out. Oh ATI, my journey back to the red side has certainly been filled with potholes.

Anyway, to install the hotfix, just install it over the 10.1's. It's a full driver release, it's just not WHQL'd. They did this last month, too.
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Can we get back on topic instead of going all tribal and beating our chests please?
 
Finkus said:
Can any 5970 users confirm that they can get both GPU cores working with this driver? One of mine is clearly not switching back on when games are started, as per 50% framerates and mysterious fixing of all the dual-GPU bugs (L4D2 new map bug, Dirt2 stuttering, Dirt2 windscreen splashes bug etc.etc.)

You can only disable catalyst AI with the 5970. I can see no way of switching on the second GPU on the card. This driver just kills it off, it seems.
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Even with crossfire enabled L4D2 appears to only use one GPU. Dragon Age, on the other hand, uses all four (I have 2 x 5970.)

So it looks like they tinkered with the Catalyst AI profiles for different games. Maybe L4D2 only uses one GPU because they couldn't figure out how to fix crossfire with the game yet.
 
Balthazor said:
Even with crossfire enabled L4D2 appears to only use one GPU. Dragon Age, on the other hand, uses all four (I have 2 x 5970.)

So it looks like they tinkered with the Catalyst AI profiles for different games. Maybe L4D2 only uses one GPU because they couldn't figure out how to fix crossfire with the game yet.
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Ah I see. I have a single card and Dragon Age, Dirt2, Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta and L4D2 (the only games I tried whilst I had the driver installed) all had big framerate hits. Roughly half.
 
I bought a 5870, but I'm glad that Nvidia's new cards are finally in production and due out soon.

I can't wait to jump off this failboat.
 
Tolyngee said:
I bought a 5870, but I'm glad that Nvidia's new cards are finally in production and due out soon.

I can't wait to jump off this failboat.
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I agree that I've had better luck with Nvidia cards, but personally I don't care how much faster Fermi is than my 5850 if it costs $600.
 
Im tired of ATI's drivers, all this time and they cant get a decent working driver out, dual screens still dont work, second screen flickers. Hotfix again? some people might say they have no issues with ati, and im happy for you. For me ati has crap drivers. Im gonna wait for Fermi and ebay my 5870.
 
Tolyngee said:
I bought a 5870, but I'm glad that Nvidia's new cards are finally in production and due out soon.

I can't wait to jump off this failboat.
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Yup, they have until Fermi is out to get gray stripe crash fixed, otherwise I am jumping ship.
 
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