Catalyst 10.9 Out and Now Available Through Steam

Can anyone here confirm if they fixed OpenGL or not? I went back to 10.4 before testing that particular aspect of the new drivers. Getting DisplayPort Link Failure errors (which I've never had before) due to the new drivers pissed me off to the point that I didn't want to deal with them further.

I did test Flash, though. My video RAM still downclocks from 1000MHz to 900MHz when I play a flash video (or play a video with any DXVA codec), which causes my secondary monitors to flicker. I can't believe this is STILL an issue...

My displayport has flickered and failed with every driver since 10.4a for me, 10.9 being the worst of the mess of drivers.

I was beginning to think that perhaps my bizlink adapter was on its way out, but yesterday I reverted back to 10.4a and I haven't had a single flicker yet. The flicker wasn't all that bad where I experienced it once or twice a day with 10.5-10.8. Once 10.9 was installed, I dealt with it about 7-10 times a day.
 
My displayport has flickered and failed with every driver since 10.4a for me, 10.9 being the worst of the mess of drivers.

I was beginning to think that perhaps my bizlink adapter was on its way out, but yesterday I reverted back to 10.4a and I haven't had a single flicker yet. The flicker wasn't all that bad where I experienced it once or twice a day with 10.5-10.8. Once 10.9 was installed, I dealt with it about 7-10 times a day.
This has nothing to do with the DisplayPort blinking issue. That's a momentary loss of sync.

Changing the clockspeed on the video memory on the HD5800 series causes all monitors but the primary one to flicker for a moment, no matter what port they're connected to (DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, doesn't matter). Playing a hardware accelerated video (using Flash or a DXVA codec) causes the card to underclock its video RAM for no good reason, this change in clockspeed causes the momentary flicker.

The HD5850, for example, is supposed to keep its video RAM at 1000MHz at all times to prevent this type of flickering. Hardware accelerated video causes the driver to drop it to 900MHz (causing a momentary flicker), and closing the video causes it to jump back to 1000MHz (another momentary flicker). This will only show up with multiple monitors in Extended Desktop mode; enabling Eyefinity will mask this problem, because then all three screens are technically the primary monitor.

Currently, the only fix is to modify your video BIOS to force 1000MHz RAM clock in all PowerPlay states. Tthe video driver is supposed to be doing this, but it's apparently failing at it and defaulting back to the incorrect clocks in the video BIOS.
 
You seem to be under the impression that this is my first rodeo. I'm well aware of the history behind the ATI driver release schedule. I'm simply implying that the new one is just as if not more ineffective. Heck the thing's I'm complaining about here aren't even game related, they basic usability issues (Colour saturation adjustment in crossfire, bad HDMI audio, scaling problems, CCC forgetting settings after runtime restarts). The current monthly cycle really just doesn't seem to be enough time to produce quality software. I’m pretty sure a lot of these basic functionality issues wouldn’t be anywhere near as much as a problem if there was adequate time to perform more extensive in house testing, and collect feedback and take action from public beta testers before a production release.

During the 6 years I was using NVIDIA cards after my 9800 Pro (the last ATI purchase I made prior to the 5870’s I’m using) I never encountered anywhere near the number of problems I’ve seen in the last 6 months since I picked up my current configuration. This I can only attribute to the release schedule used by NVIDIA (it’s either that or simple lack of development expertise on AMD’s side). Their Production/Beta driver schedule really does seem to cover the right amount of space between lengthy waits and addressing immediate issues, without introducing endless series of new problems (or bringing back old ones). Although I must admit that whole fan speed fault a few months ago was rather alarming.

I'm not calling for a 16 week cycle, just something somewhere in the middle to aid quality control to stamp out these bugs before they're unleashed on the general public.

Sloppy PC porting is another matter entirely and is completely the responsibility of the game developer.

Good post.

I've had my ATI cards six months now and I've experienced more issues in that time than I ever did in the 18 months I owned my NVIDIA GTX 280. I'm not saying that NVIDIA are perfect, they aren't as the fan fiasco proves, but I do think they have much better support for games than ATI, who seems to take months to fix issues and sometimes even break games in the process (e.g. World in Conflict, an ATI-endorsed game is not working for me with the 10.9a Hotfix drivers). Of course, it helps that NVIDIA have their The Way It's Meant To Be Played program as it means you can be sure a game will work. ATI desperately need something similar as I find it totally unacceptable to have to wait two or three months for them to support new games I've bought.

At least if ATI released betas like NVIDIA do with a disclaimer then bugs and issues would be acceptable as they're not certified drivers.
 
This has nothing to do with the DisplayPort blinking issue. That's a momentary loss of sync.

Changing the clockspeed on the video memory on the HD5800 series causes all monitors but the primary one to flicker for a moment, no matter what port they're connected to (DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, doesn't matter). Playing a hardware accelerated video (using Flash or a DXVA codec) causes the card to underclock its video RAM for no good reason, this change in clockspeed causes the momentary flicker.

The HD5850, for example, is supposed to keep its video RAM at 1000MHz at all times to prevent this type of flickering. Hardware accelerated video causes the driver to drop it to 900MHz (causing a momentary flicker), and closing the video causes it to jump back to 1000MHz (another momentary flicker). This will only show up with multiple monitors in Extended Desktop mode; enabling Eyefinity will mask this problem, because then all three screens are technically the primary monitor.

Currently, the only fix is to modify your video BIOS to force 1000MHz RAM clock in all PowerPlay states. Tthe video driver is supposed to be doing this, but it's apparently failing at it and defaulting back to the incorrect clocks in the video BIOS.

I had a vague idea as to why this was happening. Thanks for the thorough explanation. I haven't had my DP monitor flicker on me in a a couple of days now so I'm thinking 10.4a is correctly adjusting the clocks.

I'll probably end up modifying my bios at some point if there is a future driver I'd like to use that has this issue.
 
the 10.9 drivers don't seem to be available at the official AMD site today...the options for download seem to be there but the actual download buttons have disappeared...anyone else having this issue?
 
10.9 sucks for when i can actually game with CFX enabled I get shitty frames, and then crashes after a few mins. waiting on 10.10
 
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