Windows 7 Beta 1 and Video Cards Post your experience.

Enduring_Warrior

[H]ard|Gawd
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Sep 22, 2004
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Hey Everyone:
Let's post our experiences with Windows 7 Directx 11 and our Video Cards.

I personally own an ASUS EAH4850 TOP/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 Factory Overclocked from 625 MHz to 680 MHz and thus far I have found the following.

The ATI Beta driver installer for Windows is supposed to link for the Install log. But instead links to file///Program so no file is found. The log file Is an XML found here:
C:\Program Files\ATI\CIM\Reports\Report.xml.2009_01_11_19.07.20.xml

DirectX Diagnostic Tool Dxdiag detects my RV770 as an Engineering sample. Which I don't like at all.

ASUSEN4850TOP.png

Does anyone has any idea of what this means?
 
I downloaded the Win7 beta ATI package. It detected by 4870x2 as an engineering sample as well. It also seemed to be based on cat 8.11, not 8.12. In trying to uninstall it, it hung up. Now I can't seem to get it off my PC. Clearly the driver is gone (resolution went back to crap) but the install manager and everything else is still there. Anyone know a possible solution? Any of the driver cleaners work with 7? If they do, I'll try to drop it (and get it out of my installed programs area) and try a vista x64 Cat 8.12

Edit : Turning off UAC just for good measure, so far nothing changed. Catalyst Control Center and the Install Manager are still there, and every time i select uninstall and custom, it hangs up on populating components to be uninstalled
 
nVidia drivers for VIsta work flawlessly. In fact, you dont even need to install drivers to use 3d applications/games on win7. It works out of the box (at least for nvidia cards)
 
Let's post our experiences with Windows 7 Directx 11 and our Video Cards.

I now own a BFG 260 Maxcore flashed with XFX's Black Edition BIOS. If I had to sum up my experience so far with a single word I would have to pick "confusing." Windows 7 came with some stock / generic nvidia driver that I wanted replaced ASAP. nvidia's own site recommends that, in order to get the latest W7 drivers, I run Automatic Update. Doing so shows me I can download 179.23, which numerically is lower than the newer 181.20 and the alpha build 185.20.

Now here is where I get lost. 179.23 has something called "WDDM1.1." I have no idea what that is or why this is important. What I do know is that 18x.xx does not have it, but does have Physx support. To add to my confusion, it would seem that 185.20 has an additional option called "Ambient Occlusion."

In the end I chose to go with the ones from Automatic Update... but I get the feeling like I could be getting better performance if I were to use a 18x.xx series driver. Meh. Everything I have thrown at my new 260 is displayed well with no major glitches worth mentioning. Sadly I do not have any thoughts about performance vs. Vista x64 as I just came off a 4870.
 
Dx9 Games seem to work well with generic driver. At least Call of Juarez MP demo did.

This is what Call of Juarez DX10 benchmark threw at me:
dx10ismissing.png


Oh and I couldn't run the ATI HD2000 Ruby demo because it says it needs vista.
Compatibility or no for both things.
 
I downloaded the Win7 beta ATI package. It detected by 4870x2 as an engineering sample as well. It also seemed to be based on cat 8.11, not 8.12. In trying to uninstall it, it hung up. Now I can't seem to get it off my PC. Clearly the driver is gone (resolution went back to crap) but the install manager and everything else is still there. Anyone know a possible solution? Any of the driver cleaners work with 7? If they do, I'll try to drop it (and get it out of my installed programs area) and try a vista x64 Cat 8.12

Edit : Turning off UAC just for good measure, so far nothing changed. Catalyst Control Center and the Install Manager are still there, and every time i select uninstall and custom, it hangs up on populating components to be uninstalled

I also noticed that the CCC reports the VPU as an Engineering sample so we know that Dxdiag is getting directly from the ATI driver.
 
I downloaded the Win7 beta ATI package. It detected by 4870x2 as an engineering sample as well. It also seemed to be based on cat 8.11, not 8.12. In trying to uninstall it, it hung up. Now I can't seem to get it off my PC. Clearly the driver is gone (resolution went back to crap) but the install manager and everything else is still there. Anyone know a possible solution? Any of the driver cleaners work with 7? If they do, I'll try to drop it (and get it out of my installed programs area) and try a vista x64 Cat 8.12

Edit : Turning off UAC just for good measure, so far nothing changed. Catalyst Control Center and the Install Manager are still there, and every time i select uninstall and custom, it hangs up on populating components to be uninstalled

Have you tried Driver Cleaner .net?
 
Anyone getting the resolution bug @ 1080p? ATI drivers

works fine with 60hz until you change resolution for example play a game and going back to desktop the resolution is 1080i @ 30hz?

I just binded the hotkey to change back to 60hz but I am just putting it out there.
 
I put Win7 on an older box that I use for an HTPC with an ATI X850Pro. It installed ok, but HDTV resolutions seem to be broken. I tried the latest (8.12) ATI drivers (after first trying the default Win7 drivers), but no luck. The 720p and 1080p options show up in CCC, but I can't get them to stick.

For reference, this works fine in Vista with the default ATI drivers. In fact, I've never installed anything else.
 
Dx9 Games seem to work well with generic driver. At least Call of Juarez MP demo did.

This is what Call of Juarez DX10 benchmark threw at me:
dx10ismissing.png


Oh and I couldn't run the ATI HD2000 Ruby demo because it says it needs vista.
Compatibility or no for both things.

lol that error is because you don't have an updated version of the DirectX redistributable installed. It's not a driver issue.
 
Dx9 Games seem to work well with generic driver. At least Call of Juarez MP demo did.

This is what Call of Juarez DX10 benchmark threw at me:
dx10ismissing.png


Oh and I couldn't run the ATI HD2000 Ruby demo because it says it needs vista.
Compatibility or no for both things.

i would think windows 7 would include semi current directx10 files, that issue crops up in vista if you havent updated dx10 in a long time.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en ?
 
I have multimonitor problems when gaming. I use three monitors with differing resolutions.

When I start up a game, my windows and desktop icons fly to different monitors and the game doesn't start up right away. when it does, it starts minimized and I have to click it in the task bar to start.
 
An update to my previous post, I managed to get the 720p HDTV resolution working on my TV by unplugging my projector (projector was/is on DVI, TV is on component out).
 
I had the system lock when trying to enable SLI. After reboot, SLI was enabled though.

Still, was rather annoying.
 
I am installing the beta now... Should I get the ATI drivers from the ATI site?


Edit: Never mind. Windows 7 wont boot on my rig for some reason.
 
nVidia drivers for VIsta work flawlessly. In fact, you dont even need to install drivers to use 3d applications/games on win7. It works out of the box (at least for nvidia cards)
My SLI setup worked out of the box as well but there is graphical corruption in Fallout 3. 181.00 and 181.20 clear up the graphical corruption but the game runs then starts getting slower and slower to around 20FPS then crashes. 185.20 actually work very well with 7 and I wouldn't doubt if they are a 7 driver. However, SLI doesn't work with Fallout 3 with 185.20. I don't know about other games though. I was very happy with the IQ of 185.20 on 7.

With 185.20, and a single 8800GTS 512, I was able to run FO 3 at 1440x900 Ultra graphic setting which includes 4xAA and 15xAF. I was really impressed. 45-60 FPS.
 
I was going to ask if SLI works in Windows 7.

Does it work with the Microsoft-provided drivers, or do you need to download the Vista drivers to get the control panel?

Do you get the nVidia control panel with the included drivers?
 
I was going to ask if SLI works in Windows 7.

Does it work with the Microsoft-provided drivers, or do you need to download the Vista drivers to get the control panel?

Do you get the nVidia control panel with the included drivers?
7 comes with 179.29 or something like that. Yes, SLI works and Yes you get the control panel. No PhysX though which is fine sinse a lot of people leave it disabled.

Also, if you run Windows Update, it says a newer driver is available from 12/31/08 but it won't download.

Also, if you uninstall the drivers from device manager, do not check the 'delete driver' box because I can't roll back to the default drivers since they are now deleted. I'm stuck installing Vista drivers. So far, only 185.20 seem to work without issue for Fallout 3 at least but SLI doesn't work with it.
 
SLI 8800 Ultra's under Windows 7 x64 and 181.20 drivers.

CoD 4 works, drivers installed without a hitch.

CUDA semi-works in Power Director 7 Ultra. CUDA assisted H.264 encoding works but the CUDA assisted effects rendering does not.

My main rig is moving to Windows 7 just as soon as I put her all together with the new water cooling pieces. At that point I'll get to test ATi Catalyst drivers under Windows 7. I plan on using Windows 7 x64 as my main and only O/S until August of 2009 (when it expires).

Worth noting that I recently ditched the second 4870X2 and am replacing it with an eVGA 9800GT. The 9800GT will handle my PhysX as Windows 7 supports using both ATi and nVIDIA graphics drivers together. I will also be ditching the Ageia PPU.
 
I'd be really careful moving to 7 as a main OS. Fallout 3 does not like anything except the default drivers if your using SLI. It's just an example that not everything works.
 
Fixed my issue - I'm running Catalyst (vista x64) 8.12 flawlessly. Haven't messed with games yet, but thus far no issues.
 
I can confirm that 7 automatically installs NVidia drivers. I played COD4, bunch of Source games, Crysis/Warhead, and WiC perfectly fine with the drivers DLed from Windows Update.

FWIW, people should stop recommending Driver Cleaner. It is no longer free, and consequently no longer supported by Guru3D.com. They now recommend Driver Sweeper.
 
I can confirm that 7 automatically installs NVidia drivers. I played COD4, bunch of Source games, Crysis/Warhead, and WiC perfectly fine with the drivers DLed from Windows Update.
The same goes for ATI. W7 still seems to have trouble connecting to the update server sometimes though. Same goes for the Help and Support center.
FWIW, people should stop recommending Driver Cleaner. It is no longer free, and consequently no longer supported by Guru3D.com. They now recommend Driver Sweeper.
Ok, thanks for making that point out. The idea is the same though and still a very viable solution. And thank you for the link.
 
I installed x64 and tried installing the Radeon W7 beta, 8.12, tried compatibility mode and command line and nothing worked. The CCC install just freezes on 'Enumerating Devices...', so I had to go through Windows Update and get the 'Pre-Release WDDM 1.1' driver.
 
Windows 7 needs WDDM drivers, if you are using XDDM drivers you will have problems, or it just won't work.
 
I installed x64 and tried installing the Radeon W7 beta, 8.12, tried compatibility mode and command line and nothing worked. The CCC install just freezes on 'Enumerating Devices...', so I had to go through Windows Update and get the 'Pre-Release WDDM 1.1' driver.

Windows 7 needs WDDM drivers, if you are using XDDM drivers you will have problems, or it just won't work.

Curious I got the drivers from ATI and DXDiag says they are WDDM 1.1 . The same version Windows Update lists. All works fine though.
 
Hey guys.
I recently did some benchmarking with Far Cry 2 (Thanks Kyle) and noticed how poor the Dx9 performance is compared to DX10 in W7.
Dx10 wasn't so good either.
Given that I have an AthlonX2 4000 overclocked to 2.36 and some crappy DDR2533 Memory I guess doing this tests shows the lower end part of CPU Usage. Here's my Cpu-z
CPUZ.png


I do have a 4850 so I went to Benchmark on WindowsXP and the differences are abysmal.
What do you think is it the APIs or the drivers inmaturity?

I can't tell for sure since WindowsXp vs Windows Vista tests were made at the begginging and this is my first time with the WDDM.
 
9600gt in SLI works perfect in Fallout 3, L4D, Warcraft3, HL2, and porn.

64bit win 7.

had to install x-fi in vista mode but I was expecting that.
 
8800 gts running 181.20 whql drivers
windows 7 64-bit
rivatuner 2.22 to overclock and tweak some settings

no problems with Team Fortress 2 or general display functions. performance is great
There was one game crash but I just alt tabbed out, closed the app, relaunched it and was back playing within 30 seconds.
 
with my 4850x2 the install cd vista 64 drivers work and the updated drivers from the sapphire website also. installed using compatibility mode. the win7 drivers from ati also work, and detect crossfire, but does not allow you to configure it. i expected this as these are based on 8.11, which were out way before the release of the 4850x2 and do not support it. mine also shows up as engineering sample.
dvds, hd-dvd and blu ray all work great using powerdvd. i havent tried mp4/avi or dvd in the media center yet. tf2, fc2, dead space all are working fine.
 
I have been messing with windows 7 since it came out. win7 32 bit runs fine on any driver I choose, now x64 thats a different story. I can load it fine but no matter what driver I load in x64 for vid cards I get flickering lines horizontally almost some sort of scanning any input will be great and if ur runnig x64 what drivers are you using I get this with all drivers in sli even with the one that come with it installed. Help would be appreciated.
 
Desktop Q6600/8gddr2/280gtx 64 bit Im using 181.20 and working great with cod4/L4D

Macbook 2ghz/4gddr3/nvidia 9400m 32bit Im using DOX 181.20 optimized and L4D works perfect

So far so good :)
 
I'm getting overscan/scaling issues with Windows 7 and the GTX260. I've tried everything to no avail. Here's a pic I borrowed from 'vrbaba' who is experiencing the same issue:
img33551my2.jpg


The registry hack worked in Vista 64, but so far, no workaround in Windows 7.

Here's my thread on the issue: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1383728
 
That's odd. I'm using a 2048x1152 (16:9) 23" LCD and Win 7 picked up the right resolution right off the bat. So you set the res to the max of your monitor and it still shows up smaller?

BTW...Is 3D performance any better with the Win 7 nvidia beta driver? I didn't test any games w/ it when I installed Win 7 ..just installed the 185.20 Vista x64 drivers right off the bat. Just curious.
 
I used w7 on a vmware machine and was unable to install drivers for my 280; the installer would say that it could not find any supported hardware. But I'm sure this has something to do with the whole thing being virtualized.
 
W7 beta x-64 version, C2D e6300 at 3.1 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 8800 GTX, 22" Dell at 1600 x 1080

No problems

Loaded the drivers right off the update.

I don't necessarily think this offers anything over Vista and I was surprised there was no email client included.
Just looks like a more mature Vista.
 
Were you referring to me, prasvt?-
That's odd. I'm using a 2048x1152 (16:9) 23" LCD and Win 7 picked up the right resolution right off the bat. So you set the res to the max of your monitor and it still shows up smaller?

If so, yup. Basically Windows 7/Nvidia Control Panel thinks my LG Monitor (L246WP) is a TV and I get the overscan/scaling issues as a result. I am unable to switch off scaling options in Nvidia Control Panel.
 
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