Catalyst 13.1 drivers are out

[JimF]

I doubt that they work for Folding, but am hoping that they spur on the development of the new Core_17 (or whatever it is by now) that does work.
We can always hope.

Here is the 64-bit version:
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/w ... sta64.aspx

[fredsat]

Nice...just now that I figured out all the 12.11 fixes ...I might try them tomorrow...for tonight I don't want to go through the whole sweeping process. We'll see how they behave on 7950...

EDIT:
Could not resist. Sweep and update successful. I have tried to fold (smp+gpu) and I have this weird thing going on:

apparently the GPU task is progressing, but GPU-Z is showing 0% GPU load

Anybody else tried?

[JimF]

apparently the GPU task is progressing, but GPU-Z is showing 0% GPU load

That is not too surprising. GPU-Z did not work to show GPU load on the 12.11 drivers either. Now that the final version of the driver is out, I expect that they will fix it.
But if you can get these drivers to Fold, let us know your PPD.

[fredsat]

Ok, she's working. CCC shows 50% activity though. And my PPD is averaging ~18300. Used to have ~20300 this morning with 12.11 + Opencl 12.08, and GPU-Z showed 98-100%. Precisely, estimated PPD is 8000 for the GPU. I don't even know if this is a decent result for my rig . I have just started using F@H since BOINC stopped working, so I am a noob. I'll leave it running for tonight and will post some more reliable results tomorrow morning.

[dreiter]

Holy crap, 20K PPD on a 7950? I have a 7850 and I get 7K PPD per day. I do have the last driver in the '12' series. Maybe that's it?

[IvantheDugtrio]

Holy crap, 20K PPD on a 7950? I have a 7850 and I get 7K PPD per day. I do have the last driver in the '12' series. Maybe that's it?

He means 20k PPD overall. I get about the same PPD as you do with my 7870 (~7k).

[Rattledagger]

He means 20k PPD overall. I get about the same PPD as you do with my 7870 (~7k).

Is this with the 13.1-drivers or older drivers?

Haven't had the time to try the new drivers yet, but with the 12.11.beta11 my 7950 had problem hitting 2k PPD so if it's due to new drivers it's a huge increase.

[JimF]

I am getting 1700 PPD with the 13.1 drivers on my HD 7770s (both a display and non-display card), on P11292 and P11293. It will take over a day to complete a work unit. I can better use the cards for other purposes.

[mmonnin]

Might have to check GPU utilization. If it's like 12.11 it'll only use like 30-60% and thus run slow.

[FastFlyingVirginian]

I was able to get the GPU usage and PPD back to normal on my 7970 with the 13.1 drivers by deselecting APP SDK during the install process and installing APP SDK 2.7 instead from a separate download. MSI Afterburner shows between 92-99 percent usage now, where before it never went above 30-40 percent or so. No ill effects noted since making the change yesterday evening; it's finished one WU and is now 25 percent into the next one. I used Treexy's Driver Fusion to do a cleanup between driver installs.

The APP SDK download archive is here:
http://developer.amd.com/tools/heteroge ... d-archive/

[lordglenn]

I will try to manually uninstall the app sdk from my 13.1 install and then install ver 2.7

I too am suffering from the 50% gpu load issue ever since I went to 12.11 beta 11. The best driver for folding that I've found is 12.4 but once you load 12.11 beta the uninstaller seems to leave the components that folding utilizes behind so I had to use a custom tool called atiman to dig around after the uninstall to delete all the changes it makes. But i really am uncomfortable using some app written by someone online that has such deep access to my system. Simply uninstalling 12.11, reboot installing 12.4 did not revert my gpu usage back to the 99% range.

I wish ati would implement a better uninstaller. Also I wish folding at home was a separate component independent of the game drivers as in I could manually control which parts I want to update. So that way I could use the latest and greatest gaming drivers yet leave the versions of components folding is using intact. I've never had this much troubles with folding on nvidia's hardware and its unfortunate all these hoops are needed for ati.

update:
So I ran 13.1 uninstaller and used custom to only select the app sdk and then rebooted. I then installed the 2.7 sdk with everything checked and rebooted. Loaded up fah and its still at 50% I'm going to try uninstalling everything and then use safe mode driver sweeper then a clean install of 13.1 with the sdk unchecked and then installing 2.7 sdk. *crosses fingers.

update:
I tried the above steps and its still at 50%. the only way i know of atm to restore full usage is to run atiman and revert to a clean install of 12.4.

[JimF]

The best driver for folding that I've found is 12.4 but once you load 12.11 beta the uninstaller seems to leave the components that folding utilizes behind so I had to use a custom tool called atiman to dig around after the uninstall to delete all the changes it makes. But i really am uncomfortable using some app written by someone online that has such deep access to my system. Simply uninstalling 12.11, reboot installing 12.4 did not revert my gpu usage back to the 99% range.

You can also use Driver Fusion, the successor to Driver Sweeper. I use that for all my uninstalls. It just takes an extra reboot.
http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

You are right that the uninstallers (from both AMD and Nvidia) do a miserable job.

[lordglenn]

I was able to get the GPU usage and PPD back to normal on my 7970 with the 13.1 drivers by deselecting APP SDK during the install process and installing APP SDK 2.7 instead from a separate download. MSI Afterburner shows between 92-99 percent usage now, where before it never went above 30-40 percent or so. No ill effects noted since making the change yesterday evening; it's finished one WU and is now 25 percent into the next one. I used Treexy's Driver Fusion to do a cleanup between driver installs.

The APP SDK download archive is here:
http://developer.amd.com/tools/heteroge ... d-archive/

can you go into more detail exactly what your steps were, I just tried what you describe and im still stuck at 50%

im running win7 64bit and use a 7870. Also i have smp set to 3 so that i have a free core for gpu folding. Cpu is a i5 2500k at 3.8ghz.

[lordglenn]

The best driver for folding that I've found is 12.4 but once you load 12.11 beta the uninstaller seems to leave the components that folding utilizes behind so I had to use a custom tool called atiman to dig around after the uninstall to delete all the changes it makes. But i really am uncomfortable using some app written by someone online that has such deep access to my system. Simply uninstalling 12.11, reboot installing 12.4 did not revert my gpu usage back to the 99% range.

You can also use Driver Fusion, the successor to Driver Sweeper. I use that for all my uninstalls. It just takes an extra reboot.
http://treexy.com/products/driver-fusion

You are right that the uninstallers (from both AMD and Nvidia) do a miserable job.

so i just tried out driver fusion and when i was in safe mode cleaning my driver install with it, it told me 3 items could not be removed without the premium version. I loaded up the old driver sweeper and it took them out no problem. lol

[JimF]

so i just tried out driver fusion and when i was in safe mode cleaning my driver install with it, it told me 3 items could not be removed without the premium version. I loaded up the old driver sweeper and it took them out no problem. lol

Driver Sweeper is fine too, but usually Driver Fusion finds a few more registry entries for me. However, I think those legacy entries are included in the operating system for compatibility purposes, and don't need to be removed. (I expect that Driver Fusion just uses that as a sales pitch to get you to buy the paid version, which is not at all necessary.)