new Win7_64 install: best recent AMD driver?

[plimogz]

Hi -- my first post on these forums!

I'm setting up a dedicated folder on an older AM3 system with a couple of 7950s doing the heavy lifting.

The system is basically only going to be folding, so fahPPD is my only consideration and I have my pick of any recent-ish driver release.

So which version should I be running?

I've been folding with 14.9 on another system with these same GPUs for a few days now and it's been fine -- but maybe some other driver has stood out in 2014 which I should install instead?

[PS3EdOlkkola]

I use the 14.9 drivers on all 14 of my AMD GPUs, ranging from 7970, 7990 and R9 295X2 models. The 14.9 drivers provide measurable PPD increases (~10% to 12% improvement) over the prior Catalyst version.

On a side note, I have found some compatibility issues with Afterburner 4.0 if you under- or over-clock (I underclock for heat and longevity reasons) and turning down the wick on GPU clock has been problematic; hoping this gets fixed in an Afterburner update.

[7im]

14.13 and up show another increase over previous versions.

[jrweiss]

Has anyone seen these increases for the 7750?

[JimF]

Has anyone seen these increases for the 7750?

I just upgraded my 7790 from 14.4 to 14.9, and saw an increase of from 48.8k PPD to 51.7k PPD, which is 6% (Win7 64-bit). That was in the middle of P10469, and doing an entire work unit might provide slightly different numbers, but I think that is basically what it is.

[PS3EdOlkkola]

I wasn't aware that there were 14.13 drivers. The only drivers I see on AMD's website are the released version 14.9 and the beta version, 14.11.2.

In any case, I'll wait until the beta driver is released before trying it out and seeing how others fare. I'm probably a little more conservative than most on driver upgrades.

[7im]

Which version was mentioned in the blog?

[JimF]

Which version was mentioned in the blog?

That was 14.4.
https://folding.stanford.edu/home/new-a ... rformance/

By the way, I am now getting 62.2k PPD on my HD 7790 with the 14.9 drivers (P9201), the most I have ever seen on that card, so they really are still getting better. I wish Nvidia would do the same.

[plimogz]

Alright, 14.9 it is then. It's nice to have the latest WHQLs work well for folding; keeps things simple.

Thanks for the replies folks!

[DarkFoss]

AMD will be releasing a New Cat next week. Seems to be a rewrite codenamed Omega for Windows and Linux. http://www.overclock3d.net/articles/gpu ... a_driver/1
*Edited out the unintentional misinformation.

[bollix47]

In case anyone gets the wrong impression from the previous post, folding on an appropriate AMD GPU in 64-bit Linux using the 14.9 cat drivers (fglrx-14.301.1001) downloaded from AMD support works very well and is not blacklisted.

[DarkFoss]

Cool I must have missed the announcement. Was fairly recent then end of September? Anyways sorry for the misinformation.

[bollix47]

The 14.9 drivers were released on Sept 29/14. There was a period prior to that where the beta drivers were being tested but your timing sounds about right. I downloaded those drivers on my linux system Oct 2/14 so that timing fits as well. The older drivers did work back when core 17 was being tested but there were numerous reports of errors and crashes so amd/ati GPUs had to wait until they received better OpenCL drivers.

There was an announcement back in May concerning improved AMD drivers in the blog.

IIRC there was another problem that was discovered around late September when the new AS software was implemented but that was quickly rectified. I've had no problems since then and my 7970 is seeing PPD in the 148K-178K range depending on the Project.

[DarkFoss]

Sweet, I have 2x 7970's as well. Numbers look to be in par with Windows too. Thanks for the info.
Looks like I'll be installing Linux tomorrow. It will feel good to be running it again instead of just virtually !
What distro are you using ? I'll be trying my old favorite Mageia first but it will be nice to have a backup plan.

[bollix47]

I'm currently using Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on all of my v7 folding systems ... most are dual boot capable with Windows but normally they are all running Linux 24/7.