***M18x - AMD Crossfire (Driver Questions, Performance, Problems) Discussion Thread***

[mediafriend]

Hi, I'm new to the forums I've joined because I've had periodic problems with drivers on my Alienware m18x.

Most of the time when I try to install an amd driver my screen goes black halfway through the CCC installation and stays there, it just hangs on a black screen forever. When I force a reboot and windows finally comes back up it appears that the drivers installed (as the software summary will say I've got the version I was trying to install) but I don't trust this.

I've been following what I know and a lot of great advice on this forum so far. I've uninstalled old drivers, reboot into safe mode, CC cleaned the registry, ran driver cleaner pro and CC clean again (until no issues are found).

Now I've installed the drivers without the screen going black on me, but the Catalyst installer has had an error. With no error message. Here is the report-

"Catalyst™ Install Manager
Installation Report
05/02/12 13:19:01

Hardware information
Name AMD Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0x6720
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x030000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x048f
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
Other hardware
Existing packages
Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable
Packages for install
AMD Catalyst Install Manager
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.0.873.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
AMD APP SDK Runtime
Final Status: Fail
Version of Item: 10.0.923.1
Size: 90 Mbytes
AMD Display Driver
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.961.0.0000
Size: 90 Mbytes
HDMI Audio Driver
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 7.12.0.7706
Size: 1 Mbytes
AMD Accelerated Video Transcoding
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 2.00.0002
Size: 3 Mbytes
AMD Drag and Drop Transcoding
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 2.00.0000
Size: 1 Mbytes
AMD Media Foundation Decoders
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 1.0.70405.2224
Size: 1 Mbytes
Catalyst Control Center
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 2012.0405.2205.37728
Size: 150 Mbytes

Other detected devices
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0xaa88
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x040300
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x048f
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028
AMD Radeon Graphics Processor
Manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device ID 0x6720
Vendor ID 0x1002
Class Code 0x030000
Revision ID 0x00
Subsystem ID 0x048f
Subsystem vendor ID 0x1028

Error messages
"

I'm going to try again, please help.

---edit for clarity-
TLR
When installing any drivers for my system everything installs except for this:
AMD APP SDK Runtime
Final Status: Fail

Hey i posted in the forum but I thought I'd double up here. trying to install the new 12.4 drivers and I get the following report form the installer:

AMD APP SDK Runtime
Final Status: Fail
Version of Item: 10.0.923.1
Size: 90 Mbytes

[Mr. Fox]

mediafriend - welcome to NBR Forums. We are glad you joined our Community and look forward to seeing more of your posts in the days ahead.

I merged your posts because cross-posting is not allowed. As a new member it is important to know what is and is not permitted. Please take a few minutes to review the forum rules.

If I am interpreting the information you posted correctly, the Catalyst™ Install Manager Installation Report states an error occurred, but gives no information about the error. This is a known bug with AMD video drivers that has been present for more than a year. It may never get fixed, but it is not really hurting anything. It is also not consistent. Some folks see it frequently, some never do, and others see it occasionally.

So, it is fairly common for the Catalyst Installation Manager to return an error message at the end of installation even though no error actually occurred. I believe that in most cases this is related to Microsoft Visual C++ installation failures when the same or a newer version is already resident. If you are receiving a specific error message, it could be something different, but I cannot see what that error message is in the information posted.

Click the link in the left side of my signature, directly above the alien head. You will find an index of useful information that you may find interesting. At the bottom of the index are links to threads you will find especially useful as a new member of the Community. Again, welcome to NBR.

[mediafriend]

oops! thanks for your fast response, I really appreciate it. I'm sorry about double posting. I should have deleted the first thread. So even though it says "AMD APP SDK Runtime" failed you're saying it didnt? Or that it should be okay?

The real issue for me is my incredibly poor performance in Tera, whether it's set to lowest or highest.

[Mr. Fox]

Yes, that is common. That is one of the error messages I almost always received doing a Catalyst installation. The "Software Developer Kit" also does nothing to affect your system performance. Unless you are having some sort of issue, you can ignore that. It is only a minor annoyance.

You cannot delete a post, but if you ever need to delete something you posted, you can either PM a moderator, or click the icon to "Report Post" ()and include a message requesting that a moderator delete it for you. You can and should use that same icon to report a violation of forum rules (including signatures that are non-compliant or posting of oversized images,) spam, or anything that you think is inappropriate or offensive.

[Xasf]

Greetings, as a new M18x owner I just would like to ask about what drivers are currently the best, AMD or Dell?

I heard that even though AMD is usually better, Dell drivers were better optimized as of the beginning of this year, but I was wondering if that still holds.

Thanks.

[Mr. Fox]

Dell's drivers are merely AMD (or NVIDIA, or other hardware device) drivers that they have thoroughly tested and verified don't break anything or cause loss of functionality. When the hardware manufacturer does not regularly send new drivers for an OEM to validation, those available for download become outdated and are not optimized for the latest games. Otherwise, they are fine in most cases or they would not be classified as "Dell Recommended" drivers.

Dell does not develop drivers so they aren't really "Dell drivers" other than the fact that they are made available for download from the Dell Support web site, conveniently hosted along side other model-specific drivers as a matter of customer courtesy and support. OEMs (including Dell) will sometimes fix (i.e. tweak) something in a driver if there is serious problem and the hardware device manufacturer doesn't address the problem to their satisfaction in a timely fashion. In most cases the OEMs will notify the device manufacturer of known issues so the device manufacturer can fix their own product rather than modding the drivers. Most OEMs, including Dell, do not proactively download and lab test new device drivers as soon as they are released by device manufacturers, comment on whether new drivers cause issues, or host the updates as an alternative or mirror resource for customer download (nor should they).

[masuntzu]

Mr. Fox, I have a similar question to user Xasf above.

I received my m18x xfire 6990 march, 2012. I installed the latest drivers from ati's website without knowing that I could just install the drivers without consequences. I had multiple BSOD. I didn't care as I already imaged my untouched system for an Inte 520 ssd.

Anyways, I know how to uninstall the original factory default driver for my 6990's, reboot in safe mode to run drive sweep and ccleaner.

My problem is that I went through months or 47 pages of this thread to still not get a clear solution to which driver is best.

I decided to mention I use this m18 to play Skyrim, BF3, ME3, and Star Craft 2. I also use it to wirte code and do some network testing out passwords with the 2200 processor cores.

I have read that my games won't be able to use xfire correctly without the CAPS and newer driver. My networking software requires Catylst 10.3 and newer to use my cores correctly. I notice AMD Sytem Monitor utility shows my xfire only using about 50%. I don't expect 100% as I still need some processor function for output on my display. I just want to have the correct drivers.

I have installed:
Dell driver 8.851.2-110609a-120503c
CCC 2011.0609.2331.40394
BIOS version A05 11/29/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.7

I have downloaded:
AMD Driver 12.4
Dell Driver 8.902-111012a-128052c
AMD_Catalyst_11.12_CAP1

Dell drivers numbers = what driver number from the Catalyst. I want to make sure I'm past 10.3 in AMD's number scheme?

I hesitate to install any new drivers as I read so many back and forth comments to working or not working correctly. I want to be able to dim my screen when I want and utilize my xfire like it's meant to be. Knowing my specific case, what should i install for a driver above or from a website to have fully working xfire in games, monitor dimming, and networking software using my xfire correctly?

Sorry for the long winded post but maybe it might help others who are scratching their heads on this thread's confusion.

I didn't want to test everything out, but that is the fastest way to find out what drivers work for me.

I downloaded Dell's 8.902 driver and installed it to find out that my screen doesn't dim anymore. I also tried the driver out with my software and didn't notice anything better like higher frame rates or a boost in processors for my networking software.

I uninstalled correctly Dell's 8.902 and installed AMD's 12.4. I noticed that the driver actually installed was 8.961.0.0 for AMD 12.4 if anyone cares. I also noticed the dimming works proper now with this driver. I ran the windows experience and lost a decimal point of my score on graphics. I used to get 7.6 as that was the slowest thing on my setup. Now I have 7.5 which is interesting. My networking software improved like I hoped and I still have to test out my games. I don't like overclocking and I imagine that would boost my windows index up again.

As far as I can tell, I see no reason not to use AMD's 12.4 on xfire 6990 on a M18x setup.

[Mr. Fox]

There are multiple opinions about which driver works best. If you are finding 12.4 to work well, there is no reason to change anything. There are posts scattered throughout the M18x forum with opinions about which driver is best. It can vary by system and vary by the games you are playing. The best driver is the one that works the best. Version numbers are irrelevant if they don't deliver results.

[Xasf]

Thank you for the info, I too have a 6990 XF system.

I think I'll go with "install latest tested drivers from Dell website, only meddle further if any performance problems with latest games occur" as a rule of thumb and see how it pans out

[Harryboiyeye]

Hello guys as the title suggests I am getting what seems to be throttling and the game will continue to throttle until I restart it, then it will do it again after about 10 minutes. I made GPU-z logs of both the master and slave card and although the cards are touching 90C there is apparently no throttling in either of the cards, except for the very, very odd 400 MHz down clock. Most of the time while playing the cards are apparently running at 715 / 1000 MHz.

I am running 12.4 drivers, before these drivers I had 12.1 and could not install any other driver/CAP over them, it would always report 12.1 until I did a driver sweeper after trying to install 3 different drivers over it. So now my driver install should be clean but I still have the problem....

Here are both logs.... in case you can see anything I cannot. The master card feels hot when I place my palm over where it is.

First file is Master card log and second is slave.

Thanks