Finally Official 7970M Driver released - AMD Catalyst 12.6 WHQL and 12.7 Beta

[DumbDumb]

I can't get 975MHz GPU OC to work, but I did a 950/1300 @1075V (not going to bother to find the absolute max) run without issue - only setting changed from default was extreme tesselation. Link

950/1350 IS WHAT IS STABLE ON MOST BENCHES with these cards.. any higher really seems to lock up..

[skygunner27]

Yehaaaaaa!!!

[ARGH]

OK, AMD GPUs have always struggled with tessellation turned on more than NVIDIA. So, in all of its ugly, pointy-cornered cannon ball 2D glory, here is my Heaven benchmark using 920/1400 GPU clocks, and the same run with tessellation set to "Normal" (whatever that means) and 2X anti-aliasing. (Basically, a 1000 point drop when the benchmark settings are cranked up enough to not look like it is being run on legacy hardware.) Eye candy always brings a hit against benchmark performance. If Heaven were a game instead of a benchmark, it would not matter. The frame rate with tessellation on and anti-aliasing is still much higher (4 or 5 times more) than necessary to be playable, and it looks way better with the eye candy turned on.

Tessellation Off / No AA | Tessellation On / 2X AA

And, for good measure, "Extreme" Tessellation (eew, ahh) and no AA...

(click images to enlarge in new window)

I believe the small increase in scores with the M18x R2 may be attributable to the newer PCIe 3.0 with twice the available bandwidth than what the M18x R1 has.

on your second run, can you do it again with stock clocks?

[Nafura]

Hallo

I play Diablo 3 Skyrim, Crysis 2, which is the better driver for these games?
12.6 or 12.7?

[Quontum]

So I just installed 12.6 WHQL today and I got a red screen of death. Just a blank red screen of death, wasn't even playing a game. Though I'm thinking it might be a conflict with the old files as I have 12.5 beta installed prior to installing 12.6 WHQL.

[Quagmire LXIX]

+rep Peter, thanks. In case anyone was using the Dell website drivers for the 7970m like I was, here is a pic of their CCC vs. the 12.6 WHQL.



Installed right over it and no problems. Even found that missing 50 points in 3DMark11.

Dell 7970m:--------12.6 CCC:
P5798 850x1200--P5848 850x1200
X1802 850x1200--X1822 850x1200
P6402 950x1450--P6416 950x1450
X2015 950x1450--X2020 950x1450

As I would of expected, it didn't give me anymore OC room than previous, my max stable clocks are still 974x1560. My card would need more voltage to go any higher.

P6641 974x1560
X2111 974x1560

Nice to be off the Dell juice and back to WHQL goodness!

[imglidinhere]

If it matters with everyone here, the desktop 7970s are having just as horrid luck with drivers when in Crossfire. o_o

[TrantaLocked]

So I just installed 12.6 WHQL today and I got a red screen of death. Just a blank red screen of death, wasn't even playing a game. Though I'm thinking it might be a conflict with the old files as I have 12.5 beta installed prior to installing 12.6 WHQL.

The 7970M is not supported by 12.6 WHQL.

[Mr. Fox]

on your second run, can you do it again with stock clocks?

I'd have to re-flash my vBIOS back to stock and I'm not ready to do that right now because I'm testing some other things at the moment. It's not that much different. Also, I think I might have already posted that before. Did you already look here? M18x R1 Tear Down Video: Ivy Bridge CPU Heatsink and 7970M CrossFire Upgrade

Hallo

I play Diablo 3 Skyrim, Crysis 2, which is the better driver for these games?
12.6 or 12.7?

My recommendation is to use 12.7 beta with CAP1 12.7. You can download both here. AMD Catalyst Desktop GPU Display Driver for Windows Vista/Windows 7 64-bit

If it matters with everyone here, the desktop 7970s are having just as horrid luck with drivers when in Crossfire. o_o

That's odd. The desktop 12.7 drivers are doing a very fine job for me with CrossFire. Admittedly, I was about to abandon hope of 7970M ever being viable and about to write these GPUs off as being a piece of trash. The good news is that it seems to be crappy drivers and not an actual hardware defect. AMD should have held off releasing any of their new hardware until they had decent drivers. It's inexcusable and seems to be prima facie evidence that (1) they didn't adequately test their product, and (2) they don't really care about quality, or customer experience. In their mad dash to capture market share, they may have shot themselves in the foot once again.

http://3dmark.com/3dm06/16749831

[Delpan]

A question about the Radeon 7970M and Catalyst 12.7 beta release.

Is it possible to only just use the Catalyst 12.7 beta installer AMD has put up on their website, instead of combining it with the old installer from Clevo and Dell.

I would hate mixing old drivers with new ones!

Ive read over many forums that a lot of ppl installed the old drivers that came with their laptops for the 7970M card and then only chose the "driver" in the Catalyst 12.7 installer and removed the rest.

I would like to have it all updated to the latest, is that possible, if i just choose the "express installation"?