AMD Catalyst 12.2 Pre-Certified Driver 2/16/2012

Bed-LaN in Kansas City, one of the largest Lan Centers in the area just pulled all their 7970's, 22+ cards and put their Geforce 580's back in. They gave one of the 7970's away as a door prize or contest prize over the weekend. Not sure what they are going to do with the 7970s. I know that the owner Rick said he has lost money constantly since the cards went in as his customers have had nothing but driver issues, issues with games, etc.

My card constantly crashes when the monitor goes to sleep.

I do know that when Nvidia's new card comes out that I will be forced to move to that card mainly because of driver stability.

Why does AMD not want my money or me as a customer? I can't figure that out. Why would a company constantly destroy it's reputation. Boggles the mind.
 
Skimming through the posts it seems like 12.2's causing more problems with CF vs a single card. In my setup they've been the same with RC11 but I couldn't get through a single match in BF3 without locking up/blue screening with the Guru3D version(so I could use Sapphire Trixx/Afterburner OSD). Reverting back to the 12.2 file from AMD's site fixed that but if any issues pop up it's back to RC11 and when I get my 2nd card tomorrow.

The only upside I saw was that Heaven improved by 4fps/130 points @1200/1700 when I was using the 12.2 Guru3D driver.
 
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Gota stick with the 11.12 drivers.. still lossing a random screen in eyefinity either at pc boot up or game boot up and having to unplug the USB cable from the damn mini DP to dual link DVI active adapter all the time is really bugging the shit out of me.

Would love to send in both adapters in for accell to check them out.. though i dont know if its the damn adapters or the damn drivers.
 
eclypse said:
Gota stick with the 11.12 drivers.. still lossing a random screen in eyefinity either at pc boot up or game boot up and having to unplug the USB cable from the damn mini DP to dual link DVI active adapter all the time is really bugging the shit out of me.

Would love to send in both adapters in for accell to check them out.. though i dont know if its the damn adapters or the damn drivers.
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I can't even imagine the problems with eyefinity. I'm only using a single screen for gaming with other monitors for stats, web browsers etc. Just glad I made a system image without any AMD drivers beforehand to restore to.
 
SixFootDuo said:
Bed-LaN in Kansas City, one of the largest Lan Centers in the area just pulled all their 7970's, 22+ cards and put their Geforce 580's back in. They gave one of the 7970's away as a door prize or contest prize over the weekend. Not sure what they are going to do with the 7970s. I know that the owner Rick said he has lost money constantly since the cards went in as his customers have had nothing but driver issues, issues with games, etc.

My card constantly crashes when the monitor goes to sleep.

I do know that when Nvidia's new card comes out that I will be forced to move to that card mainly because of driver stability.

Why does AMD not want my money or me as a customer? I can't figure that out. Why would a company constantly destroy it's reputation. Boggles the mind.
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Mine never crashes when my monitors go to sleep.
Its a totally new design for AMD on new immature drivers, i don't expect it to work perfectly on every set-up and in fact no card does.
 
so i uninstalled 11.something or other and installed 12.1, but the express uninstalled uninstalled all my amd control stuff and I apparently don't have AMD CCC. Also, gpu-z and TRIXX say i am still running 11.12
 
Not sure if anyone noticed but AMD's site say not to use the 12.2 previews with the 7900 series.

sorry in advance if this has already been noted.
 
kinjo said:
Not sure if anyone noticed but AMD's site say not to use the 12.2 previews with the 7900 series.

sorry in advance if this has already been noted.
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Linky? Because this is what it says at the DL link:

Feature highlights of the AMD Catalyst 12.2 pre-certified driver:

Windows 7 and Windows® Vista® support for the AMD Radeon™ HD 7900 Series and AMD Radeon HD 7700 Series
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:confused:
 
First of all, AMD needs to release a tool that wipes their drivers "entirely" from a users system. For the community to be forced to furnish these tools themselves is beyond stupid. AMD, seriously? Can you fix this?

Why this hasn't happened yet is just more of AMD performing poorly toward their customers. This is something AMD could do if it wanted and in turn create a huge amount of good-will toward their customers and the community at large.

Second, someone explain to me why drivers are always broke in one way or another? A feature of AMD's drivers you can now count on and have been able to count on is the "broke" feature. If something isn't broke, it will be. That's a guarantee. I can count on a head-ache and or something not working right, under performing with any new release of AMD's drivers. Isn't this sad that this is now common place? If the community accepts this mediocrity then AMD will continue to deliver this level of performance without pause. Which they have. Again, delayed and broken drivers that need patched and re-patched are now common place and have been for a long time now.

Here is what AMD should have done. Kept their god damn 79xx video cards in the warehouse until they were competent enough to ship with them solid drivers. I would have much rather waited til the middle of 2012 for this to happen. But no, AMD is suffering, you've seen their quarterlys. You've watched the news as one senior AMD exec left one after the other. Pricing that is knee jerk and incorrect for the market. The ship is going down and the rats are trying to save themselves.

Here is what I pray to god happens. I hope Kepler comes out, cheaper and faster and destroys AMD on price and performance. Driver stability is there. I want to see AMD lose millions on their video card business. If they can't take this serious then gtfo of the way. In a handful of a weeks it would make me happy to see people rushing to dump their slower buggy driver'd 7970's to go Nvidia. There is a real shot of that happening.
 
^^^ I did not have any issues with the drivers that came on the cd with my 7970's. Only issue I have with the new drivers is AB won't work with the unoficial OC settings. A minor and fixable issue at that which does not keep me from using the cards at all. Wait for Kelper if you want... but it may be awhile. In the meantime AMD is having a hard time keeping the 7970's on the shelves so someone other than myself must also be happy with them. I'm not exactly thrilled with the AMD driver situation either.. but it's far from a show stopper or worth all the machinations many are making on the forums.

My2c.
 
One driver set is 12.2 Preview and the other is 12.2 pre-certified.. so maybe there not the same.
 
Right. Wiped the system of all AMD drivers. Installed 12.2 Pre-cert drivers then used 11.2 CAP3's.

Everything seems to be hunky-dory (both GPU's fully utilized at 100% while play-testing BF3). But I agree, AMD NEEDS/MUST have an easier, more comprehensive way of uninstalling their driver/files when installing new drivers, WITHOUT using other software. Hell, just re-write over the old ones and replace them. no? IDK

PRODUCT = HARDWARE + SOFTWARE

They have the hardware part down correctly, now just fix the other part and the product will be great.

Jeebus >_<

/rant
 
ive been installing over previous drivers since the 3870s. Never had a problem.
 
risqu3 said:
ive been installing over previous drivers since the 3870s. Never had a problem.
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So did I when I had my 9800pro and x800 AIW back in the day. Maybe it gets more complicated when separate CAPs, drivers and multi-gpu's are involved.
 
Final8ty said:
Mine never crashes when my monitors go to sleep.
Its a totally new design for AMD on new immature drivers, i don't expect it to work perfectly on every set-up and in fact no card does.
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I expect it to work, period. You are wrong, its not too much to ask. This isn't just a few people with random problems. Stop defending them, it's ridiculous. Just because you got lucky and have had no problems doesn't mean other people are wrong.

When I first got started with ONE card in this new rig, I had no problems with the drivers. Once I put another in...BANG...all sorts of problems.

I really enjoy AMD but honestly this software needs work.
 
Wish I could even afford a 7xxx series card :p Guess my 6870 will have to do for now.
 
CousinVin said:
Ok so what software should i use to get rid of the old drivers?
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When I got my two 7970s the only way to get rid of old drivers, and the ONLY way I was able to get crossfire working was to do a fresh install of windows, as PATHTIC as that sounds. It shouldn't have to be that way :(
 
Vegasr said:
When I got my two 7970s the only way to get rid of old drivers, and the ONLY way I was able to get crossfire working was to do a fresh install of windows, as PATHTIC as that sounds. It shouldn't have to be that way :(
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I decided to use driver sweeper from within safe mode. I then also used the older CAP versions. Again, having to do this should not have been necessary in the first place....
 
csshih said:
likewise, not sure what's going on with peoples' setups.

I've run single card, dual card, 4 card, too.

C
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It seems the people who seem to have more problems are the ones that do wipe off before they install. Never had a problem with a set and I just let them install over, it just simply replaces the necessary files.
 
Johnny_Utah said:
I expect it to work, period. You are wrong, its not too much to ask. This isn't just a few people with random problems. Stop defending them, it's ridiculous. Just because you got lucky and have had no problems doesn't mean other people are wrong.

When I first got started with ONE card in this new rig, I had no problems with the drivers. Once I put another in...BANG...all sorts of problems.

I really enjoy AMD but honestly this software needs work.
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Well im not wrong am i as people are having problems with new hardware and your expectation were wrong in regards to what is actually happening.
Im not surprised at all that people are having issues and its noting to do with defending them or saying its ok for AMD to be give people issues with new hardware, its just the facts of what is and i don't rely on hope.

I expect there to be issues because there always has been with new hardware from AMD with CF and i would not fool myself into thinking otherwise on any new release.

Besides 1900xt CF all my other CF set-ups have been nearly a year after release when more of the issues are ironed out.

I may jump on the 8xxx as soon as the dual cards come out for quad fire and i expect there to be issues it does not matter how much i think there should not be, the reality is that there is very likely to be and anything other would be the exception to the rule.

People can expect anything they like but should not be surprised when there exceptions are not met unless they were born yesterday.

As i said no card works for everyone on every setup if you think it does then show me what planet you come from where they have that because it does not exist here.
The only reason why warranty and guarantees exist is because noting is expected to be perfect for everyone and things will sometimes go wrong and a replacement, repair or refunded will be granted.

Grooveriding said:
Would be nice if nvidia could also get their act together on SLI profiles and fix their drivers, they have been piss poor for months. Alan Wake - no SLI profile, game is unplayable for me on a single card. The Darkness II - no SLI profile as well.

Latest 295.51 nvidia beta drivers have a memory leak and also make BF3 performance go down significantly. So no SLI scaling in Kingdoms of Amalur unless you want to use broken memory leaking drivers and have poor perforance in BF3

No WHQL driver from nvidia since November 2011. The TDR bugs that people are experiencing with nvidia cards are still not fixed and that has been going on for almost six months.

Nvidia where r u stellarzzz driverzz suproortz ? :p I've found it's better to see if anyone has found solutions on other forums or in PC gaming forums here, because if you ask about these broke ass nvidia drivers in VC&G - the nvidia fanboys start frothing at the mouth and going ape****.
3930K @ 5.0 | Rampage IV E | 16GB GSkill 1600DDR3 | GTX480 Tri-SLI | Crucial M4 128GB | 3007WFP-HC | Silverstone ST1500
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http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=33029578&postcount=446
 
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gordon151 said:
It seems the people who seem to have more problems are the ones that do wipe off before they install. Never had a problem with a set and I just let them install over, it just simply replaces the necessary files.
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First time through, I installed over them, i.e. the catalyst installer uninstalled the previous drivers and then installed. That resulted in issues for me. Second time through, I had to take extra steps and use a third party tool to ensure a good result.

Who knows whats going on. At this point I'm glad its just not crashing.....
 
Whach said:
First time through, I installed over them, i.e. the catalyst installer uninstalled the previous drivers and then installed. That resulted in issues for me. Second time through, I had to take extra steps and use a third party tool to ensure a good result.

Who knows whats going on. At this point I'm glad its just not crashing.....
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I would not have used a third party tool even on the second time, would of simply tried again.

Install and uninstalls do not always go perfect for me but i have never used a third party tool, i just uninstall again and reinstall again.

1900ct CF
4X 3870 for Quadfire
and 5970 Quadfire

No third party tools.
 
Final8ty said:
I would not have used a third party tool even on the second time, would of simply tried again.

Install and uninstalls do not always go perfect for me but i have never used a third party tool, i just uninstall again and reinstall again.

1900ct CF
4X 3870 for Quadfire
and 5970 Quadfire

No third party tools.
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And on that note, the drivers are acting up again lol *face palm* reverting back again. sigh. this shit is awesome.
 
Sorry to hear that. With my 7970 and prior to that, my 6950, I would always just install catalyst with its own uninstaller, reboot, then install the new ones, then reboot one last final time. Hope you get yours sorted soon.
 
Whatever happened to the tried and true method of:

Uninstall previous drivers (CCC) via Windows Add/Remove programs (express uninstall all)
Reboot into safe mode, run driver cleaner to remove AMD/ATI remnants
Reboot normally, install new drivers

I've done that for 5+ years with no issues that I can remember. My 7950 will be here Wednesday so I'll chime in with results.
 
edge929 said:
Whatever happened to the tried and true method of:

Uninstall previous drivers (CCC) via Windows Add/Remove programs (express uninstall all)
Reboot into safe mode, run driver cleaner to remove AMD/ATI remnants
Reboot normally, install new drivers

I've done that for 5+ years with no issues that I can remember. My 7950 will be here Wednesday so I'll chime in with results.
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That's what I did and the 12.2 are working fine for me. :confused:
 
Evil Scooter said:
That's what I did and the 12.2 are working fine for me. :confused:
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The drivers are working per say, just not as maximally for me under BF3. Second GPU seems to be hitting a usage wall of 50% for some reason. gonna give it one more go, then back to the RC11's =\
 
Whach said:
The drivers are working per say, just not as maximally for me under BF3. Second GPU seems to be hitting a usage wall of 50% for some reason. gonna give it one more go, then back to the RC11's =\
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I just switched back to the RC11's as well. The "new" drivers actually seemed to perform worse in BF3. Off to play for a bit and see if it makes a difference.
 
Evil Scooter said:
I just switched back to the RC11's as well. The "new" drivers actually seemed to perform worse in BF3. Off to play for a bit and see if it makes a difference.
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Same here. Weird though. Played BF3 after a cold boot with the 12.2's, both GPU's used perfectly at 90-99% each. Exited BF3, played later on and then encountered the 50% usage wall on the 2nd GPU. No probs with the RC'11 though. Oh well.
 
^^^ Yup.. the RC11's definitely run better in BF3.


Oh.. and I'm also using the 11.12 CAP3 with them.
 
I was lookin' forward to on getting the 7970...WoW!?...All this headache just to update drivers for the 7970!?.....As expensive Nvidia Cards are, I never had or have any problem with them since day one with their simple driver updates & other tools for tweaking card...

I never did like Catalyst....I guess I will wait a lil longer & see what happens down the line before I crossover to AMD Cards...Thanx for the info guys:)
 
I can confirm that the these drivers are indeed missing the atipdlxx.dll.

I removed old drivers did a driver sweeper cleaning in safe mode. I use hydravision it is a must for me with an Eyefinity setup. So I installed these drivers, the 12.1 Cap 3, and the 12.1 Hydravision package. When I went to enable Hydravision and apply the change it said it had not detected an AMD Display Driver? GPU-Z also showed that the clocks were off and there was a difference in the fillrate of the two cards. Booting back into safe mode and moving the atipdlxx.dll to C:\Windows\SysWOW64 and rebooting solved these issues.

Looking at the files installed between both the 8.921.2 RC11 and the Pre-certified driver shows this is not the only difference. This pre-certified driver is notably missing the HDMI/DP audio driver packages during the custom installation prompts. The driver files for the HDMI/DP audio are present your just not presented the option to either install or not install them. However a comparison of both the files installed with each driver suite and a winmerge comparison of the RC11 "Packages\Driver\Display\W76A_INF\B132075\" folder and the Pre-Certified "Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF\B133359\" folder also shows that atipdl64.dll is missing from the pre-certified driver install. Not wanting to have any more problems with these drivers I went ahead and placed a copy of it in C:\Windows\System32\

I've notified AMD of the issue
 
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These drivers still have the BF3 CF Scaling bug when launched from Eyefinity Desktop as well. Maybe 12.4 will have it fixed
 
This CAT is missing the SDK, this causes all kinds of weird behavior if you try to cleansweep/atiman to remove prior CATs.

The simplest solution is to install 12.2 or before, then install this RC right over the top allowing CAT Manager to handle uninstalling necessarily components.

This will fix the AB OC issues, as well as the GPU-Z cat reporting issue...

The only thing ive found wrong with this release is after a length of time, powerplay ignores any unlocked vcore increases, and reverts to the bios default causing GPU resets if youve upped vcore and not flashed it to the bios.
 
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