Preview 10.3a is up

[Mach1.9pants]

If you want to try ATi's new bezel management early, then have a look here:

http://sites.amd.com/us/underground/tips/Pages/catalyst-10-3-preview.aspx

EDIT: apparently the link are broken, the desktop ones still go to the mobility drivers, so you may have to wait a little

[tbaerg]

and I still can't enable bezel management due to not having identical monitors. Weak............

[Flamin Joe]

and I still can't enable bezel management due to not having identical monitors. Weak............

Yep, big disappointment. Bezel management is the last piece in the puzzle to making Eyefinity just about perfect for me. But it falls short once again.

Is the individual colour management with Eyefinity suppose to be in these drivers too? Because I can't see it anywhere.

[bowenac]

Is there anything different from these and the preview 10.3?

[Abram]

But I assume the actual 10.3 will be out before long, right? I think I'll wait.

[Dave Baumann]

These are actually a slight superset of the WHQL release as there are few additional tweak gone on. If you don't care about certification these are the best ones to go with.

[Paradigm Shifter]

Purely from an interest perspective, what's happened to these drivers that makes them undesirable to submit for WHQL? (I know from the HardOCP article what the extras are, I just wondered what the changes were 'underneath'... if you know/are allowed to say?)

[tbaerg]

These are actually a slight superset of the WHQL release as there are few additional tweak gone on. If you don't care about certification these are the best ones to go with.

I don't care about certification, but i do care about bezel management which I was told would be included in the 10.3 drivers. I was led to believe that this 10.3a set includes more 'features' than the WHQL set, and I still don't have bezel management. So what's the whole story? If you're not going to support mixed brands for eyefinity, then that really needs to be disclosed before people start dropping loads of cash on monitor setups that won't be fully supported.

[Dave Baumann]

Purely from an interest perspective, what's happened to these drivers that makes them undesirable to submit for WHQL? (I know from the HardOCP article what the extras are, I just wondered what the changes were 'underneath'... if you know/are allowed to say?)

They are not undesirable, the "preview" just has more time to have stuff checked into it. The WHQL drivers have to have their code set a while back for software qualification and then WHQL certification logging; the preview is a point release of that code that has more stuff being worked on and checked in - it will all be rolled into the WHQL releases in the coming months.

[bowenac]

[quote]These are actually a slight superset of the WHQL release as there are few additional tweak gone on. If you don't care about certification these are the best ones to go with.

I don't care about certification, but i do care about bezel management which I was told would be included in the 10.3 drivers. I was led to believe that this 10.3a set includes more 'features' than the WHQL set, and I still don't have bezel management. So what's the whole story? If you're not going to support mixed brands for eyefinity, then that really needs to be disclosed before people start dropping loads of cash on monitor setups that won't be fully supported.


I had mentioned it a long time ago about mix matched monitors and why I didn't like them. And people broke my balls on it, again another reason why I would not run mix matched monitors.

[Paradigm Shifter]

They are not undesirable, the "preview" just has more time to have stuff checked into it. The WHQL drivers have to have their code set a while back for software qualification and then WHQL certification logging; the preview is a point release of that code that has more stuff being worked on and checked in - it will all be rolled into the WHQL releases in the coming months.

Ah, OK. Wrong choice of wording on my part... I see. Thanks. :)

[CY:G]

ugh, just wasted 2 hours trying to install them and just as 10.2 and 10.3 preview, they wont install, always get a black screen when booting windows after installing them, tried everything, taking out my secondary video card, disconnecting all monitors but one, driver sweeper, etc etc

Dave, can you PLEASE ask the team what they changed with the installer starting with 10.2, im not the only one that cant install any new drivers since they came out:

http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=128064&enterthread=y&STARTPAGE=1


Whatever method they were using in 10.1 please tell them to use them again, 10.1 install smoothly. Something tells me im stuck with 10.1 forever :(

[legoman666]

[quote]and I still can't enable bezel management due to not having identical monitors. Weak............

Yep, big disappointment. Bezel management is the last piece in the puzzle to making Eyefinity just about perfect for me. But it falls short once again.

Is the individual colour management with Eyefinity suppose to be in these drivers too? Because I can't see it anywhere.

Indeed. My monitors are virtually identical except for the EDID, two are listed as 52x32cm, the other is listed as 52x33cm. Pissing me off that I cannot enable bezel management.

[legoman666]

some prick mod on the AMD forums keeps locking threads about the bezel management.
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=128553&enterthread=y
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=129953&enterthread=y

I posted another thread about it, which I fully expect to get locked too.
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=129955&enterthread=y

[tbaerg]

I picked up about 2-4 fps during the dirt 2 benchmark at 5760x1200 with 2xAA. I'm running presets at Ultra with the exception of postprocessing to medium. However, we're back to not getting the windshield splash effect / and I'm not getting the cracked windows. So in essence we're disabling visual effects to pick up a couple frames. I'm going back to the first batch of 10.3 betas. I really do love ATI, but this is getting ridiculous.

[bowenac]

I picked up about 2-4 fps during the dirt 2 benchmark at 5760x1200 with 2xAA. I'm running presets at Ultra with the exception of postprocessing to medium. However, we're back to not getting the windshield splash effect / and I'm not getting the cracked windows. So in essence we're disabling visual effects to pick up a couple frames. I'm going back to the first batch of 10.3 betas. I really do love ATI, but this is getting ridiculous.

So they are actually different then 10.3 preview?

[JimmyMac]

Well I flushed out all my drivers. I went from Preview 10.3 to 10.3a and I did not see any improve at all in Dirt 2 Benchmark. Average framerate was the same. About 52.6 with default Ultra settings and 2xMSAA. Sapphire HD5970 at 5960x1080. Bezel management works like it did with the old 10.3. I'm guessing the 10.3a is the same as the older one, just other optimizations elsewhere. Also did Company of Heroes benchmark. It was all Ultra 8AA settings. 10.3a was about 2 or 3fps better than old 10.3. And I did a Wow /timetest. No change at all between old 10.3 and 10.3a. I probably should of done a 10.2 test. But then you are talking about no Bezel Management and 5760x1080 res, and I'm too lazy to clean out all my drivers. hehe

[bowenac]

Checking this out see if it is any different right now.

[Flamin Joe]

some prick mod on the AMD forums keeps locking threads about the bezel management.
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=128553&enterthread=y
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=129953&enterthread=y

I posted another thread about it, which I fully expect to get locked too.
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=129955&enterthread=y

Your not going to get anywhere. I'm afriad, unless you brought an Eyefinity setup from scratch (monitors and all) your stuck with a "poor man's" implementation. It seems the path many took from upgrading current setups is fraught with danger, from the whole DisplayPort adapter confusion to now with bezel management not being supported on "mixed" setups.

I'm now stuck on this boat and the only way I'm going to get anywhere near a pefect setup is if I bite the bullet and replace all my monitors with the same 24" LCD. In my case, I have an "old" Dell 2405 which is brillant monitor, the best I've owned for picture quality by far and it is still going strong. But unforunately, being so old, getting hold of another two 2405's isn't as easy as walking into a store and purchasing brand new. My only option is second hand, and even then do you really know what your getting? And to top it off they can be hard to get hold of due to still being very popular in the second hand market.

That's why I ended up going the cheaper option and getting a pair of 20" Dells on either side. Works an absolute treat. But then along comes little things like this which detract from the whole experience. Oh well, guess it's time to start saving....... :(

[tbaerg]

so all of us that have EDID profiles that aren't ideal are screwed. Wonderful....