10.4 drivers discussion - no 5x1 support :(

[Flamin Joe]

Happy to report that these 10.4 drivers appear to have solved the DP>VGA issue, where the display on the adaptor would require unplugging/plugging in order for the monitor to be detected correctly (otherwise it would get locked at 640x480). I've only installed these drivers the other day, but already in the half a dozen or so boots I've done, I'm yet to see this problem appear. Use to be that it would happen at just about every boot.

I've always been told this was a hardware issue, but I somewhat suspected the drivers had a hand in it too. Previous driver releases have slowly reduced the occurance but never completely removed it. Fingers crossed it's all good!

Edit: I think I just jinxed it. lol. I did a reboot just to check, and it did it again. :( It's weird, it's like the driver update for a while either resolves the issue or reduces the occurance, then slowly it gets worse again. Like I said, previous drivers appeared to have reduced the occurance, but then they too slowly went back to it happening just about everytime. Oh well.

[spammeister]

Is anyone getting horrible tessellation performance compared to fermi cards. I just don't understand it. My cards with 10.4 are performing no where near the results of fermi in benchmarks like Heaven 2.0

Just curious why my cards are performing weaker then fermi cards in tessellation? Will this improve over time or is it a driver bug? Anyone else notice this.

Heaven is just a benchmark, and was originally tailored (1.1) to the 5800 series cards because there was nothing else on the market for DX11, then the Fermi cards came out and it was "retooled" (2.0) for those cards. Fermi has a lot more capability when it comes to tesselation, but unlike ATi's solution, it is not dedicated. In real life, Tesselation isn't highest on the list when it comes to rendering in games. While ATi can keeps constant amount of tesselation that doesn't impact any other function of the card, NV can show off with "benchmarketeering".

This has been discussed in many ways in different places, and sometimes turning into instant flamewars from their forum "fanboys".

[spammeister]

I got an AC->USB adapter (PS3 to be exact). The screen blanking appears to happen less often, but it will stay blank more often, until i unplug and plug back the DP cable. Good thing I don't have my case crammed behind a bunch of stuff.

[fatlazyhomer]

I'm using the 10.4 betas and havnt had any problem, but all this talk is making me afraid of the real thing.

Is anyone happy with the 10.4s?

[Tamlin]

I'm using the 10.4a and are not experiencing any problems so far. Didn't want to use the 10.4 WHQL since catalystmaker said the 10.4a is newer.

[spammeister]

For the heck of it I tried to upgrade to the 10.4 from the 10.4a and it didn't upgrade anything (every bit of it is older).

[Tamlin]

Its newer. :) I think Catalystmaker should know this:
http://twitter.com/CatalystMaker/status/13071004273

[johnnyvd]

I'm using the 10.4a and are not experiencing any problems so far. Didn't want to use the 10.4 WHQL since catalystmaker said the 10.4a is newer.

I'll try to give 10.4a a spin then!

[Flamin Joe]

Edit: I think I just jinxed it. lol. I did a reboot just to check, and it did it again. :( It's weird, it's like the driver update for a while either resolves the issue or reduces the occurance, then slowly it gets worse again. Like I said, previous drivers appeared to have reduced the occurance, but then they too slowly went back to it happening just about everytime. Oh well.

Just an update on this, it appears I jumped the gun a little in thinking the problem was still the same with 10.4. It looks as if it is now only happening when restarting, as every cold boot so far has still been flawless. One thing I noticed is that when doing a cold boot, I get display from the Left (DVI) and Right (DP>VGA) LCD with my Middle LCD (DVI) being blank during the boot before the Windows desktop comes up. However when I did a restart, it was the Left and Middle LCD which remained on (even during the following boot) while the Right DP>VGA LCD went blank.

Interesting. Either way, I'm much happier with my setup with these drivers.

[bowenac]

Updated to 10.4a yesterday and have not had any problems since.

[johnnyvd]

@johnnyvd:

In your C:Usersyourusername there is a hidden folder called appdata. If you cannot see it, you can go into folder options and activate "show hidden files and folders". Within that folder, go to localatiace . This is where CCC stores the settings. Delete profiles.xml (or move it to another location) and open CCC. If you make any changes in CCC, a new profile will be created automatically. See if your Eyefinity settings are gone if you remove the profile.

Interesting file this profiles.xml, especially this:






























Although i can not up vcore in overdrive, it seems possible in the profile.xml with ??

EDIT: can't seem to find any reference within profiles.xml to my "profiles". There is a folder named PROFILES in the ACE folder.
Here are xml files placed with my profile names.

I'm on the brink of installing 10.4a, will delete the complete ACE folder and report back!

[johnnyvd]

@johnnyvd:

In your C:Usersyourusername there is a hidden folder called appdata. If you cannot see it, you can go into folder options and activate "show hidden files and folders". Within that folder, go to localatiace . This is where CCC stores the settings. Delete profiles.xml (or move it to another location) and open CCC. If you make any changes in CCC, a new profile will be created automatically. See if your Eyefinity settings are gone if you remove the profile.

Okay, just installed 10.4a.. so far so good.

Removed ACE folder: last desktop setting is displayed again including shortcut-positions .. Must be a registry thing, creepy....
I mean, all Eyefinity profiles are gone, just the last Eyefinity configuration is in effect again..?

Now it is just the waiting game if and when the DP screen starts blinking, will report!

[johnnyvd]

Well, did a lot of testing this afternoon after installing 10.4a..

Few rounds of DIRT 2 benchmarking, everything A-OK. Then i just started doing some work with Solidworks 2010 and suddenly after an hour or so the blinking started again! Unplugged and plugged DP -> no blinking..

Restarted PC and after one hour of DOW II: my DP started blinking again. closed DOW: no blinking.

Then tested with Heaven 2.0 and discovered that when i run it for a long period (like one hour) the DP monitor would start blinking again.... When i close Heaven 2.0 blinking stops (so no problems in 2D). Run the benchmark again for 30min-1hour, blink-blink.. Close down -> OK.

Never had this problems with 10.3b. And cooling is just fine, card max 40c and CPU core max 26c.. (you just gotta love water :D )

[johnnyvd]

Well i'm back to the old routine, blinking all over the place..
No difference anymore between 10.4 and 10.4a.

Just ordered a 1000mA USB power adapter, maybe this will help (i already had one, a 500mA)..

In the mean time i will revert to 10.3b :(

[Magic Man]

Just ordered a 1000mA USB power adapter, maybe this will help (i already had one, a 500mA)..(

How about using the USB ports on your monitors, they should be powered.

[johnnyvd]

[quote]Just ordered a 1000mA USB power adapter, maybe this will help (i already had one, a 500mA)..(

How about using the USB ports on your monitors, they should be powered.

Really? So they are powered by the monitor's powersupply then? Never knew..
I'll will try this after work..

[spammeister]

The only problem with the USB ports on the monitors is that usually monitors are farther than 1 foot from the computer (yay cables!).

I bought a PS3 USB AC adapter, it supplies 500mA to 2 channels. The blanking still occurs. I just ordered 2 (they are stupid cheap) "KODAK TESA5G1-0501200" 1000mA adapters from NCIX. I'll let ya know how that goes.

Update: You guys must have ordered a lot of them, the price went up from 7$ to 10$!

[johnnyvd]

After playing DOW II for 1.5 hours with one blanking monitor i decided to roll back to 10.3b.
10.4 WHQL and 10.4a gave a nice 2D performance boost, but that doesn't weigh against the blanking..

So far (8 hours) not a single blank from 10.3b...................

Confirmed working are now 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 WHQL, 10.3a and 10.3b.. No blanking whatsoever.

Is there a software side that can lower the voltage drive strength of the DP of the card??

I think i wait until 10.5 is released and then try again..

[Tanshin]

10.4 and 1.4 a seem to re-break the problems the problems that were solved with ccc10, lol. 10.4 runs for about 2 min and my DP monitor crashes.. 10.4a runs for about 10min and crashes my dp monitor.. 10.3, never have to restart or unplug my DP monitor :D

[spammeister]

The only problem with the USB ports on the monitors is that usually monitors are farther than 1 foot from the computer (yay cables!).

I bought a PS3 USB AC adapter, it supplies 500mA to 2 channels. The blanking still occurs. I just ordered 2 (they are stupid cheap) "KODAK TESA5G1-0501200" 1000mA adapters from NCIX. I'll let ya know how that goes.

Update: You guys must have ordered a lot of them, the price went up from 7$ to 10$!

Aight the 1 AMP Kodak thingy is installed, I'll let ya know how that works out.