Catalyst 9.12 / 9.12 Hotfix - Eyefinity and Crossfire!!

[Dave Baumann]

Catalst 9.12 has been posted - this add support for OpenGL 3.2 on our DX10.1+ products. Grab it here:

http://www.amd.com

However, also posted is Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix (non-WHQL) - included is a little holiday bonus for WSGF'ers - Eyefinity an Crossfire! This also fixes the enlarged cursor bug.

Grab em here:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst912Hotfix.aspx

Note - Crossfire X support at this time is at the early stages of implementation. We will be further validating and testing it and providing performance improvements in coming drver releases.

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Release notes:

ATI Catalyst™ support for DirectCompute 10.1[list][*]This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides full support for DirectCompute 10.1 for the ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4700 Series for both single card and ATI CrossFireX™ supported configurations.[/*:m][/list:u]

http://www.amd.com

OpenGL 3.2 extension support[list][*]This release of ATI Catalyst™ provides support for OpenGL 3.2 extension support on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 3000 Series and ATI Radeon™ HD 2000 Series. The following is a list of OpenGL™ 3.2 features and extensions added in ATI Catalyst™ 9.12: [list][*]Support for OpenGL Shading Language 1.50. [/*:m]
[*]BGRA vertex component ordering (GL_ARB_vertex_array_bgra).[/*:m]
[*]Drawing commands allowing modification of the base vertex index (GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex). [/*:m]
[*]Shader fragment coordinate convention control (GL_ARB_fragment_coord_conventions).[/*:m]
[*]Provoking vertex control (GL_ARB_provoking_vertex).[/*:m]
[*]Seamless cube map filtering (GL_ARB_seamless_cube_map).[/*:m]
[*]Multisampled textures and texture samplers for specific sample locations (GL_ARB_texture_multisample).[/*:m]
[*]Fragment depth clamping (GL_ARB_depth_clamp). [/*:m]
[*]Geometry shaders (GL_ARB_geometry_shader4).[/*:m]
[*]Fence sync objects (GL_ARB_sync).[/*:m]
[*]Transform_feedback2[/*:m]
[*]texture_cubemap_array[/*:m][/list:u][/*:m][/list:u]

We’ve also made the ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix driver available (a little later) today as well – there were some last minute fixes, plus a few more features we wanted to get out there as soon as we could!!

Grab it now at: http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/ATICatalyst912Hotfix.aspx

Highlights of the ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix release include:

Support for the OpenCL™ GPU component of the ATI Stream SDK v2.0[list][*]The ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix release provides full support for GPU acceleration of OpenCL when used in conjunction with the ATI Stream SDK v2.0. This feature is supported on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 4000 Series and the AMD FireStream™ 9200 Series of products. For more information about ATI Stream technology and OpenCL, please visit http://www.amd.com/stream. [/*:m][/list:u]

Support for ATI CrossFireX™ on Eyefinity configurations[list][*]The ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix release provides ATI CrossFireX™ support on Eyefinity configurations, allowing users to take advantage of their additional GPUs for increased gaming performance when driving high resolution Eyefinity display groups[/*:m]
[*]Supported on the ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, and ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series[/*:m][/list:u]

Support for DisplayPort audio[list][*]The ATI Catalyst™ 9.12 hotfix release adds support for DisplayPort audio for DisplayPort panels[/*:m][/list:u]

Fixes for the following issues:[list][*]Resident Evil 5 – Performance drop during the opening cinematic[/*:m]
[*]Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 – Performance drop observed with a supported ATI CrossFireX™ configuration when using the thermal scope[/*:m]
[*]Wheelman – Game freezes while loading the game menu[/*:m]
[*]Flashing in various OpenGL titles – City of Heroes, Enemy Territories: Quake Wars, Riddick[/*:m]
[*]Heaven benchmark (DirectX 9 mode) – Grass flickers and white boarders observed around the edges[/*:m]
[*]ATI Radeon™ HD 5970 Series, ATI Radeon™ HD 5800 Series, and ATI Radeon™ HD 5700 Series – issue with HDMI: DTS-HD and Dolby True-HD not working properly with certain receivers.[/*:m]
[*]The desktop mouse cursor becomes enlarged at random when using Windows 7[/*:m][/list:u]

[Robobandit]

Excellent news.

Now if someone wants to give me a 2nd 5870 and a new power supply for x-mas, I'll be all set :)

[Tamlin]

Thank you for early christmas present :D

[arkan_swe_utopia]

NICENESS!

[Anprionsa]

Wow, that sounds awesome! To bad I still need my first 5870 in order to crossfire... :doh

[kondor999]

Cool! Thank You for delivering Crossfire way earlier than promised!

I am extremely interested to see if adding my 2nd 5870 will obviate the need for a lower resolution than 5760x1200.

I'll be sure to post some results later tonight if at all possible.

Thanks again.

[TwinIon]

The desktop mouse cursor becomes enlarged at random when using Windows 7

Sweet! Right now my mouse is extra large on both side monitors and regular sized on the middle one. It'll be nice to have that fixed.

Now that there is support for Crossfire I'll have to think about getting another 5850...

[Mach1.9pants]

Link now works and all installed here. Still get the weird flickering across the outer 2 screens (1x DVI and 1 x mini-DP to DVI or VGA) whenever a new window or tab opens or shuts etc as soon as I play with the default freqs, whether up or down :(

[Sideeffect]

Thanks for fixing my cursor

[TexasTango]

Guess I need some help:

#1-- 9.12, then applied the hotfix.
I'm not getting any kind of confirmation that Crossfire is working in Eyefinity.
On the Crossfire tab, under "Diagnostics", it shows:
Only one GPU is listed (at the top in the drop-down box) then lists all three monitors. I think this is how it looked with the 9.10 drivers.

#2-- Even before this hotfix, on the Crossfire "Diagonistics" page, I've never seen any info in the box just above the "Identify GPU" button. The box is labeled, "The following information indicates the status of your setup" - No info???

But on the Information Center tab, "Graphics Hardware", everything looks fine.
It shows both "Primary Adapter" and "Linked Adapter" just fine???
And when I uncheck the "Enable Crossfire" checkbox, the "Linked Adapter" becomes "Disabled Adapter". So that seems ok.
Once again, this is how it was with the 9.10 drivers.


What am I doing wrong???
Thanks for the help.

[thenjwaslike]

"Support for ATI CrossFireX™ technology on configurations employing ATI Eyefinity technology configurations The ATI Catalyst 9.12 hotfix release provides support for ATI CrossFireX™ technology on configurations employing ATI Eyefinity technology, allowing users to take advantage of their additional GPUs for increased gaming performance when driving high resolution displays

* Supported on the ATI Radeon HD 5970 Series, ATI Radeon HD 5800 Series, and ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series"


YESS!!!!!

now time to get another card either 5870/5970 lolol

[Tamlin]

Guess I need some help on two things:

#1-- 9.12, then applied the hotfix.
I'm not getting any kind of confirmation that Crossfire is working in Eyefinity.
On the Crossfire tab, under "Diagnostics", it shows:
Only one GPU is listed (at the top in the drop-down box) then lists all three monitors. I think this is how it looked with the 9.10 drivers.

Right-click on the ATI tray icon. Choose primary adapter and in that menu you'll see that you can check for crossfire to show when its running (can't remember the name and the other machine has my X2). Anyhow, you'll then get a ATI crossfire in top right corner when you start a game that supports crossfire. :)

[VRman]

Hi Dave, have any new games been added to the whitelist of games that work with Eyefinity and Crossfire? Is there a site where this list is updated? Thanks!

[McKie]

A couple of things post 9.12 / and 9.12 hot fix.

I no longer can manually control fan on second GPU. All values are 0. while in crossfire Eyefinity





Will look now in computer to make sure both fans are actually running

Edit:

I disabled Crossfire to see what one GPU was Doing.. and how it acted

1. you need to have overdrive checked in order to control fan manually.

2. I moved slider to 20% fan and clicked apply, and the fan started running @ 100%. and the only way to get it to slow down was to uncheck manual fan control.

Hey Let me know when all this gets sorted out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[direwolf]

Does this mean that you can run three monitors from DVI (two on one card and one from the other) without the need for one of those DP>DVI adapters?

Or can you still only use the outputs on one card?

[bowenac]

bwahahahah yea great drivers ATI I knew I should not have got this damn card. You guys can't ever deliver a decent driver can you. You release a official driver then release a hotfix the same day for that driver WTH. And nothing really got fixed. Come on fermi I am already itching to go back to the green side where things were always smooth. Now just hoping fermi supports some type of triple wide.

I have not actually installed the 9.12 yet doing some bench's with 9.11 but I am just going off of what I am reading on many forums.

[Abram]

bwahahahah yea great drivers ATI I knew I should not have got this damn card. You guys can't ever deliver a decent driver can you. You release a official driver then release a hotfix the same day for that driver WTH. And nothing really got fixed. Come on fermi I am already itching to go back to the green side where things were always smooth. Now just hoping fermi supports some type of triple wide.

I have not actually installed the 9.12 yet doing some bench's with 9.11 but I am just going off of what I am reading on many forums.

Wow.

That's, quite easily, the most retarded post I've ever seen here.

[kondor999]

Early CrossfireX impressions (using 2 5870's @ 5760x1200): I was WRONG! CrossfireX makes a big difference (I thought this high res would be bound by memory size and speed).

H.A.W.X. - HUGE improvement in FPS. 2xAA now possible in DX9, full details (but no AA) in DX10.

Lost Planet: Colonies - With everything maxed, DX10 went from 23fps (no xfire) to 39fps. Big (70%) improvement.

Crysis Warhead - No improvement, shows 50-56% utilization on each card :(

Dirt 2 - No improvement, shows 50-56% utilization on each card :(

Empire: Total War - HUGE improvement in FPS (nearly 100%). Still no AA, however.

NFS Shift - horrible slowdown, not usable :(

World in Conflict - crashes randomly when you select Eyefinity resolution (but it was doing that without Crossfire as well).

Ok, so a bit of a mixed bag. Hey - it's beta. What's got me excited is the excellent performance in the games that properly support Crossfire. That demonstrates a lot of future potential. As long as you can fit the textures into the 1gb of available framebuffer, it looks like the tremendous shader power of 2 5870's is definitely up to the task :D

PS - I'll try to update with hard numbers later on. Right now I'm too busy playing :wink:

[bowenac]

[quote]bwahahahah yea great drivers ATI I knew I should not have got this damn card. You guys can't ever deliver a decent driver can you. You release a official driver then release a hotfix the same day for that driver WTH. And nothing really got fixed. Come on fermi I am already itching to go back to the green side where things were always smooth. Now just hoping fermi supports some type of triple wide.

I have not actually installed the 9.12 yet doing some bench's with 9.11 but I am just going off of what I am reading on many forums.

Wow.

That's, quite easily, the most retarded post I've ever seen here.


Ohhh really and how so. Are you saying these are excellent drivers and they fixed many problems because people are still having issues with eyefinity. The hot keys and shortcut keys still do not work properly. Most games are seeing no improvement unless your using tri fire. Uhh what else they had to release a hotfix for a driver the same day the driver was released. You don't see this kind of stuff from Nvidia I am no fan boy either it is just the truth and facts. Now obviously ATI is much smaller company but at least get your drivers right and make shit work how it is supposed too. Again the only reason I went with this card is for eyefinity.

9.11 I had to rename Borderlands to Bioshock to get textures inside building to show up yea uhhh was ATI aware of that. I have to constintly switch between eyefinity and extended or else I will have tearing the only way to get it to go away is to keep switching back and forth. So please tell me what is so great about these new drivers and haha hotfix. And please explain what was so retarded about my post. I am installing these drivers now. I will really let you know how I feel about them in the morning.

[kondor999]

Ohhh really and how so. Are you saying these are excellent drivers and they fixed many problems because people are still having issues with eyefinity. The hot keys and shortcut keys still do not work properly. Most games are seeing no improvement unless your using tri fire. Uhh what else they had to release a hotfix for a driver the same day the driver was released. You don't see this kind of stuff from Nvidia I am no fan boy either it is just the truth and facts. Now obviously ATI is much smaller company but at least get your drivers right and make shit work how it is supposed too. Again the only reason I went with this card is for eyefinity.

9.11 I had to rename Borderlands to Bioshock to get textures inside building to show up yea uhhh was ATI aware of that. I have to constintly switch between eyefinity and extended or else I will have tearing the only way to get it to go away is to keep switching back and forth. So please tell me what is so great about these new drivers and haha hotfix. And please explain what was so retarded about my post. I am installing these drivers now. I will really let you know how I feel about them in the morning.

Dude, I feel your frustration, but I really do think they're trying. I'm certainly no ATI worshipper, but they're making steady progress. They delivered these Crossfire-enabled drivers *way* ahead of schedule, and while they may not work in every game, they work very well indeed in quite a few.

I'm a little unusual in that I still have a GTX280 SLI system to play with, and so I can tell you that Nvidia has its share of little issues as well. I'll be the first to admit that the Nvidia drivers and overall user experience are more mature, but consider the fact that the 58xx series is a brand new architecture. Let's give them just a little time to iron things out before we give up.