Catalyst 11.10 Drivers

Unofficial Catalyst 11.10 Preview drivers (8.901.0) have been released and mobility modded Win7 64-bit versions are available here: [AIO] AMD Catalyst 11.10 Preview (8.901.0) Win7.7z. Thanks to V-FrieNd for the mod. I've been using these for a couple of days, and they have been good so far, with a 90 point boost in Vantage. They are designed in part to improve performance with Battlefield 3 Open Beta release, particularly AA settings, but I am not involved in that program, so we will need to await reports from the beta teams.

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The Overdrive screen has also been modified.

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i can test it im in the beta

 

wow that overdrive interface looks sweet.....lol

 

Will try these out on the M18x with 6990M CFX. Thanks, Rev.

 

Revelator - my new M18x (replacement) arrived yesterday. It has the 2760QM CPU and 6990M CFX. Catalyst 11.10 seems to be working fairly well, but (as typical on AMD preview drivers) there is no display brightness control. Does brightness control work OK on 11.9? I tried 11.10 in hopes it would fix the problem I am having (noted below).

Any ideas why I cannot clock my 6990M's over about 800/1100 without the AMD drivers crashing and my system freezing? What's puzzling is I have always had the exact same issue and nearly identical clock speed threshold with the 6970M CFX in my previous M18x (both the original and replacement video cards). I just wonder if my luck sucks that bad across three pairs of GPUs, or if I am doing something incorrectly, or need to do something extra that I am missing. I am running HWiNFO64 with fans cranked full blast and RealTemp shows I am always at or below 80C on GPU and CPU temps. (The highest I have ever seen was around 82C using the FurMark (Multi-GPU) benchmarking tool.)

It depends on what game or benchmark I am running, but once I hit around 810 to 815 on core or over 1100 on memory I get the "Display driver amdkmdap stopped responding and has successfully recovered" error message after about of minute (perhaps less) of GPU load.

Here are tonight's runs at 106 CPU BCLK, 800/1100 on GPUs.

3DMark11 Score: P7797
Graphics Score: 8153
Physics Score: 7526
Combined Score: 6125
Graphics Test 1: 34.68 FPS
Graphics Test 2: 38.73 FPS
Graphics Test 3: 48.67 FPS
Graphics Test 4: 26.58 FPS
Physics Test: 23.89 FPS
Combined Test: 28.49 FPS

Spoiler

Vantage Score: P25325
Graphics Score: 26475
CPU Score: 22405
Jane Nash: 79.46 FPS
New Calico: 75.58 FPS
AI Test: 3087 operations/s
Physics Test: 30 operations/s

Spoiler

 

Will try!, thanks rev!

 

@Mr. Fox -- For whatever reason, I have rarely encountered the brightness issue with the reference drivers, and neither 11.9 or 11.10 caused it in my R3, at least so far.

On the other hand, I have exactly the same overclocking issue that you have. This is a replacement. The 6990M in the original R3 would o/c easily to 850/1200 at room temps, no aux cooling. The 6990M in the new one crashes above 810 (at best), which translates to ~P16,290 in Vantage,not awful, but well below expectations. I have complained to Dell and tried to get a replacement card. They have resisted. They argue, and I concede, that the card performs perfectly at stock clocks. They argue that they do not warrant overclockability. I argue that, even so, a card which significantly underperforms the average is indicative of a hidden defect which will probably result in future failure. They respond that if that happens, they will replace it immediately. It's a pretty good argument. My tech guy, a very nice guy, says the other problem is they are experiencing real shortages, and he can't replace it right now even if it died, which makes it impossible for him to sell my position for now, but maybe later. There's enough of these 6990M's around with low performance or other issues, I'm inclined to the view that our cards are from a bad lot. I don't think there is a workaround. I'm afraid some of these 6990M's are just weak sauce. If you find an answer, let me know.

Envious of those scores. Since, it's brand new to you and within the return window, you might be able to force at least a card exchange. Certainly worth a try. These cards are not right.

 

same here on 11.10 brightness still works for me. and no oc problem here either. i actually have my cards flashed to 800/1100 for everyday gaming. flashed for over a week already with no problems, temps been good too. maybe in the up coming weeks i'll try to do a voltage mod for the 6990, still need to learn some more stuff from svl.

 

Well, I think you're correct about the latest round of 6990's being from a bad lot. The people that purchased 6990M CFX on the M18x right after the system was first released can hit those high clocks just like your original set did. The availability of all the better MXM video cards (6970, 6990 and 580M) is a problem right now. The only reason I have a new exchange is that they replaced my first 6970's, then the cards were no longer available and supposed to be discontinued. My Level 3 Rep ordered 6990's only to find out they were not available (I got new heat sinks, but no cards). So, then he ordered a 580M SLi kit for me only to find out none of those parts were available until the end of the month. The fastest way I could be back in business was a complete system exchange. That parts availability problem dragged out almost 6 weeks. As of today, they should have 6990M stock on hand and a new but small shipment 580M (if the stock arrived on the 580M as scheduled). I know they'll replace mine if they're defective, but it's tough to make the argument--as you pointed out--if they run flawlessly at stock speeds, and even harder to argue when I can run 800/1100 without an issue. I was just hoping for a lot more.

I think I probably just need to divert my focus to gaming rather than benching at this point. Gaming is why I own a beast like this anyhow.

I am guessing the lack of brightness control may have something to do with CFX. On my old M17x R2 and my previous M18x brightness control has never functioned for me with AMD preview drivers. It always seems to be corrected by the time WHQL drivers are released.

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Thanks to both of you for the response. Have a good night... glad tomorrow's Friday.

 

Makes BF3 { } that much better!

 

Well, I just figured out that my GPU0 was the one that would not overclock well. GPU1 will clock up to 850/1100 stable, with good temps. So, knowing that I swapped the cards into the opposite PCIe slots and here is what happened.

CPU: i7 2760QM / GPU: HD 6990M CFX
CPU BCLK: 106MHz (3.7GHz TB peak)
GPU0 Core: 850 / Memory: 1100
GPU1 Core: 810 / Memory: 1100
Driver: AMD Catalyst 11.9 (8.851.2.0)

3DMark11 Score: P8001
Graphics Score: 8417
Physics Score: 7587
Combined Score: 6210
Graphics Test 1: 35.24 FPS
Graphics Test 2: 39.41 FPS
Graphics Test 3: 50.97 FPS
Graphics Test 4: 27.84 FPS
Physics Test: 24.09 FPS
Combined Test: 28.88 FPS

3DMark Vantage Score: 25238
Graphics Score: 26625
CPU Score: 21826
Jane Nash: 80.02 FPS
New Calico: 75.89 FPS
AI Test: 2988 operations/s
Physics Test: 29 operations/s

GPU temps stayed under control. See screen shots for details.

Spoiler

I did attempt to push GPU1 to 815/1100 and the crashing returned exactly as it did when the slower GPU was in slot 0. So, I think this has proven the speed limitation on that card... confirmed what I already knew. At this point I think that I'm done benching on the current hardware. Maybe. What I learned from this exercise is that both GPUs don't need to run at the same speed in CrossFireX to be screaming fast.

 

Congrats. You make our little R3's look very weak.

 

I think the R3 is pretty awesome. There's really not a lot separating the R3 from the M18x as far as internal components except for the dual GPU. For the price, I think you'd be hard pressed to do better than the R3... probably the fastest single-GPU gaming laptop there is, and definitely the best looking.

 

OK so BF3 has been launched...where's the finished Catalyst 11.10 drivers?