16.101.X [Pre-GCN driver pack]

pretty sure its just wolfenstein,
the doom4 demo runs fine(aside from minor glitches), other opengl apps have no issues

 

I guess it was just Wolfenstein as this game and its engine had some trouble on AMD hardware before, but I haven't tried out other OpenGL applications, so I cannot confirm for sure.

By the way, I have tried several methods of disabling the automatic driver installation on Windows 10 without success. I tried the one which you mentioned a while back with altering the version number in the INF-files of the Intel and AMD driver as well, to no avail. Other methods which I have tried: 1) disabling via group policies, 2) via device manager, but I gave up for now.

The 16.2.1-Unifl release is fine though, so you might have applied another trick. I hope you can pick up this or another newer package and make an Unifl release out of it. It was certainly running smooth and stable for me as long as I could use it.

 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3073930

use this to "hide" the amd driver updates , as far as i know this is the only offical way to prevent driver updates.

Btw As far as i can tell ,microsoft has changed the behavior of auto updates, it will forcibly install the last recommended signed driver now no matter the version number.

 

Hi user1 can you help me please?

watch this video
youtube.com/watch?v=ByXTo4U1_T0

I tried this driver >> "non-gcn-Win10-64Bit-Radeon-Software-Crimson-16.9.1_MOD" but it didn't install my laptop

 

you need to disable Driver signature enforcement in order to install these drivers

However this driver package probably will not help you, it is almost identical to crimson 16.2.1.

 

If the profiles from this driver don't fix Fifa then your best bet might be to disable your iGPU and just run your GCN GPU.

 

Hi user1
thanks for modding once more.

but my hd 8760M is missing again, could you re-add it next time please.

 

Hi!

I have the same laptop as Ali38, is an msi gx60. It has an integrated 8650g and a dedicated 8970m... The problem is that we can't fully disable our 8650g due to the integrated and the dedicated gpu are linked (enduro).

And if we try to install the newest drivers, It says that our gpu isn't supported because it only sees the integrated. I know this isn't your job, and I'm asking this from my ignorance, but it would be possible to "make" a set of drivers that includes a driver for the 8650g and another for the 8970m?

Thanks, and sorry for not staying on topic.

 

my apologies, just merged 16.2.1 ids will see what i can do

Might be possible but would be difficult. in the mean time, i would attempt using the dll trick, http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=399547.
if it is loading the game with the gcn card it should work. an inf mod maybe possible to make it load different dll for the different graphics by default.

I would report this issue to amd. it shouldn't be too difficult for them to at least include pass-through mode in their newer drivers, since im pretty sure the trinity apus have the same display hardware(uvd/vce,ect) as the 1st gen gcn stuff.

 

Again, thanks user1 for the reply.

I tried the dll method but as the main post says, the dll only work if they are from an older driver. If I use the dlls of the 16.9.1 the game crashes because I don't have that driver or superior.

Many users, myself included, had posted in the amd official forum our problem, the answer is always the same:
"You have an APU with 8650g, which is legacy, you have to install legacy drivers"
me: "but I have an 8970m, which is not legacy"
"You have to use legacy drivers".

This thread is priceless "community.amd.com/thread/198539" with sentences like "Your PC is 3 years old, it's dead and obsolete". (I can't post links yet, but I think that will do)

Anyway, thanks for the help, I really appreciate this.

 

AMD has some decent products but their software division is a joke. Maybe NVIDIA is the same, I don't know, since my last NVIDIA card was 6600GT. And funny thing, this friggin card from 2004 has latest official drivers for Windows 8 that were released in 2015. While my "old" AMD 3850HD from 2007 has only Windows 7 drivers released way back in 2013.

Anyway, you know how OpenCL is broken on nonGCN Crimson? Well AMD's response to this issue was somewhat like this: "We tested OpenCL in nonGCN Crimson and found out that it doesn't work". That's ALL. Well, good for us then. At least they tested it and confirmed that it doesn't work. It's been broken ever since the first nonGCN Crimson release and they released several updates since then but never bothered to fix OpenCL support and/or give us updated settings panel.

 

I read that thread, and it's disgusting. The fact of the matter is that they don't give a **** for mixed configurations. Since I never had one, can I ask if you can see each GPU separately in the Device Manager? If you can, have you tried to manually install the drivers for each, through the Device Manager (all in Disable Signature Enforcement Mode, just in case).

 

unfortunate, though i would try talking directly to a representative rather than the swine on the amd forums they are not very helpful.

Its the money man, amd has been hurting for cash for almost a decade now.

As for drivers for 6000 series ect.
,unfortunately what nvidia doesn't say is that they haven't put any work into those cards since 256.00, they only patched security holes for customers like oems and businesses ect. amd does the same thing however they don't trickle those patches down.

the 15.201.2901.1004 firepro driver is a good example, has native support for non -gcn cards even though support offically ended for firepros at the same time as the rest of the non gcn cards. probably some company running legacy hardware on mission critical systems that need a bug fix and are willing to pay for it.

With opencl, "technically" the issue isn't that opencl doesn't work, its that the APP sdk 3.0 doesn't support non-gcn cards, so in essence it is the lack of an opencl profile rather than broken support. this is also the reason using old dlls works, since they are using an older version of the APP sdk.

If swapping dlls doesn't work or forcing the install of separate drivers, the only possibility is to see if is possible to load the kernel module in the newer drivers on trinity apus just for display output. Proxy_Service_Inst_PX_2ID service which initializes video i believe is the same on trinity apus as gcn 1 , so it may be possible just to get that to work with an inf mod, and then hope the enduro functions the sameway as on kaveri. its long shot though, that's where i would start if i had the hardware.

 

There is a modded BIOS for your laptop which enables the triggers that allows you to turn off the iGPU.

Pretty sure it exists but you will have to search MDL and biosmods. There might even be a polish or russian youtube video of it in live action.

 

@user1 Thanks for the advice

@FunkyMike Yes, you are right. I moddified the bios 3 or 4 months ago, I was trying to run "Quantum Break", a DX12 ony game, which 8650g doesn't support.

If I follow the russian video, I end up with the 2 gpu actives in the device administrator, but the laptop is always using the 8970m. I can't install new drivers because windows keeps "seeing" the igpu.

Moreover, if I enter the GFX tab in the bios, and hit "disable igpu" (the russian guy put this option in "force"), I end up with no image in the monitor. I think this is due to the 2 gpu are physically "linked", so if I "disable" one, the other can't work on his own.

So yeah, moddifying the bios and "disabling" the igpu, results in more performance of the 8970m, but windows keeps dedecting the igpu so no driver update, no dx12 support, same situation.

I you have more info about disabling the igpu in this laptop, I will be happy to try, anyway, thanks again.

 

Indeed they are linked but the iGPU can also be used as a dumb pass through from what I have gathered.

I have seen this being done on a Envy 17 3xxx laptop which had dynamic Intel + AMD switching.

After an official BIOS update this laptop would "hide" the iGPU only if the BIOS detected Windows 8.1 /10. Windows would then operate only on the dGPU.

At some point I tried to look into the ACPI to see if this functional can be transferred to a wider range of models but my skill set is far too low.

From my understanding the BIOS in your laptop needs to have a few parameters changes so that it starts using the AMD card as the primary display device. It should eliminate the blackscreen issue.

Unfortunately I do not know the exact settings. Maybe it had something to do with removing some PX switching settings, LVDS, and primary display device in the BIOS. It shouldn't be just 1 setting that you need to change. I believe it might be 2 or 3.
Naturally doing this without being able to reset the CMOS or an external monitor is quite tough. But I am sure that you know how to reset your CMOS incase the settings go wrong.

Personally I am very interested if you can get this to work .. or if there are any other settings that you might have missed or not looked into.

 

New Intel vBIOS anyone?

@FunkyMike

It's a bit off-topic but while speaking about BIOS-mods, I've been running for years the modified HP F.1B BIOS by Donovan which is available on your Leshcat-Forum for my HP DV-6 6002eg.

Do you know if someone has succeeded with integrating the most recent Intel HD 3000 vBIOS? My original version is rather old (2104) while 2171 is the most recent one. Not that I would expect wonders out of an upgrade, but I'd like to max out all of the components with the most recent software/firmware to keep it running until the Zen-APUs are available late next year. I came across the raw files which would be needed to integrate it, but modding the BIOS myself is way beyond my knowledge (and from my research it seems to be harder than simply exchanging the modules with an easy to use tool like MMTool for the HP InsydeBIOS).

 

I think it is unlikely it functions the same way as intel switchable graphics. it probably does not use/have the same kind of pass-through mode, since the entire laptop is amd cpu/chipset/graphics.

what i can say is that if there is such a mode, enabling it will not be the same as doing so on an intel notebook.


MSI would probably have to update the bios with support, since they have the source code and there is very little documentation and no similar notebooks with igpu disable working this way. This aint your kiddies microcode/vbios/optionrom/slic/hexedit/menu-unlock kind of bios-mod.

I would stick to the High level software side of things, Unless you have a chip programmer

 

That Donovan6000 BIOS also applies to my Envy 17 2xxx I believe but I haven't used it since I needed this device for testing drivers in the most vanilla config possible.

I have seen the Intel drivers that had the vBIOS roms within the driver. I think it was Asder that linked us to it back in the day.

I tried using the Intel tools to see if I can flash the Intel Management Engine Interface to a newer version but I got a little worried seeing as how I was on my 3rd mobo and was just out of warranty. HP forgot to tattoo the right serial numbers into my mobo and I kind of didn't want to make things even more complicated. Maybe I would try this within a years time when I decide to retire this setup but I am not sure if it is worth it in the end.

That is the interesting aspect of PXAA devices. My knowledge is very limited but from what I have seen some people were able to switch off the iGPU successfully provided that a BIOS mod exists or the functional is unblocked. It seemed to me that users with PXAA laptops had a much higher success rate than switchable AMD + Intel devices in this regard but maybe that is just bias.

Most BIOS on HP PXAA and PXAI laptops have the functional available that allows you to switch off the iGPU. However this is not unlocked for all. Donovan6000 has a pretty good tutorial on how to unlock the visibility.
HP uses the same BIOS roms on a lot of laptops (at times the same for PXAA and PXAI) and they sometimes just blanket hide the option even on laptops where this functional works.
So in a lot of cases editing the BIOS makes the extra menu options show up with working functionality. On some it just simply doesn't work but I have no idea if this is the users fault, a BIOS which wasn't modded properly or simply a lack of functional.

One more thing to add is that switching off one GPU is never enough. The PX settings have the also be changed in the BIOS... primary display also comes to mind but I do not have a 100% guide.

Then another factor has to be taken into account. And I am speaking from a pure AMD + Intel switching side.

There are several different 6770m cards + Intel HD 3000 configurations for example. Some have mux chips whilst others don't. This of course also factors into it. The weird thing is that even muxless devices were able to switch off the iGPU. This is why I was so hot for the Envy 17 3xxx ACPI settings. Maybe I will give it another shot to see how the ACPI hiddes the device from Windows.

Am sure that this could probably be transferred to other laptops given that the trigger (if it really is just a trigger - and latest ACPI documentation does speak of such trigger) exists.

Would also prefer to stick to just software and frankly this is way too much effort for too little gain.

 

Thanks for the concern and the advices @user1 and @FunkyMike

I don't want to mess up with the BIOS, especially if I don't know exactly what I am doing, or even if its possible to do it. I searched a lot in the last months, this laptops (msi gx60 and gx70) are quite powerfull, if you invest in an "engineer sample" cpu, which is quite cheap, you can even OC to minimize the bottleneck and play the majority of the games in high settings.

But this "little" thing man, is frustating... I know my gpu can run dx12 and can use up-to-date drivers, but because of some BS I can't.

I found a guy in youtube who claims that he installed the latest drivers, but I can't do what he does in the video, and the instructions aren't very clear as he is from thailand, and is using google translate to write. Any help would be welcome: youtube.com/watch?v=GCCEXm1Cz6A