12.6 legacy driver reloaded.

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by kevsamiga1974, Aug 20, 2012.

  1. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    I researched, tested, and toiled for countless hours burning the midnight oil and have solved some issues in the last legacy driver for 4000 series and below for anyone who wants to make use of them for legacy cards, Vista/Win7 x64 only. I'm using these homebrews myself because movie transcoding is important to me, as is the correct 4870x2 clocks at idle desktop broken since 12.2. I wrote a seperate application to reset the multigpu clocks elsewhere on the forums, but using it is no longer necessary if you use these repackaged drivers.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?txspkpbdloanuzp

    MultiGPU clock bug with 12.x series kicked into the abyss, broken GPU assisted movie transcoding works again amongst other problems/quirks solved. ATI tray tools functionality restored. Still a WIP, but everything working and tested as it should work at least on Win7 x64. Complete well rounded package including latest CAP profiles for legacy cards, nothing else needed. See readme file in package.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2012
  2. vejn

    vejn Maha Guru

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    Last edited: Aug 20, 2012
  3. gabrielinio_32

    gabrielinio_32 Member

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    No news from driver win 8 serie 4000?
     
  4. Cobrass2

    Cobrass2 Member Guru

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    Thanks for this. Gonna test
     

  5. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    V2

    Updated some important core components without losing any tweaks/modifications, tentative legacy card Windows 8 x64 support added (needs testing don't have it yet)

    Don't just leech, please provide some feedback on whether they're solid or not legacy card peeps. They are working here.

    Games tested working :

    Far Cry 2
    Sniper Elite 2
    MW3
    F1 2011 * To fix flashing textures bug using medium gfx settings affecting even the latest drivers 12.8, disable catalyst AI with custom profile, game has negative xfire scaling anyway and works better with it off.
    Cities in motion (OpenGL) *didn't work since 10.4, now does.
    The polynomial (OpenGL) *didn't work since 10.4, now does.
    Quake 1,2 (OpenGL) *broken since 10.4, began working again since 11.2+
    BFBC2 * horrible original 12.6 xfire fps performance fixed, no black flicker present. I noticed consistently reproducable lower WEI scores (7.3) using the 12.6 originals and ****ty xfire performance, now they are back to (7.5) with fixed xfire performance.
    Fable
    Stalker SOC, CS, and COP
    Gears of War

    V2 removed, as problematic and windows 8 x64 not working.

    EDIT: I've identified a random gaming freeze issue with the V2 build, using these V3 ones or the V1 instead should solve this particular issue. Serves me right for trying to implement Windows 8 I don't even have access to test.

    Version 3

    Solved the gaming hangs with V2, clean up of redundant left over files, general tidying up, otherwise same changes as V2.

    http://www.mediafire.com/?35lwrjgyhha4wx8

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2012
  6. ankinferno

    ankinferno Guest

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    More Request. .

    Hi kevsamiga1974,,

    Thats a nice package...

    I did some modification on the drivers too.. installed the latest 12.8 Catalyst Drivers but replaced 3 important files

    now my Driver status is something like:

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]


    as u can see.. the 3d driver is the same as the 12.6 legacy else all have been updated...

    Every thing is working fine: OpenCL, And Amd App is also working..

    I have even done some benchmarks on various games and the performance is also gd than the base 12.6 Legacy Drivers..

    My Gfx card is a mobility HD 4650/550v .. overclocked...

    MY REQUEST TO YOU IS... IN ANY WAY CAN YOU EDIT OR MOD THE DIRECT 3D DRIVER FILE OF THE HIGHER CATALYST DRIVERS SO THAT IT CAN WORK WITH THE 4000 SERIES. .
     
  7. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    As much as it sounds possible in theory unfortunately not...they didn't just remove the entries in the .inf but the actual pre 5xxxx series code is either disabled or stripped out from the driver files itself in the latest drivers. Besides reverse engineering was illegal the last time I checked...

    I wouldn't change to higher catalyst file versions without knowing exactly what this code is doing on legacy cards, it's just inviting troubles and is not supported, and is of really no benefit.

    If you have to leave the 12.6 3d files intact (since higher not works) and change others then any performance gain you are seeing is probably just a placebo since the gfx components haven't changed. I didn't want to introduce instability/incompatibility by using higher than 12.6 versions of other files for legacy cards as it is venturing into an *unknown* non standard territory. Well I tell a small lie, the blb xfire profiles file is taken from 12.8, but that's all, anyhow it's just a data file not code.

    I just wanted to create a working latest driver package with a clean install setup for 4870x2 cards containing everything as standard not having to be suffering the clock bug amongst other bugs of the 12.x series and restoring things like gpu transcoding and ati tray tools/overclocking tools to a working state again.

    But anyhow, you can take and use the build as it is, use it, or do what u want with it, it's not like I'm asking for any money for it or anything.

    I tested all the 12.x series drivers on 4870x2 and wasn't happy with the state of affairs because of annoyances and issues here and there. I decided to try and solve some of them and lots of testing. If they didn't keep on breaking things across releases it might have been an easier job.

    Crossfire performance is back, transcoding is back, gpu clock bug is gone, atitt is back, avivo is back, opencl works, old opengl games work again, ccc works without issue, perhaps a functional Win 8 driver (needs testing/feedback), etc.

    I just made this to help out legacy users out there esp. users of legacy multigpu crossfire cards 3870x2/4870x2 maybe extending to 5970 and cleaned the whole package up and added back some missing functionality and solved some problems for the last 12.6 drivers that was missing. Now everything works and is stable knowing that I can use the last driver without any loss of performance, some missing features, or obvious bugs of the original and decided to share. I used to be a part of the Amiga computer community where sharing and helping others to solve problems was the mentality, kind of like ubuntu but on steroids.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2012
  8. ankinferno

    ankinferno Guest

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    wow... thts big enough...
    NO ISSUES buddy... u r doing a gd job... dnt worry... i am also a hd 4000 series holder for now... so i m with ya... :thumbup:
     
  9. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    Cool...no issues. :banana:

    Would like to know though if the V2 Windows 8 x64 integration is working or not, maybe someone can test out their legacy card for me in a Windows 8 x64 VM...i can't do it since I don't yet have this OS yet to test it on.

    I know the default Windows 8 legacy driver is apparently the same version as 12.6 Win7 x64 legacy, probably with the multigpu clock bug still present, perhaps with a lack of CCC and extras included also but that's all I know for now about the matter.

    If it does work, it should be better than the default offering without CCC/profiles at least...although still only restricted to WDDM 1.1.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2012
  10. kn00tcn

    kn00tcn Ancient Guru

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    i will inspect your package i guess, i dont get how CF performance can change without using specific version atiumdag, aticfx32, atidxx32, atioglxx dlls

    i also never checked TwL's drivers for some reason

    you cannot use non legacy dlls since the code is stripped, filesize is reduced
     

  11. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    I know...:) there aren't any non legacy .dll's included...I'm interested in compatibility, usability, performance, getting rid of bugs, and not simply having newer robbed .dll's out of non legacy drivers just for the sake of it because it is just asking for trouble.

    Everything works ok already as it is as far from what I tested. It allows ppl to still use the latest drivers, without all the issues that arise from the originals. Keep in mind it's still a work in progress...it's still better to use than the default ones. Test BC2 crossfire between these and original 12.6 with fraps and it's quite self evident that something is very off with the originals.

    I've been banging the drum about the clock bug amongst other problems with the 12.x series to AMD since February, they won't fix it or do anything so I guess it's down to us, the community...
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2012
  12. kn00tcn

    kn00tcn Ancient Guru

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    non legacy dlls dont ask for trouble, the game will just say 'cant start dx9' type of thing

    i am intrigued by bc2, i see that you put aticfx from november, so wouldnt i just be able to do the same thing but in the game folder instead? otherwise we're not totally on the 'latest drivers', not when some games from this year have new profile code in the dlls
     
  13. masterchan777

    masterchan777 Master Guru

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    Those don't install correctly on Windows 8 x64, the drivers don't install while other add-ons install fine though, the package tries to install the leaked March 3rd set instead of 12.6, and it fails.
     
  14. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    You could very well do that, as you are entitled to, but then what do we do about the slow html 2D canvas IE9/Firefox gpu accelerated rendering affecting the same 12.x series .dll that is broken as well as BC2 ?, start jamming the older .dll into BC2, firefox and waterfox, jamming it into IE 32 & 64-bit versions, and all over the hardrive for whatever happens to be broken with 12.x crossfire on legacy cards not really no....not for the average joe public at least.

    It's still a buggy 12.x .dll at the end of the day. I have canned it for this reason because it solves 2 problems and the WEI scores are back to where they belong along with the frame rates. It's swings and roundabouts for the sake of losing a few profiles since 11.12 to get better crossfire performance and correctly working gpu accelerated browser rendering...besides, cutting edge games perhaps warrant using a better card than legacy provides anyway.

    There are no foreseeable new drivers for legacy, so the profiles in the driver are always going to be behind the times no matter what you do (some ppl are still rocking along just fine on the ancient 10.5a which has a majorly less degree of them), which makes the argument of not having this or that profile that the 12.6 aticfx has not that significant considering the benefits to be gained from trashing it, and using the very last alternative that works in all cases.

    Another thing....I never quite understood or got my head around is why profiles are even replicated or necessary in the drivers themselves anyway, I mean isn't that the job of the seperately installable application profiles to instruct the driver how to set itself up for crossfire ? Seems to me like it's just repeating work....I'm still learning about it, but the details are hard to come by.

    It's still the latest drivers available in the sense of providing the last DX9/DX10/OpenGL/video rendering/ support for legacy cards minus some outstanding bugs and missing functionality restored. You can't have it both ways or nothing is worked around or solved and you are back where you started at the original driver warts and all.

    .dll folder injection is all well and good, but what happens when you change out the drivers, and the dependancy's that the .dll in the application folder looks for in a particular driver set you freshly installed on the system are no longer there because they are now very different from an entirely different series...

    I didn't screw up the 12.x drivers and break all these things which were working fine in prior versions, AMD did, and they've become exceedingly proficient at it. I'm just the guy finding a way of squashing the bugs for the cards at the lower end of the spectrum.

    I'm not forcing anyone to use them, but they are working great for me and doing the job without all the hassles that come from the unmodified 12.6's.

    http://forums.steamgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2837091

    ATI cards are like buses, they're big, red, and have bad drivers. :eek2:

    12.6 Legacy Originals...

    [​IMG]

    12.6 Legacy Reloaded exact same set of conditions...

    [​IMG]

    You decide...
    -----------------------------------

    Ok, Windows 8 not working, thanks for testing, don't own it to get it working, amongst other issues V2 removed.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2012
  15. gabrielinio_32

    gabrielinio_32 Member

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    windows 8 not work:(
     

  16. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    It works on Windows 7 x64 fine. Unfortunately I didn't have Windows 8 to test out that side of things, that's why it's broken. I have removed it to offer Windows Vista/7 x64 only.

    I can't make it work if I don't have the OS.
     
  17. kn00tcn

    kn00tcn Ancient Guru

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    if you look at the profiles xml, you'll notice something like skyrim & syndicate have all kinds of interesting... 'settings' enabled, optimizations like this werent always in the driver

    you'll also notice a lot of games are simply AFR or another profile, without a driver change needed

    pretty sure it's exactly the same for nv, some games just need a custom tweak coded into the driver (like the random grass popping up in bc2)
     
  18. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    The grass bug was fixed in the 10.6 driver...pity they broke crossfire at around the same time along with it...
     
    Last edited: Aug 22, 2012
  19. kn00tcn

    kn00tcn Ancient Guru

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    i think what happened was... it's eating into the cpu checking for incorrect rendering, same for the load times fix

    i know it gets very cpu limited since raising or lowering gfx quality like MSAA or resolution had no effect on the minimum fps

    also > 25 players slowed things down fast, along with lots of fallen buildings if the server stayed on a map for a long time
     
  20. kevsamiga1974

    kevsamiga1974 Master Guru

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    Ok, here is what I can chime in from going deeper...

    The bottom fell out of the crossfire performance with BFBC2 after exactly the 12.3 driver, that is to say 12.4 and 12.6 headed south. Sounds good to use the 12.3 aticfx32/64 then over the 11.12 aticfx32/64 i actually put in doesn't it ? but wait...

    Every driver whether from 8.93 18th nov beta to 12.4 has this crossfire bug below with IE9/10/Firefox GPU accelerated rendering, it's fixed in the 12.6 dll but I don't use them because of the poor BC2 crossfire performance inherant in 12.4/12.6.
    And poorer crossfire performance and WEI scores in general across the board. Fixed browser, bad crossfire performance...Catch 22.

    [​IMG]

    Totally unacceptable and a slideshow for a 2.4 teraflops card, it's more like an ancient laptop IGP score.

    Every driver since 2008 to the Catalyst 11.12 aticfx32.dll/aticfx64.dll using the same 4870x2 card, same system gives this score in IE9/10/Firefox consistently instead...

    [​IMG]

    How fast can YOUR browser speed read ? Well it depends on which AMD driver you happened to have had the misfortune of installing...

    Now incase your wondering why this gigantic score disparity is, it's because they messed up the crossfire profile for the IE/Firefox process in the 12.1-12.4 driver files themselves and screwed up the GPU accelerated rendering.

    Using the 11.12 aticfx32.dll/aticfx64.dll files which these 12.6 repackages contain, solves both of these problems with IE/Firefox *and* crossfire performance in BFBC2 and in general...
    While still allowing you to *have* all the DX9/DX10/OpenGL/Video components from the 12.6 itself.

    But there is a final twist...

    Make a user profile like below using the 12.3 aticfx32.dll/aticfx64.dll over the 11.12 one with AMD CrossfireX disabled, or disable catalyst AI.

    And you can have your 7 seconds of performance back instead of four hundred and forty one seconds it takes using crossfire with 12.1-12.4 drivers to render the browser test along with your BC2 crossfire performance...

    Allowing you to still use the 12.3 aticfx32/64.dll instead. The thing is IE never used crossfire in the first place on any driver since the gpu activity 2 on GPUZ is always 0% and IE is a windowed app.
    So why does disabling crossfire using the 12.1-12.4 with a user profile for IE work and give 7 seconds again ? This kind of stupidity didn't happen before the 12.x aticfx components.

    So much for AMD 'optimising' profiles in the driver files in the 12.x series that they broke IE/Firefox crossfire rendering which was working perfectly fine before on the entire 11.x series, and the 10.x series as well come to think of it.
    It's looking like the decision I took to include 11.12 aticfx in this fixed driver was spot on first time around all things considered, unless your prepared to make a crossfire profile for IE/Firefox and use the 12.3 drivers instead.

    But then your still stuck with the atikmpag.sys clock bug which using my driver package you don't have to suffer from anymore slow cooking your cards to their death at the desktop.

    I've done all the experimentation and testing as to offer valid reasons why I need to use x component instead of y component that is buggy.
    I know this forum can be quite harsh and easily finds a way to rip any efforts to help others to shreds given half the chance.

    We shouldn't really have to use these profile tricks because IE/Firefox shouldn't be broken in crossfire as standard. They can keep their 'optimised' driver profiles of the 12.x aticfx, because they always fix something and then break another.

    I just wanted to make a better functional driver for legacy cards with no bull**** that just works complete as it stands out the box.
    While at the same time staying as up to date as you possibly can be driver wise with more things now working as a bonus, without having to endure all the silly crappy issues that ATI broke along the way since the 12.x series.

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2012

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