[GUIDE] Enable unofficial overclocking after Catalyst 12.2

Hey! Yesterday I stumbled upon the problem of not being able to enable unofficial OC in MSI Afterburner. This happened after reinstalling Windows.

Thanks to Unwinder for giving us an explanation for the problem!

AMD has removed two dll files in Catalyst 12.2 that still existed in version 12.1. Therefore if 12.2 happens to be the first driver you install on your new system you won't have those two dll files on your computer. This causes MSI Afterburner to fail to set the unofficial overclocking values.

To fix the problem you need to download the two dll files and place them in your MSI afterburner folder. You may need to REBOOT afterwards.

The files can be downloaded here:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/un5iyx

Do this at your own risk. This solution might or might not work with future Catalyst releases.

Confirmed working on Catalyst 12.2.
Confirmed working on Catalyst 12.3.
Confirmed working on Catalyst 12.4.
Confirmed working on Catalyst 12.8.

This method still works with Afterburner 2.2.2. I cannot confirm if recent versions still support this method. Make sure that both of your config files have these lines at the bottom.

[ATIADLHAL]
UnofficialOverclockingMode=1
UnofficialOverclockingEULA=I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it

The cfg files are located at:
/MSI Afterburner/Profiles/MSIAfterburner.cfg
/MSI Afterburner/MSIAfterburner.cfg

If you are having problems try to disable third party themes, that worked for me.

 

i can confirm it still works with catalyst 12.3 on a clean install of win 7..

dude you just saved me hours of facedesking thnx!!!:banana:

 

i just installed 12.2 after a driver sweeper run , and oced normally , maybe they fixed it ?

 

I copied both files into MSI Afterburner main folder. It works too.

 

didnt copy anything , not having this issue my card is at 1177/975

 

Surely there's no need to completely remove support from AB....what's wrong with using older .dll's if we want to use unofficial overclocking?
I just leave a copy of the .dll in AB folder and it works great no matter what drivers I install.

Don't leave us out in the cold mate.


On a side note, if what you say is true then it's a really sh!tty move by AMD.
How does Catalyst Overdrive work...I mean assuming AMD keep supporting it, can AB somehow access the GPU in the same way Overdrive does...?

 

you cant set fan speed correctly in over drive it dosnt move in accordance
to heat rising . if you set it at 50% it will stay that way so its stupid .

in other word you are saying we cant oc the gpu anymore ? am using AB
but it will set to default if i start ccc if i dont the oc works

 

Mate first learn how to use the software before you start calling it stupid.
The fan slider doesn't stay in a fixed position unless it's set to manual; the default setting is auto so obviously it's a PEBCAK error....

 

yes and if its not set to manual haw will i know its going to cool off the
card ? you want me to oc on over drive without setting the fan manually ?
if they had fan control i would have never used AB. so its stupid because
we cant the fan speed manually on a ladder . you think am newbie ?

 

what if we dont install ccc? just the drivers ? would it still effect AB .

 

The only thing I know is that without the 'dll files I can't use AB, because my card is non-reference.

What I don't get is if Overdrive can access my card once the dll files are no longer included, then why can't AB access/control my card in the same way Overdrive does?

 

Well...yes, it sounds like it.

The fan speed is controlled by the card's BIOS, the only thing Catalyst does is give the user a GUI to access the fan registers via the drivers.

You don't even need Catalyst installed for the fan to work automatically,

 

Actually you don't need to add anything, you just explained it....I completely forgot the dll was just for extended clocks.

Makes more sense now...

 

ok what ever you think . but still you didnt explain to us haw we are
supposed to trust the card bios with ocing ? my card fan never gose
over 35% no matter what temp the card reach .
so its useless to use overdrive without this ladder . am i able to
communicate with you ?



that is why i called it stupid because with a ladder like this i wouldnt
need AB

 

and i can report that 12.2 has a problem even with CCC clock limits.
if i disabled over drive and applied AB then it gose well .
if i started ccc again without even going to over drive tab the card
will reset to default setting ignoring AB

what if we only used the amd driver without ccc? will that solve it ?

 

It's in the BIOS - I just told you that.

This is a what the fan ramp on my card looks like, the settings are taken straight from the BIOS.



Am I communicating with you??

You can try, I'm using 12.2 without CCC and everything works the way it should...