AMD Cancels and reposts AMD Catalyst 14.4 WHQL driver

Didn't know that... These are probably the first AMD chipset WHQL drivers I haven't got a time to try on some of my home/work rigs with some AMD SB7xx SouthBridge. Sometimes it's better when you don't have enough time to change every single driver to be the latest one

Thanks for the heads up Hilbert! I'll skip this driver on my rigs with AMD 7xx SB...

 

And some people tell me they only trust WHQL. I just laugh so hard.

 

Downloaded and installed the AMD Catalyst 14.4 in my HTPC and it caused my Ceton Infinitv 4 tuner to have video stutter on most channels, I reinstalled AMD Catalyst 13.12 and the video stuttering went away. AMD needs to address this on their next update.

 

WHQL really stands for "We Had Quite a Lunch" with the money you give them for signing your bundle with their certificate.

 

When they posted the original 14.4, they knew one of the various components of the driver had an installation issue and had removed that component from the installation suite altogether. The problem component (the chipset driver or eSATA controller I think) was made available as a separate download. AMD had posted a message about this on the download site.

I assume all they've done now is roll the fixed driver back into the installation suite.

 

I've tried to tell people this for years, but they just do not seem to get it.

Beta for drivers these days are not like they used to be in the windows 95/98/Beginning of XP era.

Nowadays they are just drivers not signed by MS with a digital signature.

All they do is test basic OS functionality anyway.

 

I have the 710 Southbridge and experienced no problems whatsoever. I installed the driver on April 25.

I still will only use WHQL drivers.

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh998416.aspx

 

Have SB700 chipset,this problem has been around since 14.3's but i just figured it out with the 14.4s.

Good job AMD,bundle more crap with your drivers thanks!

 

And? That is all pretty much basic functionality these days. Not sure what your point is.

No company would put out a driver without vital components in today's OS's Beta or not and break their image.

In-game glitches or something with a program might pop up. But not important OS functions.

Also if it does happen, they are usually pulled right away with a fix.

 

I like that they include the chipset drivers. It makes it much easier to be up to date.

 

Well apparently your definition of basic OS functionality consists of

Spoiler

AES 128 and Session key Refresh Test
Alpha Blending Precision
Alpha Blending - FALSE-TRUE 16bpp
Alpha Compare
Anisotropic
Arbitrary Clipping Planes
Auto Generation of Mip Maps
Automatic Stereo
Basic Rasterization
Blt - Basic - System to Primary
Blt - Basic - VMem to Primary
Blt - Color Key - Sys to Primary
Blt - Color Key - VMem to Primary
Blt - Exotic
Blt - Raster Ops - Vid Mem
Blt - Stretch - Color Key - Sys to Primary
Blt - Stretch - Color Key - Vid to Primary
Blt - Stretch - System to Primary
Blt - Stretch - System to Primary Test
Blt - Stretch - VMem to Primary
Blt - Textures
Blt - Unused Pixel Bits
Buffered Blts
Bump Env Map
Capscheck
Check Resolution (WoW64)
Check Resolution for Dualview - Multihead
Check Resource
CDS_VideoParameters (WoW64)
Clear
Color Fill
Compare Z
Compressed Texture
Content Protection- Playing H.264 + AAC media file protected environment. HCK test - Device Test.
Content Protection- Playing VC1 + WMAPro media file protected environment. HCK test - Device Test.
COPP - HDCP Test (WoW64)
CopyRects Functionality (WoW64)
CRASH - Display Stress 4-hour WDDM Profile (32bit)
CRASH - Display Stress 4-hour WDDM Profile (64bit)
CRASH - Legacy Display Stress
CreateSurface
Cube Mapping
D3D AGP Texture (WoW64)
D3D Content Protection Test
D3D Content Protection - CPAuthChannelAPI
D3D Content Protection - DriverProtections 11
D3D Cross Proc Sharing
D3D Lines
D3D9 Overlay - CheckDeviceOverlayType
D3D9 Overlay - CreateAdditionalSwapChain
D3D9 Overlay - CreateDeviceEx Test
D3D9 Overlay - PresentEx
D3DQuery Conformance Test
DDraw AGP Memory Tests
DDraw Blt - Basic - AGP to Primary
DDraw Blt - Color Key - AGP to Primary
Ddraw Blt - ColorFill - AGP
DDraw Blt - ColorFill - System Memory
DDraw Blt - ColorFill - Video Memory
DDraw Blt - Stretch - Color Key - AGP to Primary
DDraw Cubic
Depth Bias
Desktop Duplication with Normal Mode
DirectDraw Tests
Discardable Depth Stencil
Displacement Mapping
Display Mode Filter Check
Driver Scenario
DX11 3DStereoVideo
DX11 Video Content Protection FeatureLevel 11
DX11 Video Decode FeatureLevel 9
DX11 VideoProcessing
DX11 Video Processing for Overlay
DX11 Video Rotation
DX11 Video Rotation for overlay
DXGI Cross Process Resource Sharing
DXGI DirectFlip
DXGI Frame Statistics
DXGI Gamma Ramps
DXGI GDI Interop D3D10.1
DXGI GDI Interop D3D11
DXGI Mode Enumeration
DXGI Presentation Rate Testing
DXGI Presentation testing - FSPresentMS
DXGI Resource Check
DXGI SCDest Buffer (D3D10.1 on feature levels 9.1-10.1)
DXGI SCDest Buffer (D3D11 on feature levels 9.1 and 10.0)
DXGI Stereo Present
DXGI Swap Effects
DXVA Tests
Dynamic Resources
Fill Modes
Fog
Four Character Code Surface Stability Test (WoW64)
Functional test for monitor container ID
Gamma Correction
GDIHW_Functional Test for GDI HW ACC (v1.1)
GDIMAN Rops (WoW64)
Geometry Instancing
Get DC
GetInfo (WoW64)
GetRasterStatus
GetRenderTargetData - Backbuffer and Render Target
GetRenderTargetData - Mip Texture and Cube Texture
Gradient Fill Test (WoW64)
Graphics Device Runtime Power Management Component Validation
Graphics HDMI Test (Manual)
High Order Surfaces
Index Buffer
Lighting
Lightmap
Lockable Depth Buffer
Lost Devices - Resource Management DX8 and lower (WoW64)
Matrix Palette Skinning
Maximum Primitives
Memory Leak Verifier (WoW64)
Memory-Texture Management (WoW64)
MipFilter
Miscellaneous DirectDraw Test
MPO Quality Tests
Multihead Support
Multimon minimum resolution check - Multihead
Multipass Z-Fighting
Multiple Lights
Multiple Render Targets
Multisample Stability (WoW64)
Multisampling
Multistream Rendering
MultiSwapchain
Non Power 2 Conditional ConfTest
Non Power 2 Conditional RenderTarget
Non Power 2 Conditional Test (DX9) (WoW64)
Non Power 2 Conditional Test (WOW64)
OPM - HDCP CSS DVD Test
OptStandby - Video Memory Purge and Resume
Overdraw-Underdraw
Overlay (Manual) (WoW64)
Palette Tests
Palettized Textures
Palettized Textures Test
PC99 #10 supported pixel orderings
PC99 #10 supported pixel orderings (WoW64)
PC99 #12 downloadable RAMDAC (WoW64)
PC99 #3 system uses WC (32-bit)
PerfX2 DirectFlip Scenarios
Perspective
Pixel Shaders Precision
Pixel Shaders Ver 1.1
Pixel Shaders Ver 1.x
Pixel Shaders Ver 2.x
Pixel Shaders Ver 3.0
Point Sprites
Preempt - Schedule reasonable workload 4 ms check
Preempt - Scheduler WLK PERF - Time to high priority completions (PoliceMS)
Preempt - Scheduler WLK PERF - Time to high priority Preemptions (PoliceMS)
Preempt - Scheduler WLK Validate non-zero preemption values for WDDM1.2 hardware
Preemption Test
Preemption - Validate driver preemption level (single)
Present Validation 2
Present Validation 2 (FullScreen)
Present Validation 2 - Vista
Present Validation (WoW64)
Primitive Batching
Processor Amplification Control Test (WoW64)
Ratetest (WoW64)
Read Scan Line
Registry Validation
Registry Validation (WoW64)
RenderOnly SetupAPI Test
RenderOnly Swapchain Test
Set Render Target
SimulatePreemption TDR
SimulateVSync TDR
State Blocks
Stencil
Stretch Rect
Subpixel Texture
Surface Flipping Tests
TDR2 - Large Payload Penalty Compute Application Test
Tessellation
Texture Address
Texture Blend
Texture ColorKey (WoW64)
Texture Coordinate Generation
Texture Filter
Texture Formats
Texture Gradient
Texture Load (WoW64)
Texture Mapping
Texture Stage
Texture Transforms
TL Vertex Clipping
Update Surface
Update Texture
VBIB - Vertex and Index Buffer Validation
Verify VESA and CEA required display modes
Vertex Blending
Vertex Buffer Rendering
Vertex Buffer Swapping
Vertex Formats
Vertex Shaders
Vertex Shaders Precision
Vertex Tweening
Video Acceleration - Bad Data (WoW64)
Video Memory Aliasing
Video Memory Management Tests
Viewport Clipping
Volume Texture
VPE and Kernel TestS
W Buffer
W Compare
Wait for VBlank
WDDM Bit Flip - Invalid Param First Group
WDDM Blt
WDDM Blt - Depth
WDDM Blt - DepthFill
WDDM Blt - Stretch
WDDM BVT2
WDDM CCD Test for Forced Projection
WDDM CCD Test for PersistentReset Sleep
WDDM CCD Test for QueryHardwareCaps
WDDM CCD Test for Validation of Basic Topology (Multi Mon) - Multihead
WDDM Coherency
WDDM Cross Processor
WDDM Dead Lock
WDDM DMA Split (Force Split Points)
WDDM Eviction
WDDM FlipQueue
WDDM Fuzzer Allocation- Invalid Param
WDDM Fuzzer Command Buffer- Invalid Param
WDDM Fuzzer Misc- Invalid Param
WDDM GammaRamp
WDDM Handles - Invalid Param First Group
WDDM HPD Notification Test (Manual)
WDDM LockConfirm
WDDM LockSmith
WDDM ManagedPrimary
WDDM Max Contexts
WDDM ModeChange
WDDM ModifyVAD
WDDM Overlay
WDDM Pass Through
WDDM Pass Through - Lock
WDDM Pass Through - QueryResidency
WDDM PnPMultiModeSwitch Test
WDDM PnPStopModeSwitch Test
WDDM PnPStopResetToVGA
WDDM PnPStop Test
WDDM PnPStop Test - Update and Rollback
WDDM PresentStats - Present Statistics Test
WDDM Primary Surface
WDDM Process Callout
WDDM RotateBlt Full Screen ColorFillPresent
WDDM Sch_Stress
WDDM Scheduler Stress (AlwaysRepatch)
WDDM Scheduler Stress (No PrePatching)
WDDM Sync - VolBlt Test
WDDM Sync Test
WDDM Toaster - Invalid Param First Group
WDDM Unmap Segment to DummyPage Check
WDDM Verify DVI I adapters matches reported DVI and HD15 targets (Manual)
WDDM WSSections
WGF Create Device
WGF Feature Level 9.3 Support
WGF11 Async
WGF11 Blend
WGF11 Clipping
WGF11 Compute Shader
WGF11 Compute Shader - Dispatch and GroupSharedMemory
WGF11 D3DWDDM
WGF11 Depth Stencil
WGF11 Draw
WGF11 Fill Rules
WGF11 Filter
WGF11 Geometry Shader
WGF11 Input Assembler
WGF11 Interfaces
WGF11 Multisample
WGF11 -- Multi-threading -- one-way stress test
WGF11 Pixel Shader
WGF11 Precision
WGF11 Rasterizer
WGF11 Render Targets
WGF11 Resource Access
WGF11 Resource Formats
WGF11 Shader 5x
WGF11 SharedResources
WGF11 Streamout
WGF11 Tessellation
WGF11 Vertex Shader
WGF11 Viewports
WGFVidMMWDDM1_2 Test
WHQL FPO optimization check for kernel video driver(s) (1.1)
Windows Client System Check For WDDM 1.1 Or Greater Display Driver Support
Wireless Display Tests
Wireframe
WLP MultiTexturing
WLP RGB Rasterization
WLP RGB Rasterization - Mobile (WoW64)
WLP Specular
WLP Texture Sizes
XPSRAS Display Driver Conformance Test
YUV Blt Test (WoW64)
YUV Blt Test Performance (DX9) (WoW64)
YUV Blt Test Performance (WoW64)
YUV Blt Test Performance - Server (WoW64)
YUV Blt Test - Server (WoW64)

OTOH I'm pretty sure you can have an office or even supercomputer thats non-compliant with most if not all of the above test.
How do we explain this

 

Must be a Windows 8 issue since there hasn't been a driver update for W7 in nearly 6mths.

There was some problem with the eSATA ports and W8 but I thought AMD had fixed that bug.

So true....

 

14.4 WHQL gave me a couple BSODs on my crossfire 7850 setup. I rolled back to the 14.4 rc and it is perfectly stable. I'm on an Intel cpu/mobo so this chipset change wouldn't seem to make a difference for me.

 

I hope this is related, and finally someone is going to fix the stop 0x0000007b BSOD due to AmdSataPMDisabled not being properly set to 0x0FF that happens on some SB7xx based MBs. The only solution is to start in IDE mode to change a reg value, or mod amd_sata.inf before installation.
The last trouble-free ahci driver was the 11.12, and the current 14.4 W8 *.inf even has a line with the correct reg value, but it's bypassed due to a ";" on it's start. Multiple reports have been sent to AMD and this issue was never fixed, and the worse, is that WU also offers a faulty driver that leaves Windows unbootable on the affected systems.

 

Beta drivers are Beta, it's not a RC, don't confuse people about how good beta products are...These as you know are developing stages when prefinal test is being done, so in no way you can say what are you saying right now.

 

WHQL is Windows testing Certification for products, it just means, that microsoft confirms product's stability, even then, when pc crashes for huge audience of users.

 

Weird does not comes close to describing it.

Five or six 14.4 drivers. All different. While I can distinguish most of them, by looking at the rest of the numbers, RC, date, etc it's really tedious.
Because nomenclature is inconsistent and I can't find version numbers of all the components. Not in an easy accessible manner anyway.
But OK lets assume I don't know where to look.

I have 14.4 WHQL installed, ie
amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe

and now Catalyst Software Update suggests I should install
amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe

RLY??

:bang::bang::bang:

 

Furthermore they call this suggested version "beta", and I have "WHQL".
But they are both packaged as
amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe


Not to mention I have unchecked Software Update option to check for Beta, and it still suggests I could/should install Beta: