AMD Catalyst 14.7 RC1 (14.200.1004.0 July 9)

Yes, CPUs have basic turbo frequency not based on TDP or temperature (smart way), but number of cores where currently runs some workload even very small (stupid way).
And then there is thermal throttling to protect CPU from damage if temperature is too high.

RadeonPRO will not give you higher performance in most of cases. But can prevent stutter. Since you have profiles per game you can set each in way it works best:
Like if you have only 60Hz screen it is reasonable to try to avoid v-sync if your fps goes under 60. But then to partially limit tearing and have nicer "frame pacing" you can limit fps to 60/59fps with DFC (this is my preferred method on 120Hz).
Then if you use Triple Buffering in RP it is different than usual TB in most of games (It's the way it should be).
And if you happen to use v-sync DVC (dynamic) is reasonable as nVidias Adaptive VSync.

My universal approach which is stutter free is:
- CPU runs with all 4 cores @4.5 as long as there is any even small load which prevents random loss of performance for main (or any other) game thread.
- I lower game details to have fps over 100 at all times where possible 120fps+
- then I use DFC to limit 120fps in most cases. In few where it causes heavy tearing I go to 119fps (on 120Hz screen)
- not doing heavy OC on graphics VRAM even at 1500MHz it eats like 60+W

-> in short AMD method to TDP limit is: VRAM runs on frequency you set and eat what it eats, if something has to throttle it is GPU, because VRAM is not capable to save power. And that is one of problems which r9-290x has (additional memory chips eating power which GPU needs).

 

Uninstalled 14.6
Rebooted
Booted in to Safe mode, used DDU and uninstalled leftovers
Rebooted
Booted in to system
Installed 14.7 RC
Rebooted
Says 14.6 RC :3eyes:

 

Still no fix for the extra heat produced by drivers past the 14.4 Whql.

Did a test and using 14.7 drivers (14.6 would be the same) and the total system wattage use with the card slightly undervolted was 385w. That's using Crysis 3 in the most intensive level.

Same test using the 14.4 and in same level and place and fps the total system wattage was 355w.

So a difference of 30w between drivers would explain 5-6c hotter temps. I personally don't see major fps increase so whatever has been done it would be good for Amd to undo as it's not what I would call a nice added feature.

 

Seems like critical difference. I would worry as it may set your house on fire.
But chances are they have fixed power limit slider.

 

i guess this is it AMD, bye2 for good.

i had better luck when with Nvidia drivers rather than AMD drivers,

3870 = poor performance, even my old 9600GT beat that thing into oblivion.

the 7850 that i currently had is quite good, but the issue is the driver,

but too bad i'm gonna have to wait a while, since it seems Nvidia is about to release a new series.

which meant good things, because old series probably gonna have some reduced price, probably gonna pick up 750ti or 760.

next PC back to Intel + Nvidia again.

i wanted new driver to fix openGL, because openGL Games(brink, wolfenstein, Doom 3) on AMD sucks badly.

 

Yep, it shows 14.6 RC not 14.7. AMD don't even bothered to update that.

 

Same situation here...:3eyes:

 

Weird enough, I never had major problems with AMD drivers and if I had some trouble with the drivers, it never was enough to turn my back to the card and run to nvidia. My brother had a nvidia card and he has as many issues as I'm having with drivers. It seems like most people think that Nvidia have wonderdrivers never producing any problems, but my experience tell that both have problems fixing bugs... Also, when there's a bug or something, it's never something you really need to worry about. You're kind of a luxury baby when some little bugs may turn you to buy a new GPU.

 

Thanks. So is disabling turbo in BIOS sufficient? I've had both turbo + speedstep disabled for some time, however, HWinfo's continued to show the core clocks bouncing around, cutting in half when there's no load, then bouncing up to 4200 when there is. I've wondered if maybe this is a "side effect" of hyper-threading (which I have enabled), where it's basically splitting a physical core in half for its virtual core.

And how about C-states? What do you use, as far as turbo/Speedstep/Hyperthreading/C-states/core-parking?

Currently, I use:

Turbo: disabled
Speedstep: disabled
Hyper-threading: enabled
Virtualization: enabled
C-states: C1E
Core-parking: disabled

I'm overclocked at 4.25GHz on an i7 930. Would you propose changing any of the above? I've wondered if it's useful to have C-states enabled or not, if there's very much power savings, and if it may cause stuttering.

• So do you recommend using DFC for every game, always, setting it to the monitor's refresh rate? (I use a 60Hz plasma HDTV)
  
  
• Do you recommend also using DVC with DFC? Or would it be better to enable DFC but then set vsync manually?
  
  
• I've heard some suggest setting vsync for -1 frame below the refresh rate (so 59Hz instead of 60). Why is that? Should this always be done?
  
  
• I always use RP's triple buffering for every game. Do you suggest using it always, or are there times when it would be better not to?
  
  
• What about game-native functions vs. RadeonPro vs. CCC -- would one work better than another? For example, if a game has its own "triple buffering" + "V-sync" settings, would it be better to use the game's instead of RP's? Or would you suggest always using RP's? What about RP vs. CCC?

Thanks. So do you only use DFC, but no vsync? I thought that limiting the frame rate but not using vsync would still cause tearing, because the monitor's refresh isn't in-sync with the frame buffer. Is it possible to only use DFC with no vsync and not get any tearing?

Is there much benefit to OC'ing VRAM? I've modded my reference 7950 BIOS with improved memory timings + a force 1675MHz memory clock across all states always -- because I hate the flickering whenever the memory clock changes! And I've modded my 3D state to 1140/1675MHz.

But if there isn't much benefit between VRAM 1500MHz vs 1675MHz, maybe I should just use 1500? What do you think?

 

i never said Nvidia drivers doesn't have issues,

i said i had more luck with Nvidia drivers rather than AMD drivers,

no need to insult people, when i decided that i had enough with AMD drivers.

besides buying an old series, when new series came, because it gonna have a price cut = luxury baby ?

good luck with your AMD card, that after 14.4 can't play DX9 games anymore.

besides what's wrong with me changing side because i want to be able to play my newly bought Wolfenstein TNO ? since it ran badly on my 7850.

 

According to RadeonPro settings. I'm preferring Flip Queue Size value set to "1" also.

 

Guess all the flawless gaming I did with DX9 games with 14.6 on the same GPU was all just my imagination.

 

you do know that if you don't experience the bugs,

that doesn't meant others are the same ?

i only tested a few games, flatout and state of decay, and both doesn't artifacting on 14.4.

so i guess you are lucky that you doesn't experience artifacting.

all i can say is congratulations.

another info that are not related to the drivers,

i borrowed my nephew uplay account, to try watch dogs on my PC,

and guess what ?

watch dogs crash on launch, and that is after the latest patch.

while on his PC, watch dogs ran normally, he is using 7970, but i don't think the difference in GPU caused the crash on launch.

 

^ You can always just stay with the 14.4 whql, until next ''proper/whql'' drivers will come, I hope you know that right?

 

I realize that some people may experience bugs that I don't, but I just have a hard time believing most issues people have directly come from the driver, and not something else.

I mainly only played Path of Exile, Dota 2, WarCraft III, Guild Wars 2, GTA IV, osu!, Diablo III, and Vindictus, and I don't recall seeing any kind of artifacting in any of those games with drivers newer than 14.4; on both my desktop 7850, and 7660G + 7670M laptop. I've played some other DX9 games too, but can't recall which ones.

As for Watch Dogs, it started up fine for me with I think 14.6 RC2 (whatever driver introduced the Eyefinity changes). Worked fine with Eyefinity also. Performance was a mess though, but that's not related to the driver at all for the most part (if at all).

 

That is not my experience. Mantle works fine for my setup (2 x 7970). - has done so for months now. Could it be better? Maybe, but I am not complaining. It still beats DX11 as it is now. I get a 15-20 fps boost and a 11% decrease in CPU usage!

"stutters and overloads vram with mantle" I am going to guess your 270x is a 2Gb vram card.
Mantle works by taking load off the CPU (no high level DX API to process) and leverages more work from the GPU (through the low level Mantle API) to give you a higher graphical output. So CPU works less, GPU works more. Just that in getting that higher performance from the GPU, Mantle may use more than 2 times as much vram as DX using the same video settings. And this is where your stutter starts. Mantle is using more vram to the point of overfilling of your cards vram. Your CPU is called on to shuffle excess data between the vram and system ram to help the graphics card out. And since system ram is 3 to 5 times slower than DDR5 vram, combined with the process of swapping of that excess data over the pcie lanes, you get a slow down in graphical output (manifests as stutter) and more than likely you get accompanying CPU spikes (this will be the cpu performing these data swaps between system ram and vram). Any hiccup in this data swapping will result in a app crash - more than likely a memory related error. If it doesn't crash, the stutter in gameplay will detract from the playability.

Maybe there could be some future vram memory management tweaks for Mantle, but still expect that greater vram usage compared to DX is here to stay.

Re these 14.7. I am still on 14.6 beta V1. Can't see a point in upgrading yet.

 

yup i know, besides WHQL are just certified beta drivers, i don't really care if its beta or WHQL.

but my concern are with the direction AMD are going,

it seems they more and more doesn't care about fixing bugs or improving drivers for games that needed it.

and their new driver broke more things, rather than fixing things.

 

As i said earlier in the thread, thats because these are just the 14.6s, they have just added that AOC monitor fix to them, and a couple of things for Xfire, and then re-upped them, they are only being listed up on the download site as the 14.7s, as we are now in July, which is the 7th month.

Still being reported as 14.6 in the CCC is normal, as they only update the CCC with the correct version in their WHQLs, its been like that for years.

 

Ah. Now I found reason why OC is not working. When watching youtube flash videos via Opera and playing same time overclocking is not working. It did with 14.6 RC2 drivers too. Needed to disable HW acceleration to get it working.

 

Yeah its by design. its not a bug.