Winge about Catalyst Drivers
20 Dec 2012 1:40:48 UTC
Topic 196695
(moderation:
I had only erroneous results on BRP with a newly added computer. Problem with that computer was that the installed AMD/ATI driver claimed to be up to date, also according to windows there was no update. The driver (I guess it was catalyst 12.4) was so sticky that installing a new driver over it didn't actually replace it, I had to uninstall it manually (there was no uninstaller, had to start the new driver's installer and choose "uninstall") and it gave me a bluescreen as farewell gift. Now with catalyst 12.10 the problems are finally gone.
Maybe you should blacklist / inform the operator when such an old driver is present.
Cheers,
Gary.
Winge about Catalyst Drivers
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The above message has nothing to do with 'Validate Errors' so I've moved it to its own thread where it is much more likely to be noticed and, perhaps, commented upon.
You should never expect that drivers supplied by Windows update will always be suitable for the GPU apps from distributed computing projects. You should always research the topic on the AMD or NVIDIA website, as appropriate, and get exactly what you need from there.
Your GPU is showing as a 'Cape Verde'. If you check out the AMD website, you will find that there are significant improvements to be had from 12.11 which (last time I checked) is in beta test. I have a HD7770 running on Linux and I've built and installed 12.11 beta 8 which has given me close to a 20% improvement in crunching speed. I believe there is a beta 11 available now but I haven't had time to try that yet.
Of course, whether or not you choose to use beta versions is entirely up to you.
Cheers,
Gary.
And besides, my HD6850 runs
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And besides, my HD6850 runs Catalysts 12.4 and they're working perfectly for this project. I also just finished playing Far Cry 3 with them.
This is very much a Your Miles May Vary case. Don't think that because you had problems with these drivers, everyone will have problems with them.
And never use the Windows installed or Windows updated drivers. These lack the CAL/OpenCL/OpenGL and in the case of Nvidia cards the CUDA components. Always update from the GPU manufacturer's website, and always uninstall the previous drivers. Better is even to use a driver cleaner program, just to make sure that when you install the new drivers, that all parts of the new drivers are installed.
Sorry to burst yer bubble,
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Sorry to burst yer bubble, Ageless, but...
I also use the 6850 card. For AMD, the Catalyst drivers from the manufacturer website no longer carry OpenCL. As far as it being a "mileage may vary," well - I have yet to be able to properly complete a single BRP unit using the "newest" drivers from the AMD website (that from the 12.1 set which is something like version 1.2.1). Second and third tier support have a complicated (and highly outdated) process for complete removal of all drivers associated with AMD and then recommend use of the newest set, which does not contain any OpenCL support. They are trying to move away from OpenCL to promote their own version of it (APP or something silly like that.)
slightly related: I keep getting those BRP units although I've repeatedly unselected that option in the project preferences on the Einstein website.
RE: Sorry to burst yer
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What OS is this on? with your computers hidden we can't tell, AMD deprecated Cal support from late Cat 11.x drivers and has deprecated OpenCL support for Windows XP from Cat 12.2:
ATI Driver Version Cheat Sheet
Claggy
RE: Sorry to burst yer
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If my HD6850 were incapable of using OpenCL here at Einstein, I would not have a RAC of around 10K, as the only tasks running on my system are ATI-OpenCL tasks on the GPU. I run Seti on 3 of my CPU cores, leaving the one CPU core free to cater support to the GPU here at Einstein.
Yet as said, only for Windows XP has OpenCL support been removed from the Catalysts drivers from 12.2 and onwards. You can use all up to 12.1 without problems on Windows XP. Or update to a later Windows version and not have the trouble anymore.
I am with Ageless on this
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I am with Ageless on this one, running 7970s i have found 12.4 to be stable driver it may not be the fastest kid on the block.
I dont want to update till i am totaly shure that later drivers will not mess up my computer.
I tried up to 12.6 and had problems, so untill i hear good thing about later drivers from MANY diferent places i will stick with what works FOR ME,
I dont run beta, i cant be bothered sorting out problems, i just want stuff that works even if it is a year or two old.
For windows only: I'm running
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For windows only:
I'm running 12.11 Beta11 on my both AMD systems. Win7 x64
Stable and fast.
Alexander
RE: And never use the
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I can say very true. Never ever trust micro crap software update. It was not on this desktop but my last 1. I had the most up to date driver from nvidia. Windows update didn't like it said I needed to up date. I do so... 256 color "if I remember right" was the best I could get out of windows update driver for that card. Since then I have learned to never trust windows update for drivers...
PC setup MSI-970A-G46 AMD FX-8350 8 core OC'd 4.45GHz 16GB ram PC3-10700 Geforce GTX 650Ti Windows 7 x64 Einstein@Home