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AMD drivers on x17 laptop

Post Date: 2012-10-13
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uncledonnie3 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote uncledonnie3 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: AMD drivers on x17 laptop
    Posted: 13 Oct 2012 at 6:11am
I'm not very computer savvy and also not in front of my PC right now so bear with me while I try to explain the issue.  I attempted to update the drivers for the AMD 7970M in my system and am unable to do so.  I downloaded the AMD Catalyst Mobility tool and I believe it detected my video card but it essentially stated I would need to contact the company who put together the system to update the drivers.  I'm sorry I can't provide the exact messages but any help would be appreciated.
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 13 Oct 2012 at 6:50am
Hi uncledonnie3..    Others that might be by later are more up on laptops than I, but have you gone to Clevo's website and downloaded the driver from there. 
 
 
The message you're getting is AMD telling you to go, in this case, to Clevo for example.  I think your laptop is a Clevo P170EM or close to it.
 
Sometimes a laptop driver needs to be from the manufacturer of the laptop and not AMD website, if i understand it right.
 
Hope this helps and others will be by that will agree or tell me I'm all wrong. Big%20Smile


Edited by bprat22 - 13 Oct 2012 at 6:51am
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 13 Oct 2012 at 11:31am
Correct!
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Bobby View Drop Down
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 13 Oct 2012 at 6:29pm
I would strongly recommend going back to the driver on the disk that came with your laptop. The drivers from AMD since May have not worked well on the 7xxx series mobile GPU's. The release notes for these drivers have specifically excluded GPU's with switchable graphics, which is what the x17 is based on. AMD is in the process of  releasing a "hot fix" for the 7970M and then work on the drivers.
 
The link that bprat22 gave you is correct but the driver for the 7970M for the P170EM plateform will be the same one that's on your driver disk.
 
edit: spelling


Edited by Bobby - 13 Oct 2012 at 6:54pm
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Bobby View Drop Down
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 16 Oct 2012 at 12:03pm
Here is an update from Jarred Walton of AnandTech:
 
One of the issues we experienced with the initial drivers on the Radeon HD 7970M was lower than expected performance, and many users/owners of the 7970M Clevo notebooks have pointed towards GPU utilization as being the culprit. That seemed a bit odd when I first heard about the topic, as low GPU utilization should be a symptom of lower than expected performance rather than the cause—basically, if the GPU is capable of running at 150 FPS at certain settings but it’s only running at 75 FPS, you’d expect the GPU use to be around 50%. With the initial P170EM review, I did some quick checking on GPU utilization and found that, yes, it seemed low. With the Hotfix driver (which still hasn’t reached the public, though we’re hearing “this week”—meaning, some time during October 15-19), we also noted that GPU utilization did improve. Nevertheless, GPU utilization isn’t “always 90% or more”, which is what some people have been asking for.
 
edit: corrected spelling of Mr Walton's name


Edited by Bobby - 16 Oct 2012 at 12:06pm
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Bobby View Drop Down
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Oct 2012 at 10:02am
AMD had released the 12.11 driver update then pulled it because of bugs. There is no word yet on the hotfix for Enduro switching graphics for the present x15 and x17 laptops. The new laptops that DS has with DUAL GPU's that utilize SLI or Crossfire do NOT use the switchable graphics so, with respect to AMD, the hotfix is not necessary.
 
I'm going to post this once here for anyone who has issues with updating their 7970M GPU from the AMD driver support.
 
1. First off, if your games are playing fine...don't update the AMD driver just for the sake of updating.
 
2. If you must update, call DS and have them send you the latest one they have from the notebook reseller. I know where to look but don't know if I'm allowed to post the link. The driver on the AMD site may throw an error as described by the OP of this thread. Read the release notes at any case. The last 2 driver updates specifically excluded laptops with switchable graphics but no one reads the release notes and wonders why the drivers don't work.
 
3. If you have the 7970M, wait for and install the Enduro hotfix first otherwise the driver update won't give you the performance boost it's suppose to. (hotfix not released as of the date/time of this post)
 
4. Remember that you have 2 graphics drivers, the Intel CPU iGPU graphics in addition to the AMD or NVidia dGPU graphics. Be careful what you uninstall and the order with which you install.
 
5. Before doing anything, I'd recommend going to a few tech boards like Guru3D or Rage3D or Notebook Review and see how it's working for everyone else. The x15 and x17 laptops are based on the CLEVO P150EM (x15 DS laptop) and CLEVO P170EM (x17 DS laptop), so that is what you'll be looking for. Let someone else go through the headaches before you do.
 
6. Finally, I can't help anyone with AMD drivers after this point. I got tired of fighting a crippled AMD 7970M GPU in my x17 laptop and replaced it with a NVidia 680M GPU. Optimus switching works great, the latest NVidia driver works great, and my flight sim now works to it's full potential. I'm no longer wasting time researching and testing AMD drivers.
 
7. With regards to #6, some may not see a problem with the 7970M. The Enduro issue affected some games more than others....just depends on what games you are playing. If you run a GPU utilization utility like Afterburner, you'll see why the hotfix is necessary.
 
Now.....back to flying for me Smile


Edited by Bobby - 22 Oct 2012 at 7:47pm
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bprat22 View Drop Down
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Posts: 20391 		  Quote bprat22 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Oct 2012 at 10:10am
Bobby..... Thanks for all the help with AMD. Strong
 
Now if laptops owners with the 680M have probelms, we'll call ya.  Hahaha
 
Enjoy the new card.
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Bobby View Drop Down
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Oct 2012 at 1:42pm
Thanks Smile
No one is reporting any issues with the 680M other than the premium price. There will always be the fanboys of either camp and, for the record, I'm a fanboy of neither. I just want the hardware to perform as advertised.
 
I personally don't like the muxless design. In my opinion, it's a bad price to pay for your expensive high end GPU to never be able to run at 100% utilization. I can see why it was done....the manufacturers had to satisfy the end user that wanted a laptop to perform like a desktop but have the battery life of a tablet. Can't be done without software like Enduro or Optimus. The only good thing is the Intel integrated graphics engine is really pretty good now since Ivy Bridge.
 
It's sort of like trying to run your performance desktop and play your game during a power failure and running on the UPS. Running your GPU(s) on full power won't last but a few minutes.
 
AW got it right by running a mux system with a hardwired switch. The new DS laptop with SLI or Crossfire doesn't run switchable graphics but anyone with dual video cards in a laptop would be crazy to expect performance out of a battery.
 
Anyway, I got a lot of experience screwing around with AMD Enduro. I didn't have a laptop when NVidia was going through the same issues with Optimus 2 years ago, so I missed that fiasco. AMD may get it right eventually assuming they have enough people left to write code. After their last earning report, they said they are laying off a boatload of staff.
 
Bottom line....hardware is only as good as the drivers Big%20Smile
 
edit: spelling


Edited by Bobby - 22 Oct 2012 at 1:44pm
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 22 Oct 2012 at 7:36pm
12.11 Beta has been released. http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/AMDCatalyst1211betadriver.aspx
 
The release notes look good. Here is the thread where 7970M on the Clevo platform are testing it out. http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/693275-so-7970m-driver-update-9.html
 
That forum doesn't have any "support" for Digital Storm notebooks but any reference to the Clevo P150EM or P170EM platform is applicable to you.
 
Here is another place where Jarred Walton is testing this driver that seems to have the hotfix included: http://www.anandtech.com/show/6395/amds-1211-mobility-catalyst-enduro-hotfix-mostly-included
 
As I said before.....let others test it and when they are happy, then download it if you need it. I can't test it since I just swapped out my 7970M and have no reason to reinstall it.
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Posts: 27 		  Quote T-Byrd Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 24 Oct 2012 at 7:56pm
after reading all of those links, it looks like i could deliver a baby by cesarean while both drunk and blindfolded. and i'm not even a doctor.
<<insert config here>>
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Bobby View Drop Down
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Posts: 322 		  Quote Bobby Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2012 at 12:11pm
Originally posted by T-Byrd

after reading all of those links, it looks like i could deliver a baby by cesarean while both drunk and blindfolded. and i'm not even a doctor.
 
Good....then you can begin helping people like the OP of this thread that was looking for answers. I have better things to do than deal with your sarcasm. There are people who try to help....then there are post whores.
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 25 Oct 2012 at 12:46pm
uncledonnie3,

Try out Bobby's post, looks helpful!
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uncledonnie3 View Drop Down
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Posts: 3 		  Quote uncledonnie3 Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Nov 2012 at 5:46pm
To update on this AMD has released an Enduro performance driver:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst7970MEnduroPerformance%20driver.aspx

I uninstalled the original Catalyst drivers that came on the laptop and installed these new ones.  I was also planning on updating the Intel 4000 HD drivers however for some reason the display driver is no longer showing in Add/Remove programs. 

The first game I tried with these is Skyrim due to the supposed performance boost and I am getting weird graphics errors such as choppy framerate when turning indoors and seeing flashes and flickers in the sky when I'm outside.  I have not played Skyrim before installing these so I don't know if this is because of the drivers or something else.

I'm unsure if I did something wrong here and installed something the wrong way.  The driver for the Intel card not showing anymore in Add/Remove programs worries me.  Any additional input or advice is appreciated.
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 27 Nov 2012 at 6:49pm
Thank you for the update.

Let's see if anyone else can chime in with their results on this.
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Posts: 58 		  Quote Cash Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 28 Nov 2012 at 11:02pm
Originally posted by uncledonnie3

To update on this AMD has released an Enduro performance driver:

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/Catalyst7970MEnduroPerformance%20driver.aspx

I uninstalled the original Catalyst drivers that came on the laptop and installed these new ones.  I was also planning on updating the Intel 4000 HD drivers however for some reason the display driver is no longer showing in Add/Remove programs. 

The first game I tried with these is Skyrim due to the supposed performance boost and I am getting weird graphics errors such as choppy framerate when turning indoors and seeing flashes and flickers in the sky when I'm outside.  I have not played Skyrim before installing these so I don't know if this is because of the drivers or something else.

I'm unsure if I did something wrong here and installed something the wrong way.  The driver for the Intel card not showing anymore in Add/Remove programs worries me.  Any additional input or advice is appreciated.


On my x15e I uninstalled my Catalyst drivers before installing the Enduro performance driver and played Planetside 2 for about half an hour with no issues then I updated my Intel HD 4000 driver and played for another half an hour without issues. My Intel driver still shows up too. I dont own Skyrim so I cant test that out sorry.
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Posts: 6 		  Quote kertain Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 05 Dec 2012 at 2:22pm
Alex: I am having pretty much the same problem.
We originality thought we were having the driver issues with the new laptop but it actually ended up being a bad card.

Card is replaced and things are much better then before, but still much less performance than it should be getting. Seems we are past the original issues but now in driver hell.

I just sent you an email, please respond as soon as you can.

Does not give me ANY warm and fuzzies that even Bobby gave up and swapped card. If the AMD card is that broken you should replace it for us...

Your customer should not have to jump through crazy driver installation loops to get the laptop to perform properly. If loops are required please document and let us know what to do. We feel like we purchased a gaming laptop and now are getting the run around "well it should work...."


Edited by kertain - 05 Dec 2012 at 2:23pm
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 05 Dec 2012 at 2:50pm
@Kertain,

I'll respond to your email and we'll help you from there. To be honest, the 7970M is one of our best selling graphic cards due to it's amazing performance. It could be an isolated situation due to a certain game or something else, we'll do our best to help nevertheless!
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kertain View Drop Down
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Posts: 6 		  Quote kertain Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 05 Dec 2012 at 2:54pm
Thanks for your quick response.
It could be that we are hyper sensitive due to the 2+ months troubleshooting only to find out the card was bad :)
Eager to use the laptop but but so far every game we try runs pretty poorly.

Yes if you could please contact me directly I have a few questions on which driver is better..ect

Of course I will update my results to this thread so hopefully it can help others..ect


Edited by kertain - 05 Dec 2012 at 2:55pm
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