AMD Driver Released 12.6 & 12.7 Beta

[Plimogz]

These 12.7 betas solved the "driver stopped responding" crashes I was getting several times a day with the 12.4s and enabled be to force actually nice looking AA in D3 through the control panel.

I for one am extremely pleased with them.

 

[Red Hawk]

The 12.7 beta gives me a repeatable "Driver stopped working but has been recovered" error when loading a new area in Skyrim. Game locks up at the loading screen, and I have to ctrl-alt-del out of the game to close it. Reverting to the 12.6 WHQL driver to see if that fixes it.

Edit: Going to 12.6 WHQL drivers fixed the issue. I'm off to send a report about this to AMD, hopefully they can fix this for the 12.7 (or 12.8, possibly) WHQL release.

 

[jackstar7]

Just to cap my experience, I've abandoned both of these new drivers and am reverting to RC11 once again (and likely until upgrade time comes again).

This experience includes a fresh Win7 install... and I'm just back where I should have stayed.

For anyone using both Crossfire AND Eyefinity... if your drivers are working reasonably well, stick with 'em.

I put 'em back and then played a great full round of BF3 and then put my computer to sleep and it woke back up without effing up my monitor configuration.

All in all, it was a learning experience and that's good, I suppose... but this was also a real PITA.

 

[VulgarDisplay]

To the people getting a driver stopped responding crash how high is your overclock? I was getting that when I had an unstable OC. Lowering it solved my problems for all recent drivers.

 

[happysmiles]

using 12.7 beta on my AMD C-50
works just fine

 

[Plimogz]

Unlocked 6950 @ 880 was giving me many errors per day with the 12.4s. Since installing the 12.7 betas I haven't had a single one with the same OC. In fact, I increased to 895 last night (at the same voltage as previously) and that's working well so far.

That said, it is possible that my 12.4s were corrupted and that a good cleaning+reinstall would have fixed the problem as well, I remember that when I switched video cards recently without reinstalling the ATi drivers (4890->6950) I got a series of BSODs and eventually tried to let Windows repair itself. Though iirc it didn't work very well. And I can't quite remember what finally got the system running again.

 

[Homeles]

These 12.7 betas solved the "driver stopped responding" crashes I was getting several times a day with the 12.4s and enabled be to force actually nice looking AA in D3 through the control panel.

I for one am extremely pleased with them.

I was on 12.2 with my 6950 and moved to 12.7... no complaints either.

 

[Red Hawk]

using 12.7 beta on my AMD C-50
works just fine

Why in the world would you bother with the risks of a beta driver on a simple netbook APU?

 

[slpnshot]

To the people getting a driver stopped responding crash how high is your overclock? I was getting that when I had an unstable OC. Lowering it solved my problems for all recent drivers.

How can you tell if it's a 'driver stopped responding' crash? I had a black/white bar screen that came up in a non-graphically heavy part of the game. I also had a black screen with the sound still playing in the background during League of Legends. Both required a hard restart of my computer, and everything worked fine afterwards.

My OC was mild at 1050 from what I remember with no more than 1.2V. Since then I downclocked to stock settings just to see if it increased stability. So far so good, but I'll probably play with it for another week just to be sure.

 

[Red Hawk]

My GPU's clocks were at stock when I was getting the "driver stopped responding" error in Skyrim.

 

[mojothehut]

Enjoying 12.7s on my Sapphire 7950. Upgraded from 12.4, zero complaints. Minor performance increase in 3dmark.

My overclock is as stable as ever with 12.7. 965/1250clocks

 

[Obsoleet]

Agreed. Also, when I read the release notes it only referred to improvements in the 7000 series cards.

Rule #1: If it ain't broke, don't install new drivers.

This release appears to address only the 7000 series of cards. What if any benefit would it have on my machines with a 6970 or 5850s in CF?

I found 12.6WHQL to be the best release this year, which makes it the best driver yet for my 5870. I think it's worth installing even if you're on a 5xxx like myself (or probably a 6xxx).
I notice lots of little differences from 12.2WHQL (last perfect driver for my rig) that make it even better. Now that they're focusing on quality being #1 priority for WHQL releases, and doing performance crap/testing in betas, I'm going to be able to upgrade to the next WHQL in good faith.

This might sound silly but I really hope you guys are sending AMD feedback when you have these problems. Just so these issues get fixed sooner/better.

I've sent dozens of errors to AMD over the past 3 years. They seem to help with getting issues fixed, but not as much if it's not a high priority title. Or at least that's what it seems.
I guess that makes sense.

These 12.7 betas solved the "driver stopped responding" crashes I was getting several times a day with the 12.4s and enabled be to force actually nice looking AA in D3 through the control panel.
I for one am extremely pleased with them.

My GPU's clocks were at stock when I was getting the "driver stopped responding" error in Skyrim.

12.4 resets were not due to overclocking, my card hasn't ever been OC'd, thus guaranteed undamaged from overclocking and I experienced the same bug.

 

[mingsoup]

I'm getting flickering on cutscenes with crossfire on Deus Ex Human Revolution with the 12.7's. Any tips?

 

[Obsoleet]

I'm getting flickering on cutscenes with crossfire on Deus Ex Human Revolution with the 12.7's. Any tips?

Install 12.6WHQL. 12.7 betas having nothing promised.

 

[lopri]

Some generic advice when it comes to installing Catalyst drivers: DO NOT install stuff that you are not going to use. If you're unsure of whether something is needed, chances are it is not necessary. (AMD APP foundation, Drag-and-Drop support, AMD Media Foundation, etc.)

I only install Installation manager + Display drivers + HDMI/Audio drivers + Control panel. I can't believe AMD is cluttering the installation package with so many craps and confusing users.

 

[mingsoup]

Wanted to post this here:
I've been having trouble with my OC clocks never going down to idle on a pair of 6970's. For the longest time it worked sometimes and not others depending on drivers etc.

Well with 12.7 I finally figured it out. In MSI Afterburner you must set the 2d profile to your reset or default settings and your 3D profile to your stable overclock. Now, whenever I'm not gaming, it defaults down to 150/300 or whatever it is, instead of being maxed all the time. The 2D clock seems to activate the cards default down clocking behavior, not active if the clocks are changed in the slightest. Recently, maybe as of 12.6 or 12.5, I have no longer needed to disable EnableUlps in the registry for stability, it seems to be working without doing that. I have the EnableUnofficalOverclocking at the 1 setting in the MSI AB config file. EDIT: Uhg. Nevermind. Getting STOP error codes surrounding what I think is syncing the two gpus to the same speed. Disabling ULPS causes my clocks to not go below the 2d profile settings.

The fan curve is global across 2d/3d which I like. At first the fan curve didn't show up in AB, but a restart of the system fixed that. So at last, I think its working much better now.

I hope this helps somebody.