I noticed a difference in the fan settings. My 4890 used to idle at about 43 degrees C, and the fan would kick back and forth between 0% and 50% as it kept crossing the threshold between the two settings. On for two seconds off for two seconds, rinse and repeat. You could barely hear it, but it was loud enough to distract me. That was annoying. Now it runs in the upper 40s C and hovers in the upper 30% range for fan speed, and I can't hear it anymore. That makes me happy, baring any other issues I should come across.
I installed the 9.12 hotfix on Vista x64, but the version number still says 9.11, both in the Catalyst control panel and in Device Manager.
The driver date is 12/14/1009 though. OpenCL also appears to be GPU-accelerated. The 'terse' version number is also 8.682.2.0.
So it looks like the drivers installed properly, they just aren't labeled 9.12.
Now I wonder what these drivers are. Are they really 9.12 drivers with additional fixes? In which case, why is the driver version at 9.11 then?
Or is this 9.11 with some experimental code (earlier OpenCL betas were also labeled 9.11), so it doesn't contain the other 9.12 fixes and performance upgrades?
Yea, it's a bit strange though.
I tried installing the regular 9.12 drivers, but that didn't seem to work after installing the hotfix (I suppose it didn't overwrite some of the files because they were newer).
So I uninstalled all drivers, then reinstalled regular 9.12... Then my version appeared as 9.12... And then I installed the hotfix drivers again, and now it's still reading 9.12.
I just hope that next month's regular release will finally have official OpenCL support.
I'm not sure what is happening with OpenCL right now. In SiSoft Sandra I only see my CPU listed (which is an Intel btw, not AMD), not the GPU. But when I run some of the Stream SDK OpenCL samples, they seem to run much faster than they did on the CPU.
I cannot say thank you enough for posting about these Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix drivers. I might have missed these drivers and have still been stuck in hell until the fixes appeared in the official driver release.
this:
"The desktop mouse cursor becomes enlarged at random while using Windows 7"
has just made my day! I've been battling that issue ever since I got my 5870.
I was one to jump on the bandwagon and got myself a 5870 card a month or so after it was released.
After the news that ATI/AMD would be increasing prices due to problems at TSMC, I was afraid of how big the price bump would be here in Brazil. As it is, I paid the equivalent of $750 for the card. If the prices went up by $50 in the US, prices here in Brazil would be reaching $900 easily, and that was something I wouldn't take.
With the Catalyst 9.11 release back then, and to this day with the 9.12, there are still many issues lurking for me. Most notably, the "giant mouse cursor" problem, and the annoying fact that the computer slows down to a halt if watching certain video types on fullscreen. Drivers haven't fixed my issues yet (nor did BIOS updates to my M3A78 Pro from Asus), and all I have left to do now is wait and hope. Didn't have these many problems with my 4870 before it. =/
Still... when everything works fine, the performance is just awesome. And Dirt 2 looks just fantastic, heh.
Is the giant pointer issue limited to the 5000 series cards? I've got a 4670 in my HTPC running Windows 7 and haven't noticed anything yet, but that may just be due to the fact that I run WMC all the time.
Yes, as far as I know, the giant mouse cursor is related to the 5000 series cards. Never had such a problem with my 4870.
As for the hotfix drivers, yeah it has indeed fixed the giant mouse problem (thankfully). Only thing remaining are the massive slowdowns when watching certain videos fullscreen... =/
I would check your driver installation or your codecs for this one. This is definitely not a card issue and can be caused by many things not related to video.
I have 6 Projectors that can handle 1920 x 1080 each. So with will be amazing to get a massive display of 5760 x 2160 as a test to show clients what over 4k video will be like.
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Porkfist - Monday, December 21, 2009 - link
I noticed a difference in the fan settings. My 4890 used to idle at about 43 degrees C, and the fan would kick back and forth between 0% and 50% as it kept crossing the threshold between the two settings. On for two seconds off for two seconds, rinse and repeat. You could barely hear it, but it was loud enough to distract me. That was annoying. Now it runs in the upper 40s C and hovers in the upper 30% range for fan speed, and I can't hear it anymore. That makes me happy, baring any other issues I should come across.Scali - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
I installed the 9.12 hotfix on Vista x64, but the version number still says 9.11, both in the Catalyst control panel and in Device Manager.The driver date is 12/14/1009 though. OpenCL also appears to be GPU-accelerated. The 'terse' version number is also 8.682.2.0.
So it looks like the drivers installed properly, they just aren't labeled 9.12.
Now I wonder what these drivers are. Are they really 9.12 drivers with additional fixes? In which case, why is the driver version at 9.11 then?
Or is this 9.11 with some experimental code (earlier OpenCL betas were also labeled 9.11), so it doesn't contain the other 9.12 fixes and performance upgrades?
franzius - Saturday, December 19, 2009 - link
The hot-fix drivers don't carry a specific version number. They will show whatever prior version you had in your system. You are good to go.Franzius
Scali - Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - link
Yea, it's a bit strange though.I tried installing the regular 9.12 drivers, but that didn't seem to work after installing the hotfix (I suppose it didn't overwrite some of the files because they were newer).
So I uninstalled all drivers, then reinstalled regular 9.12... Then my version appeared as 9.12... And then I installed the hotfix drivers again, and now it's still reading 9.12.
I just hope that next month's regular release will finally have official OpenCL support.
I'm not sure what is happening with OpenCL right now. In SiSoft Sandra I only see my CPU listed (which is an Intel btw, not AMD), not the GPU. But when I run some of the Stream SDK OpenCL samples, they seem to run much faster than they did on the CPU.
Mr Perfect - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
They might fix it, but as of 11:20am, the release notes say he Hotfix supports the following OSes. Man, I wonder what Linux Vista is like! =D* Operating System:
o Windows® 7 32-bit Edition
o Windows® 7 64-bit Edition
o Windows® Vista 32-bit Edition
o Windows® Vista 64-bit Edition
o Windows® XP Vista 32-bit Edition
o Windows® XP Vista 64-bit Edition
o Linux Vista 32-bit Edition
o Linux Vista 64-bit Edition
Someguyperson - Saturday, December 19, 2009 - link
Don't forget about Windows® XP Vista!sliderule - Saturday, December 19, 2009 - link
Linux Vista, that's OS X right? lolniva - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
LOL @ Linux Vista, good catch!Bull Dog - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
I cannot say thank you enough for posting about these Catalyst 9.12 Hotfix drivers. I might have missed these drivers and have still been stuck in hell until the fixes appeared in the official driver release.this:
"The desktop mouse cursor becomes enlarged at random while using Windows 7"
has just made my day! I've been battling that issue ever since I got my 5870.
LordanSS - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
I was one to jump on the bandwagon and got myself a 5870 card a month or so after it was released.After the news that ATI/AMD would be increasing prices due to problems at TSMC, I was afraid of how big the price bump would be here in Brazil. As it is, I paid the equivalent of $750 for the card. If the prices went up by $50 in the US, prices here in Brazil would be reaching $900 easily, and that was something I wouldn't take.
With the Catalyst 9.11 release back then, and to this day with the 9.12, there are still many issues lurking for me. Most notably, the "giant mouse cursor" problem, and the annoying fact that the computer slows down to a halt if watching certain video types on fullscreen. Drivers haven't fixed my issues yet (nor did BIOS updates to my M3A78 Pro from Asus), and all I have left to do now is wait and hope. Didn't have these many problems with my 4870 before it. =/
Still... when everything works fine, the performance is just awesome. And Dirt 2 looks just fantastic, heh.
ClownPuncher - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
Try the 9.12 hotfix. It is a full driver package, so no need to apply 9.12 wqhl first.LordanSS - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
Yep, giving the hotfix a try... as far as the mouse cursor goes, so far so good. Nothing going giant yet, which is a good sign.Goty - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
Is the giant pointer issue limited to the 5000 series cards? I've got a 4670 in my HTPC running Windows 7 and haven't noticed anything yet, but that may just be due to the fact that I run WMC all the time.LordanSS - Saturday, December 19, 2009 - link
Yes, as far as I know, the giant mouse cursor is related to the 5000 series cards. Never had such a problem with my 4870.As for the hotfix drivers, yeah it has indeed fixed the giant mouse problem (thankfully). Only thing remaining are the massive slowdowns when watching certain videos fullscreen... =/
OCedHrt - Sunday, December 20, 2009 - link
I would check your driver installation or your codecs for this one. This is definitely not a card issue and can be caused by many things not related to video.therealnickdanger - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
I know that Flash 10.1 is still beta, but I was kind of hoping for some better support from ATI with 9.12. Any word on that?ClownPuncher - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
From what I hear, there are improvements across the board for flash now. Having not tested it myself, yet, I can't say for sure how accurate this is.hadphild - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
Can you do 6 screens now?If so I will be buying 2 card for xmas.
yacoub - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
you have six worthy displays? and a reason to use them all? sounds ridiculoushadphild - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
I have 6 Projectors that can handle 1920 x 1080 each. So with will be amazing to get a massive display of 5760 x 2160 as a test to show clients what over 4k video will be like.therealnickdanger - Sunday, December 20, 2009 - link
Now you just need a 4K video source!phaxmohdem - Friday, December 18, 2009 - link
jizzed in my pants.