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http://sites.amd.com/us/game/downloads/Pages/downloads.aspx

http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/amdcatalyst13-6WINBetaDriver.aspx

What particularly struck me was


I am going to image backup my OS, install these for my 5850's & cgminer for scrypt. I will report back on how they do. :D

Hashing away on these drivers for my two 5850's with scrypt, seems to be fine no gains nor decrease in HR.

For my particular setup, Intel® HD Graphics 2000 as dedicated graphics, two 5850's mining, I still need dummy plugs. I've tested without dummy plugs, tested with one dummy plug per graphics card, each of my cards needs a dummy plug to mine.

i'm not familiar with the principal of dummy plugs , can you explain ?

The dummy plugs I use, are DVI > VGA adapters with 6 resistors, 3 resisters per adapter. They fool the graphics cards into thinking there is/are monitor/monitors connected to the graphics cards, so they will be detected under CCC. CCC=Catalyst Control Center by AMD.

Some more info.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=16816.0

ok no problem , thanks !

tried it on ubuntu, not functional, unless i missed something.  :-\

Yea, the release note link I posted, is for Windows. Might want to check the release notes for Linux.

If i install this.Will it affect my GPU's mining performance ? just be clear :D

 i meant i tried the ubuntu one

I installed and have it running on my 6970 and 5870, doesn't seem to affect hash rate in any way. Still requires monitor to be plugged in for the card to be detected too.

I have no idea. Might want to post your setup, that way, others or I might be able to answer that. But officially, don't know till you try.

You mean by setup? The whole pc rig?

With MSI Afterburner there is no need for dummys to tweak the cards. Cheaper and easier that way.

So, what did the linux release notes say? I haven't read them, as I use windows. Might want to check the linux release notes for this beta driver.

Ah, that's good news, no hash rate change. But same here with the dummy plugs.

As the days pass on, hopefully, others explain with their setups and this beta driver, how it goes for themselves.

lol pek, OS backup? Cleaning an aborted driver install is a bit of a nuisance, not a bad idea.  

Anyways, driver reports are usually scattered and full of misinformation, so +1 to this thread!

Personally, I've found the large majority (if not all) of the 12.6+ drivers to be fine, sometimes you need to adjust your config accordingly and some systems seem to like flash GPU-based acceleration disabled with a few of the versions.

What people really need to be looking for in the new drivers: GCN memory management optimizations. Potentially, it could be significant for the new arc. Try running more than one GPU thread at higher aggressions to check for improvements (only an issue with 7xxx).  

I will give 13.6 a test soon.  


Dummy plugs: ???? I don't understand why some need them and others don't. That hasn't been an issue on these machines for a while now. 

Heya efx, long time no see. How you doing?

Yup, OS image backup only takes me roughly 7 minutes to do. And three to reimage if something has gone wrong. Which from experience, just an uninstall of a amd driver & driver sweeper cleanse and reinstall, would not be enough, leaving the OS or previous driver inoperable if reinstall was tried. Also, note! a lot of users complained, after driver update, they ended up reinstalling their OS, when I see that, I say, why not just image backup your OS, especially if the install is just for mining and the size is only 2-15 gigs, it would take one minute to two minutes to backup vs reinstalling an OS and the updates to that OS which might take hours if not, upon more hours then setting backup the mining software etc. If anything ever goes bad with a graphics driver update, a reimage is so easy vs fighting a broken driver leaving you in the dust. Yup@should express uninstall the amd driver, hop into safe mode, driver sweep with driver sweeper, reboot into safe mode, run registry clean expert and ccleaner's reg cleaner. Reboot, install new driver. But yes, I highly recommend image back your OS prior of any major update that could possibly break your OS, including microsoft/linux-kernel/linux updates.

I and others have face difficulties with some drivers 12.6+, jackjack is one user something about any later driver would crash cgminer while gaming trying these newer drivers. There are a huge mix of people with different results. I had a problem for the longest time, 13.1 to 13.2, I had software sensor problems that would not be read on my second card. Obv. they state these drivers fixed that, but personally, it was fixed for me at 13.2beta6 driver.

And yes, for disabling flash gpu accel, the person would need to open youtube, or some sort that can play flash, right click on the vid screen, settings and disable gpu accel.

And yet again, yup@ the dummy plugs. Some people can do without them and some need them. I think when a persons setup like myself, using intel as dedicated and amd cards as miners, the amd cards require dummy plugs. If it is just a setup "i think" with all amd cards,for some reason "has not been confirmed" they don't need dummy plugs. I believe it's from running a mix of graphics devices etc.

Edit:
Btw, reinstalling my OS decreased since I do image backups. Little bit over a year I've had mine installed.

hello ;) pretty good, you?

The one thing you can count on it seems: variable results.

Biggest chance of breaking your drivers I've found is if you downgrading your version, especially if that downgrade has anything to do with opencl.  

I've found that no single driver sweeper application cleans everything completely and a very thorough manual cleanse seems to be the ticket in the end. Some of the AMD specific cleaners seems to be a little more robust, however none of them really deal with opencl properly it seems, which is a problem.

Sometimes you must boot into safemode and uninstall/reinstall your devices there. I believe that part is only a potential problem when you move cards around.

Although probably due to luck, I've been running the same windows 7 install for several years until recently due to upgrading. I switch drivers frequently, so I have seen a few issues arise with the install process.

Those that use Linux frequently for mining (I found the hardware management options a little limiting) may also be experiencing residual opencl related conflicts. idk?  

Eh, doin alright, same shit, diff. day.

Free bump.

this tweak should increase perf in some way?

By disabling it, if you're mining on a machine where you watch youtube videos, GPU performance should not be interrupted. But if it is enabled, and you watch youtube videos, flash will use gpu accel=meaning flash will use graphics devices. But if you don't mine, it's good to have enabled for better flash performance.

13.6 is working well here.

So the verdict is you still need dummy plugs if you want to use HD graphics as primary and AMDs for mining?  Does it at least enable the option of voltage control with a setup like this?  I was unable to control voltage in afterburner with a setup like this using the prior beta drivers, I have to have my monitor plugged into one of the AMD cards to have full control, which sucks a good portion of the mining life out of that card.

Just curious, soon enough I'll have dedicated rigs so it won't matter.  If I get a chance though if nobody else knows, I might test this later and I'll report back.

I also wonder if the results are mobo dependent.  I know some mobos use autodetect for GPUs while the one I'm using is MSI and I have to choose one or the other.  I wonder if the autodetect on some mobos enables both at the same time if they are both plugged in which is why some users report success.

I tested 13.6 with Windows 8 i need dummy plug only on primary 7950, rest 3x don`t need the dummy......... duno about win7

Bump.