ATI releases fix for stuttering

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737-33033: ATI Radeon HD2xxx/HD3xxx: Intermittent stuttering issues seen when running various 3D applications

The information in this article applies to the following configuration(s):

* Radeon™ HD3870 series
* Radeon™ HD3850 series
* Radeon™ HD2900 series
* Radeon™ HD2600 series
* Radeon™ HD2400 series
* Windows Vista 32-bit Edition
* Windows Vista 64-bit Edition
* Windows XP Professional
* Windows XP Home Edition
* Windows XP Media Center Edition
* Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Symptoms:

Intermittent stuttering issues seen when running various 3D applications

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Source

Post your results (if you are experiencing this problem)

Interesting...

So this was not a drives issue but a os issue? I'm confuzed lol. I thought a driver update would fix this, not a os hotfix. Wasn't the stuttering coming from the card switching clocks due to load :S

56.5 MB???? This is a new driver? downloading now but I am sleepy as hell, will check tomorrow.

aw... it got me excited, thinking they fixed microstuttering :(

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Originally Posted by xoqolatl

56.5 MB???? This is a new driver? downloading now but I am sleepy as hell, will check tomorrow.

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yep whole new driver

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Originally Posted by Marvin_The_Martian

So this was not a drives issue but a os issue? I'm confuzed lol. I thought a driver update would fix this, not a os hotfix. Wasn't the stuttering coming from the card switching clocks due to load :S

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Dude, the fix is an update of the graphics driver (the whole driver in fact, 56.5MB), not an OS fix :up:

Catalyst 8.3 Vista64 driver version is 8.471-080225a1-059753C-ATI, the one in the fix is 8.471-080324B.

upgrading to these from 8.3 doubled my fps in a game called stepmania on my x600se. liking them so far ;D

Dude...

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Download and install the following Hotfix by clicking on the appropriate link below:

Hotfix for Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Hotfix for Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Hotfix for Windows Vista 32-bit Edition

Hotfix for Windows Vista 64-bit Edition

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If it's a new driver it should be on the drivers page and not been called a HOTFIX imo.

:shrug:

If you know ATI, they almost always release their hotfixes as a whole new driver. Like in this case, they usually are beta versions of the next Catalyst (8.4 this next month). The hotfix is not in the drivers page because it's beta, and ATI never puts beta versions there ;)

Any benchmarks/3dmark results with them vs. official 8.3?

Look at what CCC says :)

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7203/dibujomc2.png

We have Cats 8.4 :D

Stargazer sorry I sounded like an ass, it's ATI's fault with their naming scheme :D

NP man, I completely agree with you. Sometimes I miss my NVIDIA days, with a new beta ForceWare each week. ATI could put their betas up too, I can't see the inconvenience in it :confused:

doesnt work for me.

driver simply will not install.
really pissing me off too, cause this is the exact thing that makes me hate have ATI hardware in the first place.

does this driver also affect the 1k gen (i.e. X1950XT) ?

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

really pissing me off too, cause this is the exact thing that makes me hate have ATI hardware in the first place.

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QFT!!! :D

I have high hopes that in the coming few months the drivers will pick up, but who knows.

Thanks for posting this Eastcoasthandle. I've downloaded this new driver and will give them a shot tomorrow.

This hotfix driver only affects 3800 series single or crossfire/crossfireX solutions. Any other card performance should remain the same.

And that is the official word on it :)

EDIT: I see 2000 series listed as well, but I dont think that was where the major issue was stemming from... 3870 was the main target, and the X2.

The HD3000 is heavily based on the HD2000, it is very likely that issues that exist on the HD3000 will also exist on the H2000.

HD3000 is pretty much a die shrink and refresh of the R600, kind of like what nvidia has been doing with the G80.

Yep, there really hasnt been a new core developed... all this R600 RV670...R700 is the next big one, and G100?

Yeah, I had stutter on Crossfired 2900's first sign of acknowledgment of the issue I've seen. Hopefully second card on 2900's is in 3dspeeds all the time, in all 3d apps, rather than only some. Will be testing when I get back home.

anyone got a mirror? can not download the hotfix..

Nice, I have been getting this from time to time with my 3850's. Thanks for the heads up

I have recently installed these hotfix, all as usual.

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Originally Posted by Kunaak

doesnt work for me.

driver simply will not install.

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What error are u getting?

What OS are you guys running and is there advantage over CAT 8.3 for Vista???

Nice to see Ati is at least trying to solve the micro stuttering issues :up: Let's hope it actuallly works...

This driver has nothing to do with microstuttering on crossfire solutions, it's a fix for real stuttering you may have been noticing in various situations, even in single card mode. Microstuttering is a completely different issue (games don't actually stutter, the image's just not fluid, like you play at 40fps but feels like 20) and ATI's not even looking into it.



Anyway, the driver works for me in Vista64 but the CCC gives me an error:

"The Catalyst Control Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your ATI graphics driver, or enable your ATI adapter using the Displays Manager." :confused:

Works for me!!! Finally, a decent driver. I now get a constant 850Mhz core speed whilst gaming on XP x64 with a single 3870.

Makes playing Trackmania United much easier.

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Originally Posted by JaD

This driver has nothing to do with microstuttering on crossfire solutions, it's a fix for real stuttering you may have been noticing in various situations, even in single card mode. Microstuttering is a completely different issue (games don't actually stutter, the image's just not fluid, like you play at 40fps but feels like 20) and ATI's not even looking into it.

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Oh that sucks! I guess I'm gonna wait for next gen nvidia & ati single core solutions

thanks for the update!

I havn't really experienced this issue, but will try it out when I get home. Using a single vmodded 3870

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Originally Posted by roadie

Works for me!!! Finally, a decent driver. I now get a constant 850Mhz core speed whilst gaming on XP x64 with a single 3870.

Makes playing Trackmania United much easier.

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What's up with TMU? I play TMN daily and I haven't noticed anything strange.

this has royally pissed me off, uninstalled 8.3, installed the 'hotfix' and got this:

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7...eatich3.th.jpg

i said ok, back to 8.3's. after reinstalling cat8.3 i got the same problem, ccc won't work (it tries to open and stays there with 50% cpu usage)
using a single hd3850 on windows 2008 server trial x64:mad:

The server 2008 trial is a RC3 version. No official support for it.

i cant wait to try this when i'm running Crossfire X \0/

Guys, first thing, try "driver cleaner .net" before installing new drivers and I'm quite sure it will solve problem.

maybe this will finally make BF2 stable in Vista64? Ever since I installed an HD3870, BF will randomly crash, or cause a driver error with the video card. This is regardless of the cards clock speed, overclocked, or stock. The temperatures never get above 65C, but that isn't an issue anyway, as BF2 is the only game to have the issues...so, maybe it's just the game.

It sounds like this driver has brought some big performance boosts ... any comparisons or benchmarks yet?

it looks like this Hotfix = Catalyst 8.4 ???

http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/7203/dibujomc2.png

Compared it with on a system with an Sapphire 3850 under XP 32bit. No difference in Aquamark3 and 3Dmark06 between 8.3 and the new 8.4-hotfix release.

Same with Specview, here are two screenies

8.3 - 8.4
http://www.abload.de/thumb/specview3jm.jpghttp://www.abload.de/thumb/specviewtln.jpg

What about game tests? This has been the case before, Cat 7.11 did best in 3dmark06, but 8.2 did worse, and yet had better ingame performance.

Installed fine here, Vista x64.

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Originally Posted by STaRGaZeR

What's up with TMU? I play TMN daily and I haven't noticed anything strange.

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I had constant drops in core speed to the 2D setting whilst playing, which resulted in juddering etc. Made it really hard.

The only problem I have with TMN is that when you are playing online in rounds mode, first when the camera goes behind the remaining players until they finish and second when the camera go up and shows an aerial view of the entire stadium the card is only at 50% usage, resulting in poor perfomance. The clocks are always in 3D mode though.

if you cant get the driver to install right....

theres a long work around.
it sucks, but I couldnt figure any other way to shorten this down.
after almost 2 hours, I finally got it installed.

seriously - Every single person related to making drivers at ATI, should be fired. redesign it, and start from scratch.
or, just let Nvidia start making thier drivers... haha.



anyways... the fix.


1. Uninstall the Driver.

2. Reboot, F8 Safe Mode.
use Driver cleaner pro, to get rid of all things ATI related.
Delete the ATI file out of your programs area too.

3. get into the device manager, select display adaptors, select uninstall, then select "delete driver related to this hardware" as well.
this will prevent vista from overriding the driver, and just installing a older driver.

4. reboot. get into windows.
on the driver itself, dont just double click it, right click on it, and select "run as administrator.
choose express install. for some reason, that works better then the custom install... I got tons of "driver failed to install" errors while trying to do a custom install.


if the driver comes up with a message saying "driver failed to install - the device driver is not signed or signed improperly".

go to ....


5. Reboot, hit F8 before vista loads, and select "disable driver signature", then get back into windows, and try again.



theres many things that go wrong here.
first, dont just overwrite your current driver, all this does is install the new control panel, and leaves the driver intact.
if you dont actually check to see this, you might just assume it worked, when it didnt.

second, vista keeps a basic file of older working drivers, so when you uninstall a driver, it still has the older basic version the fall back on.
you have to delete the older driver from the device manager, so vista cant force a older driver to be installed instead.

anoth thing.... driver signing can be a hassle if you dont read the installation report at the end of the driver install to actually verify if the driver installed right.

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Originally Posted by Gambit_2K

Installed fine here, Vista x64.

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Same here.

Hm, I had never problems with the driver signing with ATi for quite a time.

Anyway, but there is definitely a glitch in the install/uninstall procedures with the Catalyst. Here is what I'm using as a guide for "secure" driver deployment:

How to Fix It (Spring Cleaning)

Just in case, here's what you'd need to do if you find the driver times out on install. Please be cautious with this procedure and do not remove any software devices, as they can be difficult to reinstall without reinstalling the OS.

1. Start up with only one card in the system
2. Uninstall ATI drivers through the control panel -> add/remove programs
3. Reboot into safe mode (press F8 at boot)
4. Open a command window with admin privileges
5. Run these commands from a command prompt:
   • set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
   • start devmgmt.msc
6. Enable show hidden devices
7. Uninstall all display adapters listed (present or non-present/hidden - they appear slightly faded); make sure to check the box to remove driver files if possible
8. Uninstall any non-present/hidden "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge" devices from system devices. It may also help to uninstall other non-present hardware, but be careful about software and non plug-and-play devices (don't remove them).
9. Reboot normally
10. Let windows finish finding new hardware
11. Power down and plug in all new hardware
12. Boot and let windows finish finding new hardware
13. Reboot and let windows finish finding new hardware (if it needs to)
14. Install Catalyst 8.3 or newer

That or either way, ATi driver team really needs to work on the installation issues, here.
Windows installation definitely requires far less user intervention, compared to this! ;)

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Originally Posted by fellix_bg

Hm, I had never problems with the driver signing with ATi for quite a time.

Anyway, but there is definitely a glitch in the install/uninstall procedures with the Catalyst. Here is what I'm using as a guide for "secure" driver deployment:

How to Fix It (Spring Cleaning)

Just in case, here's what you'd need to do if you find the driver times out on install. Please be cautious with this procedure and do not remove any software devices, as they can be difficult to reinstall without reinstalling the OS.

1. Start up with only one card in the system
2. Uninstall ATI drivers through the control panel -> add/remove programs
3. Reboot into safe mode (press F8 at boot)
4. Open a command window with admin privileges
5. Run these commands from a command prompt:
   • set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
   • start devmgmt.msc
6. Enable show hidden devices
7. Uninstall all display adapters listed (present or non-present/hidden - they appear slightly faded); make sure to check the box to remove driver files if possible
8. Uninstall any non-present/hidden "PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge" devices from system devices. It may also help to uninstall other non-present hardware, but be careful about software and non plug-and-play devices (don't remove them).
9. Reboot normally
10. Let windows finish finding new hardware
11. Power down and plug in all new hardware
12. Boot and let windows finish finding new hardware
13. Reboot and let windows finish finding new hardware (if it needs to)
14. Install Catalyst 8.3 or newer

That or either way, ATi driver team really needs to work on the installation issues, here.
Windows installation definitely requires far less user intervention, compared to this! ;)

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Really? All i did was press 3 buttons to install this hotfix. What OS you have?

Yeah, me too, no issues with 3870x2 Crossfire..disabled crossfire, uninstalled old drivers, installed new.

Stutter is much less than before, but it still there. ALOT better, but not perfect yet.

Small performance decrease, as well.

Vista SP1 32bit.

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Really? All i did was press 3 buttons to install this hotfix. What OS you have?

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Well, I'm not hinting you have to go all that way for every new driver, but it's nice to have yet another troubleshooter how-to, for every case. ;)

OS is Vista64.

Everething works fine by me, no problem with instalation, only I clean with Driver Cleaner under safe mod before instalation.
But, I found a problem with Lost Planet DX10, Vista SP1 x64, there is missing textures:
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/3...3270pr7.th.jpg
Under DX9 there is no problem like this one. I've tried with new installation of the game, but situation is the same.

can anyone explain what these stutters are and look like (like when do they happen and whatnot)? i have 2 3870's in crossfire and im not sure if i have these "stutter" problems or not... i think maybe ive just gotten used to them or something... regardless im going to download this new driver... i always love new updates =P

Uninstallers the old installed the new, now problems in this process but some files in this hotfix are older then the ones in 8.3 Version.

dont know if its the drivers, of just me getting the hang of it... but running 3 marks in vista SP2 32bit with 3x 3870 look easier after this driver...

Not sure about the any stuttering issues resolved, but UT3 no longer randomly crashes. :up: