# Catalyst 8.9 Incorrect GPU speed reading.



## erocker (Sep 18, 2008)

Something changed.


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## InnocentCriminal (Sep 18, 2008)

If only huh?


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## Boneface (Sep 18, 2008)

I get the same thing, bugs the crap outta me lol


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## EastCoasthandle (Sep 18, 2008)

Old Cat







Cat 8.9


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## ShadowFold (Sep 18, 2008)

Yea me too lol


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## jbunch07 (Sep 18, 2008)

im sticking with 8.8 for now. Is performance any better?


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## InnocentCriminal (Sep 18, 2008)

Wouldn't this more likely be a GPU-Z thing rather than the driver?


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## EastCoasthandle (Sep 18, 2008)

that's my thinking.  So far, the biggest difference I see is that they reduced mem clock slider.


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## InnocentCriminal (Sep 18, 2008)

D'OH!

I'm waiting for the AGP hotfix, they're always a few days or a week later.


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## Whilhelm (Sep 18, 2008)

Yeah I noticed that the temp readouts in CCC were reading wrong but when I restarted they read fine. I am not noticing that problem with GPU-Z try re-installing the drivers, that might help. There seems to be a trend among all of you that are having problems, you all have 4800 series video cards.


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## InnocentCriminal (Sep 18, 2008)

You guys don't seem to have the 'new' GPU-Z that adds the Display tab. Try that one.


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 18, 2008)

Its the same,i have tried it.Tbh the peformance of cat 8.9 is a tad lower than 8.8,so i think i will go back to 8.8.


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## Fastmix (Sep 18, 2008)

It's probably a Gpuz bug.


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## erocker (Sep 18, 2008)

It's called incompatability.  GPU-Z just needs to be updated to work with the 8.9's.  ATi seems to have changed the way to address some of the cards readings.


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## x2qb (Sep 19, 2008)




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## oli_ramsay (Sep 19, 2008)




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## redrumy3 (Sep 19, 2008)

same here ^_^


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## philbrown23 (Sep 19, 2008)

mine does it to


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## Dark_Webster (Sep 19, 2008)

redrumy3 said:


> same here ^_^



Whoa, you have a big pixel fill rate .


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## chron (Sep 19, 2008)

and i bet even at 819ghz, crysis still runs like shit


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## erocker (Sep 19, 2008)

This thread isn't for conversation or off topic remarks.


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## zithe (Sep 19, 2008)

Too bad it really isn't running that high at stock voltage at stock fan speeds. Then the suckers would really  sell!


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## Widjaja (Sep 20, 2008)

Same here.
Of course the correct clocks show under the sensor tab when benchtesting.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 20, 2008)

EastCoasthandle said:


> Old Cat
> 
> 
> 
> ...



remember these cards have powerplay.



erocker said:


> This thread isn't for conversation or off topic remarks.



i have a better idea, remove his thread because he sounds too much like a fanboy.


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## Kincaid (Sep 20, 2008)

It seems that ATI/AMD likes to play around with the clock reading method in their Catalyst drivers. I posted about a similar issue back with a previous set of Catalyst 8.8 _beta_ drivers in reference to the ATI Radeon HD 4870. When the official Catalyst 8.8 drivers came out the problem was gone. Yes, it's happening again with the new official Catalyst 8.9 drivers.

_W1zzard_ replied to me in the forum with the following:



W1zzard said:


> yeah blame the new drivers for that. amd changes the clock reading method between drivers now. in the past it was every new gpu. nvidia does it like once every five years ..



We'll have to wait for an update. Too bad ATI/AMD won't just make up their mind and stick with a singular method.


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## wteSmithy (Sep 21, 2008)

I thought it was to do with the ATI v8.9 drivers as well because the 8.8's I just uninstalled yesterday showed overclocked bandwidth at 140Gb/s on my 4870's CrossFire. I appreciate the people who make GPU-Z freely available, so we are all just having a bit of a dig at ATI.

I thought it was funny when I looked at the figures of a GPU clock of 819,246Mhz, suddenly ATI have a GPU to play Crysis on high 

*Heres the proper screenshots: *
With 8.6 ATI drivers (no overclocking)...







*And heres the actual screenshot with GPU-Z v0.2.7, then ATI CCC v8.9 (CCC shows the right speeds)*
_Also notice the bandwidth is wrong at 64Gb/s instead of about 140Gb/s..._



http://g.imageshack.us/img261/temp1vs4.png/1/ 


http://g.imageshack.us/img228/temp2bb5.png/1/

So does anyone know how exactly this effects the GPU-Z's tool to read the speeds & was this change worthwhile for better speeds or improved technology support? And, does ATI not give you guys access to their technical support to make you aware of any unusual code changes so you don't have to play "find the pin a haystack"?


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## roofsniper (Sep 21, 2008)

wow nice to know that im not the only one. i was jacking with my card earlier then i opened up gpuz and thought i did something to the card. at least i can brag to my friends about my amazing overclock.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 21, 2008)

smithy have you tried GPUZ 2.6 with the 8.9 drivers see if it does the same thing?


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## mikek75 (Sep 21, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> smithy have you tried GPUZ 2.6 with the 8.9 drivers see if it does the same thing?



Just checked with 2.6, same result.


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## roofsniper (Sep 21, 2008)

i tried 2.7, 2.6, 2.5 and 2.4 and none of them worked. 2.5 showed a 0 core and memory clock while the others showed the 800,000 one. but when i tried 2.3 it worked and 2.0 worked as well.


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## x2qb (Sep 21, 2008)

where new ver. for TechPowerUP GPU-Z 0.2.*8* ? =)


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## chron (Sep 21, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> i have a better idea, remove his thread because he sounds too much like a fanboy.



Yes, the post was off topic, but it was a light hearted joke about crysis being unoptimized.  Watch who you call fanboy, kid.  

NOW, back ON topic:  Why would 2.3 and 2.0 work and not 2.7?


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## wteSmithy (Sep 21, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> smithy have you tried GPUZ 2.6 with the 8.9 drivers see if it does the same thing?



I've just tried TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.2.6 and the result is the same as before. Looks like we can pinpoint solely at ATI.




http://g.imageshack.us/img381/thesameresulttp7.png/1/

chron, that is an interesting question about 2.3, 2.0 working but not the others. So I ran TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.2.3 & it does have issues, the GPU clock flips between 500Mhz and 125,624Mhz. And the other specs aren't right either as you can see here..




http://g.imageshack.us/img362/wrongspec2fk0.png/1/

TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.2.0 is even worse as it keeps flicking between 3 different amounts & reports the wrong shaders. So we can all rule out using GPU-Z on ATI 8.9 drivers as they don't work correctly. Maybe 8.10 drivers will work instead, but don't hold your breath.


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## eidairaman1 (Sep 21, 2008)

well its ATI that owns the hardware they can do whatever they like, it just takes Dedication to Get GPU Z to decipher their Routing of the Numbers, just like CPU-Z. Im wondering if GPU-Z takes Info from the drivers themselves or looks at it low level- bios coding, i would assume drivers as it would take a bios flash of the card to scramble those numbers considerably.


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## chron (Sep 21, 2008)

eidairaman1 said:


> well its ATI that owns the hardware they can do whatever they like, it just takes Dedication to Get GPU Z to decipher their Routing of the Numbers, just like CPU-Z. Im wondering if GPU-Z takes Info from the drivers themselves or looks at it low level- bios coding, i would assume drivers as it would take a bios flash of the card to scramble those numbers considerably.



I say it's drivers since this issue isn't the same in 8.8.  Looking at the low-level bios coding is probably the difference between 2.7 and the previous versions reading the clocks correctly.


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## wteSmithy (Sep 23, 2008)

I used to recently own a GeForce8800GTS before my new 4870s and I can't remember Nvidia changing their code as much as ATI just have. Is there another way of finding out my GPU bandwidth with different overclocks until this is fixed?

Well if the makers of GPU-Z hit a brick wall getting their excellent app to work with any ATI drivers later than the troubled 8.9, then I'd be glad to lend a hand in testing a new beta version. Failing that, we should start petitioning ATI


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## Kincaid (Sep 23, 2008)

If people had read my post and _W1zzard's_ reply which I quoted in it then the answer would be clear. GPU-Z appears to use the drivers to access the information and between versions of drivers ATI is known to switch methods therefore GPU-Z doesn't get the information correctly. _W1zzard_ went on to say that NVIDIA can go 5 years without changing their method while ATI seems to change things extremely frequently.


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## X13_Y (Sep 23, 2008)

I'm glad this problem isn't due to my card.  I was worried that my card was broken ;


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## dulemk (Sep 24, 2008)

It is fixed now in the new 0.2.8 version


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## wteSmithy (Sep 24, 2008)

dulemk said:


> It is fixed now in the new 0.2.8 version



Thanks, everything now works correctly so I'll get back with oc'ing my cards 

Here's my GPUs default clocks working, validated:



http://g.imageshack.us/img352/gpuzyf5.jpg/1/


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## Kincaid (Oct 16, 2008)

The speeds are correctly read with the new Catalyst 8.10 drivers, as well.


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## wteSmithy (Oct 16, 2008)

Kincaid said:


> The speeds are correctly read with the new Catalyst 8.10 drivers, as well.



8.10 driver released yesterday: apart from being able to change the fan speed, I didn't see many other big changes in the notes. 

Good to see speeds are ok Kincaid, but its amazing at how frequent ATI release new drivers. Its hard to keep up when you've got a backlog of games to play & work to do, maybe in the other order


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## W1zzard (Oct 16, 2008)

gpu-z does not access the driver to read the clocks. the clocks are read from a little microcontroller inside the gpu which does the power management. but almost every time ati updates the code for this mcu, the data layout in it changes which requires adjustments on gpuz side. 

ati's own driver "knows" this change because it also makes those changes in the microcontroller. i am seriously considering to use the driver  in the future to read clocks or maybe use it as fallback


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## Kincaid (Oct 16, 2008)

W1zzard said:


> gpu-z does not access the driver to read the clocks. the clocks are read from a little microcontroller inside the gpu which does the power management. but almost every time ati updates the code for this mcu, the data layout in it changes which requires adjustments on gpuz side.
> 
> ati's own driver "knows" this change because it also makes those changes in the microcontroller. i am seriously considering to use the driver  in the future to read clocks or maybe use it as fallback



Considering how annoying it has been with the repeated issue with reading the clock speeds I would think the fallback idea would be a good one. The question is how much more work would that be? Then again it might save work in having to continually update the software because ATI has changed things yet again.



wteSmithy said:


> 8.10 driver released yesterday: apart from being able to change the fan speed, I didn't see many other big changes in the notes.
> 
> Good to see speeds are ok Kincaid, but its amazing at how frequent ATI release new drivers. Its hard to keep up when you've got a backlog of games to play & work to do, maybe in the other order



A friend who had some graphic issues with BioShock when using his ATI 4870 said the new drivers cleared up the problem he was having. The release notes were a bit on the short side, though.

_Edit_: I should clarify my statement. My friend is using Vista x64. In the release notes City of Villains is specifically mentioned but no other games. The list is pretty short for fixes. BluRay playback, HDMI, etc. I suggest checking out the release notes.


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## W1zzard (Oct 16, 2008)

Kincaid said:


> The question is how much more work would that be?



had i asked me that question every time i dont think i wouldn't have released any enthusiast software at all. the question for me is what's the best solution. relying on the driver has several pro's and con's


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## Kincaid (Oct 16, 2008)

W1zzard said:


> had i asked me that question every time i dont think i wouldn't have released any enthusiast software at all. the question for me is what's the best solution. relying on the driver has several pro's and con's



True enough statement. If you can get the information from the drivers rather than playing games with ATI changing things then I'd say go the driver route. I won't claim to know the programming involved but if it means more coding right now but less down the road in fixing the idiotic changes that ATI keeps making then I'd say go for it. Of course, that's just my opinion.


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