Catalyst 15.4 working on nMP!

[Mattstrete]

Well, I eventually got the latest Catalyst Beta to work with my nMP (6-core, D500s) and, WOW, GTAV at 1440p, very-high-everything settings is INCREDIBLE. An absolutely flawless crossfire implementation. 60FPS, solid, no stutter.

Here's how (I think) I did it:
- remove all drivers with DDU;
- unpack Catalyst Omega drivers;
- unpack latest Beta drivers;
- unpack December 2014 Bootcamp drivers;
- replace the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory in the Beta drivers' directory (in c:\AMD\) with the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory of the Omega drivers;
- replace the Installmanagerapp.exe and installmanager.dll files in the Bin64 directory of the Beta drivers with the same files from the Bin64 directory of the December 2014 bootcamp drivers;
-run setup.exe in the beta drivers unpacked directory.

I lost my catalyst control panel in the process (despite registry cleaning) but, who cares about that if crossfire no longer needs to be switched off for GTAV???

Good luck!

[EDIT: I managed to get the Catalyst Control Panel working by re-running setup.exe in the 15.4 Beta driver unpacked directory and making sure the tick box for the installation of the control panel was ticked (after selecting a "custom" install).]

 

[thedot]

Too bad that crossfire can't be disabled with this approach :-/ I agree that it makes sense to have it enabled for GTA 5 - but it doesn't make sense for all titles so I'd really prefer a solution where I could still control CF.

 

[JoSch]

I lost my catalyst control panel in the process (despite registry cleaning) but, who cares about that if crossfire no longer needs to be switched off for GTAV???

YMMV. On my Macpro the control panel launches.

 

[Avenger]

I'm thinking of trying this. Will it work with games played in windowed mode? I have an online game I play in a window. I know crossfire doesn't work in windowed mode but I want to make sure it works at all. Also, anyone try this with the D300 GPU's?

 

[Avenger]

Okay I am a bit confused about which AMD drivers to use. The beta ones I think are:

AMD-Catalyst-15.4Beta-64Bit-Win8.1-Apr9.exe

But the Omega one, is it this one?:

amd-catalyst-omega-14.12-with-dotnet45-win8.1-64bit

If it isn't, can you point me to the correct version?

Also when you say unpack these drivers, does just running them unpack them to a directory? I want to make sure before I do anything. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I figured out that these are the correct files and you do unpack them by running the .exe.

 

[Avenger]

Well I tried this out as was explained above and have some comments. Some things I did differently than was stated was that I uninstalled first from the bootcamp AMD driver, and then used DDU. When I installed the new drivers, I didn't install that gaming evolved app by doing a custom install because I heard it can cause problems.

I do have the control panel working. I have the R300 GPU's but they show up as R9 200 series but I think that has been stated before when doing this kind of install. I tried 3dmark using crossfire but I didn't see any performance improvements. However, in my online game that I play in a window (not crossfire), I am not seeing the small graphic artifacts I saw once in a while with the bootcamp drivers. I will do some more testing and maybe try out a game in crossfire mode.

 

[Mikael S]

Thanks Mattstrete!

I exactly followed the instructions in this thread and everything works great!
Can confirm also 5k @ 60 hz works!

Mac Pro 8 core, D700, Dell 5K

 

[Avenger]

I bought GTA V to try it out on the system. I have the R300 GPU's. It seems to run 1920x1200 which is my monitor's resolution. smooth at 60 fps. The fans do speed up and there is warm air coming out of the unit. Can this harm anything? i just received the Mac Pro last week so I don't know too much about how it usually operates under some load.

 

[armut]

I bought GTA V to try it out on the system. I have the R300 GPU's. It seems to run 1920x1200 which is my monitor's resolution. smooth at 60 fps. The fans do speed up and there is warm air coming out of the unit. Can this harm anything? i just received the Mac Pro last week so I don't know too much about how it usually operates under some load.

I also installed the drivers as described and recognized that my nMP is getting very warm. The fan is also faster when playing GTA V with crossfire.
I hope it will not be a problem when my nMP is getting hot.
But the graphic is awesome with the new drivers.

Edit: 3,7GHz, 12GB, D700

 

[Mikael S]

+1 on the fan speed. The system does run very hot. I havent measured it yet though.

Also noticed now severe graphics glitching in World of Warcraft in windowed mode where also Crossfire seems to stop working (frame rate goes down approx 50% in windowed mode). Further I cannot quit the game (hangs and not even task manager can exit the game fully - restart needed).

Maybe these issues are partly caused by the fact that I have the Dell UP2715k 5k monitor which runs on MST (dual displayport cables). By the way I have those on separate thunderbolt buses.

 

[Avenger]

+1 on the fan speed. The system does run very hot. I havent measured it yet though.

Also noticed now severe graphics glitching in World of Warcraft in windowed mode where also Crossfire seems to stop working (frame rate goes down approx 50% in windowed mode). Further I cannot quit the game (hangs and not even task manager can exit the game fully - restart needed).

Maybe these issues are partly caused by the fact that I have the Dell UP2715k 5k monitor which runs on MST (dual displayport cables). By the way I have those on separate thunderbolt buses.

Crossfire doesn't work in windowed mode so that part is understandable. About the extra heat. You can understand there would be more because you have an extra gpu running in crossfire. I would just like confirmation there is no issue with the Mac Pro running with the fan speed higher for a period of time. Even from someone running Final Cut Pro which is processor and dual gpu heavy. Maybe I'll start another thread abt this if no-one responds here.

 

[thedot]

I've successfully followed the installation guide now and the control panel works for me as well (hexcore, d700)

In GTA 5 the performance is much better than before! I also tried to run a 3d mark test and the result there was a bit worse than before... But as a 3d mark score doesn't really matter as long as the games run better - I'm happy.

@Avenger.
I've played plenty of times with CF enabled for several hours and I haven't experienced any issues. The system will however become a little bit slower when it's really hot as it automatically decreases both GPU and CPU clock speeds to keep the temperature at a somewhat acceptable level.

 

[Avenger]

I've successfully followed the installation guide now and the control panel works for me as well (hexcore, d700)

In GTA 5 the performance is much better than before! I also tried to run a 3d mark test and the result there was a bit worse than before... But as a 3d mark score doesn't really matter as long as the games run better - I'm happy.

@Avenger.
I've played plenty of times with CF enabled for several hours and I haven't experienced any issues. The system will however become a little bit slower when it's really hot as it automatically decreases both GPU and CPU clock speeds to keep the temperature at a somewhat acceptable level.

Okay sounds good. I also posted some of my heat concerns in this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=21134867#post21134867 but it seems the heat is within norm.

 

[Mikael S]

After some more testing i conclude that these drivers are buggy on the Dell up2715k. Severe glitching at 5k. Works well in SST (mini displayport connection at max 4k) though.

To compare; this screen works beautifully at all resolutions in osx.

 

[Avenger]

After some more testing i conclude that these drivers are buggy on the Dell up2715k. Severe glitching at 5k. Works well in SST (mini displayport connection at max 4k) though.

To compare; this screen works beautifully at all resolutions in osx.

Works fine on my lowly 1920x1200. Though I may have to find a game other than GTA 5 to play. I'm getting dizzy/motion sickness from the fast action. RPG's are more my speed. I may get The Witcher 3. Hopefully we will be able to apply the same driver update procedure if AMD updates the driver again for crossfire support of the game. I'm hoping dual R300's will be able to run it at least decently.

 

[ojanb]

Hello everyone.
I would like to ask if anyone here who has done it would spare some time
to make a more elaborate version of the steps "how to".
A version for more new like.

Thank you in advance!

 

[Avenger]

Hello everyone.
I would like to ask if anyone here who has done it would spare some time
to make a more elaborate version of the steps "how to".
A version for more new like.

Thank you in advance!

Not sure what you are asking specifically, but if you want it in a little more detail:

1. Uninstall the bootcamp driver using the bootcamp video driver installer's "uninstall" option. (step I added).
2. remove all excess drivers with DDU utility
3. unpack Catalyst Omega drivers (amd-catalyst-omega-14.12-with-dotnet45-win8.1-64bit.exe) by executing the file and choosing a directory.
4. unpack latest Beta drivers (AMD-Catalyst-15.4Beta-64Bit-Win8.1-Apr9.exe) by executing the file and choosing a separate directory.
5. unpack December 2014 Bootcamp drivers (14.301.1010-141101a-177531c-whql.zip) by unzipping to a separate directory.;
6. replace the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory in the Beta drivers' directory (ie. in c:\AMD\) with the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory of the Omega drivers;
7. replace the Installmanagerapp.exe and installmanager.dll files in the Bin64 directory of the Beta drivers with the same files from the Bin64 directory of the December 2014 bootcamp drivers;
8. run setup.exe in the beta drivers unpacked directory.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

 

[ojanb]

Not sure what you are asking specifically, but if you want it in a little more detail:

1. Uninstall the bootcamp driver using the bootcamp video driver installer's "uninstall" option. (step I added).
2. remove all excess drivers with DDU utility
3. unpack Catalyst Omega drivers (amd-catalyst-omega-14.12-with-dotnet45-win8.1-64bit.exe) by executing the file and choosing a directory.
4. unpack latest Beta drivers (AMD-Catalyst-15.4Beta-64Bit-Win8.1-Apr9.exe) by executing the file and choosing a separate directory.
5. unpack December 2014 Bootcamp drivers (14.301.1010-141101a-177531c-whql.zip) by unzipping to a separate directory.;
6. replace the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory in the Beta drivers' directory (ie. in c:\AMD\) with the entire contents of the Bin64 subdirectory of the Omega drivers;
7. replace the Installmanagerapp.exe and installmanager.dll files in the Bin64 directory of the Beta drivers with the same files from the Bin64 directory of the December 2014 bootcamp drivers;
8. run setup.exe in the beta drivers unpacked directory.

I hope that clarifies things a bit.

Thanks a lot, this should do it.

 

[Avenger]

Do you guys think a base nMac Pro (well I have 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD) will be able to run The Witcher 3 decently on a 1980x1200 monitor? I looked at the requirements and the processor and the memory are not a problem. I'm thinking the GPU's in crossfire should handle it at least moderately. I get a mid 7k score in 3dmark which shows it is better than 80% of the PC's out there. Any thoughts? Hopefully if an updated Catalyst driver comes out, we can use the same procedure stated above to install it.

 

[ojanb]

With those new drivers i can run GTA 5 (2500x1600) maxed and Battlefield 4 (1920×1200) almost maxed. My fps never drops below 60.
I have a 6-core, meaning D500.

BF4 an GTA5 have a great crossfire optimisation, if witcher is done anywhere
near that standard there will be no problems.

cheers

 

[Avenger]

With those new drivers i can run GTA 5 (2500x1600) maxed and Battlefield 4 (1920×1200) almost maxed. My fps never drops below 60.
I have a 6-core, meaning D500.

BF4 an GTA5 have a great crossfire optimisation, if witcher is done anywhere
near that standard there will be no problems.

cheers

Sounds promising although I have the D300's which are less powerful. GTA V seemed to run okay though.

 

[Avenger]

I noticed today that why not doing much of anything, well maybe using flash which is always suspect, my screen went black for a second and when it came back, it said the display driver had crashed and recovered. I was wondering if this has happened to anyone else. The AMD support forum is littered with issues like this but I was wondering if anyone else using the beta drivers, has this occurred to. I also suspect my monitor since I had issues with certain driver versions on my PC with an Nvidia card. Please let me know.

 

[apple020997]

Hi guys!
Will Avenger's method work also for my iMac Mid 2011? Because I'm stuck with the 14.301 drivers, and I love to try beta drivers!

Sorry if I do some mistakes, I'm Italian...

P.S. For the Mac Pro's high temp, I suggest to install Macs fan Control. It's an useful free software that lets you see the Mac's temps and to edit the behaviour of the fan/fans. I suggest to control Mac Pro's fan based on GPU 1's temp, for example from 60° (celsius) to 75... It works both in OS X and Windows.

 

[Avenger]

Hi guys!
Will Avenger's method work also for my iMac Mid 2011? Because I'm stuck with the 14.301 drivers, and I love to try beta drivers!

Sorry if I do some mistakes, I'm Italian...

P.S. For the Mac Pro's high temp, I suggest to install Macs fan Control. It's an useful free software that lets you see the Mac's temps and to edit the behaviour of the fan/fans. I suggest to control Mac Pro's fan based on GPU 1's temp, for example from 60° (celsius) to 75... It works both in OS X and Windows.

Mattstrete is the person that came up with this, not me. Anyway, I think it would work but I can't guarantee it because I haven't tried it myself on anything other than a Mac Pro.

 

[apple020997]

It worked!!!! Thanks everyone for the guide!