7870 usage help

[stickg1]

Hey I'm sorry for being redundant but I followed a couple of guides to fixing the usage issue for 7970s but they don't seem to work for my card. My GPU usage is stuck around 40% no matter what drivers I use.

I tried 12.11, 12.10, 12.9, 12.8, and 12.6. Each time I uninstalled the previous driver, ran CCleaner to clean my registry in Safe Mode, ran ATIMAN Uninstaller, and then installed a clean driver set. Still stuck at 40%. Can someone verify that they can get their 7870 folding over the 40% mark? That way I know whether its something I am doing or if it is a limitation with the card.

Thanks!

[bruce]

I don't have a 7970 so I can't comment on whether that's a current maximum utilization. I do know that there are some folks working on some important optimizations but the first thing that has to happen is to get the hardware to run correctly on the newest drivers. (That's being discussed in several other topics.)

[stickg1]

Hey Bruce, thank you for the reply. I actually have it running fine on 12.8 drivers. GPU usage fluctuates from 60-100% but its better than being stuck at 40%. My PPD went from about 3K to 9K and that is great.

For people with a similar problem here is my remedy.
If you installed any AMD Catalyst drivers after 12.8 and your GPU usage is severely nerfed this worked for me and a couple of others.

1 - Uninstall current Catalyst Driver in the Windows Control Panel. Reboot in Safe Mode
2 - Run CCleaner registry cleaner. Backup changes to registry and fix all selected issues. Reboot
3 - Run Atiman Uninstaller v.7.0.2. System will automatically reboot
4 - Install Catalyst 12.8. Reboot
5 - Install AMD_Catalyst_12.9_CAP1. Reboot
6 - Run folding client to ensure that gpu usage is at max.

[bruce]

ATI has some reasons for 12.9 and 12.10 and and 2.11 so sooner or later there will be a 12.12 that incorporates those things plus fixes whatever has been broken since 12.8. During those upgrades, they most likely have also imporved support for the "NEXT" platform which should give them a better chance at some real optimization. (All this is speculation -- nothing established as facts.)

Going back to 12.8 is a reasonable work-around until there is a new version that's robust.