Catalyst 7.8 (WHQL) Available

Yeah, I moved to 7.8 today and the performance on my AGP X1950 Pro under Vista was miserable. A really noticeable difference. I'm backing up tp 7.7 for the moment, but hopefully I'll be able to find a comparison of the drivers for my card, since I could really do with every frame I can squeeze out of it on this system.

 

catalyst 7.8 temperature increase

I've also noticed an aproximately 10 degree celsius increase in my hd2900xt temps just by upgrading to the 7.8 catalyst release. I have checked my temps using everest and the AMD gpu clock tool. and both show the exact same increase. From and idle of around 50 - 53 celsius with the 7.6 cats up to 60 - 63 with the 7.8's. I'm going to try the new 7.9 today and will see what happens. by the way i have the sapphire 512mb version.

 

Could you post your findings in the 7.9 thread? More appropriate there. I'll probably try these tonight myself and see if the temps have gone down again. Doubtful though, since no one from ATI ever responded to querys regarding these temperature increases and their reply via support was "fill out catalyst reponse form".

 

Use RivaTuner to check the fan steppings for the two driver sets, I just over ride mine and run it at either 37% or 43%.

 

I'm not sure we really want the 2900 fan running louder, even just in 2D windows mode where it jumped 5-8 degrees idling. If they did something like made the fan run slower than previously to reduce noise, then they could at least mention that fact, or respond that it is indeed why. Otherwise wtf is the reason it would get hotter in 2D idle? Temp was proved to be the same increase in different utils as well.

Do I need my 2900 to sound like a hair dryer to lower my peak temps back to where it was 20 degrees lower?

 

Using cat 7.9 and it has the same problem for me as 7.8 Fan on card works as if I run some heavy 3D app. I was hoping for some improvement in new drivers (((