Drivers & Software

[sakkaku13]

What is the best driver version for the Radeon HD 8970M? Currently I have one of the newer ones from 2017 but the performance is very bad. I benchmarked the GPU with Novabench and just got a score of 900. I excepted this to be better. So is there a specific driver version that can improve the performance of this GPU?

Details:

Laptop: MSI GX70 3CC Destroyer with A10-5750M + HD 8650G and HD 8970M

OS: Windows 8.1

Drivers:

• Crimson ReLive 17.11.1 for HD 8970M
• Crimson Edition 16.2.1 Beta for HD 8650G

RAM: 8 GB

[elstaci]

what is the make and model (exact) of your Laptop? Also what type of CPU/APU does it have installed? Also state all the GPUs that comes with the laptop.

[sakkaku13]

MSI GX70 3CC Destroyer with A10-5750M + HD 8650G and HD 8970M

[kingfish]

Do you have a Intel or AMD APU in your laptop? If a APU...you don't download drivers for the 8900..you download for the APU.

Please furnish the required information > INFORMATION REQUIRED WHEN POSTING A QUESTION

[sakkaku13]

Updated the post with the informations. Hope it helps.

[kingfish]

Laptop graphics update...How to

Your laptop drivers are considered Legacy. These are the latest/last drivers available :

Legacy

[sakkaku13]

I know that they the iGPU is legacy. But currently I have two driver version for the two GPUs. The legacy GPU is using a legacy driver while the other one is using a newer driver. But the performance is still bad. So I thought that maybe the was one particular driver would improve the performance. But only a driver for HD 8970M. I would install it manually via Device Manager.

And in case you ask. I tried all legacy driver for both GPUs and it was not better. I tried the manufactures drivers and it was not better. I tried everything I could but the performance is just not getting better. This is basically the last thing I am gonna try. Then I will just give up and live with this that can't even play Battlefield 4 as advertised...

[elstaci]

Did your laptop originally come with Windows 8.1?  Did you upgrade to Windows 10?  Reason I ask is because at MSI.com it shows your laptop with Windows 8.1 and R9-m290x which is a rebadge of HD 8970m GPU. It does show under "Configurations as having Windows 10" .

The point I am trying to make, It is possible your Laptop just isn't made to work its best with Windows 10 or High end games. Since it is, at least, a three year old Technology. I googled your laptop spec that you posted and found many links to this laptop having the same problem you have stated since at least 2016.

[sakkaku13]

I am currently using Windows 8.1. I also tried to restore it completely to factory default. Still no luck.

And the name R9-M290X appears when I download the driver from the manufacturer. But is also not better.

[kingfish]

You can not have two driver versions. You have a APU. Did you not read: Laptop graphics update...How to

For laptops with AMD processors/APU's:

You do not update the discrete graphics card...you update the APU. This updated driver serves both the integrated and discrete graphics. It is the only driver you install. It is important to know the integrated graphics on some APU's...

** Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 must be fully updated before attempting to install any AMD driver. All 'critical', 'recommended', and 'optional' (no language packs,etc) updates as well as any Service Packs (SP) must be installed before any attempt to install graphics drivers. If you do not get this message .... keep installing until you do:

[sakkaku13]

But in Device Manger I have for both GPUs different driver version. And I can keep changing it for each GPU.

[kingfish]

And you have issues. Try doing a clean install of the 16.2.1 driver. Only that driver

Legacy

Clean Install AMD Graphics Drivers

[sakkaku13]

And like I said above, I tried all Legacy Driver and the manufactures drivers. I did not fix the problem.

Maybe it cannot be fixed. MSI did not really think about the future when they put these GPUs together...

[kingfish]

Most laptop manufacturers don't. Ask the people who own Intel/AMD switchable graphics...same issue.

I don't know what you are expecting from the laptop...gaming wise. You can check how each graphics chip performs > PassMark Software - Video Card (GPU) Benchmark Charts

If you were to do a Google search for ' MSI GX70 3CC Destroyer ' you would find many articles identical to your question.

Edit: You have selected the high performance mode for whatever game it is you want to play?

Configuring Laptop Switchable Graphics on a Windows® Based System

I also am not sure about "Novabench"...I'm not familiar with it...it could be reading/testing the IGP and not the discrete card.

[sakkaku13]

I have set every game to high performance. And I also downloaded the AMD System Monitor so see if it really switched. The System monitor showed about 50% GPU usage on the HD 8970M.

I also think that it uses the iGPU because when I start Novabench it shows the GPU that is being used which is the HD 8650G. But I checked with the System Monitor that the dGPU is also beeing used.

[kingfish]

Try:

Futuremark - best benchmarks and system performance tests

UNIGINE Benchmarks

Also, those You tube videos can not be relied upon. The card and game settings have everything to do with FPS.

[colesdav]

Running my laptop with  i7-920XM & eGPU running an R9-280x, Novabench indicates R9-200 series is running.
Looking at Crimson Legacy Global Overdrive during the benchmark run, it reports the integrated ATI Mobility HD5850 at 0% activity, and the eGPU R9 280x (an upgraded 7970/8970 OEM card) running at high activity percent. So assuming that the Crimson Legacy Driver is reporting o.k. on this setup with Novabench,  it looks correct to me.

I recommend you download the 3DMark Firestrike Demo in Steam.
It is free
You can use the database to search for comparable system.
It does not involve OpenCL Tests.

Bye.

[colesdav]

Or if you look at it another way,
When they put those cards together, AMD had not dropped support for non GCN products in their drivers, which would be more accurate I think.
Your laptop had AMD Catalyst Control Center Drivers when you bought it I am guessing.
When you try to install the Newest Crimson/Crimson ReLive/Adrenalin Drivers the Driver installer halts as soon as it detects a non GCN GPU  attached to your system.
Why is this?
It is because support for Non GCN Cards was dropped in the new Crimson Drivers.

Bye.

[genukie]

i wonder why this forum doesnt allow people noobies to view your links? I just want to fix my **bleep** laptop

[colesdav]

RE: I benchmarked the GPU with Novabench and just got a score of 900. I excepted this to be better.

Here is the information about the processor on your laptop.
AMD A-Series A10-5750M Notebook Processor - NotebookCheck.net Tech
The integrated graphics are non GCN architecture: AMD Radeon HD 8650G - NotebookCheck.net Tech

The Laptop Graphics are based on GCN Architecture. AMD Radeon HD 8970M - NotebookCheck.net Tech Download Drivers

So a non GCN architecture (a legacy GPU) has been mixed with a non legacy card (GCN architecture).
You will need a driver that supports the legacy card on that APU, and you should use the APU to search for the driver you need.

Let's go to the reason for asking about your driver in the first place though, since that is the reason for your original question.

Why did you expect it to be better? What were you comparing your laptop graphics to?
I think the best way to compare graphics is 3DMark Firestrike DX11 benchmark.

The performance of your graphics test will depend on the Driver, the Driver options set during the benchmark, including the GPU and GPU MEM clock. and also, especially for AMD Driver running DX11 test, the performance of the CPU. The faster the CPU single thread performance / overclock frequency of the CPU the higher graphics score / performance you will see.

Another thing you often need to check when comparing the performance you get in a benchmark score is the type (is it GDDR3 (slower and cheaper) or GDDR5 (faster, more expensive, better performance)  and amount of memory used for the Laptop Graphics Card, and also if the Laptop Card can use main RAM memory as an additional RAM cache for graphics data - often called "shared memory" in your case according to reference above the answer is easy -

Memory Type	GDDR5
Max. Amount of Memory	4096 MB
Shared Memory	no

However, in my experience, on some laptops, some manufacturers can cut corners on some  Laptop Graphics specs by reducing the amount of memory (say 2GB instead of 4GB) or using slower GDDR3 RAM. You should double check exactly what is on your laptop. 

I think you should look at the exact specs on your laptop and look again at how you are comparing the performance in the first place.
Could you show the comparison you made?

It might be time for you to upgrade your notebook or look into an eGPU option, if that is even possible, depending on your laptop specs.
Bye.

[colesdav]

When I search for your APU required Driver I get this result: http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop/legacy?product=legacy3&os=Windows%2010%20-%2064

Legacy

As expected.

At the bottom of the above page there are links to download two optional drivers.

Either this: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.2.1 Beta for Non GCN Products Release Notes

Or: this:

"For users looking for a WHQL certified driver, the AMD Catalyst™ 15.7.1 driver will continue to be available for users running Windows® 10, Windows® 8.1, and Windows® 7":

If you install the Crimson 16.2.1 Beta it you *might* get HDMI sound issues whan playing games such as Tom Clancy's the Division - I did.
If you do then you might actually be better to install 15.7.1. first and if you just want the new AMD Crimson GUI do an customised driver installtion selecting the AMD Settings only, then you will have the AMD Catalyst™ 15.7.1 driver, with no HDMI sound issues, and the "new" Crimson GUI.

Cheers.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Here are the only scores I found on Novabench relating to the HD 8970M

Score	System Info
1823	Intel Core i7-4770K GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8970 Graphics RAM: 32GB DDR3   Anonymous submission on Oct 15, 2017 at 11:14
1787	Intel Core i7-4770K GPU: AMD Radeon HD 8970 Graphics RAM: 32GB DDR3   Anonymous submission on Oct 16, 2017 at 12:05

Those scores look like they are for are for HD 8970 Discrete Cards (not that I have ever seen one, I think they are "OEM Refresh of 7970?) with Haswell i7-4770K - a processor I own.

I could not find any scores for HD 8970M on Novabench.

Here is a comparison of the two ... Radeon HD 8970M vs 8970

What score are you comparing to?

Thanks.

[sakkaku13]

I did not compare the score with other scores. I just know that it should not be this low, because first they advertised this laptop to be able to play Battlefield 4 and I also saw some videos on youtube where they had the same laptop and could play GTA 5 and other more demanding games with a decent FPS. Second I have a family member who has a R5 M255 which is not better in performance but could play some games with more performance than I could.

[colesdav]

Well if your OpenCL test is not failing, then even comparing the Desktop Processor in the scores I mentioned to the processor in your laptop and then on top looking at how much lower in performance the 8970M is versus a Discrete OEM 8970 I do not get the feeling that the GPU score you are seeing in Novabench is unreasonable.

My laptop with  i7-920XM & eGPU running an R9-280x (which is a rebranded & slightly upgraded HD7970/8970) runs the Novabench GPU test and is able to complete the OpenCL test as well. It is running the Crimson Legacy Driver recommended for your APU. I will not quote the score I got here because the eGPU runs over PCIe2.0x1 slot at low bus speed. The point is ... OpenCL part of the GPU test runs and passes on a very similar setup to yours in terms of recommended GPU Driver and external GPU type.

Bye.

[colesdav]

Hi,

Once you reinstall the recommended drivers and run some firestrike tests, this might be of some interest to you.

msi gx70 Update New Driver Play BF1 OBT - YouTube

Specifically

The comment from Ubi  Lada describing the solution in English in the commnets section starting ...

"Here's the solution in English: DDU Developer Ghislain Harvey (aka Wagnard) contacted me and wanted me to check the solution with the updated version of DDU"There is also an entire AMD Reddit post titled  "One and a half year old MSI GX70 is legacy".
Which might be of some more help to you regarding attempting to install legacy driver on the iGPU and latest driver on the GCN card.I was going to try something similar on on my laptop with eGPU.Also I just tested Novabench on another system with i7-4790K, running Windows 10 64bit patched today, Single R9 Nano and Adrenalin 17.12.2 Driver.
The OpenCL part of the GPU Test completes successfully on that system. I have not checked if the score looks correct versus the Novatech database. Bye.

[colesdav]

Another thing to note.
I just tested Novabench on laptop running i7-980XM and integrated ATI Mobility Radeon HD5850 thats an old weak Discrete Laptop GPU, but it is running the same  Legacy Driver.recommended for you.  I score ... 163.
The Novabench GPU Test has two parts, Graphics and OpenCL - Both tests complete on that.

I am about to check how it runs on the same laptop but with an R9 280x connected via eGPU using the Legacy Driver.

Meantime you might wnat to check if the OpenCL test is completing on your machine. It failed for me on i7-4770K with R9 280x and 17.4.4.WHQL and also failed on i7-4770K with GTX780Ti and Nvidia Driver Version 388.71.

This results in significantly lower Novabench GPU Test scores than expected.

Here are a couple of videos showing the OpenCL Test  failing. Have fun ...

colesdav - Novabench GPU Test Failing on OpenCL resulting in lower than expected Score for R9 Nano r...

colesdav - Novabench GPU Test Failing on OpenCL resulting in lower than expected Score for GTX780Ti ...

Bye.

[kingfish]

And this has what to do with the posters question?

[colesdav]

If you read the initial question he states this:
"I benchmarked the GPU with Novabench and just got a score of 900. I excepted this to be better."

I have just tested the GPU part of the benchmark and it is failing on OpenCL on some systems.
If it fails on OpenCL Test the GPU benchmark score is lower than expected.

[colesdav]

Here is the result of searching 3DMark Firestrike for A10-5750M and HD 8970M

Search

Bye.

[hijay]

Hello man, I have same problem. Here what I can recommend to you. Install windows 8 not 8.1 as ur second OC, then download 14.4 version of drivers and turn off ur integrated video card (U can search how to do this at msi forum, u need to get FULL Bios options first, then google how to disable integrated graphics). With games which works at old drivers I am using win 8, it's give m crazy performance (3 times better then at win10), with games which have trouble with old drivers I am using win 10 with different drivers version 16.2.1 for 8650 G and 18.8.1 for 8970 M and playing games at lowest settings. Don't forget before swaping windows change ur GPU options in BIOS.

P.S. Here Resolve problem with screenshaking. Press win + p then press expand. It's done. Play games in non-fullscreen mode (borldess or windowed mode). Also sometimes u can get artifact with RGB pixels. Do same procedure (alt+tap to destop then win + p -> expand).