mal ein netter auszug von guru3D....
(Naja, hab 10°C unterschied gemessen bei meiner 9700pro - jetzt läuft der 3,7 wieder bei mir !!!!)
I think it's time to send out the warning, or at least make 9800 owners aware of a potential issue with the new 3.8 drivers. I've been monitoring this issue on the web ever since gossip on this issue started yet was not sure it was isolated to particular users, actually I'm still not convinced. Yet a lot of sites have picked up on this on their forums and it would be just flat out wrong not to report this.
It seems that a number of 9800 (Pro) users are reporting that the new Catalyst 3.8 drivers can overheat your Radeon 9800.
Cards Affected:
All Radeon 9800 XT's
All Radeon 9800 Pro's
All Radeon 9800 Non-Pro's
All Radeon 9700 Pro's soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9700 Non-Pro's soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9500's soft modded to 9800 series.
Note: Radeon 9600, 9200, 9100, 9000, 8500 or previous generations are NOT affected by this serious issue.
Software Causing Hardware Failure:
ATI's Catalyst 3.8 Driver Series
OMEGA Catalyst 3.8 Driver Series
Here's a snip from SimGuy over at shortMedia:
While we're not quite sure what part of the Catalyst 3.8 drivers are causing this, some part of the driver (whether it's the new VPU Recovery feature, HyperZ Enhancements or the ATI Overclocking software) is causing the core on BBA and OEM Radeon cards that are identified as "RADEON 9800 XT", "RADEON 9800 PRO" and "RADEON 9800" in Windows to have their GPU's overheat by as much as 15*C over normal during 3D graphics sessions. This has caused a number of fans on the Radeon 9800 XT series to fail, allowing the heat to completely destroy the card.
This news is especially important for individuals who performed the 9800 to 9800 Pro BIOS flash and did not include additional cooling on your card, as the GPU is already overclocked and producing more heat than normal.
As a safety precaution, I am strongly encouraging that anyone with any of the affected cards above roll their drivers back to the Omega Catalyst 3.7 drivers or the ATI Catalyst 3.7 drivers, as they are verified not to cause this overheating issue.
I did some testing with my Radeon 9800 NP BIOS-flashed to a 9800 Pro. The results are not encouraging.
Running looping 3DMark2003 for 30 minutes and utilizing a temperature probe on my GPU (regular cooling), the following temperatures were recorded:
Catalyst 3.8: 135 Fahrenheit
Catalyst 3.7: 117 Fahrenheit
The heatsink on my Sapphire Atlantis 9800 was so hot during the Catalyst 3.8 test that I burnt my hand when I accidently touched it.
2) The Catalyst 3.8's seem to have a bug in some systems that allows the driver to process the SECONDARY adapter settings when a game is started and tries to switch to the resolution and refresh rate specified in the program.
Normally, the card is limited by the INF file settings for the PRIMARY adapter, so that no resolution or refresh rate is attempted that is beyond the capability of the monitor hardware. But in the 3.8's, it seems to be processing the SECONDARY adapter settings first. In a system without a monitor plugged into the second adapter, there is no INF file limiting refresh rates and resolutions, so, the system is trying to force refresh rates and resolutions beyond what the monitor on the PRIMARY adapter is capable of.
So instead of having the monitor "flicker" once when it switches to the desired resolution/refresh, monitors are "flickering" between 4 and 8 times, with resolutions and refresh rates that are beyond the capability of the actual monitor. As a result, some monitors have been damaged, while others have blinked out and recovered. Some users monitors are under warranty and can be RMA'd, but for those who don't have a monitor under warranty, their monitor is damaged and they must buy a new one.
I recommend as a safety precaution, that anyone with any of the affected cards above roll their drivers back to the ATI Catalyst 3.7 drivers, as they are verified not to cause this monitor refresh-related problem.
Catalyst 3.7 Download Locations:
Windows 2000/XP
Catalyst 3.7 :: Control Panel
Windows 98/Me
Catalyst 3.7 :: Control Panel
This is what ATI states on this situation:
1) Overheating: We have spent a great deal of time analyzing the temperatures due to the CATALYST 3.8 drivers. We do not under any circumstance see anything near a 10 degree Celsius increase in temperature (but we don?t overclock our test cards either). We do see a slight increase in temperature in certain cases (3Dmark2003 Nature Scene for example). However any temperature increase is well within our safety range. Investigation continues and we are trying to determine why this change in temperature exits
2) Monitors: We have spent a great deal of time trying to reproduce this problem and analyzing the driver code. There is nothing to be found. At this point we are working very closely with an ATI Beta Tester who experienced a monitor loss. There have been zero reports in our customer support of monitors dying.
If you don't have a temperature probe then a good way to monitor this is checking the CPU and ambient temperature inside the case. If you know what they are normally then you bet ya that they will rise as the inside of the case will be heated up also. You can also check it (very subjective) by feeling the heatsink of the GPU during a good 3D gaming run. Watch out though, the thing can get rather hot.
We have a discussion thread open on this topic over here, check it for more information and to share your insight on this topic.
-----------------------------------------
wer sich nen gefallen tun will, der nimmt den 3.7er
(Naja, hab 10°C unterschied gemessen bei meiner 9700pro - jetzt läuft der 3,7 wieder bei mir !!!!)
I think it's time to send out the warning, or at least make 9800 owners aware of a potential issue with the new 3.8 drivers. I've been monitoring this issue on the web ever since gossip on this issue started yet was not sure it was isolated to particular users, actually I'm still not convinced. Yet a lot of sites have picked up on this on their forums and it would be just flat out wrong not to report this.
It seems that a number of 9800 (Pro) users are reporting that the new Catalyst 3.8 drivers can overheat your Radeon 9800.
Cards Affected:
All Radeon 9800 XT's
All Radeon 9800 Pro's
All Radeon 9800 Non-Pro's
All Radeon 9700 Pro's soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9700 Non-Pro's soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9500's soft modded to 9800 series.
Note: Radeon 9600, 9200, 9100, 9000, 8500 or previous generations are NOT affected by this serious issue.
Software Causing Hardware Failure:
ATI's Catalyst 3.8 Driver Series
OMEGA Catalyst 3.8 Driver Series
Here's a snip from SimGuy over at shortMedia:
While we're not quite sure what part of the Catalyst 3.8 drivers are causing this, some part of the driver (whether it's the new VPU Recovery feature, HyperZ Enhancements or the ATI Overclocking software) is causing the core on BBA and OEM Radeon cards that are identified as "RADEON 9800 XT", "RADEON 9800 PRO" and "RADEON 9800" in Windows to have their GPU's overheat by as much as 15*C over normal during 3D graphics sessions. This has caused a number of fans on the Radeon 9800 XT series to fail, allowing the heat to completely destroy the card.
This news is especially important for individuals who performed the 9800 to 9800 Pro BIOS flash and did not include additional cooling on your card, as the GPU is already overclocked and producing more heat than normal.
As a safety precaution, I am strongly encouraging that anyone with any of the affected cards above roll their drivers back to the Omega Catalyst 3.7 drivers or the ATI Catalyst 3.7 drivers, as they are verified not to cause this overheating issue.
I did some testing with my Radeon 9800 NP BIOS-flashed to a 9800 Pro. The results are not encouraging.
Running looping 3DMark2003 for 30 minutes and utilizing a temperature probe on my GPU (regular cooling), the following temperatures were recorded:
Catalyst 3.8: 135 Fahrenheit
Catalyst 3.7: 117 Fahrenheit
The heatsink on my Sapphire Atlantis 9800 was so hot during the Catalyst 3.8 test that I burnt my hand when I accidently touched it.
2) The Catalyst 3.8's seem to have a bug in some systems that allows the driver to process the SECONDARY adapter settings when a game is started and tries to switch to the resolution and refresh rate specified in the program.
Normally, the card is limited by the INF file settings for the PRIMARY adapter, so that no resolution or refresh rate is attempted that is beyond the capability of the monitor hardware. But in the 3.8's, it seems to be processing the SECONDARY adapter settings first. In a system without a monitor plugged into the second adapter, there is no INF file limiting refresh rates and resolutions, so, the system is trying to force refresh rates and resolutions beyond what the monitor on the PRIMARY adapter is capable of.
So instead of having the monitor "flicker" once when it switches to the desired resolution/refresh, monitors are "flickering" between 4 and 8 times, with resolutions and refresh rates that are beyond the capability of the actual monitor. As a result, some monitors have been damaged, while others have blinked out and recovered. Some users monitors are under warranty and can be RMA'd, but for those who don't have a monitor under warranty, their monitor is damaged and they must buy a new one.
I recommend as a safety precaution, that anyone with any of the affected cards above roll their drivers back to the ATI Catalyst 3.7 drivers, as they are verified not to cause this monitor refresh-related problem.
Catalyst 3.7 Download Locations:
Windows 2000/XP
Catalyst 3.7 :: Control Panel
Windows 98/Me
Catalyst 3.7 :: Control Panel
This is what ATI states on this situation:
1) Overheating: We have spent a great deal of time analyzing the temperatures due to the CATALYST 3.8 drivers. We do not under any circumstance see anything near a 10 degree Celsius increase in temperature (but we don?t overclock our test cards either). We do see a slight increase in temperature in certain cases (3Dmark2003 Nature Scene for example). However any temperature increase is well within our safety range. Investigation continues and we are trying to determine why this change in temperature exits
2) Monitors: We have spent a great deal of time trying to reproduce this problem and analyzing the driver code. There is nothing to be found. At this point we are working very closely with an ATI Beta Tester who experienced a monitor loss. There have been zero reports in our customer support of monitors dying.
If you don't have a temperature probe then a good way to monitor this is checking the CPU and ambient temperature inside the case. If you know what they are normally then you bet ya that they will rise as the inside of the case will be heated up also. You can also check it (very subjective) by feeling the heatsink of the GPU during a good 3D gaming run. Watch out though, the thing can get rather hot.
We have a discussion thread open on this topic over here, check it for more information and to share your insight on this topic.
-----------------------------------------
wer sich nen gefallen tun will, der nimmt den 3.7er
