AMD’s Enduro 5.5 Public Beta Driver Available
by Jarred Walton on September 26, 2012 2:24 PM ESTAbout three weeks ago, I met with AMD to go over some concerns with their Enduro graphics switching technology. At the time, AMD gave me a preview release of their Mobility Catalyst driver and promised a public beta by the end of October. We’re over a month ahead of that schedule, and today I received an email from AMD indicating the Catalyst 12.9 Beta for laptops is officially available.
I’m still working on the final review of the Clevo P170EM with 7970M from AVADirect, but in the meantime I’ve updated to the 12.9 Beta and everything appears to have gone smoothly. One thing to be aware of is that the current beta may not fix the GPU underutilization issue, particularly with HD 7970M, but AMD is working on a hotfix. They expect that to be released to the public in the next week or two, and they’re offering us a chance to do some early testing of the driver so we’ll be putting it through some tests over the next couple of days.
For all of you that have Enduro/PowerXpress 4.0 or later laptops and have been waiting for a driver update, head on over to AMD’s site and grab the latest beta. If you give it a shot and have a minute, post your comments on how the new drivers work (or don’t?) on your laptop. We’d love to get a collection of testing results from a wider variety of hardware than what we currently have on hand.
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JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
Sorry, see below for my response (I deleted my original comment but you had apparently already replied to it).KyleH334 - Thursday, September 27, 2012 - link
It is supported it was just missing from one of the lists in error. This driver has been confirmed for the 7000m series by AMD.Duwelon - Thursday, September 27, 2012 - link
I was able to install the beta fine on my Clevo with a 7970m, you probably downloaded the wrong driver. On the page that the article links to are both Beta drivers and production ones, you have to scroll down to get to the beta.TrantaLocked - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
I'm not installing a driver that doesn't support my graphics card. I will wait for the next release.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
Try it anyway -- I can tell you that it installed fine on the P170EM. Actually, let me clarify: "Switchable Graphics" in AMD speak is NOT that same as Enduro -- Switchable Graphics in their mind specifically refers to the PowerXpress 3.0 and earlier implementations if I'm not mistaken -- the ones with muxes.TrantaLocked - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
I never said the package wouldn't work. Even if I tried it I wouldn't keep it. The 7000m series isn't listed in the supported GPU list. Yeah, maybe the driver was designed to "work" with 7000m cards, but it doesn't officially support it them.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
A related question is of course: which laptop do you have? I'm going to try installing it on an older PowerXpress 4.0 (pre-Enduro but Dynamic Switchable Graphics enabled) Sony VAIO C to see how it goes.TrantaLocked - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
I own a Sager NP9150 with the 7970m.JarredWalton - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
So basically what I have, or is that the P150EM? Anyway, I fail to see how this could be worse than the drivers you're currently using. AMD's people specifically emailed me to tell me the beta driver for the P150EM/P170EM and other laptops was available.TrantaLocked - Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - link
My model is basically the P150EM but Sager branded. Yours if purchased through Sager would be the NP9170.I guess AMD forgot to list the 7000m series in the release notes, because if AMD specifically told you this package is meant for the P150EM//P170EM and other recent models, then the 7000m series should be supported. There are no 6000m cards sold with those laptops. I want to wait for confirmation from AMD, whether it be they update the release notes or tell us directly.