PCR's notepad » AMD

Fixing non-working Catalyst Control Center administrative part in Kubuntu

David Dernoncourt — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:30:48 +0000

Under Linux, the ATI/AMD Catalyst Control Center (CCC) can be opened in 2 different ways: as a simple user or as an administrative user. If you are to modify pretty much any setting, you’ll want to open it as administrative user indeed. The problem is, in Kubuntu, the link to the administrator (sudoer) version of the Control Center is broken: it uses amdxdg-su -c amdcccle, which pops up some odd-looking sudo prompt and then does nothing. The fix is simple: fix the link with a working sudoing thingy, which in KDE would simply be kdesudo. So, you need to fix the link (or create a new one), pointing it to kdesudo amdcccle.

If you don’t know how to do this: just right-click on the start menu icon and select “Edit Applications”. Then browse to “Settings”, and you’ll find current Catalyst links there.

Overclocking the Mobility Radeon HD 5650

David Dernoncourt — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 06:08:02 +0000

I looked into this like 9 months ago but never took the time to post it… This time I won’t make a guide nearly as long as the one on overclocking the GeForce 9650M GT, so if you’re new to overclocking you might want to take a look at it about usual disclaimer (basically: overclocking can void your warranty and kill your graphic card), temperature stuff (my Mobility Radeon HD 5650 runs around 80°C at full), trying increasing frequencies, and performance checking.

Getting the tools

You’ll need AMD GPU Clock Tool 0.9.26.0 for HD 5870 (Guru3D mirror) to perform the clock changes, and optionally yet recommended GPU-Z to check the frequency and temperature.

Performing the overclock

AMD GPU Clock Tool is really quite straightforward. Since you are working on a Mobility 5650 chances are, though, that your laptop contains 2 GPU: an integrated one (something around Mobility Radeon 4200 is what I have in my Acer 5553G) and the discrete one. Well, make sure you pick the proper one in the Device field. To know if you’re on the right one, check the frequencies: the Mobility Radeon 5650 HD has a core clock (noted as “engine” in this tool) by default at 550 MHz, and a memory clock by default at 800. My Mobility 42XX chipset has those clocks respectively at 500 and 400.
To change the frequency, just edit the values in the engine and memory clock fields then press “Set Clocks”. That’s all

The only limitation with this overclocking compared to the one I previously presented about the GeForce 9650M GT is that I didn’t find a way to automate it: every time you restart your laptop the frequency of your GPU will be reset to factory settings, and you’ll have to run the AMD GPU Clock Tool and change frequencies again if you still want to be overclocked.

A few figures and illustrations to finish: I managed to raise my core to 586.7 MHz and my memory to 848.8 MHz, although I could probably get more (I didn’t try to push to the limit).

Here’s my GPU-Z validation (note that GPU-Z still bugs with this card: the base frequencies are the ones detected when opening the tool, so since I had already performed the overclock before launching GPU-Z my overclocked frequencies are the same as default). And finally some videos, I don’t really remember why I kept them in this post’s draft, but I don’t have the heart to delete them now ^^: How to overclock ATI Mobility 5650 to MAXIMUM, crysis with an Ati 5650 mobility.

Edit: harder, better, faster, stronger

Edit 2: some more details about temperature: when running at 100% alone (ie CPU not used or almost not used), my Mobility Radeon HD 5650 is around 80°C (79-82°C). When the CPU runs too everything gets pretty much warmer, and in those conditions the GPU already reached 100°C. Although I wouldn’t say this would be safe on the long term, it didn’t kill it on the spot either (but I could hear from the fan that it wasn’t very happy though ). Also at this temperature, with the CPU in the 80+°C too, the laptop case becomes a bit uncomfortable to lay your hands on indeed.

An archive of AMD Mobility Catalyst Windows 7 x64 drivers

David Dernoncourt — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:59:16 +0000

I find AMD/ATI Radeon drivers hardly browsable on their site. I mean, okay the current version can somehow be downloaded (you need to first download a downloader program, then use it to try and grab the current Mobility Catalyst version), but it’s not exactly a smooth process, and the older versions are just nowhere to be found.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if newer versions worked always good, but the problem is, sometimes a new version breaks a thing or two. And in the case of laptops, this seems to be even more often the case.
So, for those who needs to get an older version, I’ll try to keep a Megaupload folder updated with the drivers I used. For the moment it contains:

10-8_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc (Mobility Catalyst 10.8 for Vista/Se7en x64)
10-10_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc (Mobility Catalyst 10.10 for Vista/Se7en x64)
10-11_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 10.11 for Vista/Se7en x64)
10-12_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 10.12 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-1_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.1 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-2_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.2 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-3_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.3 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-4_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.4 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-5_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.5 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-6_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.6 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-7_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.7 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-8_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.8 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-9_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.9 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-10_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc (Mobility Catalyst 11.10 for Vista/Se7en x64) NB: I downloaded this one from a third party site, not directly from AMD (I missed it). I didn’t test it either.
11-11_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.11 for Vista/Se7en x64)
11-12_mobility_vista_win7_64_dd_ccc_ocl (Mobility Catalyst 11.12 for Vista/Se7en x64)

That’s right, I missed version 10.9. That’s pretty weird too, because that should have been the current drivers just when I got my laptop… Or maybe AMD skipped 10.9, it looks like I downloaded 10.8 in mid-October already.
Anyway, here’s again the link to the ~~megaupload folder~~ (~~FileSonic mirror~~).

Update (2011-01-29): added Catalyst 11.1
Update (2011-02-18): added Catalyst 11.2 + FileSonic mirror
Update (2011-04-02): added Catalyst 11.3
Update (2011-05-10): added Catalyst 11.4 and 11.5
Update (2011-07-02): added Catalyst 11.6
Update (2011-07-28): added Catalyst 11.7
Update (2011-09-03): added Catalyst 11.8 (on FileSonic only because MU uploader is down ATM)
Update (2011-09-08): mirrored Catalyst 11.8 on MU
Update (2011-10-02): added Catalyst 11.9, removed FileSonic mirror because the files there get removed too fast when there’s no downloads.
Update (2011-12-04): added Catalyst 11.10 and 11.11
Update (2011-12-31): added Catalyst 11.12

Update (2012-01-23)

All those files were stolen by the FBI, and I don’t have the resources to host them myself (for more details see this post). So I’m sorry but this archive is discontinued, feel free to thank Obama and the US government…
For posterity, here are the former links to the files:
http://www.megaupload.com/?f=TT2Z8M6G (folder)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1I2M2QFW (10.8)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Y7234J3S (10.10)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6ZUGB5SG (10.11)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z1DTSV4C (10.12)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ZFLELCH2 (11.1)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9MOAQLXQ (11.2)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=MF2W7YMM (11.3)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=GJJARTN8 (11.4)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=WM1BEHFH (11.5)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ULJF05ZX (11.6)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=G8FD5OFH (11.7)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=YY1RSZV3 (11.8)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=31ZPA1UE (11.9)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=I7FO4ATO (11.10)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DIPX28KJ (11.11)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=T1DSHYML (11.12)

Kentsfield quad-core performance previewed

David Dernoncourt — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:51:00 +0000

The Tech Report has quad-core Kentsfield benchmarks straight from the Intel Developer Forum, and the chip looks like a beast in multithreaded apps like 3D rendering and video encoding. What’s more, the chip will plug into standard LGA775 motherboards, and could become available before AMD’s ’4×4′ platform, which use dual dual-core chips.

Full article | Digg it