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AMD Releases the Catalyst 13.12 WHQL Graphics Drivers

Stop spreading nonsense PLEASE! Goddammit what a load of crap you made up.

The 99% usage on GPU2 is a bug caused by ULPS. ULPS is supposed to be a power saving feature for crossfire, but hasn't been working correctly for many Catalyst versions now.
So, Crossfire users must disable ULPS in the registry.

How-to:

  1. In the search field (above the Start Orb) type
    regedit
  2. right-click on the regedit.exe shortcut that appears -> run as admin
  3. In Registry, on the left highlight HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
  4. Hit Ctrl+F, and in the Find field fill in:
    enableulps
    and hit Enter (or click Next) or hit F3 for next.
  5. At Every instance of EnableUlps change the value from 1 to 0
    Don't touch EnableUlps_NA
  6. Close Registry
  7. Reboot the PC
This is the workaround for the "99% usage on GPU2 in 3D applications (games)."- bug.
The downside is that GPU2 is no longer put to sleep mode when idle (in 2D).

Disabling Ultra Low Power State doesn't stop only GPU 2 from pushing 99 to 100% usage on the new R9-290x versus the old 7970 Cards. World of Tanks, and other PC games that don't utilize CrossfireX still show a 100% load on GPU 2, and 0% load on GPU 1. ULPS is set to 0, and AMD CrossfireX Mode set to AFR. On the other hand, if you used 2 7970 card, it will push 99% loads on both 7970s, in CrossfireX with ULPS set to 0. It will push these loads in any game that does or doesn't support CrossfireX on the 7000 series cards. So whether you think it's a load of crap or not, is irrelevant.

You do realize that the new Beta MSI Afterburner (3.0.0 Beta 17) has a feature that disables it for you. It's convenient, easy, and idiot-proof. Settings --> "AMD compatibility properties" under General --> "Disable ULPS." Check the box, a window pops up asking if you want to restart your computer to let the changes take effect, and you're done.

No offense, but you wasted your time telling me how to turn off ULPS in the registry when I already knew that. I've done it a billion times with my previous AMD 7000 Series Cards in CrossfireX. I've done it from Beta Drivers 13.2 on up...

Did you know in certain games like Planetside 2, before the Oh Make Game Faster Update, if you didn't have ULPS set to 0, the second GPU would bug out, and lock in the frame on the 7970s. When you tabbed out in full screen, and tabbed back in, you'd see a frame display for 2 seconds going as far back as 10 seconds ago to 5 minutes ago. Then if you tried to utilize other programs like Sony Vegas Pro or Photoshop afterwards, the setup would BSOD upon load up of these applications? I forget the BSOD Code, but the message had something to do with the un-sync clock frequencies of the secondary GPU, blah blah blah... Take that into account, and both AMD Graphic Cards weren't OCed at all... The only way to fix this was to set ULPS to 0...

Have you seen the bug were you could tabbed out and back in, to any random PC Game, you could glitch your display. It would show frames overlapping one another from the top, and they would drop to the bottom of your screen with some of the 13.8 and 13.10 Beta Drivers... I bet you haven't... This has occurred with ULPS set to 0 on the 7000 series AMD cards....

Btw, only the 7000 series cards and below push 99% loads. The new R9s push 100% load... So what's so significant about that... I think it shows I've spent quite a lot of time dealing with both cards... If I am not mistaken, the 6990s would only push 98% loads. I'll have to check that out again if I ever get around to making my bitmining rig...
 
[...]
if you used 2 7970 card, it will push 99% loads on both 7970s, in CrossfireX with ULPS set to 0. It will push these loads in any game that does or doesn't support CrossfireX on the 7000 series cards.
[...]
And i am Batman.

You obviously have no clue... instead you are making things up, but why? What is your purpose posting this bullcrap? Why would you do that?

I bet you'll take it personal again like you did thinking i posted the how-to just for you. In fact when i post, i post for everybody. I add the how-to to my recommendation so that it is reproduceable for everyone. And without trusting a third-party tool. Every user can check on their own PC right away following the simple steps.

Every crossfire user who followed the steps i posted will see that after disabling ULPS crossfire behaviour is normal again: balanced over both cards. Whether game demands full load or just 40% or whatever, usage is equally distributed over both cards. And with it, no more crashes stutterings and BSOD's.

If you get the opposite behaviour (both full load) then you have serious issues on your PC (i bet on user error) and should be asking for help.
 
Last edited:
this works on my 7790. hurrah!
 
I am using 13.10 without an issue with 5770 Xfire but if you do not play BF4 then I would recommend installing 11.11c performance driver cause it was the best I could find for 5xxx series cards.
http://www.techpowerup.com/156030/amd-posts-catalyst-11-11c-performance-driver.html
Problem SOLVED,
my assumption was right. catalyst 13.12 had written some mess into system registy which caused color flickering in full screen mode.
I physically exchanged 1. card with 2. card in motherboard slots, system then installed both cards as new devices and broblem has gone. I presume that upon installing both cards as a new devices system has made new registry record which effectively overcome the problem.
So all that was left to do was update this thread. I just did it for you.
Congratulations with your fix!
 
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