Didn't know that... These are probably the first AMD chipset WHQL drivers I haven't got a time to try on some of my home/work rigs with some AMD SB7xx SouthBridge. Sometimes it's better when you don't have enough time to change every single driver to be the latest one 🙂 Thanks for the heads up Hilbert! I'll skip this driver on my rigs with AMD 7xx SB...

And some people tell me they only trust WHQL. I just laugh so hard.

Downloaded and installed the AMD Catalyst 14.4 in my HTPC and it caused my Ceton Infinitv 4 tuner to have video stutter on most channels, I reinstalled AMD Catalyst 13.12 and the video stuttering went away. AMD needs to address this on their next update.

And some people tell me they only trust WHQL. I just laugh so hard.

WHQL really stands for "We Had Quite a Lunch" with the money you give them for signing your bundle with their certificate.

When they posted the original 14.4, they knew one of the various components of the driver had an installation issue and had removed that component from the installation suite altogether. The problem component (the chipset driver or eSATA controller I think) was made available as a separate download. AMD had posted a message about this on the download site. I assume all they've done now is roll the fixed driver back into the installation suite.

WHQL really stands for "We Had Quite a Lunch" with the money you give them for signing your bundle with their certificate.

I've tried to tell people this for years, but they just do not seem to get it. Beta for drivers these days are not like they used to be in the windows 95/98/Beginning of XP era. Nowadays they are just drivers not signed by MS with a digital signature. All they do is test basic OS functionality anyway.

I have the 710 Southbridge and experienced no problems whatsoever. I installed the driver on April 25. I still will only use WHQL drivers.

I've tried to tell people this for years, but they just do not seem to get it. Beta for drivers these days are not like they used to be in the windows 95/98/Beginning of XP era. Nowadays they are just drivers not signed by MS with a digital signature. All they do is test basic OS functionality anyway.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh998416.aspx

Have SB700 chipset,this problem has been around since 14.3's but i just figured it out with the 14.4s. Good job AMD,bundle more crap with your drivers thanks!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/hh998416.aspx

And? That is all pretty much basic functionality these days. Not sure what your point is. No company would put out a driver without vital components in today's OS's Beta or not and break their image. In-game glitches or something with a program might pop up. But not important OS functions. Also if it does happen, they are usually pulled right away with a fix.

I like that they include the chipset drivers. It makes it much easier to be up to date.

And? That is all pretty much basic functionality these days. Not sure what your point is.

Well apparently your definition of basic OS functionality consists of [spoiler] AES 128 and Session key Refresh Test Alpha Blending Precision Alpha Blending - FALSE-TRUE 16bpp Alpha Compare Anisotropic Arbitrary Clipping Planes Auto Generation of Mip Maps Automatic Stereo Basic Rasterization Blt - Basic - System to Primary Blt - Basic - VMem to Primary Blt - Color Key - Sys to Primary Blt - Color Key - VMem to Primary Blt - Exotic Blt - Raster Ops - Vid Mem Blt - Stretch - Color Key - Sys to Primary Blt - Stretch - Color Key - Vid to Primary Blt - Stretch - System to Primary Blt - Stretch - System to Primary Test Blt - Stretch - VMem to Primary Blt - Textures Blt - Unused Pixel Bits Buffered Blts Bump Env Map Capscheck Check Resolution (WoW64) Check Resolution for Dualview - Multihead Check Resource CDS_VideoParameters (WoW64) Clear Color Fill Compare Z Compressed Texture Content Protection- Playing H.264 + AAC media file protected environment. HCK test - Device Test. Content Protection- Playing VC1 + WMAPro media file protected environment. HCK test - Device Test. COPP - HDCP Test (WoW64) CopyRects Functionality (WoW64) CRASH - Display Stress 4-hour WDDM Profile (32bit) CRASH - Display Stress 4-hour WDDM Profile (64bit) CRASH - Legacy Display Stress CreateSurface Cube Mapping D3D AGP Texture (WoW64) D3D Content Protection Test D3D Content Protection - CPAuthChannelAPI D3D Content Protection - DriverProtections 11 D3D Cross Proc Sharing D3D Lines D3D9 Overlay - CheckDeviceOverlayType D3D9 Overlay - CreateAdditionalSwapChain D3D9 Overlay - CreateDeviceEx Test D3D9 Overlay - PresentEx D3DQuery Conformance Test DDraw AGP Memory Tests DDraw Blt - Basic - AGP to Primary DDraw Blt - Color Key - AGP to Primary Ddraw Blt - ColorFill - AGP DDraw Blt - ColorFill - System Memory DDraw Blt - ColorFill - Video Memory DDraw Blt - Stretch - Color Key - AGP to Primary DDraw Cubic Depth Bias Desktop Duplication with Normal Mode DirectDraw Tests Discardable Depth Stencil Displacement Mapping Display Mode Filter Check Driver Scenario DX11 3DStereoVideo DX11 Video Content Protection FeatureLevel 11 DX11 Video Decode FeatureLevel 9 DX11 VideoProcessing DX11 Video Processing for Overlay DX11 Video Rotation DX11 Video Rotation for overlay DXGI Cross Process Resource Sharing DXGI DirectFlip DXGI Frame Statistics DXGI Gamma Ramps DXGI GDI Interop D3D10.1 DXGI GDI Interop D3D11 DXGI Mode Enumeration DXGI Presentation Rate Testing DXGI Presentation testing - FSPresentMS DXGI Resource Check DXGI SCDest Buffer (D3D10.1 on feature levels 9.1-10.1) DXGI SCDest Buffer (D3D11 on feature levels 9.1 and 10.0) DXGI Stereo Present DXGI Swap Effects DXVA Tests Dynamic Resources Fill Modes Fog Four Character Code Surface Stability Test (WoW64) Functional test for monitor container ID Gamma Correction GDIHW_Functional Test for GDI HW ACC (v1.1) GDIMAN Rops (WoW64) Geometry Instancing Get DC GetInfo (WoW64) GetRasterStatus GetRenderTargetData - Backbuffer and Render Target GetRenderTargetData - Mip Texture and Cube Texture Gradient Fill Test (WoW64) Graphics Device Runtime Power Management Component Validation Graphics HDMI Test (Manual) High Order Surfaces Index Buffer Lighting Lightmap Lockable Depth Buffer Lost Devices - Resource Management DX8 and lower (WoW64) Matrix Palette Skinning Maximum Primitives Memory Leak Verifier (WoW64) Memory-Texture Management (WoW64) MipFilter Miscellaneous DirectDraw Test MPO Quality Tests Multihead Support Multimon minimum resolution check - Multihead Multipass Z-Fighting Multiple Lights Multiple Render Targets Multisample Stability (WoW64) Multisampling Multistream Rendering MultiSwapchain Non Power 2 Conditional ConfTest Non Power 2 Conditional RenderTarget Non Power 2 Conditional Test (DX9) (WoW64) Non Power 2 Conditional Test (WOW64) OPM - HDCP CSS DVD Test OptStandby - Video Memory Purge and Resume Overdraw-Underdraw Overlay (Manual) (WoW64) Palette Tests Palettized Textures Palettized Textures Test PC99 #10 supported pixel orderings PC99 #10 supported pixel orderings (WoW64) PC99 #12 downloadable RAMDAC (WoW64) PC99 #3 system uses WC (32-bit) PerfX2 DirectFlip Scenarios Perspective Pixel Shaders Precision Pixel Shaders Ver 1.1 Pixel Shaders Ver 1.x Pixel Shaders Ver 2.x Pixel Shaders Ver 3.0 Point Sprites Preempt - Schedule reasonable workload 4 ms check Preempt - Scheduler WLK PERF - Time to high priority completions (PoliceMS) Preempt - Scheduler WLK PERF - Time to high priority Preemptions (PoliceMS) Preempt - Scheduler WLK Validate non-zero preemption values for WDDM1.2 hardware Preemption Test Preemption - Validate driver preemption level (single) Present Validation 2 Present Validation 2 (FullScreen) Present Validation 2 - Vista Present Validation (WoW64) Primitive Batching Processor Amplification Control Test (WoW64) Ratetest (WoW64) Read Scan Line Registry Validation Registry Validation (WoW64) RenderOnly SetupAPI Test RenderOnly Swapchain Test Set Render Target SimulatePreemption TDR SimulateVSync TDR State Blocks Stencil Stretch Rect Subpixel Texture Surface Flipping Tests TDR2 - Large Payload Penalty Compute Application Test Tessellation Texture Address Texture Blend Texture ColorKey (WoW64) Texture Coordinate Generation Texture Filter Texture Formats Texture Gradient Texture Load (WoW64) Texture Mapping Texture Stage Texture Transforms TL Vertex Clipping Update Surface Update Texture VBIB - Vertex and Index Buffer Validation Verify VESA and CEA required display modes Vertex Blending Vertex Buffer Rendering Vertex Buffer Swapping Vertex Formats Vertex Shaders Vertex Shaders Precision Vertex Tweening Video Acceleration - Bad Data (WoW64) Video Memory Aliasing Video Memory Management Tests Viewport Clipping Volume Texture VPE and Kernel TestS W Buffer W Compare Wait for VBlank WDDM Bit Flip - Invalid Param First Group WDDM Blt WDDM Blt - Depth WDDM Blt - DepthFill WDDM Blt - Stretch WDDM BVT2 WDDM CCD Test for Forced Projection WDDM CCD Test for PersistentReset Sleep WDDM CCD Test for QueryHardwareCaps WDDM CCD Test for Validation of Basic Topology (Multi Mon) - Multihead WDDM Coherency WDDM Cross Processor WDDM Dead Lock WDDM DMA Split (Force Split Points) WDDM Eviction WDDM FlipQueue WDDM Fuzzer Allocation- Invalid Param WDDM Fuzzer Command Buffer- Invalid Param WDDM Fuzzer Misc- Invalid Param WDDM GammaRamp WDDM Handles - Invalid Param First Group WDDM HPD Notification Test (Manual) WDDM LockConfirm WDDM LockSmith WDDM ManagedPrimary WDDM Max Contexts WDDM ModeChange WDDM ModifyVAD WDDM Overlay WDDM Pass Through WDDM Pass Through - Lock WDDM Pass Through - QueryResidency WDDM PnPMultiModeSwitch Test WDDM PnPStopModeSwitch Test WDDM PnPStopResetToVGA WDDM PnPStop Test WDDM PnPStop Test - Update and Rollback WDDM PresentStats - Present Statistics Test WDDM Primary Surface WDDM Process Callout WDDM RotateBlt Full Screen ColorFillPresent WDDM Sch_Stress WDDM Scheduler Stress (AlwaysRepatch) WDDM Scheduler Stress (No PrePatching) WDDM Sync - VolBlt Test WDDM Sync Test WDDM Toaster - Invalid Param First Group WDDM Unmap Segment to DummyPage Check WDDM Verify DVI I adapters matches reported DVI and HD15 targets (Manual) WDDM WSSections WGF Create Device WGF Feature Level 9.3 Support WGF11 Async WGF11 Blend WGF11 Clipping WGF11 Compute Shader WGF11 Compute Shader - Dispatch and GroupSharedMemory WGF11 D3DWDDM WGF11 Depth Stencil WGF11 Draw WGF11 Fill Rules WGF11 Filter WGF11 Geometry Shader WGF11 Input Assembler WGF11 Interfaces WGF11 Multisample WGF11 -- Multi-threading -- one-way stress test WGF11 Pixel Shader WGF11 Precision WGF11 Rasterizer WGF11 Render Targets WGF11 Resource Access WGF11 Resource Formats WGF11 Shader 5x WGF11 SharedResources WGF11 Streamout WGF11 Tessellation WGF11 Vertex Shader WGF11 Viewports WGFVidMMWDDM1_2 Test WHQL FPO optimization check for kernel video driver(s) (1.1) Windows Client System Check For WDDM 1.1 Or Greater Display Driver Support Wireless Display Tests Wireframe WLP MultiTexturing WLP RGB Rasterization WLP RGB Rasterization - Mobile (WoW64) WLP Specular WLP Texture Sizes XPSRAS Display Driver Conformance Test YUV Blt Test (WoW64) YUV Blt Test Performance (DX9) (WoW64) YUV Blt Test Performance (WoW64) YUV Blt Test Performance - Server (WoW64) YUV Blt Test - Server (WoW64) [/spoiler] OTOH I'm pretty sure you can have an office or even supercomputer thats non-compliant with most if not all of the above test. How do we explain this 🙂

Must be a Windows 8 issue since there hasn't been a driver update for W7 in nearly 6mths. There was some problem with the eSATA ports and W8 but I thought AMD had fixed that bug.

WHQL really stands for "We Had Quite a Lunch" with the money you give them for signing your bundle with their certificate.

So true....

14.4 WHQL gave me a couple BSODs on my crossfire 7850 setup. I rolled back to the 14.4 rc and it is perfectly stable. I'm on an Intel cpu/mobo so this chipset change wouldn't seem to make a difference for me.

I hope this is related, and finally someone is going to fix the stop 0x0000007b BSOD due to AmdSataPMDisabled not being properly set to 0x0FF that happens on some SB7xx based MBs. The only solution is to start in IDE mode to change a reg value, or mod amd_sata.inf before installation. The last trouble-free ahci driver was the 11.12, and the current 14.4 W8 *.inf even has a line with the correct reg value, but it's bypassed due to a ";" on it's start. Multiple reports have been sent to AMD and this issue was never fixed, and the worse, is that WU also offers a faulty driver that leaves Windows unbootable on the affected systems.

I've tried to tell people this for years, but they just do not seem to get it. Beta for drivers these days are not like they used to be in the windows 95/98/Beginning of XP era. Nowadays they are just drivers not signed by MS with a digital signature. All they do is test basic OS functionality anyway.

Beta drivers are Beta, it's not a RC, don't confuse people about how good beta products are...These as you know are developing stages when prefinal test is being done, so in no way you can say what are you saying right now.

WHQL is Windows testing Certification for products, it just means, that microsoft confirms product's stability, even then, when pc crashes for huge audience of users.

Okay, weird. This weekend AMD pulled theÂ*AMD Catalyst 14.4 WHQL driver from their download portal. Today they posted the drivers again yet with a contemporary note stating that the reason behind it w...

Weird does not comes close to describing it. Five or six 14.4 drivers. All different. While I can distinguish most of them, by looking at the rest of the numbers, RC, date, etc it's really tedious. Because nomenclature is inconsistent and I can't find version numbers of all the components. Not in an easy accessible manner anyway. But OK lets assume I don't know where to look. I have 14.4 WHQL installed, ie amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe and now Catalyst Software Update suggests I should install amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe RLY?? :bang::bang::bang:

Furthermore they call this suggested version "beta", and I have "WHQL". But they are both packaged as amd-catalyst-14.4-rc-v1.0-windows-apr17.exe Not to mention I have unchecked Software Update option to check for Beta, and it still suggests I could/should install Beta: http://abload.de/img/ccc9yk6d.png

Mostly for these reasons i don't use and i don't recommend using drivers auto update function.