lol pek, OS backup? Cleaning an aborted driver install is a bit of a nuisance, not a bad idea.
Anyways, driver reports are usually scattered and full of misinformation, so +1 to this thread!
Personally, I've found the large majority (if not all) of the 12.6+ drivers to be fine, sometimes you need to adjust your config accordingly and some systems seem to like flash GPU-based acceleration disabled with a few of the versions.
What people really need to be looking for in the new drivers: GCN memory management optimizations. Potentially, it could be significant for the new arc. Try running more than one GPU thread at higher aggressions to check for improvements (only an issue with 7xxx).
I will give 13.6 a test soon.
Dummy plugs:
? I don't understand why some need them and others don't. That hasn't been an issue on these machines for a while now.
Heya efx, long time no see. How you doing?
Yup, OS image backup only takes me roughly 7 minutes to do. And three to reimage if something has gone wrong. Which from experience, just an uninstall of a amd driver & driver sweeper cleanse and reinstall, would not be enough, leaving the OS or previous driver inoperable if reinstall was tried. Also, note! a lot of users complained, after driver update, they ended up reinstalling their OS, when I see that, I say, why not just image backup your OS, especially if the install is just for mining and the size is only 2-15 gigs, it would take one minute to two minutes to backup vs reinstalling an OS and the updates to that OS which might take hours if not, upon more hours then setting backup the mining software etc. If anything ever goes bad with a graphics driver update, a reimage is so easy vs fighting a broken driver leaving you in the dust. Yup@should express uninstall the amd driver, hop into safe mode, driver sweep with driver sweeper, reboot into safe mode, run registry clean expert and ccleaner's reg cleaner. Reboot, install new driver. But yes, I highly recommend image back your OS prior of any major update that could possibly break your OS, including microsoft/linux-kernel/linux updates.
I and others have face difficulties with some drivers 12.6+, jackjack is one user something about any later driver would crash cgminer while gaming trying these newer drivers. There are a huge mix of people with different results. I had a problem for the longest time, 13.1 to 13.2, I had software sensor problems that would not be read on my second card. Obv. they state these drivers fixed that, but personally, it was fixed for me at 13.2beta6 driver.
And yes, for disabling flash gpu accel, the person would need to open youtube, or some sort that can play flash, right click on the vid screen, settings and disable gpu accel.
And yet again, yup@ the dummy plugs. Some people can do without them and some need them. I think when a persons setup like myself, using intel as dedicated and amd cards as miners, the amd cards require dummy plugs. If it is just a setup "i think" with all amd cards,for some reason "has not been confirmed" they don't need dummy plugs. I believe it's from running a mix of graphics devices etc.
Edit:
Btw, reinstalling my OS decreased since I do image backups. Little bit over a year I've had mine installed.
C:\Users\Admin>systeminfo | find /i "install date"
Original Install Date: 5/21/2012, 6:35:19 PM
C:\Users\Admin>