Alan Wake: 7970 CrossFire and Eyefinity -> BSOD

[LordJuanlo]

I'm using the 12.2 precertified drivers and the 12.1 CAP3 profile for Alan Wake. System is on signature. Tried Alan Wake and after some minutes the game freezes for some seconds, I get a message on systray saying that the graphics driver has recovered from an error and then the game continues. After some minutes it happens again. And finally it doesn't recover anymore and I'm greeted with this ATIKMPAG BSOD.



Game settings are:

- 5760x1080
- 2xAA
- FXAA high
- VSync on
everything else maxed

The game runs perfectly smooth, 60 fps all the time. GPU usage is pretty good on both GPUS all the time. That's the only game I have tried that is giving me constant BSODs, so I guess it's a driver/game problem.

Here is the minidump created by the BSOD and the WER XML file created after Windows recovers on the next reboot. If there is some kind of bug on the drivers and the testers here can confirm the problem, those files could be helpful to AMD.

[Higgy10]

Originally Posted by LordJuanlo

I'm using the 12.2 precertified drivers and the 12.1 CAP3 profile for Alan Wake. System is on signature. Tried Alan Wake and after some minutes the game freezes for some seconds, I get a message on systray saying that the graphics driver has recovered from an error and then the game continues. After some minutes it happens again. And finally it doesn't recover anymore and I'm greeted with this ATIKMPAG BSOD.



Game settings are:

- 5760x1080
- 2xAA
- FXAA high
- VSync on
everything else maxed

The game runs perfectly smooth, 60 fps all the time. GPU usage is pretty good on both GPUS all the time. That's the only game I have tried that is giving me constant BSODs, so I guess it's a driver/game problem.

Here is the minidump created by the BSOD and the WER XML file created after Windows recovers on the next reboot. If there is some kind of bug on the drivers and the testers here can confirm the problem, those files could be helpful to AMD.

It crashes for me also, single screen or eyefinity with cf enabled. Literally within seconds of the game loading up.

[spyre]

Locks my PC up but doesn't BSOD it, other people can play the game fine though on their 79xx cards so not sure why it only occurs for some people. AMD haven't encountered it in their testing so far either as I reported it when I encountered it.

My 69xx cards can play the game quite happily.

[Higgy10]

Ya same as me spyre, just a hard lockup and no bsod. I only played it on the older ssaa drivers for a few minutes but it didnt lockup right away like the newer ones

[LordJuanlo]

With CrossFire disabled I don't get any problems, both single screen and EyeFinity, the game runs fine. I played the intro, the boat scene and got to the lake house.

Spyre, feel free to send my crash files to AMD, hope they can be helpful.

[Higgy10]

Its the cap thats the culprit, i uninstalled and it didnt crash right away. Only problem is performance tanks without it.

[LordJuanlo]

Exactly. Without the CAP file it runs fine but speed is horrible, around 35 fps in EyeFinity, with lots of stuttering (GPU1 60% usage, GPU2 45% usage). But no crashes. With CrossFire disabled, it's more or less playable in Eyefinity, same 35 fps but it feels much better.

[Higgy10]

Ya terrible negative scaling without the cap lol. 6048 with 2xaa ran at 9.8fps with cfx enabled but around 29 or so with a single gpu.

[Higgy10]

Good thing is its crashing for spyre too! So im sure someone in amd knows about it

[KAC]

I played a few checkpoints without issue. Max details in game.

[spyre]

I just don't understand why it would only affect some people, very annoying and super hard to fix too. The game locks up for me with or without Crossfire it just takes a lot longer to lock up on a single 79xx GPU.

[Higgy10]

Originally Posted by spyre

I just don't understand why it would only affect some people, very annoying and super hard to fix too. The game locks up for me with or without Crossfire it just takes a lot longer to lock up on a single 79xx GPU.

Did removing the caps make any difference in stability for u in xfire?

[spyre]

Nope nor does using a different profile.

[Skinner]

Running great here with ingame fxaa off and with 4x ssaa, smooth as silk and no crashes or freezes, best cf experience of à fresh game since times ��

[LordJuanlo]

Originally Posted by Higgy10

Did removing the caps make any difference in stability for u in xfire?

Removing the cap fixes it for me, but I haven't played for hours. With the cap it crashes in minutes.

[blurter]

Try turning FXAA off, running fine for me with single 6990 @ 6048x1200 with 12.2 pre cert and 12.1 cap3

[tehpikachu]

Originally Posted by blurter

Try turning FXAA off, running fine for me with single 6990 @ 6048x1200 with 12.2 pre cert and 12.1 cap3

Thanks a lot, that was the problem for me.

[gamingarena]

I have the same problem, game just freezes with Crosffire enabled, just black screen and i need to reboot, it does not take too long sometimes just 2 sec or so but never more then 20 sec...
Disabling crossfire not in the profiles but actually disabling it, works so its definitely problem with Crossfire.

Was going crazy thinking something is wrong with my cards, even though this is the only game that gives me locking kind of problem.
And i tried all Default speeds and underclock it so its software problem.

[LordJuanlo]

Originally Posted by gamingarena

it does not take too long sometimes just 2 sec or so but never more then 20 sec...

My system is very similar to yours, but I can play fine for 5 or 10 minutes, maybe it depends on the zone you are. My savegame is a the lake house. I walk through the bridge, enter the house and explore it. Then I go outside to the lake shore, I listen to the radio and even manage to turn on the power generator. Then the game freezes for 5-10 seconds and then continues (if I alt-tab out of the game I see the popup saying that the video driver has recovered from an error). For the next couple of minutes I get 2 or 3 more freezes with video recoveries and finally the BSOD that I posted, where it clearly says that the attempt to recover the display driver from timeout has failed.

I hope AMD can hunt this bug down as soon as possible, can't wait to play the game. I wonder if they will be able to fix it with a profile update, that would be great.

[LordJuanlo]

AWESOME news

There is a thread at Steam forums where developers are gathering information about the game problems for a possible patch. I posted about the 7970 CF issue pointing at this thread, and one of Remedy guys confirmed that they are looking into this issue

Originally Posted by MarkusRMD

@LordJuanlo we're looking at the 7900 CF issue

[KAC]

Yeah, heard about the patch earlier. Hopefully these issues will be fixed. Glad to see Remedy support their game.

[AdamK47]

New Game + Catalyst Drivers = Frustrating Experience

You people need to set your expectations low. Way low.

AMD has games with benchmarks they need to be optimising for. The PR/Marketing department will have a cow if they don't get the numbers they want. Sadly, Alan Wake must suffer for the greater good.

[Xion X2]

I see your point here, but that's inexcusable. User experience is every bit as important, even moreso, than boosting benchmarks to get someone to buy the card in the first place.

If people purchase the card and get unreliable driver support and bugs then they may think seriously about switching camps. Ebay is only a few clicks away.

Crossfire is really buggy right now on 79xx. Lots of crashes/BSODs.

[SantiagoDraco]

My system was bluescreening every 10-30 minutes after installing the pre-cert drivers and the cap. So not sure which is the culprit, but one sure was

I uninstalled all and rolled back to the 12.1s and haven't had any problems.

Btw I am not running crossfire, so the problems with the new drivers/cap's aren't limited to it.

[LordJuanlo]

Originally Posted by Xion X2

Crossfire is really buggy right now on 79xx. Lots of crashes/BSODs.

I don't find it buggy, Alan Wake is the only game that is BSODing for me. I find games with negative scaling, bad performance and stuttering (when will you fix Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, AMD?) but I don't have stability problems, with both SSAA preview and the actual 12.2 pre-certified.

[Higgy10]

What other games are u getting lots of crashes/bsods Xion? Other than this one for me, the witcher 2 with ubersampling enabled is the only one that comes to mind. Naturally i havent tested every games out there lol(theres a job!)

[spyre]

AMD have repro'd the crashing with Alan Wake and 79xx cards in Crossfire and are of course looking to see what needs to be done to fix it.

[LordJuanlo]

Thanks for letting us know Spyre, I hope it will be fixed as soon as possible, I'm impatient to play this great game.

[Xion X2]

Originally Posted by Higgy10

What other games are u getting lots of crashes/bsods Xion? Other than this one for me, the witcher 2 with ubersampling enabled is the only one that comes to mind. Naturally i havent tested every games out there lol(theres a job!)

Rift and Crysis. Both crash to desktop within a minute.

Cards are at stock speed and loading around 55c on a 950w PC Power and Cooling PSU. Clean install of OS Windows 7 64bit.

I have a heavy OC on my i7 but it's been Prime95 tested for 3-4 hours stability on both blend and small FFTs.

So my conclusion is that it's the graphics driver.. especially since I wasn't getting the crashing on the release drivers.