ATI 5670, AVIVO, Catalyst

[rhinse]

Just got a new HTPC system with a Sapphire HD Radeon 5670 graphics card.
Everything seems to work very well and I can even play Blu-ray 1080P DVD rips
downloaded from the internet, although I have to use the Windows port of MPlayer
since MP doesn't seem to have the ability.

After having played a Blu-ray version of Avatar, I ran SiSoft Sandra and found a
temp of an unnamed component was 79C (174F) and a fan (also not indicated)
was not functioning or functioning poorly. Turned off the computer and felt the case
which was cool to the touch. I don't know if this is some sort of anomaly or mistake
but it got me thinking (not like I wasn't going to do it sometime anyway) about
offloading part of the CPU load to the GPU with ATI AVIVO.

Looking in the Catalyst Control Center, I couldn't find any menu for AVIVO or any
indication that the card was AVIVO capable although that was what the advertising
said. I thought maybe I needed the lastest version of Catalyst and drivers. The
versions or the software that came with the card are:

Driver Packaging Version 8.771-100825a-104559C-ATI
Catalyst™ Version 10.9
Provider ATI Technologies Inc.
2D Driver Version 8.01.01.1071
Direct3D Version 8.14.10.0779
OpenGL Version 6.14.10.10188
Catalyst™ Control Center Version 2010.0825.2146.37182

Surfing on over to the ATI(AMD) website I found the latest Catalyst/driver package
was 11.3 so downloaded it. However I also noticed in the optional downloads
section, the AVIVO Codec package.

Now I'm confused! I thought that AVIVO was a set of software programming and
hardware capabilities that were present on every Radeon card since 4200 I believe
and that the ability to control or refine these capabilities was part of the Catalyst
Center software/driver package. I find myself wondering whether or not I am
somehow getting GPU offloading in playback and I just can't see it or the capability
is just not there but I can obtain it by installing the latest Catalyst/driver package.
Or can I just download the optional codec package. If so, will MPlayer use it to
provide playback, or will this somehow magically enable MP to work.


Can anyone provide a good explanation of how all this fits together and tell me
what I need to do?

 

[stormy13]

rhinse, welcome to the Seven Forums.

AVIVO is a separate download to reduce the overall size of the monthly Catalyst update for those that don't want or use it. For those like you that do then you have to download and install the separate package. Assuming you are running the 11.3 with AVIVO installed and it has the new Catalyst Control Center (CCC) you should find the setting for it under Video (don't mind that it isn't called CCC, they changed the name of it for those with completely AMD systems; both GPU and CPU/chipset),



If yours doesn't look like that click on Preferences near the top right and set it to Advanced view.

As for those temperature readings, get rid of Sandra as it always has been and still is a buggy mess as far as hardware monitoring goes. You aren't the first I have seen have it give wrong or misleading info (try having it outright tell you that your CPU fan isn't spinning, when you know it very well is). A better option for overall system monitoring and not just the video card would be something like this,

HWiNFO32 Download

Also for just monitoring the video card you already have what you need in the CCC. Click on Performance and then click on AMD Overdrive, and there will be gauges and numeric readout for the temp and fan speed.

 

[Phone Man]

Not a guru on this but as I understand it. The GPU has a built in UVD (Unified Video Decoder)which is a hardware processor. AVIVO is the software codex that UVD uses to encode or decode your video. See the following site for more information.

ATI Avivo

You can try this program to monitor what is going on. Run it with your current setup and then install AVIVO and see if it changes the loads.

AMD System Monitor Version 1.0.5

If you decide to update your drivers, uninstall the old drivers first and then install the new ones. Do not use Driver Sweeper as some people recommend as it can dork your system.

Jim

 

[rhinse]

Thanks for the input!

I think I'd like to install the latest version of Catalyst and drivers.

If I uninstall the current Catalyst manager, will that remove the drivers also or is that a separate removal?

What happens to my screen if I remove the drivers?

Do I install the new Catalyst Manager and drivers and then install the optional AVIVO codec package?

Can I install the optional package on top of my current Catalyst Mgr and drivers or do they have to come from the same package?

I'm still a little bit confused by AVIVO. I have read that UVD decoding is present in hardware and is always utilized by the video card to process HD video. I'm not sure what AVIVO does other than provide a codecthat somehow works in tandem with UVD and insures that video is processed by the GPU rather than the CPU. I have also read that playback software must be able to utilize the AVIVO components (I assmue that means the codec) or at least interface with the codec to insure offloading tasks to the GPU. I iassuming that if the AVIVO components (whatever they are) cannot be utilized, all video processing will be performed by the CPU.

Am I even close to understanding this?

 

[Phone Man]

Yes you are getting close. The UDV is hardware and normally will handle the video. The Avivo is an enhancement to the UDV for higher quality and also has options that can be tweaked by CCC.

The Catalyst Manager handles the uninstall and install of all the drivers and related software. Go to Control Panel/Programs and Features and click on CM and it will let you uninstall all the programs or just some. When updating I use CM and let it uninstall everything. Then a new version of CM will be installed with the new software. When installing Avivo it opens the CM and shows what is installed and lets you install Avivo.

When you uninstall the ATI drivers the system will revert back to default Windows driver and your screen will blank out for a few seconds and then come back using the default drivers. That is why I don't recommend Drive Sweeper since it could remove the default Windows driver also.

Read this link to replace the drivers. Express will install everything in the package and Custom lets you choose individual components.

GPU-33: Graphics Driver Installation Instructions for Microsoft Windows 7

Jim

 

[smarteyeball]

That is why I don't recommend Drive Sweeper since it could remove the default Windows driver also.

While it can remove the default 'ATI display driver', Driver Sweeper doesn't touch the Windows Generic VGA driver so you'll never be stuck with a blank display.

But for the OP's needs, driver sweeper is unnecessary as already mentioned, a standard removal and installing the latest drivers will suffice.

 

[rhinse]

Uninstalled the original Catalyst and drivers as suggested. Went soothly. Installed the 11-3 Catalyst and
drivers. It established a new directory on the HD: ATI/Support/11-3_vista32_win7_32_dd_ccc_ocl. The CC
had a slightly different appearance but similar to the one in the removal and reinstall description on the
website. Aslo installed the AVIVO optional package. It added another directory to the HD: ATI/Support/
11-3_vista_win7_32-64_xcode. Reenteing CC, I didn't notice anything different.

I don't know know whether this has had any effect as far as transferring part of the processor workload to
the GPU. I re-ran Avatar Blu-Ray 1080P in MPlayer while running the Performance Monitor simultaneously.
I think it measures CPU workload and ran consistently at less than 40% as I played the video. It would
appear that some of the processor workload is being offloaded but, unfortunately I did not run the PM prior
to adding AVIVO.

If you know of some other test to indicate whether or not AVIVO is functioning properly, I would love to
hear about it. Thanks for all your help.