I re-installed Windows 7 a few days ago on my computer and I've noticed that the Ati drivers are using too much RAM and CPU.
There have been instances where ccc.exe would use around 4-5GB of RAM out of a total of 8GB and shoot to ~80% CPU usage. I terminated that process and now atieclxx.exe is using 3.5GB of RAM(cpu is at ~19%). I'm using the latest drivers available. I just re-started Catalyst Control Center and it shot to ~60% CPU usage in a matter seconds.
The specifications of my computer are:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
8GB RAM
2 x Ati HD3850 512mb using crossfire(I don't know if it makes a difference but I'm only using 1 bridge)
CCC 12.6
I've noticed many cases of similar problems while searching the net but I couldn't find a solution.Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be?
Thanks a lot.
Updates:
If ccc.exe is terminated atieclxx.exe starts using too much RAM and CPU instead(~20-25% CPU and ~0.5+ GB of RAM)
I tried re-installing the drivers as climenole suggested but it didn't fix the problem.
Restarting fixes the problem temporarily.
EDIT: I disabled Catalyst on startup and stopped AMD External Services utility and everything seems normal. It turns out that stopping AMD External Services Utility would only cause problems if hotkeys or Overclocking were enabled so I just went to msconfig->Services and stopped it. Thanks a lot for helping out.