AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all?

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Satanas)

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 09:49:06 GMT

I have little experience with Nvidia as I've run ATi cards in all the systems I've ever had. I typically don't have performance problems with new drivers, except in the case of my current laptop. Any driver beyond 12.4 corrupts the visuals of the screen, and support for the 5000 series isn't exactly not there anymore so I don't really get it. Never had an issue on my desktop with any new drivers.

Try doing a cleaner/sweeper of your drivers if you haven't already. It has helped me in the past. It's also possible this is a hardware or unrelated driver incompatibility issue. It's difficult to diagnose

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (AuToFiRE)

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:37:32 GMT

SilentNegotiator

I would rather a working card with daily updates than a card that doesn't do what I want it to (Blender for longer than 10 minutes and all games playing well).

All cards work. what stops them is either the Operating System its on or the hardware you are running. Both AMD and Nvidia are both good for hardware, but every now and then you might pick up a motherboard that needs a BIOS update because the graphics card you are using uses methods not implemented on the current firmware.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Ducky)

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:16:24 GMT

You have to make a difference between blaming the hardware you're using or the software.

SaintsRow3 is more of a case with the developers of the game not optimizing their game. Unoptimized software is something you'll run into no matter what hardware you have, be it AMD, nVidia or even a console.

I don't heavily use Blender, but didn't have any big issues when I did use it in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if it has rendering issues considering that AMD struggles with openGL, which I believe is used by Blender.
If 3D content creation was something you desired, then nVidia would've been a better pick due to CUDA integration in many software packages.

AMD's GPU are well-suited for gaming and offer a pretty good bang for the buck in most price ranges. If you want something more out of the GPU, then you get nVidia.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (SilentNegotiator)

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:14:25 GMT

I would rather a working card with daily updates than a card that doesn't do what I want it to (Blender for longer than 10 minutes and all games playing well).

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (AuToFiRE)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:28:33 GMT

Kon

No **** but no matter what i did i couldn't install new drivers. I was stuck with 2010 drivers until i installed windows again.

did you delete the 2010 drivers that windows stores for its own stupidity? If you dont delete them windows will automatically re-install them instead of the new ones.

http://www.efytimes.com/e1/fullnews.asp?edid=98643

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (carrcynthia2)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 21:12:26 GMT

I personally enjoy not having to install an update every day like nvidia cards

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Kon)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:47:12 GMT

No **** but no matter what i did i couldn't install new drivers. I was stuck with 2010 drivers until i installed windows again.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (AuToFiRE)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:42:52 GMT

Kon

The only way i found to fix the problem with my drivers was to do a clean install of Windows. Not even their support people knew what to do.

Thats a windows problem, not a driver problem. You are supposed to uninstall previous drivers, such as the ones from the previous graphics card or integrated.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Kon)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:37:09 GMT

The only way i found to fix the problem with my drivers was to do a clean install of Windows. Not even their support people knew what to do.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (AuToFiRE)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:36:18 GMT

Ive never had issues with AMD, always with nvidia though. I personally enjoy not having to install an update every day like nvidia cards

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (B Man)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:33:01 GMT

Hell my AMD card is only three years old and they have already stopped support of it with the release of Windows 8.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (SilentNegotiator)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:40:09 GMT

@Statix - I'm POSITIVE I didn't get a dud. The card works absolutely great with Skyrim, Fallout, Dead Rising 2, etc. After some googling, it's clear that AMD cards (especially 6XXX, 7XXX) don't work at all with Blender and lots of games have choppy framerates. Well anyway, thanks for the responses, guys. I just figured I'd see if there was anything that might indicate that AMD was going to do some overhauling of their drivers on any off chance. Just desperation, I suppose, lol.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (ZombieNinjaPanda)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 08:39:19 GMT

As you have learned, AMD have great cards, but they absolutely suck at driver updates.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Statix)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 06:45:19 GMT

I got my first AMD card after using Nvidia all my life, and so far I haven't had any major performance issues. I had trouble getting HDMI audio at first, but I found a workaround. You sure you didn't just get a dud of a videocard? I hear some people complain about AMD's drivers, but I've used Nvidia all my life, and I don't really notice much difference. I do miss the built-in FXAA option that Nvidia in its control panel, but that's about it.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (Rane-StP)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:34:23 GMT

Nvidia is the best way to go. Unfortunately AMD support just isn't there.

Re:AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (ZoyosJD)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:28:40 GMT

AMD products should be kept to closed systems where they wll get all the attention they need. When it comes to PC gaming nvidia does a wonderful job updating drivers by comparison. Dont expect things to change. It's just history repeating itself.

AMD Drivers Still Suck - Any hope at all? (SilentNegotiator)

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:06:01 GMT

For the longest time I have read "wait for the new drivers" for AMD GPUs. I've kept up with the drivers since I built my PC early last year. Nothing. They are still abominable. Blender still crashes because AMD drivers cause the memory to be wasted until it crashes, like clockwork, after ~10 minutes of use. Several games run like crap while other equally challenging to render titles are nothing next to them (ex: Saints Row the Third runs less than 25fps at lowest settings, Skyrim at more than 40fps on high settings). It's clearly not just me - AMD's shortcomings are well documented. Is there ANY reason I shouldn't chuck my HD 6XXX out the window and get an nVidia GPU? Has AMD given ANY indication that they care? ANY indication that they intend to make major...MAJOR fixes to the problematic drivers?