Are AMD GPU drivers good?

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:11

Yesterday, my PC started freezing again when playing BF4 and AC4, but not mirror's edge, which at first I thought was some sort of failure on the GPU'S part. But when I installed the latest amd gpu driver, it still froze and only when I installed MSI afterburner and I adjusted the fans did it play fine.

So my question is: are the gpu drivers actually that good or reliable?

snips86x · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:13

Which drivers did you install?

Wizzfizz · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:15

I never had any driver problems when I had my MSI 290x Gaming. I always do a fresh OS install when adding new GPUS to my rig.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:19

snips86x said:
Which drivers did you install?

I use the AMD catalyst control driver, the latest one that was released in April as it was suggested by the manufacturer, XFX when I first bought the card.

shankly1985 · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:32

What are your temperatures like? Could be over heating.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:35

shankly1985 said:
What are your temperatures like? Could be over heating.

I've only looked at CPU which idled around 40 degrees C and I can't remember gaming but how can you check GPU temperatures as I asked my friend, at the time about my CPU temperatures whilst gaming and he said it was fine.

arc@css · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:40

CurlySturly said:
So my question is: are the gpu drivers actually that good or reliable?

Apart from a relatively minor issue a few years back, I've found them to be no problem at all. So, having owned quite a number of ATi / AMD cards, I can say that my experience has been good.

varkanoid · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:54

CurlySturly said:
I've only looked at CPU which idled around 40 degrees C and I can't remember gaming but how can you check GPU temperatures as I asked my friend, at the time about my CPU temperatures whilst gaming and he said it was fine.

Either look in CCC or use gpu-z for the gpu temps.

TheRealDeal · 5 Jun 2014 at 12:57

So basically you turned up the gpu fan and the problem went away. That sounds more like a temp issue with nothing to do with good or bad drivers. You can monitor all things gpu with afterburner.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:00

TheRealDeal said:
So basically you turned up the gpu fan and the problem went away. That sounds more like a temp issue with nothing to do with good or bad drivers. You can monitor all things gpu with afterburner.

That's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure whether it was overheating problems with the cpu or gpu.

TheRealDeal · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:02

I would assume gpu as you turned up the gpu fan and the problem went away.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:04

TheRealDeal said:
I would assume gpu as you turned up the gpu fan and the problem went away.

Yeah. Would the increased fan speed cause any problems do you think?

Uncle Petey · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:06

Apart from noise, no.

Marine-RX179 · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:06

CurlySturly said:
That's what I was thinking but I wasn't sure whether it was overheating problems with the cpu or gpu.

What case are you using and how's airflow?

Without properly air-intake, even with the fans of the graphic card increase in speed blowing into the card's heatsink won't do much, if there isn't enough air inside the case...

TheRealDeal · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:08

CurlySturly said:
Yeah. Would the increased fan speed cause any problems do you think?

No the only problem would be whether you think its to loud. Also you would have to make sure over extended gaming sessions that what you have set is high enough to keep the temps stable.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:15

Marine-RX179 said:
What case are you using and how's airflow?.

I'm using a Corsair carbide series 200R which has an intake fan (120mm I think) at the front which blows air over the mobo and generally over most of the components and extractor fan in the center of the top of the case bringing air out of the case. Someone suggested, who helped me build it, to move it to that position because before it was directly over the cpu fan and he thought it may of been taking air airway from the cpu cooler.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:16

TheRealDeal said:
No the only problem would be whether you think its to loud. Also you would have to make sure over extended gaming sessions that what you have set is high enough to keep the temps stable.

What counts as overextended?!

TheRealDeal · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:24

CurlySturly said:
What counts as overextended?!

Just 1 or 2 hours of gaming none stop which should show your gpu get to maximum temperatures. If you have the afterburner console on it should show you your maximum temperatures over that period. If the temperatures are good then the fan setting you are using is good.

CurlySturly · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:25

TheRealDeal said:
Just 1 or 2 hours of gaming none stop which should show your gpu get to maximum temperatures. If you have the afterburner console on it should show you your maximum temperatures over that period. If the temperatures are good then the fan setting you are using is good.

Okay thanks. What would be a good gaming temperature of the gpu just for a rough idea?

shankly1985 · 5 Jun 2014 at 13:28

Or download heaven 4.0 set it to max settings. Let it run the 26 stages takes about 3mins and report back your max temp from gpu on msi Afterburner.

Anything below 85c