The AMD Driver Thread

LoadsaMoney · 21 May 2015 at 14:55

Even The W3 runs fine if you turn the tessellation down (and you don't see a difference when you do), its right up there with the Nvidia cards performance isn't it ?

win8.1 · 21 May 2015 at 14:56

Ayahuasca said:
Which is the answer I expected and devs for gameworks titles have said they didn't receive money to use gameworks either.

As said it's just conspiracy theories people like to throw around

You expect Dev's to come out and say it.

Why do you think some gamework titles run better on Nvidia cards? Nvidia's superior hardware?

shankly1985 · 21 May 2015 at 14:56

LoadsaMoney said:
Gameworks is in GTA V, Dying Light, Watch Dogs etc..., how come AMDs cards are not getting crippled in those, Watch Dogs, its faster on the 290 than the 780 Ti, Dying light maxed out, runs 70+ for me, GTA V, just about maxed (only have the grass on High instead of Ultra, and the MSAA off, everything else on/maxed), it runs bloody superb, 60+, what the hell is going on, is my 290X faulty for giving superb performance in GW titles, do i have to RMA ??

Maybe it's because the Gameworks that hurts amd is in Hairworks and Physx?

Ayahuasca · 21 May 2015 at 14:58

win8.1 said:
You expect Dev's to come out and say it.

Why do you think some gamework titles run better on Nvidia cards? Nvidia's superior hardware?

So it's okay to believe the devs that AMD don't but not for nVidia, nice double standards you have there.

Why do you think some gamework titles run just as well or better on AMD cards? AMD's superior hardware?

Reaper 392 · 21 May 2015 at 15:06

Type_R said:
To be fair...no dev is going to put nvidia advertising in their game free of charge! Yes in Project cars the devs deny having taken any money for it, but maybe it wasn't money that they got....maybe they got something a lot more financially rewarding than that...such as access to hardware/free nvidia cards to test on..etc!

The Nvidia advertising is in pCARS because Nvidia did a lot of advertising of pCARS at various shows and whatever. It is the same reason that there is Panasonic, Oculus rift and many more advertisements in pCARS.

If you want to know why the performance of pCARS on AMD is bad then your answer is here: https://www.techpowerup.com/212724/its-now-been-over-160-days-since-a-catalyst-whql-release.html
You don't have to be a genius to work out that a driver with no game specific optimisations is going to perform very badly compared to a driver with game specific optimisations.

If you want more evidence that its the driver making AMD cards perform woefully then look no further to the performance difference between windows 8.1 and windows 10: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/windows-10-boosts-fps-by-up-to-30-frames-on-amd-cards.328644/

I believe it is the same case with the Witcher 3

Mei · 21 May 2015 at 15:15

can richard huddy join in on this debate <3

seems like the same tricks for years ago
witcher does run great after some tweaking but its not great that amd users have to, nvidia even hobbled their own gamers and have to go into ini files to get it running better

whatever the reason it is making stuff needlessly complicated for me and spoiling games for people
thats not cool!

win8.1 · 21 May 2015 at 15:16

Ayahuasca said:
So it's okay to believe the devs that AMD don't but not for nVidia, nice double standards you have there.

Why do you think some gamework titles run just as well or better on AMD cards? AMD's superior hardware?

I believe if all was fair and there was no tricks behind the scenes Amd's hardware would perform as good as Nvidia's for far less money. That situation would benefit Nvidia users as well as they might finally see little benefit going Nvidia over Amd and Nvidia might reduce their prices to what they should be. (other pigs might fly situation which will never happen of course)

Nexus18 · 21 May 2015 at 15:18

Wow, lots of deleted posts in here lately!

Wait.... GTA 5 has gameworks in it? I can't see any gameworks stuff in it? Also, did R* not partner up with both AMD and nvidia for this game hence why we have the choice of things like AMD CHS or nvidia PCSS for shadows.

I do agree with shankly about slow driver updates for gameworks/nvidia games, not sure why people find it surprising that AMD can't do anything about gameworks titles, after all they can't work/optimise with that code (didn't a game developer come out recently saying this?) but for the other games like elite, there is no excuse why they can't get that sorted unless it is a problem with the engine or something that the game developer has to fix?

Also, watch dogs, dying light, far cry 4 run like absolute crap for me on my system regardless of me turning off gameworks and lowering other settings. Batman arkham origins is probably the best but it still isn't free from micro stutters....

As for nvidia/amd paying developers, if the games have an AMD or nvidia logo on the start up screen, then the developer has been paid in one way or another imo.

Mei said:
can richard huddy join in on this debate <3

seems like the same tricks for years ago
witcher does run great after some tweaking but its not great that amd users have to, nvidia even hobbled their own gamers and have to go into ini files to get it running better

whatever the reason it is making stuff needlessly complicated for me and spoiling games for people
thats not cool!

This times a thousand.

I am starting to get fed up with constantly tweaking game settings just to get the game to look as good as possible without killing my performance.

Consoles get more tempting each year, just sit back, play and enjoy.

win8.1 · 21 May 2015 at 15:28

Reaper 392 said:
If you want more evidence that its the driver making AMD cards perform woefully then look no further to the performance difference between windows 8.1 and windows 10: https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/threads/windows-10-boosts-fps-by-up-to-30-frames-on-amd-cards.328644/

Glad i'm on Windows 10 then.

That sorts it, any Amd user just move to Windows 10 and you will get very good performance for less price. Win, win situation

I don't think it's that Amd's driver is working bad in Windows 8.1 more that something in Windows 10 is causing it to work the way it should be. Whether that can be replicated for Windows 8.1 is another thing. Maybe Windows 10 get's around the tricks and offers a more level playing field for both companies.

Mei · 21 May 2015 at 15:29

yeh really!
it just turns people away from pc gaming
most people would never know how to find a ini file and tweak with notepad
and why the hell should they have to

why leave water and hair tessellation set that high
its just the same old tricks, lame

eyetrip · 21 May 2015 at 15:34

Correct me if I am wrong, but every Gameworks game that I have seen, the features have not been forced. They can be disabled. I know in FC4, gameworks implementations where selectable.

So these features aren't required, so why would they affect the ability to release drivers for a game if they can be disabled?

Boomstick777 · 21 May 2015 at 15:59

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Patch 1.03 for PC now available

Be good if AMD users could post whether this has improved their performance.

shankly1985 · 21 May 2015 at 16:16

Boomstick777 said:
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Patch 1.03 for PC now available

Be good if AMD users could post whether this has improved their performance.

Seen guys on Twitter saying it does.

Devrij · 21 May 2015 at 16:25

LoadsaMoney said:
Even The W3 runs fine if you turn the tessellation down (and you don't see a difference when you do), its right up there with the Nvidia cards performance isn't it ?

W3 would run even better if it used both my cards

trynoval · 21 May 2015 at 16:38

Calneon said:
Nvidia intentionally crippling performance for their users just so they appear better than AMD, yet again. Unfortunately for them it backfired and AMD users actually have better Hairworks performance than Nvidia because of it.

I must disagree. From what I see there is no crippling performance cheats at all.
I disabled hairworks and tested levels with tesselation enabled and disabled.

And game is really demanding. Look at this benchmarks.
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/The-Witcher-3-PC-237266/Specials/Grafikkarten-Benchmarks-1159196/
Nvidia owners are crying. And AMD performing better than nvidia.

Hairworks is the only thing that cheated for AMD. But cheated fairly. They integrate tesselation in every strand of hair. And nvidia is much better with tesselation.
From my opinion there is no sence in tesselation on hair. Tomb Raider 2013 hair looking much better. Without tesselation they can put Hairworks on every NPC in game..

But even with tesselation AMD is better than nvidia. Because we can change tesselation, and nvidia owners can't.

And there is no sence for anyone worry about hairworks performance. Hairs without hairworks is pretty good. Geralt's hair without hairworks is objectivly better.

thebennyboy · 21 May 2015 at 16:41

Boomstick777 said:
Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Patch 1.03 for PC now available

Be good if AMD users could post whether this has improved their performance.

My FPS is now worse, was never dropping under 50 FPS. Now it doesn't want to go any higher than 45FPS. I also now get a lot more micro-stuttering.

opethdisciple · 21 May 2015 at 16:42

So in the last 160 odd days AMD have launch only one WHQL driver and two betas!

Ouch! Thats terrible support. Truly the Omega driver is living up to it's name!

They are obviously doing something (i.e working on 300 series or Dx12/Win 10 drivers) but they NEED to also support current users and games. This is just as important.

Ayahuasca · 21 May 2015 at 16:42

trynoval said:
I must disagree. From what I see there is no crippling performance cheats at all.
I disabled hairworks and tested levels with tesselation enabled and disabled.

And game is really demanding. Look at this benchmarks.
http://www.pcgameshardware.de/The-Witcher-3-PC-237266/Specials/Grafikkarten-Benchmarks-1159196/
Nvidia owners are crying. And AMD performing better than nvidia.

Hairworks is the only thing that cheated for AMD. But cheated fairly. They integrate tesselation in every strand of hair. And nvidia is much better with tesselation.
From my opinion there is no sence in tesselation on hair. Tomb Raider 2013 hair looking much better. Without tesselation they can put Hairworks on every NPC in game..

But even with tesselation AMD is better than nvidia. Because we can change tesselation, and nvidia owners can't.

And there is no sence for anyone worry about hairworks performance. Hairs without hairworks is pretty good. Geralt's hair without hairworks is objectivly better.

I don't even...

YB2ndBEST · 21 May 2015 at 16:44

Been a while since I've messed with running max OC on a single gpu and Witcher 3 really responds to a nice clock on a 290. Averaging 50 - 55ish fps @ 1440p with everything turned up minus Hair and Chromatic garbage. Certain areas I'll see mid high 40's but wouldn't know it if I wasn't logging fps. No dips during battles either. I R Impressed

(edit, this is without sweetfx tweaks with aa and sharpening)

LoadsaMoney · 21 May 2015 at 16:45

Such a slow driver update cycle would do little to inspire confidence in buying the next-generation Radeon product, even if it establishes a performance lead over GeForce.

+1