The AMD Driver Thread

[EastCoastHandle]

In January I tried two 2020 drivers & had to roll back to a 2019 driver due to them completely breaking stability, However the current release (20.2.1) has been okay so far.

That's strange because whenever I was able to roll back drivers they always caused instability with newer drivers. It's funny too because I will be missing features excetera until I use ddu or something.

I found that a fresh install without the ability to roll back to previous drivers has always worked best for me.

As a matter of fact I disable system restore on Windows 10 because it does more harm than good when it comes to stability. So when you post something like that I can understand why you are having issues.

When it comes to drivers I've learned to uninstall then reinstall only. Unless I purposely want to use win10 drivers.

 

[melmac]

I am not convinced that AMD’s current driver issues are just down to PEBKAC. Sure there is a some of that, but I doubt it is all that.

Remember Nvidia's Space invaders? Remember how all the Nvidia Defenders were out saying that there wasn't any issues, that the people complaining were trolls, that the issues were PEBKAC(wrong PSUs, etc etc) And that people filling in the polls saying they had issues were AMD fanboys and didn't have a Turing card at all.

Sound similar?

 

[TNA]

Remember Nvidia's Space invaders? Remember how all the Nvidia Defenders were out saying that there wasn't any issues, that the people complaining were trolls, that the issues were PEBKAC(wrong PSUs, etc etc) And that people filling in the polls saying they had issues were AMD fanboys and didn't have a Turing card at all.

Sound similar?

It does indeed

 

[gpuerrilla]

I am not convinced that AMD’s current driver issues are just down to PEBKAC. Sure there is a some of that, but I doubt it is all that.

Equally though its not just down to blame the manufacturer. So many components and then software in each machine means you have to troubleshoot somewhat before throwing in the towel. Partly to blame is the throw away culture and simplifying everything so that it is 'easy' stops people having basic skills.

Just in the AMD driver thread alone has lots of people daisy chaining the power cables and messing with overclocking software.

 

[Phixsator]

Equally though its not just down to blame the manufacturer. So many components and then software in each machine means you have to troubleshoot somewhat before throwing in the towel. Partly to blame is the throw away culture and simplifying everything so that it is 'easy' stops people having basic skills.

Just in the AMD driver thread alone has lots of people daisy chaining the power cables and messing with overclocking software.

Heh, I learned the hard way that you do not daisy chain a Vega card that is left to stock settings as that can lead to melted PCIe power plugs and that's with a platinum PSU from corsair.

 

[gpuerrilla]

The point I'm making though is if people are sharing advice, and there is an abundance of it out there not just on these forums, be open to try things and listen. Plenty of issues seem to go away when you logically apply steps. What's the joke is stating - "I couldnt be bothered with x,y,z I just need it to work when I push the power button and thats it". "So I got me an nvidia card and the problem went away" - lol.

 

[MyBrainz]

Funny thing is, a lot of my PC issues went away when i switched to Nvidia.

Game stutter and OBS Preview stutter were the 2 biggest issues i had on AMD and they were fixed right after switching to Nvidia. This is on a triple monitor setup.

All i did was DDU and swap GPU's.

I also daisy chained a PSU cable to my old Vega 56 on my current EVGA GQ 650w and had no issues, cables look completely fine.

Telling people its this and its that is all fine and dandy but maybe reinstalling Windows about once a year will fix most issues people have even though i suspect Windows itself is the culprit for most PC issues.

The amount of people that just do upgrade after creator upgrade and then complain about issues when they havnt done a fresh install probably since the release date of Windows 10 is pretty high tbh.

Maybe this is why Microsoft are changing to 1 big update a year, maybe they realise they are the ones causing a lot of these problems.

 

[EastCoastHandle]

OK black screen posts on Reddit end up in 4 categories.
a) Trolls who repeat the same post every month.

b) Muppets who do not listen insisting on trying to use 450W and 500W PSU 10+ year old PSUs, because the 7950 & FX8350 worked with it.

c) Those who do not want to listen to any advice. There were a couple over the weekend that everyone and his dog said to them update the damn B350 bios, but refused because "updating BIOS is dangerous". Yet the same time got a 5700 bought a Ryzen 3600 also. Or those who insist on using PCIe riser cables but again refuse to go to the bios to manually set PCIe 3.0 even on X570. No riser cable supports 4.0. Others just updated they monitor also with their cards using crap cables which when replaced all was fine. Fresh installation of windows 10 to latest version resolved issues also.

d) Those who listen to advice and come back saying that their issue was fixed.

Statistically the significant majority having issue with 5700/XT have AMD B350/450/X370 motherboards. Have yet to see someone with geniuine issues having X470, X570 or Intel motherboards.

But I wait to see the "Nvidia drivers are crap" posts when the first PCIe 4.0 NV card come out this year. Then they will blame themselves for not manually setting 3.0 into the bios on the 350/450/370 boards, or blame AMD chipset & motherboards?

Don't forget the people that use daisy chained PSU cables, you would be surprised how often i see this even from IT professionals.

Well said and would agree that it sums it up perfectly. There are a lot of variables that have shown itself to be true about this. It's impossible to ignore. Yet you get one/two still trying to say, "it's just the drivers" holds itself as whimsical and hackney and I simply cannot take it seriously at this point. It's "a driver issue only" has proven itself discredited.

 

[melmac]

Well said and would agree that it sums it up perfectly. There are a lot of variables that have shown itself to be true about this. It's impossible to ignore. Yet you get one/two still trying to say, "it's just the drivers" holds itself as whimsical and hackney and I simply cannot take it seriously at this point. It's "a driver issue only" has proven itself discredited.

Well, it better be a driver only issue, because if it's not a driver only issue then it's a problem with Navi itself and that's a much bigger concern. These black screen problems have been happening for months and no real solution.

 

[TNA]

Well, it better be a driver only issue, because if it's not a driver only issue then it's a problem with Navi itself and that's a much bigger concern. These black screen problems have been happening for months and no real solution.

Yeah but it ain’t happening to him, so apparently the issue therefore does not exist

Basically, it ain’t a AMD driver or hardware issue, it is just the idiots who do not know how to setup their PC’s properly. Yet somehow sticking in an Nvidia card seems to solve things...

 

[gpuerrilla]

Yet somehow sticking in an Nvidia card seems to solve things...

That's the part that is equally balloney. If you head on to their (nvidia) forums I see very common issues that affect both vendors to be fair so it is not just an 'AMD thing'.

The issue may still manifest, its just not in your face. Changing hardware might get rid of the issue but if its say a dirty feed from the PSU as its degrading, it will rear its head one day.

 

[TNA]

That's the part that is equally balloney. If you head on to their (nvidia) forums I see very common issues that affect both vendors to be fair so it is not just an 'AMD thing'.

The issue may still manifest, its just not in your face. Changing hardware might get rid of the issue but if its say a dirty feed from the PSU as its degrading, it will rear its head one day.

I am not claiming that Nvidia do not have driver or hardware issues. I just said that based on what MyBrainz was saying and what others have said.

Let's not pretend that there are no issues with AMD right now is all I am saying. End of the day until somewhat recently no one was saying anything about AMD drivers, obviously something went wrong with their drivers or hardware for so many to be having issues.

 

[gpuerrilla]

Let's not pretend that there are no issues with AMD right now is all I am saying.

My point was just countering your observation to even it out. AMD do have driver issues, not denying that, if so that is a software item and not necessarily a hardware item (just like nvidia's right?). Basing any fact on two forum guys swapping vendor is not a scientific ground to conclude it has any weight.

 

[TNA]

My point was just countering your observation to even it out. AMD do have driver issues, not denying that, if so that is a software item and not necessarily a hardware item (just like nvidia's right?). Basing any fact on two forum guys swapping vendor is not a scientific ground to conclude it has any weight.

Heh, evening it out. That was exactly what I was attempting to do when so many in here are pretending that all of AMD’s recent driver issues are due to PEBKAC.

 

[5t3v0]

I assume all the issues with the 2020 drives are only affecting navi cards? Ive not had a single issue with any of the 2020 drivers with my Vega 56

I wouldn't go as far as saying vega is not affected, certainly not from my perspective. I've been on 20.2.1 all month and only played BL3 during which time I have had 1 black screen, repeated game crashes exiting to desktop, artefacting when firing the trevonator gun (weird) and the same 8% performance drop in the BL3 benchmark that I've seen with every 20 driver. None of these issues occurred with 19.12.1. My rig is less than 1 year old and well spec'd but both CPU and GPU are overclocked so some occasional instability is expected, just maybe not as much as I am seeing now. That all said, i am pragmatic and am certainly not intending to make rash and naive assumptions that switching vendors is the panacea. AMD are having a bit of a tough time for sure but they've been here before and I'm sure they will overcome and prevail. The clock is ticking though

 

[gpuerrilla]

so many in here are pretending that all of AMD’s recent driver issues are due to PEBKAC.

I would say its unfair to assume most of the issues would be that, but certainly some of them are considering the female youtube video that was linked and the numerous updates on this very thread where people have taken advise then come back with issue resolved.

Vega still has cases of this. The navi cards just need AMD's driver team to up their game. The plethora of 'issues' is definitely exaggerated enough to become a meme to be fair.

 

[5t3v0]

The plethora of 'issues' is definitely exaggerated enough to become a meme to be fair.

The Silver Arrows have got to be hoping that AMD sponsorship doesn't bring them any driver woes this year

 

[SpudMaster]

I wouldn't go as far as saying vega is not affected, certainly not from my perspective. I've been on 20.2.1 all month and only played BL3 during which time I have had 1 black screen, repeated game crashes exiting to desktop, artefacting when firing the trevonator gun (weird) and the same 8% performance drop in the BL3 benchmark that I've seen with every 20 driver. None of these issues occurred with 19.12.1. My rig is less than 1 year old and well spec'd but both CPU and GPU are overclocked so some occasional instability is expected, just maybe not as much as I am seeing now. That all said, i am pragmatic and am certainly not intending to make rash and naive assumptions that switching vendors is the panacea. AMD are having a bit of a tough time for sure but they've been here before and I'm sure they will overcome and prevail. The clock is ticking though

Maybe I've just been very lucky then as not experienced those issues. Not played BL3 but both my cpu and V56 are overclocked and have been rock solid in games. I don't agree that you should expect some instability with an overclock. If you have stress tested your system sufficiently then you should have instability resulting from your oc.

 

[5t3v0]

I don't agree that you should expect some instability with an overclock. If you have stress tested your system sufficiently then you should have instability resulting from your oc.

Nothing stands still though. Windows gets patched, new drivers get installed, new games come along. What's stable one minute becomes unstable the next. My CPU OC is rock solid, it's just the GPU OC which is variable depending on the driver installed and the game being played. I have different Wattman profiles for different demands but gfx ocing is never 100% stable in my experience. Hell even running at stock isn't 100% stable

 

[gpuerrilla]

Nothing stands still though. Windows gets patched, new drivers get installed, new games come along. What's stable one minute becomes unstable the next.

Never a truer word spoken. I would sometimes mine on my equipment, if the miner file is updated - the dev toolkits and libraries change too i.e. nvidia cards have CUDA files. The core+mem settings etc can get affected so what was stable in the past may not be until you verify the configs properly.

Windows and device drivers are the same. You are always preached to update your software all the time to fix bugs or protect against vulnerabilities. Sadly all these software tweaks come at a price, which is why you should always have a stable copy backed up.