What is this AMD "driver issue"?

beany_bot · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:14

Hi guys. Look I am really sorry if I am opening a can of worms here but I am about to pull the trigger on a purchase of a 390x and I want to be as well informed as possible.

I have always had Nvidea cards but this time, while doing heaps of research on different cards. For me (the ~£300 mark) the choice has to be the 390x. On paper everything says this is the correct choice to make (for me) but occasionally in the tubes of the internet I see people (when comparing Nvidea and AMD) say "better driver support" as a +ve for Nvidea. or "bad drivers" as a -ve for AMD. I know what drivers are and do but what exactly does this mean? Have some games in the past been unplayable on AMD? I just want to make the most informed decision I can. Thanks.

Monkeh · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:23

popcorn.jpg...

No seriously its a non-issue - both manufacturers have been as good or as bad as each other over the years, if you play a specific game then either driver set can have issues with it, go with the card you feel suites your needs the best imo.

TNA · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:26

If you are sticking with a single GPU then AMD drivers are perfectly fine. Majority of the issues comes from multi gpu.

Every game will work with a single GPU.

As above, go with what suites you best, don't listen to people saying nvidia drivers are better.

Gregster · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:27

Historically when Nvidia have an issue with drivers, they get a hotfix out quick but AMD do tend to take some time.

Orangey · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:32

It's a myth.

Some people didn't like the AMD control panel software and confused it with "the drivers" because you can't actually see the drivers. They've got a new cpanel now.

beany_bot · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:35

OK thank you all for the sensible and unbiased answers!
One more thing..

I still play FSX (yeah I know...) but FSX almost entirely relies on the CPU to do everything. To combat this and make it faster/better, I use Nvidea Inspector to force the GPU to handle the AA and Vsync in FSX. It works really really well. Wondering if there is something similar from AMD that I can use.

Final8y · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:47

Orangey said:
It's a myth.

Some people didn't like the AMD control panel software and confused it with "the drivers" because you can't actually see the drivers. They've got a new cpanel now.

+1

TNA · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:49

beany_bot said:
OK thank you all for the sensible and unbiased answers!
One more thing..

I still play FSX (yeah I know...) but FSX almost entirely relies on the CPU to do everything. To combat this and make it faster/better, I use Nvidea Inspector to force the GPU to handle the AA and Vsync in FSX. It works really really well. Wondering if there is something similar from AMD that I can use.

I was into FSX a few years ago and back then I had a GTX 670 mainly for it because all the research I did suggested using inspector was the best way to configure and play it.

It maybe best going into the FSX thread in the pc games section and asking people there to be sure.

Winky_The_Winking_Turtle · 15 Dec 2015 at 08:52

The only "problem" is that NVIDIA always seems to be first to the bat when it comes to driver releases for new titles, usually day of release. AMD always seems to fall behind in this regard, maybe a week or so. But that doesn't mean both drivers are perfect no matter what time they release, they'll most likely have problems anyway so...

Final8y · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:09

Winky_The_Winking_Turtle said:
The only "problem" is that NVIDIA always seems to be first to the bat when it comes to driver releases for new titles, usually day of release. AMD always seems to fall behind in this regard, maybe a week or so. But that doesn't mean both drivers are perfect no matter what time they release, they'll most likely have problems anyway so...

How drivers perform over all is what matters most because i have seen many times where the driver released for a game on one brand is still behind in performance or has more issues than the driver from the other brand that has not been released for the game.
https://forums.geforce.com/default/...l-display-driver-feedback-thread-12-01-15-/1/

fs123 · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:19

Drivers can be a problem for crossfire setups but single cards are usually fine because most devs develop games that are tested with the currently available driver obviously. It would be poor form to release a game that doesn't work with a released driver for either vendor.

Hence why I can't remember having any game breaking problems with any new release on a single card. Sure some games will improve with newer driver which feature optimisations for them.

For example, Fallout 4 worked at around 40-50 fps on a single card (HIGH settings) on release and the newest drivers that added optimizations for it give 45-55 fps.

something daft already!! · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:25

Driver support from AMD has been pretty bad since they took over from ATI. You will be lucky to get half a dozen drivers a year and much less WHQL. I've had an issue with Elite and AMD since July which doesn't look like it's going to be addressed any time soon.

I will be going green next time.

beany_bot · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:33

howiepoohs said:
Driver support from AMD has been pretty bad since they took over from ATI. You will be lucky to get half a dozen drivers a year

To be honest that's maybe not such a bad thing...
I'm quite frankly sick to the back teeth with Nvidea sending me a new driver every 4 days. And every time I install the new driver I have to reconfigure Nvidea Inspector for FSX.

something daft already!! · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:42

The problem with few drivers is when you get a problem like there is with Elite, it won't get fixed for a while. This problem is 5-6 months old and counting. I know the grass is greener or redder on the other side of the fence and they all have issues. I think the AMD cards are slightly faster so there's that.

Final8y · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:44

howiepoohs said:
Driver support from AMD has been pretty bad since they took over from ATI. You will be lucky to get half a dozen drivers a year and much less WHQL. I've had an issue with Elite and AMD since July which doesn't look like it's going to be addressed any time soon.

I will be going green next time.

Besides Elite which i dont have In my experience driver support has been getting better and better, the driver stigma that AMD has came from ATI when they really were bad and lucky for me ATI started to get there act together before i got into PC gaming, so i have had a pretty much trouble free ride.

Marine-RX179 · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:49

howiepoohs said:
The problem with few drivers is when you get a problem like there is with Elite, it won't get fixed for a while. This problem is 5-6 months old and counting. I know the grass is greener or redder on the other side of the fence and they all have issues. I think the AMD cards are slightly faster so there's that.

I think the problem with Elite Dangerous is the lack of crossfire support isn't it? Still Elite is a bit of a niche game, and majority of the users using single GPU...but yes I can understand the frustration for those that play that as their main game and not getting the most out of the crossfire setup.

Nvidia themselve didn't get the driver support and optimisation sorted for the Kepler cards and older cards (700 series and older) even for single GPU cards for the new AAA titles for 6 months due to too focus on pushing the newly released 900 series at the time, so it's not always "greener" on the other side of the fence.

Final8y · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:51

howiepoohs said:
The problem with few drivers is when you get a problem like there is with Elite, it won't get fixed for a while.This problem is 5-6 months old and counting. I know the grass is greener or redder on the other side of the fence and they all have issues. I think the AMD cards are slightly faster so there's that.

Failed logic! because if it was just about frequency of drivers and that the next driver would fix all current issues then Elite would have been fixed a long time ago as many drivers has been released since Elite, so the frequency of drivers is not the issue in regards to Elite situation, releasing many drivers does not guaranty a fix.

Marine-RX179 · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:55

Final8y said:
Failed logic! because if it was just about frequency of drivers then the next driver would fix all current issues then Elite would have been fixed a long time ago as many drivers has been released since Elite, so the frequency of drivers is not the issue in regards to Elite situation, releasing many drivers does not guaranty a fix.

Now that you mentioned it, frequent drivers update might not always be a good thing.

I mean people have a habit of updating their driver everytime a new driver comes out and just assume they will get more performance because of it, but on many occassions already where I've seen people jumping on the new driver, and after some benchmarking and running some games they decided to rollback to older one to do having less performance than the older driver (and it is not AMD driver I am talking about

)

Final8y · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:57

Marine-RX179 said:
I think the problem with Elite Dangerous is the lack of crossfire support isn't it? Still Elite is a bit of a niche game, and majority of the users using single GPU...but yes I can understand the frustration for those that play that as their main game and not getting the most out of the crossfire setup.

Nvidia themselve didn't get the driver support and optimisation sorted for the Kepler cards and older cards (700 series and older) even for single GPU cards for the new AAA titles for 6 months due to too focus on pushing the newly released 900 series at the time, so it's not always "greener" on the other side of the fence.

If you look at the NV link i posted the first 2 pages are nothing but SLI support complaints.

Marine-RX179 · 15 Dec 2015 at 09:59

Final8y said:
If you look at the NV link i posted the first 2 pages are nothing but SLI support complaints.

I wouldn't have any idea...I assumed that SLI is working perfectly for that game due to some Nvidia users here kept bringing how crap Crossfire is for Elite.

No wonder the general impression that Nvidia driver is better than AMD driver