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AMD Driver issues

D

Draconian

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 8, 2012
Messages
333
*puts on the flame suit*

So let me begin by saying I've owned AMD/Nvidia GPUs, have ran xfire and SLI so I feel I've had some decent experience with both companies product offerings. One thing that I notice is what appears to be a very large amount of complaining or statements about how awful AMD drivers are. Personally, I've never had a bad driver experience with either camp. So can someone please explain why AMD drivers are supposedly so bad?
 
As a single card user I've never had significant problems. Maybe an occasional small developer game with minor graphical glitches which would either get fixed in a game patch or the next driver update after submitting a bug report to both companies.
 
Guess i been lucky......still never had a driver issue....but i don't do multi gpu nor do i have to have down sampling or free sync or the newest thing. Drivers as good or better than the other camp for me
At least half the time its user error;)
 
There were the quirky Youtube video behavior that was annoying, but is now fixed in the current drivers. My Samsung monitor every once in a blue moon will still cut off for some reason unknown to man. And Nvidia / AMD still suck at multiGPU configurations. Unless the game is on the front page of a magazine, it's not going to have a profile to enable more than one GPU.

I mainly buy Indie games nowadays so I relegate myself to one GPU. I keep hearing good things about Win 10 and DX12 handling the multiGPU problem on an OS level. So maybe I will try it again in the future.

The biggest issue with AMD drivers nowadays are strictly relegated to Nvidia GameWorks titles. Some argue that it's an AMD issue. I have concluded that since every single GameWorks title has issues, and the other 1,900 games in my library don't, that maybe it's really a shoddy Nvidia programming issue.

At any rate I no longer really care too much. I need to save some games to be purchased at 80% off on the Steam Summer Sale. Since GameWorks titles suck on my hardware so that I have to wait 3 months for a fix, I might as well wait a couple more and get it at a great discounted price.

Glass half full or glass half empty. All in how you deal with life.
 
They're not that bad!

I do think they're second best when it comes to game developers & testing compatibility.

I'd completely avoid dual cards with either brand too - go with the most powerful single card you can afford for the least headache.

The exclusive titles & features (physx) are a slight annoyance and unfortunately by buying an Nvidia card (to see the game at it's best) you encourage the problem.

As a HD 4770 user I mainly experienced:
> Broken OpenGL (older games, newer i.e. Rage)
> Crashes CoH 2 (broken "fixed" driver)
> The odd game that required a hotfixed driver / newer drivers would lose previous game fixes
> Dumping the card into legacy not too long after it was released - with no updates forthcoming (so much for the quarterly driver releases!)

I'd sum ATI up as being low cost, functional but barebones.

They don't quite have the flash and influence/support of Nvidia (just look at the recent promotions)


It looks like they've lost their way recently on the design front too - with the last few generations of cards being power hungry rebrands =\

HBM does look promising.

At the time I thought the HD 4770 was quite advanced for being powerful & frugal; which is essentially what Nvidia have managed with the GTX 750 Ti.

I'm in two minds myself as whether to go with a R9 285 / 280 / 3XX or a GTX 960.

I think the last Nvidia card(s) I owned were a GeForce4 Ti 4600 and/or a Geforce 6800 GT.
 
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I'll second the OpenGL comment.

I've got 3 rigs: GTX970, GTX670 (4Gb, not 3.5+.5 ;) ), and HD6870.

The HD6870 has "issues" with OpenGL titles which both GTX cards don't have. The game is cpu-bound, not gpu, so the relative age of the cards is not an issue. (FWIW, the developer of the OpenGL game has stated that BOTH firms, AMD and Nvidia, are not easy to work with when they're told they have OpenGL issues. However, Nvidia starts from a "better" position wrt OpenGL driver implementation.)

Otherwise, I don't see much difference between brands.
 
I've got a 290x in my rig and a GTX 670 in my kids rig and I've had more issues driver wise with the Nvidia rig than mine. I just had to roll his back to a 2014 driver because anything beyond it (329.40 IIRC) caused Batman Arkham City to completely crash at the Mr Freeze fight. Before that I had issues with Borderlands 2 hanging up all the time and running at 15 FPS for sections.

Have yet to have any problems with my 290x drivers. Anecdotal I know but just saying.
 
^^^

LOL! Yeah, drivers and card performance are more dependent on so many other factors than whether it's AMD or Nvidia.

There are good and bad to both sides. That's why I'm waiting for the 300 series. ;)
 
Well, from personal experience, the more exotic the setup, themore issuez you'll have. Although I feel that's the same for both camps. I've had a myriad of problems when I went xfire + eyefinity (with 5 x 2560x1600 monitors all using minidp to dvi adapters), with eyefinity using dp monitors, eyefinity with overclocked monitors to 76hz, and with other random eyefinity and crossfire issues.

On my wifes rig, she runs one card, one monitor, and no real issues except that here hardware is dated (q6600, 5870 2gb, 4gb ddr2).
 
Truth is they both have issues. I think a Nvidia does a better job at getting supportive drivers out for new games and AMD does a better job at making support for older games. AMD is a lot better than they used to be, but could still improve a good bit especially for some of the newer games that may not be AAA titles...for example Project Cars.
 
Do you mean game-related performance issues or general use issues? Like desktop glitches, monitors not working, resolutions not displaying properly (overscan). Because if we're talking about game support then AMD is dropping the ball.

I'm just tired of being told Nvidia and AMD are on equal footing. Yes some people actually believe that.
 
I've had a better experience with SLI compared to crossfire.

I'd rather cutoff my own dick and choke myself to death with it than use crossfire again.

Oh I forgot to say why. Look at games like farcry 3 (or 4 for that matter) where there was no or poor support months after launch.
 
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The Mac said:
all bets are off on Ubisux games...

lol
Click to expand...
It's too bad Ubisoft represents about 50% of the AAA market.
God help you if you actually want to play any of those games on an AMD card.

Which is a shame for me since I rather enjoy(ed) Watch Dogs, Assassins Creed, and Far Cry.
 
I don't buy games till they go on sale...maybe thats why i never have issues:) Another thing god only knows how many people have cpu bottle necks or other issues like not knowing what a fan profile is:)
 
primetime said:
I don't buy games till they go on sale...maybe thats why i never have issues:) Another thing god only knows how many people have cpu bottle necks or other issues like not knowing what a fan profile is:)
Click to expand...

I always register on my games' websites. They create a profile when I sign up. Does that count? After all, I'm a fan, and that's a profile. ;)
 
Draconian said:
*puts on the flame suit*

So let me begin by saying I've owned AMD/Nvidia GPUs, have ran xfire and SLI so I feel I've had some decent experience with both companies product offerings. One thing that I notice is what appears to be a very large amount of complaining or statements about how awful AMD drivers are. Personally, I've never had a bad driver experience with either camp. So can someone please explain why AMD drivers are supposedly so bad?
Click to expand...

Because Nvidia users have to feel good about themselves when they shell out all the money for their card ;) .

Look at raptr that even works on Nvidia cards and that is something worthwhile.
 
I'm thinking of sucking up 290 xfire, oc'ing the ram and waiting to redo my monitor and grab a 490X when they are a decent price.... I have had less driver problems with my 290 than I have had with my 660Ti or 470GTX, it is what it is, granted I could have a nightmare with 290 xfire as I've never personally dealt with it.
 
490x should be the FinFET card next year...maybe early the year after. Kyle said 400 series coming in 2016. Not sure where in the release cycle the 490x will be... probably get a 485 first (or 285 equivalent).
 
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