Valve and AMD Team Up for Driver Updates

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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AMD and Steam issued a press release announcing their joint collaboration to deliver driver updates through the Steam platform. Thanks to Rebel44 for the link.

Steam users can now detect and install the latest ATI Catalyst driver for their ATI Radeon(TM) graphics card directly from within Steam. Valve's most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows that fully 87 percent of DirectX(R) 11 gamers are enjoying ATI Radeon or ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) hardware.
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will this actually fix xfire scaling? that's all i want.
 
Hopefully Valve comes into the 21st century and implements something newer than DX9 into their next batch of Source engine games. The shadows in the Portal 2 movies look pretty sharp so I'm betting they're finally using at least DX10.
 
Quick! Someone try to find Episode 3 information hidden in this press release!
 
Would be cool if Steam could provide all major video card and audio vendor drivers.
 
What my question is is how WELL does it update drivers? I always have to go back and clean the extra parts of my nvid display drivers before installing new ones. Will this just be updating the drivers? Because if so color me uninterested
 
I don't see the point of this...

Windows Update already brings down ATi, Nvidia, and Intel video drivers, why does Steam need to do it to? Is this just for Windows XP users?
 
Like UnKnown-One said, windows update will do this, not that I would let windows update any drivers. Not about to let steam update any drivers either. More for non-[H] people I guess.
 
Okay Nvidia your turn, as much as I dislike the reliability of steam and that I MUST have internet to play most of the games that I own. It's becoming more and more an all in one solution for convenience.
 
Unknown-One said:
I don't see the point of this...

Windows Update already brings down ATi, Nvidia, and Intel video drivers, why does Steam need to do it to? Is this just for Windows XP users?
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The drivers pushed by Windows Update are a few revisions behind by the time they've been tested enough to be included. Steam will be releasing these the same day they're made available by AMD.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
The drivers pushed by Windows Update are a few revisions behind by the time they've been tested enough to be included. Steam will be releasing these the same day they're made available by AMD.
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That seems like a major plus for Windows Update and a major minus for Steam.

ATi's recent drivers have been giving quite a few people, including myself, no end of problems. We have issues with PowerPlay, flickering with hardware accelerated video, issues with crossfire, issues with overscan resetting, issues with profiles having to be applied multiple times for all settings to stick, etc, etc, etc.

The drivers on Windows Update are a few versions behind and went through additional testing? Hell yeah, I want those!

The quality of ATi's drivers would have to improve drastically for me to want the most recent version at all times. If their drivers were that good, you'd probably see them kept more up to date on Windows Update as well. Either way, I still don't see any point to integrating this into Steam.
 
TwistedAegis said:
Valve just needs to make a Steam OS completely optimized for gaming.
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That would actually be pretty darn sweet, and who knows maybe Valve is working on something sinister like that. I love Windows 7, but i'd love to be able to boot into something that loads only the bare essentials for running a game. Nothing else.
 
amdgamer said:
That would actually be pretty darn sweet, and who knows maybe Valve is working on something sinister like that. I love Windows 7, but i'd love to be able to boot into something that loads only the bare essentials for running a game. Nothing else.
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This is what consoles are for.
 
jeremyshaw said:
And it's cheap to upgrade a PC, too! (can be taken either way... :cool:)
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Not the way I upgrade things.......

I tend to be a power user so I usually go full out with upgrades. If I can't afford something, I just wait till I can afford something in that price range. As a result, my upgrades generally arn't cheap.
 
Unknown-One said:
The drivers on Windows Update are a few versions behind and went through additional testing? Hell yeah, I want those!
.
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Microsoft doesn't test for things like game incompatibilities or other AMD problems. They just test them enough to make sure they don't break the OS install. At one time, Windows Update pushed out the Nvidia drivers that messed with fan control and burned up cards. It's no where near fool-proof.
 
SicKlown42012 said:
Microsoft doesn't test for things like game incompatibilities or other AMD problems. They just test them enough to make sure they don't break the OS install. At one time, Windows Update pushed out the Nvidia drivers that messed with fan control and burned up cards. It's no where near fool-proof.
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And yet, I still trust it beyond the bleeding-edge drivers offered through Steam. ATi's quality control has gotten that bad.
 
As long as it's optional, I'm cool with that. Not ever newly released driver is going to be a good one.
 
amdgamer said:
Yeah, but consoles can't be upgraded and you get stuck with 5 year old graphics 3 years later after the initial release.
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THIS, running GTA4 on Xbox vs. PC and the difference is VERY clear... im never buying another console again unless they make interchangeable video cards
 
TwistedAegis said:
Valve just needs to make a Steam OS completely optimized for gaming.
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:confused: Really? Is your operating system of choice currently sucking so much of your graphics card that it's slowing down your machine, or are you just insanely behind the times and CPU limited?

Last time I checked, windows pulls less than 1% of my CPU and 1% of my grahpics power while gaming. Perhaps your so burdened with crapware/maleware/bad antivirus programs that you've got issuse, but to say there's a meaningful improvement to be made from booting into a special OS for gaming is just dumb.
 
Unknown-One said:
And yet, I still trust it beyond the bleeding-edge drivers offered through Steam. ATi's quality control has gotten that bad.
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Lol, your logic is flawed. Install 10.9 now, or wait a few months and install 10.9 later, ITS THE SAME DRIVER. It hasn't "magically" imrpoved by sitting on the shelf for a few months.
 
vengence said:
:confused: Really? Is your operating system of choice currently sucking so much of your graphics card that it's slowing down your machine, or are you just insanely behind the times and CPU limited?

Last time I checked, windows pulls less than 1% of my CPU and 1% of my grahpics power while gaming. Perhaps your so burdened with crapware/maleware/bad antivirus programs that you've got issuse, but to say there's a meaningful improvement to be made from booting into a special OS for gaming is just dumb.
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Actually no he's got a pretty good idea. They could even put it on it's own dedicated piece of hardware you could buy anywhere with their own keyboards and controllers. I down with that.
 
SixtyWattMan said:
Actually no he's got a pretty good idea. They could even put it on it's own dedicated piece of hardware you could buy anywhere with their own keyboards and controllers. I down with that.
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OOO awesome, I've always wanted to be able to buy something to play games on that looks like shit compared to PCs.
 
I'm down for a Linux Steam OS as long as all my games play really well. (and I don't hate MS either)
 
I would be fine with this IF:
  • Valve acted as third-party QA and did some testing for us before pushing the update
  • The contract stipulated a financial penalty for AMD for pushing bad drivers

As a private company of gamers, I trust Valve to get this right ahead of anyone else.
 
rflcptr said:
Just no.
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I'm pretty sure (well I'm hoping) that it was a sarcastic comment about how it would then be an Xbox/PS3. But then again, perhaps my faith in humanity is still to high and he didn't realize what he said.
 
vengence said:
I'm pretty sure (well I'm hoping) that it was a sarcastic comment about how it would then be an Xbox/PS3. But then again, perhaps my faith in humanity is still to high and he didn't realize what he said.
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Ugh, seems like I should refresh my pages instead of walking away for 2 hours and coming back to find he's already confirmed the sarcasim.
 
Nothing special really...I don't see how hard it is to go to game.amd.com and get the drivers in 2 clicks...
 
vengence said:
I'm pretty sure (well I'm hoping) that it was a sarcastic comment about how it would then be an Xbox/PS3. But then again, perhaps my faith in humanity is still to high and he didn't realize what he said.
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Knowing SixtyWattMan ... lol
 
extide said:
Lol, your logic is flawed. Install 10.9 now, or wait a few months and install 10.9 later, ITS THE SAME DRIVER. It hasn't "magically" imrpoved by sitting on the shelf for a few months.
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I never said it was improved by time. The older drivers work correctly and the newer drivers don't, so the difference here is that Windows Update is offering a more stable driver than Steam.

Like I said before, stable over bleeding-edge (especially with the drivers in their current state). Upgrading to 10.9 will break every game in the Steam catalog that uses the Quake III engine, I'm sure that's good for business...
 
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