AMD drivers really that bad?

[Cysquatch]

I've been playing around with the idea of upgrading my gpu,  I have a 1070 and its doing just fine.  I would really like to push higher framerates though, and the 1070 isn't doing it.  I like the pricing/performance of the 5700xt, but I keep reading what a nightmare the drivers have been.  Do I look at nvidia and spend a few more $$?  Or is AMD's driver issues just being exaggerated?

[Zando_]

4 minutes ago, yaboistar said:

amd's drivers are a pain in the arse but the cards are a glorious ticket to AyyMD ascention and you should absolutely buy a 5700XT

X to doubt. 

Random crashes/blackscreens even with my RVII at stock make me wanna yeet the fucker off the closest cliff and never think about it again. And I bought it at launch for $700 so that's not something I'd do lightly. AMD drivers have been absolute garbage since mid 2019, first they broke OCing, and now they've broken full system stability altogether. Also the driver UI itself often isn't there (just a transparent window), or doesn't work/is laggy. I still need to DDU and reinstall WQHL drivers from last year, the latest I can find that are actually stable. 

Also AyyMD has had little ascension to offer unless you only believe in price/perf. Zen 2 is the only ascension of any kind they've had to offer so far (performance wise), everything before competed with Intel from 4-5 years prior. And on the GPU side, they've had good stuff in the low end, but not even the mighty RVII or 5700 XT can compete properly with Nvidia. Partly due to just plain not being as fast as a 2080 Ti, but also unable to compete with much at all because the drivers constantly fuck the cards over. 

Maybe AyyMD will be glorious once they get a fucking grip on the driver situation, right now fine wine is more like overly aged vinegar. 

 

[Midnitewolf]

I have used AMD for years and haven't had any major issues overall.  What tends to happen with new product launches with them is that the drivers are a mess and it takes a bit of time for them to get it under control but once they do, everything is fine.  Nvidia on the other also can have issues with the launch of a new product but they tend to launch better off then AMD and usually get the issues under control a bit faster.  This tends to make Nvidia a better option if your buying at the very introduction of a new product. 

 

As for the 5700XT currently, it has been out long enough that most of the driver issues have been tamed.  Personally while I wouldn't have touched a 5700XT at launch, I don't see any reason to hold that view now and considering the price to performance that a 5700XT offers, I definitely feel it is the best card to purchase at that performance level currently. 

 

[Gohardgrandpa]

I had a rx580 8gb card since launch and it was great no issues at all. So I wanted a new gpu and did some digging around for the best 1080p 144hz card and price wise it was the rx5700. I found one for $299 new and was so happy. Installed the card, ddu the old drivers, did a fresh install of the new ones and bam. Random black screens, horizontal artifacts when I start up games. When the card worked my frame rate in games was awesome but i was lucky to get more then 30 minutes play time before issues started to happen. It took me about 20 hours to figure out wtf was going on with this card. I rolled all the way back to the 19.12.1 drivers and omg, everything works good. No artifacts, no black screens, no crashes.

 

I flashed the 5700xt bios on it to get more performance and got around 8% more out of the card, temps are fine and performance is amazing for a $300 card. I haven't had an issue in days now and I've played an easy 12 hours of actual in game playing on the card and it's stable.

 

I personally would get a $300 rx5700 if you can find one on amazon and find what drivers work best for you. After knowing all is good and stable I would then flash the 5700xt bios on the card (as long as you know what you are doing) Do not flash the bios if you don't know what your doing. Research it heavily and read some more online. It's very easy to do but also very easy to mess up if you do it wrong.

 

For $300 I would rather buy a Rx5700 and flash the bios then buy a Rtx 2060 ko card. I had a rtx2070 for a while before and this 5700 performs very close to it for $100 cheaper.

[Cysquatch]

1 hour ago, Midnitewolf said:

Spoiler

 

I have used AMD for years and haven't had any major issues overall.  What tends to happen with new product launches with them is that the drivers are a mess and it takes a bit of time for them to get it under control but once they do, everything is fine.  Nvidia on the other also can have issues with the launch of a new product but they tend to launch better off then AMD and usually get the issues under control a bit faster.  This tends to make Nvidia a better option if your buying at the very introduction of a new product. 

 

As for the 5700XT currently, it has been out long enough that most of the driver issues have been tamed.  Personally while I wouldn't have touched a 5700XT at launch, I don't see any reason to hold that view now and considering the price to performance that a 5700XT offers,

 

I definitely feel it is the best card to purchase at that performance level currently. 

 

From my bit of reading this I feel the same way.  I'm just not in the mood for broken drivers, thats why I'm reluctant.

1 hour ago, Gohardgrandpa said:

Spoiler

 

I had a rx580 8gb card since launch and it was great no issues at all. So I wanted a new gpu and did some digging around for the best 1080p 144hz card and price wise it was the rx5700. I found one for $299 new and was so happy. Installed the card, ddu the old drivers, did a fresh install of the new ones and bam. Random black screens, horizontal artifacts when I start up games. When the card worked my frame rate in games was awesome but i was lucky to get more then 30 minutes play time before issues started to happen. It took me about 20 hours to figure out wtf was going on with this card. I rolled all the way back to the 19.12.1 drivers and omg, everything works good. No artifacts, no black screens, no crashes.

 

I flashed the 5700xt bios on it to get more performance and got around 8% more out of the card, temps are fine and performance is amazing for a $300 card. I haven't had an issue in days now and I've played an easy 12 hours of actual in game playing on the card and it's stable.

 

 

I personally would get a $300 rx5700 if you can find one on amazon and find what drivers work best for you. After knowing all is good and stable I would then flash the 5700xt bios on the card (as long as you know what you are doing) Do not flash the bios if you don't know what your doing. Research it heavily and read some more online. It's very easy to do but also very easy to mess up if you do it wrong.

 

For $300 I would rather buy a Rx5700 and flash the bios then buy a Rtx 2060 ko card. I had a rtx2070 for a while before and this 5700 performs very close to it for $100 cheaper.

This is good info, Thanks.  I do know how to flash GPU's.  Back in the day I flashed my R9 290 with a 290x bios.  thanks

[Gohardgrandpa]

If you can get the card from amazon for $299 get the rx5700 and see how it does on the newest drivers. If it's bad like mine was roll back to the ones I use and see if that fixes it for you. If so flash that shit with the 5700xt bios and enjoy the performance. If not send the card back and go with something else.

 

Trust me, I was pissed I had to do all that messing around to figure it out. Now that I've got it all set I'm very happy I got the card

[Techicolors]

i've been pretty lucky to not have major issues with my 5700 xt. as of now AMD has acknowledged the downclocking bug in the latest drivers, suppose AMD has reproduced the issue internally and looking for fix. however i heard claims that is a hardware problem, par for the course for such a new architecture. a shame because the bug is the only real issue for me right now, the card runs like a champ in games like RDR 2 

 

so honestly if you want a plug n play experience NVIDIA is a no brainer here. 

[SkyPhantom]

I had an rx 570 for over a year and I've had an rx 5700 xt for a few months. The trick is to do some research and read the release notes before you upgrade drivers. If you can do that its mostly smooth sailing and it's great as far as price to performance if you don't care about all the nvidia features.