Gpu amd driver

[hollyh88]

So I ordered a 6950xt and it will be delivered tomorrow. For those who wonder which one it's this one:

https://pg.asrock.com/Graphics-Card/AMD/Radeon RX 6950 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC/ 

 

I'm coming from a 2070s so I'll definitely use ddu before installing the new gpu. I originally was going to get a 4070ti but seeing those prices (900-1000 euros) I thought no. Then the 4070 came and well the price here is still around 680 euros as a starting price. This costed me 670. For more performance I thought that was absolutely better. The additional power doesn't bother me much. (See my sign for my current built)

 

But I have a question. And that is of course which driver I should install. As I've heard here in there that some are more stable than others. So with that knowledge I come here to ask which one I should download. The latest or a specific one? 

 

And an additional question too. I own a 3800xt on a b450 mobo. Is this compatible with sam for the gpu? As it then would be a full amd build. I haven't exactly kept up to date with this feature. 

[filpo]

6 minutes ago, hollyh88 said:

But I have a question. And that is of course which driver I should install. As I've heard here in there that some are more stable than others. So with that knowledge I come here to ask which one I should download. The latest or a specific one? 

the latest since their latest one has fixed some problems and made the 6800 on par with the 4070 and 3080. Download the latest when you get the card

[filpo]

8 minutes ago, hollyh88 said:

And an additional question too. I own a 3800xt on a b450 mobo. Is this compatible with sam for the gpu? As it then would be a full amd build. I haven't exactly kept up to date with this feature. 

no unfortunately it isn't but you don't need to worry as it only benefits with better cpus and 4k monitors where a lot of vram is used at one time. For SAM to work you will need a 5000 series cpu and 500 series mobo

[The Pizza Man]

I would just install their latest driver and see how it performs on your system, monitoring any crashes or weird behaviour as you go.

[filpo]

1 minute ago, The Pizza Man said:

I would just install their latest driver and see how it performs on your system, monitoring any crashes or weird behaviour as you go.

haven't you got an rx 6800? How's that for you in terms of stutters and driver problems?

[aDoomGuy]

5 minutes ago, filpo said:

no unfortunately it isn't but you don't need to worry as it only benefits with better cpus and 4k monitors where a lot of vram is used at one time. For SAM to work you will need a 5000 series cpu and 500 series mobo

This is not true. SAM is actually fully working on Ryzen 3000 and B450 boards. The board needs to have the BIOS update for that but most at least have that to download.

 

OP: Install the latest driver, yes.

[filpo]

1 minute ago, aDoomGuy said:

This is not true. SAM is actually fully working on Ryzen 3000 and B450 boards. The board needs to have the BIOS update for that but most at least have that to download.

 

OP: Install the latest driver, yes.

didn't know that bout sam thanks

[emothxughts]

16 minutes ago, hollyh88 said:

So I ordered a 6950xt and it will be delivered tomorrow. For those who wonder which one it's this one:

https://pg.asrock.com/Graphics-Card/AMD/Radeon RX 6950 XT Phantom Gaming 16GB OC/ 

 

I'm coming from a 2070s so I'll definitely use ddu before installing the new gpu. I originally was going to get a 4070ti but seeing those prices (900-1000 euros) I thought no. Then the 4070 came and well the price here is still around 680 euros as a starting price. This costed me 670. For more performance I thought that was absolutely better. The additional power doesn't bother me much. (See my sign for my current built)

 

But I have a question. And that is of course which driver I should install. As I've heard here in there that some are more stable than others. So with that knowledge I come here to ask which one I should download. The latest or a specific one? 

 

And an additional question too. I own a 3800xt on a b450 mobo. Is this compatible with sam for the gpu? As it then would be a full amd build. I haven't exactly kept up to date with this feature. 

For drivers, you should get the WHQL drivers. The latest one is here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-4-2 (Reminder to self to download & install this one for my PC...)

 

For SAM/ReBAR, it's a bit more complicated. I'm running a R5 3600 CPU and the Asrock Steel Legend B450M mobo, I was able to enable Rebar in the BIOS, with the latest BIOS version of course. When the system is paired with an RX5600XT card that i used to have, I couldn't get the SAM option in the AMD Software to be enabled, however GPU-Z reports that Rebar is enabled and the BAR size that it reports is indeed larger than 256MB.

[hollyh88]

1 hour ago, aDoomGuy said:

This is not true. SAM is actually fully working on Ryzen 3000 and B450 boards. The board needs to have the BIOS update for that but most at least have that to download.

 

OP: Install the latest driver, yes.

54 minutes ago, emothxughts said:

For drivers, you should get the WHQL drivers. The latest one is here: https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-4-2 (Reminder to self to download & install this one for my PC...)

 

For SAM/ReBAR, it's a bit more complicated. I'm running a R5 3600 CPU and the Asrock Steel Legend B450M mobo, I was able to enable Rebar in the BIOS, with the latest BIOS version of course. When the system is paired with an RX5600XT card that i used to have, I couldn't get the SAM option in the AMD Software to be enabled, however GPU-Z reports that Rebar is enabled and the BAR size that it reports is indeed larger than 256MB.

about the sam thing, i see in my bios indeed an option for "above 4g memory/cryptocurrency mining"
im guessing this is what i have to enable to allow my pc tomorrow to enable sam in the radeon software? should i enable this today already or wait and only after i confirmed that the gpu works as it should when booting up the pc and after having downloaded the necessary radeon drivers?

And also thank you for the link @emothxughts

[aDoomGuy]

15 hours ago, hollyh88 said:

about the sam thing, i see in my bios indeed an option for "above 4g memory/cryptocurrency mining"
im guessing this is what i have to enable to allow my pc tomorrow to enable sam in the radeon software? should i enable this today already or wait and only after i confirmed that the gpu works as it should when booting up the pc and after having downloaded the necessary radeon drivers?

And also thank you for the link @emothxughts

You should wait until the hardware is ready. Enabling on unsupported hardware can cause some issues.

 

All I think you need to enable is "above 4g decoding". I can check on my system to be sure.

Yes.

 

Above 4G decoding: enabled

Resize bar: auto

Some other thing is disabled.

[QuantumSingularity]

Driver wise go with the latest one there is. Each driver update brings some performance uplift. Did 2 driver updates since i had my 6900XT and with both got on average 5 FPS uplift in performance. Even in cyberpunk raised the average from mid-60s to low-70s with RT enabled at 1440p. 

It's really funny cause just like their business strategies, AMD and Nvidia have the mirror image of drivers policies as well. Now AMD start bad, but improve over time and with Nvidia is the other way around - start good and worsen with every driver update.   

As for SAM - enable it. It's more than worth it. Just a sidenote. If you don't have you HDD in GPT format and it's in the old MBR, you might need to redo the installation, since in order for Above 4G decoding to work, you need to disable CSM in BIOS. And to disable CMS, your boot drive needs to be in GPT format.

[hollyh88]

5 hours ago, aDoomGuy said:

You should wait until the hardware is ready. Enabling on unsupported hardware can cause some issues.

 

All I think you need to enable is "above 4g decoding". I can check on my system to be sure.

Yes.

 

Above 4G decoding: enabled

Resize bar: auto

Some other thing is disabled.

so with me its just called differently? cause all i saw was that name under the section its supposed to be at. 

also, so far the card is running fine and i see a pretty decent perf uplift over my 2070s ofc bit bottlenecked by a 3800xt but not so bad so far. for example, cyberpunk 2077 at 1440p max settings thus ultra etc without raytracing with fsr to quality i get about 40fps from barely 60 with the 2070s to just above 100 with the 6950xt i got. without changing and perf settings orso in the software

[hollyh88]

10 hours ago, QuantumSingularity said:

Driver wise go with the latest one there is. Each driver update brings some performance uplift. Did 2 driver updates since i had my 6900XT and with both got on average 5 FPS uplift in performance. Even in cyberpunk raised the average from mid-60s to low-70s with RT enabled at 1440p. 

It's really funny cause just like their business strategies, AMD and Nvidia have the mirror image of drivers policies as well. Now AMD start bad, but improve over time and with Nvidia is the other way around - start good and worsen with every driver update.   

As for SAM - enable it. It's more than worth it. Just a sidenote. If you don't have you HDD in GPT format and it's in the old MBR, you might need to redo the installation, since in order for Above 4G decoding to work, you need to disable CSM in BIOS. And to disable CMS, your boot drive needs to be in GPT format.

i have an ssd as a boot drive but i dont think its uefi compatible unless i completely get rith of the data and change it to be so. and i think you need that for sam so i can enable above 4g memory/cryptocurrency mining but it still wont show in the radeon software that i can enable sam. bit of a shame

[QuantumSingularity]

14 hours ago, hollyh88 said:

i have an ssd as a boot drive but i dont think its uefi compatible unless i completely get rith of the data and change it to be so. and i think you need that for sam so i can enable above 4g memory/cryptocurrency mining but it still wont show in the radeon software that i can enable sam. bit of a shame

It won't be UEFI compatible if you formatted it in MBR. When you have it in MBR, you have to have CSM enabled. And when CSM is enabled even if Above 4G is enabled in BIOS, it;s not enabled when Windows loads, so that's why you don't see SAM as active. There are ways to change it from MBR to GPT w/o losing data, but all the software that can do this is paid. And paying for a one time use is just a big no-no for me, so i decided to go the free route of copying my valuable data on an externa drive and do a fresh windows install, with proper table partitioning this time.

[hollyh88]

1 hour ago, QuantumSingularity said:

It won't be UEFI compatible if you formatted it in MBR. When you have it in MBR, you have to have CSM enabled. And when CSM is enabled even if Above 4G is enabled in BIOS, it;s not enabled when Windows loads, so that's why you don't see SAM as active. There are ways to change it from MBR to GPT w/o losing data, but all the software that can do this is paid. And paying for a one time use is just a big no-no for me, so i decided to go the free route of copying my valuable data on an externa drive and do a fresh windows install, with proper table partitioning this time.

yeah i may be forced to do this as well then if i want the benefits of it. and then i can also get a bigger windows drive as my current one is only 120gb (from when i first bought it to build my original pc). anyhow thanks ill do that at some point then. 

[aDoomGuy]

On 4/22/2023 at 4:54 PM, hollyh88 said:

so with me its just called differently? cause all i saw was that name under the section its supposed to be at. 

Other board vendors may call it different things yes.