AMD GPU Driver Issues

[MrRX7]

Why does AMD from what I've heard and had issues with from my old R9 280X have such a hard time with the new R series drivers? is it all R GPU's? or only a few if so which ones? and do any of the 7xxx GPU's have driver issues?

And is it always a good idea to have the latest GPU drivers installed on older GPU's and then any GPUS in general / newer ones?

 

Also do Nvidia and or have they had any driver issues in the past?

 

[Levent]

i had driver issues since HD5770 but it got worse once i upgraded to 7850 and drivers are bit more stable for GCN Cards now and NO DO NOT update drivers that work fine for you that is like asking for trouble.

[rcarlos243]

 

Why does AMD from what I've heard and had issues with from my old R9 280X have such a hard time with the new R series drivers? is it all R GPU's? or only a few if so which ones? and do any of the 7xxx GPU's have driver issues?

And is it always a good idea to have the latest GPU drivers installed on older GPU's and then any GPUS in general / newer ones?

 

Also do Nvidia and or have they had any driver issues in the past?

 

 

 

on a more serious note, what was the specific issue?

[Dive5885]

 

Why does AMD from what I've heard and had issues with from my old R9 280X have such a hard time with the new R series drivers? is it all R GPU's? or only a few if so which ones? and do any of the 7xxx GPU's have driver issues?

And is it always a good idea to have the latest GPU drivers installed on older GPU's and then any GPUS in general / newer ones?

 

Also do Nvidia and or have they had any driver issues in the past?

 

My 7970 has the latest 14.4 driver and I have had no issues so far. 

[Semper]

General consensus is (at least, the internet seems to think):

AMD - less expensive - More driver issues - more overclock friendly

Nvidia - more expensive - less driver issues - less overclock friendly.

I was having to find workarounds for my 7870 rather often, it was always having driver issues with one game or another.

 

So long as the driver is designed to address your card, the latest is usually the best. Usually, as in, not always.

 

 

Six months in with my 780 FTW, and i've only encountered one driver issue - Diablo 3 didn't like running in FS Windowed, however it was promptly fixed about a week after that patch. In fact, i've seen a slight performance jump, pretty much across the board.

[MrRX7]

thanks all

[lani100]

I never had driver issue's since AMD 6 series cards came out only on the old cards like x1900 series and 3000 series.

[Briggsy]

The four Nvidia cards I've owned in the past decade have had drivers issues now and then, and the 3 AMD cards I have owned in the same time period have as well, but usually its an issue specific to a particular game/application, not a complete driver failure that turns your card into a boat anchor until you rollback the driver. if you have problems across a lot of games/applications at once, its likely time to RMA your card, because driver updates tend to include everything from the previous driver package plus driver tweaks for new games/applications, which is why the driver updates keep getting bigger in size with each update. Nvidia drivers are classic for breaking Adobe Flash, while AMD drivers can sometimes bug out Tessellation or Anti-aliasing with Nvidia gameworks games.

 

tl;dr: both brands have driver issues now and again, and if a driver messes something up, complain on 1000 different forums for 5 years roll back your driver.