Discussion/Rant - AMD GPU drivers SUCK

[Milton_Moore27]

So call me biased, stupid, whatever. All of which may be true, but I wanted to get a discussion going regarding the experiences I've had, and those my friends have had with AMD drivers for their GPUs. Feel free to add input and your experiences.

First off, I want to start off with what I've run into at my local community college that I attend...

You'd imagine that a state-owned college would put some money and some thought into their computer systems, right? Yeah, let's go with that. Most of the systems that are being used are Dell OptiPlex 9010 desktop PCs, loaded with an Intel Core i5 3570 @ 3.4 GHz. Not bad, probably the only good thing that the school thought of. Some systems have an i7 3770 in them, but those are scarce. The standard 8GB DDR3, yada yada yada... Ideally, these would be running Intel HD Graphics 4000. Ha, they decided to load it with an AMD Radeon HD7470. Okay, so it has dedicated graphics. Neat. One problem, Deep Freeze is installed. For those who haven't heard of that, it's a software that restores the PC to a certain restore point after it is shut down. The way the college has it, it's set to factory default, with maybe two or three programs installed additionally. So basically drivers and Windows updates are eliminated. Which brings me to a major complaint. THE AMD DRIVERS SUCK! For this particular set of computers, the AMD Catalyst drivers constantly crash in the most basic situations LIKE WEB BROWSING. It's pathetic!

Now, to one of my friend's cases... For Christmas in 2013 he got an ASUS Radeon R9 280X. Supposed to be a fantastic card, right? Well, he ran into an issue. Artifacts, crashes, and crashes. The card even shorted out some of his components, so he had to RMA half of his build. He sent off his card via RMA to ASUS (given it was properly packaged, and protected). ASUS sent it back, saying nothing was wrong with it, and they put it in a box. Was it in an anti-static bag or in a protected environment? Ha, no. He even claims that strangely, it smelled like someone had spilled Ramen on it... he tried it again when all of his components came back. Same result. He sent it off again, with no success. ASUS refused to replace the card. From reviews that I've seen, other R9 280X users have had problems with all of the brands, but specifically the ASUS model. It seems to me that AMD is throwing the support for the R9 280X out the window and not releasing any [working] patches in the drivers (correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't heard from my friend regarding his drivers).

So with the announcement of the R9 3XX series cards, AMD is trying to pounce back at NVIDIA's GTX 970, 980, and even the 960 (whenever it comes out). Will AMD fix the issues of the R9 2XX series, or will they fall further in the rut in the battle of the GPU world? I'm hoping to see a comeback because it gives NVIDIA competition and keeps the prices from skyrocketing.

[Katsu-K1L]

Honestly what you said about crashes is true...After effects won't run at all with my cards...;_: i do have some artficats and glitches in games but not too much its still an awesome card, wish amd would make some decent drivers

though the cooling on my card is amazing

#VaporX_MasterRace

[Extingquish]

While I do have some driver crashes, it's really not that bad, and it's whenever I'm folding, meaning the GPU is at 98-99% load the whole time

[The_Evenger]

hmmm... i obviously don't speak for everyone with an AMD card, but i hate the NVidia drivers, the Geforce GT 440 was the most unstable card i have ever used, same basic situation: artifacts, unstable, and reduced the card's clock as far as i can go and it was still unstable, so i would say it's the card, not the drivers.

 

when it comes down to it, it has to be something else, because my last two sets of cards are my duel Radeon HD 6950s, amd my current duel R9 290s were/are just fine.

 

the 6950s would OC insanely high, but would become unstable when switching from 2d rending to 3d render @ 90C ( it was a temp problem) and my 290s do artifact before they go unstable, but i can push a good 27% extra out of them before i run into temp problems.

 

if you ask me, it's not the drivers because I haven't had any issues with them. I'm 99% it's something else.

 

Edit: and i've never had my drivers crash for my current build, so idonno man.

[Jack.EXE]

I must be buying from a different AMD than you, I've only ever had one issue with AMD drivers, and it was a windows issue in itself.

 

I've used AMD since this build's conception in 2010, and have never run into any of the issues you've had.

[Briggsy]

I've had more nvidia driver issues in the past 10 years than AMD, but Nvidia's issues were mostly to do with GPU boost getting caught with its pants down. Fermi was the worst for that.

[H4X3R]

I had an R9 290 GPU for nearly a year and no problems. Now with a GTX 970 i am having multiple driver issues and crashes.

[dragosudeki]

I know man... If there was only one company that is completely perfect... That would probably blow AMD and Nvidia out.

[Liam-McShane]

I don't have problems. Neither AMD nor Nvidia produce perfect drivers.

[Prokart2000]

mines ok

[Jack.EXE]

I've had more nvidia driver issues in the past 10 years than AMD, but Nvidia's issues were mostly to do with GPU boost getting caught with its pants down. Fermi was the worst for that.

 

I had an R9 290 GPU for nearly a year and no problems. Now with a GTX 970 i am having multiple driver issues and crashes.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jdokyo9xeM

 

Anyone who watches Jordan, Tom, Tucker or Sonjia knows that pain.

[Orblivion]

I can't remember the last time I had any driver issues with my 7970.  In your friend's case, it sounds like he might not have had a sufficient power supply for the 280X.  

[Mush Brain]

I feel dat pain.

[Mush Brain]

I've had more nvidia driver issues in the past 10 years than AMD, but Nvidia's issues were mostly to do with GPU boost getting caught with its pants down. Fermi was the worst for that.

Fermi does not boost, so i doubt you ever had one.

[eelnico09]

Just because the card was bad, doesn't mean amd or the drivers are bad. I've had AMD since 2010, now i got a 970, but the drivers NEVER gave me trouble, AT ALL. I had a 7850, a 7950, and now a 970, and i haven't gotten any drivers problem.

 

 

I see people saying that the cards are having problems when they push it too much? Now i know the 280x has been having some issues all over the world, but that's no reason to blame the drivers.

[Mush Brain]

I have had my fair share of problems with my R9 290.

 

[Mo5]

I've used both NVidia and ATI/AMD and never had any serious issues. The biggest I can remember is BSOD-ing when installing Crossfire profiles (had to turn it off to install and turn it on again after).

[Briggsy]

Fermi does not boost, so i doubt you ever had one.

 

 

you're correct, I was referring to the power saving feature 2D/3D mode downclocking the core. I just lump it all together with boost technology, But you're correct, its not the same thing.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

I'm running r9 280x at the moment, currently using the latest beta driver and I realised my idle temps went up usually from 32~34 to 38~40 kinda annoyed by this but the other thing I realised is that my load temps went down, heavily modded skyrim usually sits at 69~72 now with the new driver, my load temps never went above 65. (temperatures are in degree Celsius)

[binman13]

I've had no issues with Driver crashes outside of a BSOD due to my Power supply tripping the 12V rail safety due to a surge (I have upgraded my PSU since then).

[Doughnutnator]

Right now there's a huge issue with the mew Maxwell cards, they're just lazy, GPU load and performance is awful. It's a driver issue that appeared in 344.16, the current Nvidia driver ks 344.75 and they haven't fixed it yet.

I have a friend with a 7870, he's having more FPS in BF4 than me, and I have a 970 and a slightly better CPU than him. So I think that both AMD and Nvidia makes shitty drivers.

[Speedbird]

No problems on my OVERCLOCKED 7850K....