AMD Radeon 15.5 Beta drivers officially released

[Razarza]

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx

 

reddit user /u/EpicRageGuy on /r/pcars posted some screenshots comparing 15.4 and 15.5 with a single r9 290 showing some improvements of 5-10fps while in heavy rain and 21 cars on track.

 

I'm hoping Crossfire performance has improved, I'll update this post after I've done a few races to see how much it has increased.

 

 

Edit - Was finally able to get to racing, I've noticed a 5-15fps increase in both clear and heavy rain racing. I can finally race in the rain with 20+ other cars at 60fps, I'm personally satisfied although most of the comments so far have been about AMD not seeking WHQL certification.

[brownninja97]

i tried it, it didnt help so i installed that gtx 680 that i said id buy in the other thread. That actually did help my fps

[JcGross]

I don't know what the fuck they are doing, but think The Witcher 3 runs even worse with this than before.

[The_Strict_Nein]

How long has it been since AMD have released non Beta drivers or WHQL releases

[Notional]

How long has it been since AMD have released non Beta drivers or WHQL releases

 

Who cares? A driver doesn't improve, by being reviewed by Microsoft.

[Victorious Secret]

Who cares? A driver doesn't improve, by being reviewed by Microsoft.

For a corporate entity who will only use validated hardware and software, it does influence what they will buy and use.

No wonder no one gives a shit about AMD in certain segments. They can't even certify their drivers to the level that Nvidia does to make sure they're full compatible and validated.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Who cares? A driver doesn't improve, by being reviewed by Microsoft.

It certainly ensures a base level of quality. Plus it stops people like me lambasting AMD for not following a simple standard

[Notional]

For a corporate entity who will only use validated hardware and software, it does influence what they will buy and use.

No wonder no one gives a shit about AMD in certain segments. They can't even certify their drivers to the level that Nvidia does to make sure they're full compatible and validated.

 

What are corporate entities going to do with a gaming graphics card, where most driver updates, are for game optimization and crossfire profiles?

 

This is not Firepro drivers, where such things actually matters.

 

It certainly ensures a base level of quality. Plus it stops people like me lambasting AMD for not following a simple standard

 

There's not really any quality difference between WHQL drivers and beta drivers these days. For AMD's sake, it looks like beta drivers, are just game optimization/CF drivers. Why pay Microsoft for that, and postpone the release?

[Victorious Secret]

What are corporate entities going to do with a gaming graphics card, where most driver updates, are for game optimization and crossfire profiles?

This is not Firepro drivers, where such things actually matters.

There's not really any quality difference between WHQL drivers and beta drivers these days. For AMD's sake, it looks like beta drivers, are just game optimization/CF drivers. Why pay Microsoft for that, and postpone the release?

Not every corporate use case involves FirePros. Nor does it involve gaming. I work in a lab of 30. We all have Nvidia GPUs. 650s. Not because we game, no. Just the spec that was given to us for multi monitor use that we all also use.

So a regular GPU. Not being used for gaming. It still needs stable drivers that don't cause issues during our frantic excel or medical database use. That's it. Simple validation. A "this won't blue screen on you, it's that stable across a lot of scenarios" driver.

Gain some perspective. WHQL matters. AMD not caring is their problem and their laziness in not having WHQL drivers. Who said WHQL needs constant updates? Corporate environments don't update every two weeks. Even a quarterly release of WHQL drivers is great. AMD cant even be bothered to care that much.

Not surprising given how shitty their drivers still are, even the vaunted Omega drivers.

[Derangel]

Not every corporate use case involves FirePros. Nor does it involve gaming. I work in a lab of 30. We all have Nvidia GPUs. 650s. Not because we game, no. Just the spec that was given to us for multi monitor use that we all also use.

So a regular GPU. Not being used for gaming. It still needs stable drivers that don't cause issues during our frantic excel or medical database use. That's it. Simple validation. A "this won't blue screen on you, it's that stable across a lot of scenarios" driver.

Gain some perspective. WHQL matters. AMD not caring is their problem and their laziness in not having WHQL drivers. Who said WHQL needs constant updates? Corporate environments don't update every two weeks. Even a quarterly release of WHQL drivers is great. AMD cant even be bothered to care that much.

Not surprising given how shitty their drivers still are, even the vaunted Omega drivers.

 

AMD drivers are fine. Not good, but I haven't called any driver good in the last decade. Drivers from both companies have issues. AMD's biggest issue with drivers right now is the time it takes them to get shit down.

 

It certainly ensures a base level of quality. Plus it stops people like me lambasting AMD for not following a simple standard

 

No it doesn't. The infamous Nvidia drivers that killed graphics cards were WHQL. WHQL certification just means it won't blow up your OS and that the company paid money to have them digitally signed. That is it. WHQL just runs a standard set of simple tests and moves on.

[Humbug]

This is a driver to optimize performance for Witcher 3 and Project Cars. The previous one (also beta) was to optimize for GTA V. It doesn't matter that these are not WHQL certified. They are firmly targeted at gamers, as are these GPUs.

 

The rare corporate entity which happens to be using these GPUs and cares about WHQL certification will just use the Omega WHQL drivers which came out it December. I doubt they would worry about a new beta release giving higher framerates in a couple of games as it's outside their use case. IT administrators do not sit there waiting for GPU driver updates, they just want stability.

[Notional]

Not every corporate use case involves FirePros. Nor does it involve gaming. I work in a lab of 30. We all have Nvidia GPUs. 650s. Not because we game, no. Just the spec that was given to us for multi monitor use that we all also use.

So a regular GPU. Not being used for gaming. It still needs stable drivers that don't cause issues during our frantic excel or medical database use. That's it. Simple validation. A "this won't blue screen on you, it's that stable across a lot of scenarios" driver.

Gain some perspective. WHQL matters. AMD not caring is their problem and their laziness in not having WHQL drivers. Who said WHQL needs constant updates? Corporate environments don't update every two weeks. Even a quarterly release of WHQL drivers is great. AMD cant even be bothered to care that much.

Not surprising given how shitty their drivers still are, even the vaunted Omega drivers.

 

Again the beta's are game optimization and CF profiles in general. I don't see how your example changes anything?

 

Omega drivers are really good, not sure what you are talking about.

[Master Disaster]

WHQL testing validates the driver is WDDM compliant, nothing more. All it verifys is the driver meets Microsoft's driver requisites for safe operation, its no more a mark of quality than a beats logo.

What's more annoying is AMDs recent 4 to 5 drivers a year model. Its simply not possible to keep up with everything while releasing so few driver updates. I bought my 970 2 months ago and have already gone through 3 different drivers.

Neither AMD or Nvidias drivers are perfect but at least Nvidia keep up to date with current games, AMD don't seem to give a fuck.

[Humbug]

AMD's problem is that they need to get these game specific drivers out on launch day. They did so for GTA V.

But for Project Cars and Witcher 3 they could not meet launch day. These are still welcome by their customers but it's much better PR for them if they get them out in time for all those sites who run benchmarks on new games.

[Derangel]

AMD's problem is that they need to get these game specific drivers out on launch day. They did so for GTA V.

But for Project Cars and Witcher 3 they could not meet launch day. These are still welcome by their customers but it's much better PR for them if they get them out in time for all those sites who run benchmarks on new games.

 

If they don't have early access to a game they really can't get them out day 1. Rockstar worked with both Nvidia and AMD for GTAV. Still, they need to find a way to get stuff sorted faster. A couple days is one thing waiting over a week for no real performance gain isn't exactly wonderful. It's worse for folks with Crossfire. AMD's support for CFX has been abysmal lately.

[Humbug]

If they don't have early access to a game they really can't get them out day 1.

They had access to Witcher 3 (apart from gameworks code) and have been in the loop for years.

[Helly]

I really dont understand this stupid obsession about drivers being optimized for games.... In what world should that ever be a thing? Games should be optimized.... not drivers. Why the fuck does AMD have to fix games? Go blame the creators of the game for not building their game right. Seeing as those drivers come out AFTER the game has been released shows the developers of the GAME don't give a fuck about the performance since it's obviously noticed during testing. So they release a broken crappy game that runs like shit and then AMD/Nvidia have to fix it with their drivers.

 

That's not the way it should be and people need to start complaining to the developers of the game and not to AMD/Nvidia.

 

I'm guessing very few people here will agree and just keep screaming AMD needs to fix their drivers... so whatever

[TorqueS]

^this

 

Also how about the magnificent nVidia GTA "optimized" drivers that f***ed other games?

[Humbug]

I really dont understand this stupid obsession about drivers being optimized for games.... In what world should that ever be a thing? Games should be optimized.... not drivers. Why the fuck does AMD have to fix games? Go blame the creators of the game for not building their game right. Seeing as those drivers come out AFTER the game has been released shows the developers of the GAME don't give a fuck about the performance since it's obviously noticed during testing. So they release a broken crappy game that runs like shit and then AMD/Nvidia have to fix it with their drivers.

You're right. No question. It's a sad reality we have to live with for now.

 

there is a school of thought that Vulkan and DX12 will have much thinner driver layers and the devs will be able to do much more of their own game specific optimization.

[Derangel]

You're right. No question. It's a sad reality we have to live with for now.

 

there is a school of thought that Vulkan and DX12 will have much thinner driver layers and the devs will be able to do much more of their own game specific optimization.

 

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I remember driver optimizations being a thing even a decade ago.

[Gunjob]

Tried it out on TW3, CrossfireX profile is pretty bad, still flickers and using AA drops the GPU utilization down to 50% on each GPU. High/Ultra settings at 4K(UHD) 290x CrossfireX manages around 35fps. 

 

For CrossfireX users:

 

 

 

• ​​*The Witcher 3 - Wild Hunt : To enable the best performance and experience in Crossfire,  users must disable Anti-Aliasing from the games video-post processing options. Some random flickering may occur when using Crossfire. If the issue is affecting the game experience, as a work around we suggest disabling Crossfire while we continue to work with CD Projekt Red to resolve this issue

 

I'd suggest sticking with a single GPU, this is the first game I've not be able to run at 4K(UHD) on 290x CFX. Thankfully I have 2 Ultrawides to play on either side of my 4k monitor. 

[Helly]

I wouldn't hold my breath on that one. I remember driver optimizations being a thing even a decade ago.

 

you're absolutely right. However games just worked then, perfectly without many issues if there were any at all. The optimizations just improved things, they didn't fix major issues with the game itself. That's the big difference now.

[Doobeedoo]

I'm still on latest stable version, I'm fine with it for now though.

[Derangel]

you're absolutely right. However games just worked then, perfectly without many issues if there were any at all. The optimizations just improved things, they didn't fix major issues with the game itself. That's the big difference now.

 

Yes and no. There were still games with issues, but not like we see these days. Everything is so much more complex now though. Hardware, the OS, drivers, games, etc. Everything has advanced so much that it makes everything harder and quite frankly game development doesn't attract the best programmers in the world nor are the conditions and stress the developers put under overly conductive to producing their best work. It's a big combination of elements that has lead to Nvidia and AMD needing to be more active in supporting games and trying to make sure they work right. DX12 and Vulkan will make some things better probably, but I don't think anyone should hope for some kind of magical fix.

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

"AMD hasn't released a new driver since forever!" 

 

15.5 beta released

 

"AMD hasn't released a new driver with WHQL certification since forever!" 

 

Com'on people, make up your damn minds! :B