# AMD's Groundbreaking Omega Driver



## Devon68 (Dec 5, 2014)

The Catalyst Omega driver provides a total overhaul, including a new built-in downsampling tool called VSR, as well as ironing out a host of bugs and improving the performance of AMD graphics cards across the board.
Key to the Omega drivers is optimisations to many hardware configurations which should boost efficiency and, AMD claims, provide up to 19% better performance on dedicated graphics cards than the previous driver release, Catalyst 14.11.2, and a massive 29% boost in performance for systems sporting AMD APUs.
To keep this short AMD will release the new omega drivers shortly 
The AMD Omega Catalyst drivers are expected to be available to download shortly.

http://www.game-debate.com/news/?ne...et To Overhaul Catalyst And Boost Performance


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## GhostRyder (Dec 5, 2014)

The Omega driver is coming from AMD direct?  I had not heard of this, man I must be out of the loop.

Sounds cool though, cannot wait to try it.


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## manofthem (Dec 5, 2014)

It all sounds good.  Sure hope they can deliver


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## Nordic (Dec 5, 2014)

This was out of the blue. Is it real?


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 5, 2014)

Ahhh... remember in the early days when Radeon 9600s, 9700s, 9800s were ruling the roost? Omega drivers were making tweaked drivers for cards like those but then stopped doing them around the X800 series. Not sure why they stopped but I think i heard AMD was giving them shit for tweaking their drivers so they stopped. Last driver package they ever done was Catalyst 4.8

Omegadrivers.net is still there, and while it doesnt do much of anything anymore theres just a crappy frontpage that shows nothing driver updates.


I wonder if AMD decided to bring these guys onboard?


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## natr0n (Dec 5, 2014)

Pretty cool news.

I know street fighter 4 has an omega version coming out oddly.


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## EarthDog (Dec 5, 2014)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Ahhh... remember in the early days when Radeon 9600s, 9700s, 9800s were ruling the roost? Omega drivers were making tweaked drivers for cards like those but then stopped doing them around the X800 series. Not sure why they stopped but I think i heard AMD was giving them shit for tweaking their drivers so they stopped. Last driver package they ever done was Catalyst 4.8
> 
> Omegadrivers.net is still there, and while it doesnt do much of anything anymore theres just a crappy frontpage that shows nothing driver updates.
> 
> ...


Exactly.. been around for a while... never bothered to touch them ever.........


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 5, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> Exactly.. been around for a while... never bothered to touch them ever.........



I used them, Im not sure if they were any better then ATi's own official drivers but a lot of people praised Omega drivers.

Just hearing the name alone takes me back to the days of windows XP and when I used to spend nights playing L4D and TF2


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## TRWOV (Dec 5, 2014)

Wow, Omega Drivers. The memories...


If the +29% increase for APUs is a given I'll be a happy camper.


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 5, 2014)

I imagine a lot of performance could be gained if you remove all of the compatibility code and axe the driver customizations for titles to make them look prettier.  I think their claims are plausible but it probably applies to very specific titles that got little attention from AMD.


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## Tallencor (Dec 5, 2014)

http://www.overclock.net/t/1528550/techspot-amd-catalyst-omega-drivers
Speculative or not there is a pile of bad news over here including this.
Quote:
They did, however, also test for themselves and had this to say:
Quote:2
*In our own testing, performed by our resident hardware reviewer Steve, we noted significant gains on high-end GPUs in a number of titles including BioShock Infinite and Metro Redux.* However in some games, even those in AMD's Gaming Evolved program, there was no performance improvement at all: Watch Dogs, Battlefield 4, Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider and Crysis 3 are regularly seen in our hardware benchmarks, and recorded the same performance as the previous driver.


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## RCoon (Dec 5, 2014)

Let's hope they don't get put back a month, and then another month, and then another... Such is the case with drivers to fix things these days.

Also I don't trust a tester called Steve. He needs to be called Max, or Sebastian or something with pazaz.


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## Tallencor (Dec 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> something with pazaz


Fransois zee diriveur testeur
Edit: the previous link I provided turned into a flame war. Bah.


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## W1zzard (Dec 5, 2014)

This is real, but AMD has changed the NDA, so we can't report on it yet. Apparently some sites "forgot" the updated date.


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## GhostRyder (Dec 5, 2014)

W1zzard said:


> This is real, but AMD has changed the NDA, so we can't report on it yet. Apparently some sites "forgot" the updated date.


Ok that explains why techspot took their link down so fast.


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## Steevo (Dec 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Let's hope they don't get put back a month, and then another month, and then another... Such is the case with drivers to fix things these days.
> 
> Also I don't trust a tester called Steve. He needs to be called Max, or Sebastian or something with pazaz.


Fucking guys named Steve, always assholes. 

AMD needs to get their software game together, its been far to long since they came through on anything software related, its not that their drivers are bad, but they have been slow as crap to make anything new happen, and some truly awesome ideas are held down for to long and forgotten.


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## AsRock (Dec 5, 2014)

AMD supporting a 3rd party driver ?, if so that frigging awesome as we know what most company's would do.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 5, 2014)

AsRock said:


> AMD supporting a 3rd party driver ?, if so that frigging awesome as we know what most company's would do.



nope, not 3rd party. Its their own thing. Though I dont know why they called it 'omega driver' most of the enthusiast community knows where the name originated, but I guess AMD took it because it wasnt copyrighted and everyone knows omega drivers were tweaked drivers from back in the day so it only makes sense to bring the name back


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## Constantine Yevseyev (Dec 5, 2014)

AsRock said:


> AMD supporting a 3rd party driver ?, if so that frigging awesome as we know what most company's would do.


The driver itself can never be "3rd party", it's always the original AMD code. You cannot make any changes to it once it's been compiled (and that is the only state in which anybody can download it). I understand that some of the more experienced "3rd party" hardware developers might be able to make several enhancements to it, but there's no way you can obtain such material (in form of a codebase snapshot), unless you're working at AMD.
What guys at Omega did was simple re-configuration (using installation *.INF and *.XML files, which is not something that can make a big difference in regards to 2D/3D/GPGPU performance). This technic is common with OEM, and is basically a way that you can configure your SKU to better support things like eDP Link Training or Non-EDID Mode, stuff that helps with compatibility and not, you know, the compute power.


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## Aquinus (Dec 5, 2014)

Constantine Yevseyev said:


> The driver itself can never be "3rd party", it's always the original AMD code.


So I suspect you think the the open source radeon drivers (not fglrx) for linux are not done by a third party?
http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon/


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## RejZoR (Dec 5, 2014)

This driver has nothing to do with the KillerSneak who was doing the Omega drivers. These are Catalyst Omega (Alfa and the Omega?), probably signifying a new era of drivers.

Btw, cool we'll get VSR on AMD cards as well. All the usual 3rd party hacks don't work anymore with latest drivers and since NVIDIA released it for their GTX 900 series, i guess there is no point in buying GTX 970 just yet. Overclocked HD7950 still has plenty of grunt for 1080p, VSR will give me enhanced visuals in older games and potentially we'll get some extra boost. Bring it on AMD.


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## GreiverBlade (Dec 5, 2014)

interesting, waiting to see how it will turn out


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## Eroticus (Dec 5, 2014)

can't wait for alpha / beta !


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## Mussels (Dec 5, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Let's hope they don't get put back a month, and then another month, and then another... Such is the case with drivers to fix things these days.
> 
> Also I don't trust a tester called Steve. He needs to be called Max, or Sebastian or something with pazaz.



you son of a bitch, leave us steves out of this!


also, looking forward to the VSR/resolution scaling.


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## Constantine Yevseyev (Dec 5, 2014)

Aquinus said:


> So I suspect you think the the open source radeon drivers (not fglrx) for linux are not done by a third party?
> http://www.x.org/wiki/radeon/


I wasn't even thinking about Linux while writing that post (for a lot of reasons, really). Everything that I said applies only to Catalyst for Windows, since it's the primary product and everything new and gaming-related has historically been put into this branch first.
By the way, do you honestly think AMD cares about bringing the Omega series software on *NIX in the nearest future? My guess is that they'll just leave their customers with current FOSS solutions (Radeon SI and R600 those are, I believe).


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## jjnissanpatfan (Dec 6, 2014)

I remember not that long ago..messing with a 800xl with all sorts of different drivers. I wanna say NGQ and like one other company that competed with the Omega release's.


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## The Von Matrices (Dec 6, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Let's hope they don't get put back a month, and then another month, and then another... Such is the case with drivers to fix things these days.


This is AMD.  If this report is even true, they'll preview all the features next month but will release them in "stages" over the next year.  We won't see all the features in WHQL drivers until 2016, when the cards they were intended to improve have been replaced by new models.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2014)

Mussels said:


> you son of a bitch, leave us steves out of this!
> 
> 
> also, looking forward to the VSR/resolution scaling.



Lmao


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## RejZoR (Dec 6, 2014)

Why does the first presentation chart comapres Omega driver to the Catalyst 13.12 ? That's 1 year old driver. Ugh? Shouldn't they be comparing it to Cat 14.9 WHQL which is the latest official?


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## INSTG8R (Dec 6, 2014)

RejZoR said:


> Why does the first presentation chart comapres Omega driver to the Catalyst 13.12 ? That's 1 year old driver. Ugh? Shouldn't they be comparing it to Cat 14.9 WHQL which is the latest official?



Because everyone seems to forget every year AMD put out a "super driver" at the end of the year. This one they are just calling Omega for some reason.


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## the54thvoid (Dec 6, 2014)

For those looking at VSR, the slide that discusses it says available for R9 290 & 285 only.
Don't think its for Tahiti based cards.  Tonga/Hawaii looks to get it.


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## RejZoR (Dec 6, 2014)

Well, thats shit...


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## darkangel0504 (Dec 6, 2014)

HD 7000 isn't supported


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## Aquinus (Dec 6, 2014)

Constantine Yevseyev said:


> I wasn't even thinking about Linux while writing that post (for a lot of reasons, really). Everything that I said applies only to Catalyst for Windows, since it's the primary product and everything new and gaming-related has historically been put into this branch first.


Well obviously. If AMD starts writing closed source drivers they're probably going to remain closed source. That's like saying haters are going to hate and is rather confusing.


Constantine Yevseyev said:


> By the way, do you honestly think AMD cares about bringing the Omega series software on *NIX in the nearest future? My guess is that they'll just leave their customers with current FOSS solutions (Radeon SI and R600 those are, I believe).


Considering you didn't even think of Linux, I suspect you once again don't know what you're talking about here. I've kept up with FGLRX drivers in Linux from AMD and they've been kept up to date pretty well thus far. Well enough that featuring in current drivers such as frame pacing do exist in FGLRX (last I checked) so I'm inclined to believe that AMD will let changes ripple out to Linux, but that's a completely different driver. The open source radeon drivers are done by a third party and aren't maintained or written by AMD which is a very different animal.


Constantine Yevseyev said:


> What guys at Omega did was simple re-configuration (using installation *.INF and *.XML files, which is not something that can make a big difference in regards to 2D/3D/GPGPU performance). This technic is common with OEM, and is basically a way that you can configure your SKU to better support things like eDP Link Training or Non-EDID Mode, stuff that helps with compatibility and not, you know, the compute power.


...and you could do the same thing by adjusting Catalyst yourself. I suspect what AMD is doing here is a little different than what Omega did in the past. I'm expecting driver level (.sys) changes, not mainly configuration (.INF) changes.


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## SK-1 (Dec 6, 2014)

Outsourced drivers...cant really blame AMD.


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 6, 2014)

Once again some potentially awesome idea from AMD.......lets hope the idea don't get trounced and watered down by  reality.  Got some really cheap cards out there i can really have some fun with


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## vega22 (Dec 6, 2014)

i recall omega drivers way back when for both sides, green and red.

cant imagine this being anything more than a respin for ccc as it has used that same skin for years now while nvidia have since copied and improved upon it.

i mean if it was one and the same omega i would of thought amd would of made them remove the old site and all traces of omega nvidia drivers. just me?


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## Steevo (Dec 6, 2014)

Thu number of people in this thread who don't or can't read and understand it has nothing to do with the old Omega drivers is too damn high!!


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 6, 2014)

Steevo said:


> Thu number of people in this thread who don't or can't read and understand it has nothing to do with the old Omega drivers is too damn high!!



Then Amd should have picked a different name......but once again thy're associating their  current product with a past awesome product to garner buzz and invoke high expectations.....hmmm just like the FX line....hope this doesn't yeild the same results....


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## Fluffmeister (Dec 6, 2014)

Hey, at least they aren't alpha... although you'll probably find they are still beta, eta soon.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2014)

ensabrenoir said:


> Then Amd should have picked a different name......but once again thy're associating their  current product with a past awesome product to garner buzz and invoke high expectations.....hmmm just like the FX line....hope this doesn't yeild the same results....



It was never a product. It was free.


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 6, 2014)

eidairaman1 said:


> It was never a product. It was free.


.......free product  ok i get what your saying but its still shady/deceptive association


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2014)

ensabrenoir said:


> .......free product  ok i get what your saying but its still shady/deceptive association



Lol 

Only way a word can be claimed as their own is if AMD/are in the name.

I presume omega is just a internal name for them. Amd Catalyst Release 14.12 "Omega" lol


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## Solaris17 (Dec 6, 2014)

so did AMD hire the guy that custom made omega driver back in the day?


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## RejZoR (Dec 6, 2014)

If you ask me, all the modded drivers were a load of horse crap and everyone screaming how much better they are, were so blinded by the placebo effect it wasn't even funny anymore. You can't make radical changes through fiddling with pre-existing INI file settings. You just can't. I've tried those drivers and could never ever notice ANYTHING. Even in benchmarks, it was within the margin of error. Not sure why they'd associate themselves with placebo. So, word "Omega" has very little connection with the modded drivers imo. In fact these have as much connection to Omega drivers as the Omega watches have with these drivers. None.


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## erocker (Dec 6, 2014)

Solaris17 said:


> so did AMD hire the guy that custom made omega driver back in the day?


Nope. These have nothing to do with those drivers.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2014)

http://www.tweakforce.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=6551


http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?id=24

A possibility why most mod drivers stopped being produced is how difficult amd/nvidia made them to be tweaked. Plus launching their own tool boxes.

I remember using DNA drivers but i went right back to using vanilla.


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## Solaris17 (Dec 6, 2014)

In all honesty im surprised and a little concerned at the numbers they advertise for these. I mean how would they really pull that off? Im not saying the drivers as they stand are well baked by any means. but pulling these kind of numbers and then saying "wide" and not "game specific" makes me wonder exactly how they are getting the performance. maybe looking more closely at D3D calls or something or tuning it to operating systems better. which only makes me wonder why they didnt do it to begin with. I mean granted if the chart is even remotely correct the gains will be pleasing and pleasing to alot of AMD users. but shouldn't something of this quality assuming its accurate be the norm? so that the dev teams need to push harder for improvements?


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## natr0n (Dec 6, 2014)

Long ago they promised a new driver built from ground up. This might be it finally.


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## ensabrenoir (Dec 6, 2014)

Probably be labeled a hater for this but I think with the eminent release of Direct X 12 this is just a diversionary tactic to make everyone forget about mantle and its promises......yes I know they're not the same thing


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## Fluffmeister (Dec 6, 2014)

When is Mantle going to be open?


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 6, 2014)

ensabrenoir said:


> Probably be labeled a hater for this but I think with the eminent release of Direct X 12 this is just a diversionary tactic to make everyone forget about mantle and its promises......yes I know they're not the same thing



I agree because as soon as mantle had been launched for beta testing ms announced DX 12.


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## TRWOV (Dec 6, 2014)

RejZoR said:


> If you ask me, all the modded drivers were a load of horse crap and everyone screaming how much better they are, were so blinded by the placebo effect it wasn't even funny anymore. You can't make radical changes through fiddling with pre-existing INI file settings. You just can't. I've tried those drivers and could never ever notice ANYTHING. Even in benchmarks, it was within the margin of error. Not sure why they'd associate themselves with placebo. So, word "Omega" has very little connection with the modded drivers imo. In fact these have as much connection to Omega drivers as the Omega watches have with these drivers. None.



I recall that on Quake ¿4? when I used the Omega Drivers the grills looked flat compared to the standard drivers but it's something you wouldn't notice unless you looked specifically for it. I suppose you could get the same results making adjustments on Catalyst.

I mostly used them when I had my 8500DV. I held onto that card for like 4 years, didn't upgrad until the AiW X800XT AGP launched so every bit of extra performance helped. I had it OCed with Powerstrip at 260/220 with a Vantec cooper cooler that I had to afix with epoxy because the 8500DV didn't have any mounting holes (the stock cooler was fixed with thermal glue).Those were the times.


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## Schmuckley (Dec 6, 2014)

So..this has LOD adjustment for dx11?


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## Devon68 (Dec 9, 2014)

Well after reading the review here on TPU this seems to be a groundbreaking disappointment for me. I was expecting a lot more.


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## W1zzard (Dec 9, 2014)

natr0n said:


> Long ago they promised a new driver built from ground up. This might be it finally.


Nope. Building a driver from the ground up is way too expensive and time consuming.


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## INSTG8R (Dec 9, 2014)

Solaris17 said:


> so did AMD hire the guy that custom made omega driver back in the day?


Actually as far as I know he works on the Raptr team now


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## EarthDog (Dec 9, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> Well after reading the review here on TPU this seems to be a groundbreaking disappointment for me. I was expecting a lot more.


Welcome to AMD marketing... 

That said, I wonder if other games than, the 3 tested, show improvements.... small sample set.


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## Mussels (Dec 9, 2014)

These drivers seem to be utterly pointless except for a few tiny feature addons for the top tier cards. groundbreaking? gravedigging?


This negative backlash wouldn't exist if they hadn't overhyped a regular driver release...


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## Octopuss (Dec 9, 2014)

I haven't had a single black screen freeze since installing them, so preliminary I like them.
I don't care about the new features because I don't even install CCC, and I only play BF4, DayZ and Skyrim.


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## RCoon (Dec 9, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> Welcome to AMD marketing



They really aren't helping themselves. Their marketing is causing a lot of backlash. Either AMD need to reign in the marketing, or their manufactorum for drivers and/or hardware needs to improve. I don't care which happens, as long as they stop make SHOCK/HORROR CLICKBAIT NEWSFLASH every damn week and making everyone mad.


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## Aquinus (Dec 9, 2014)

RCoon said:


> They really aren't helping themselves. Their marketing is causing a lot of backlash. Either AMD need to reign in the marketing, or their manufactorum for drivers and/or hardware needs to improve. I don't care which happens, as long as they stop make SHOCK/HORROR CLICKBAIT NEWSFLASH every damn week and making everyone mad.


My 6870s very well might become the last AMD GPU I use in my workstation if they don't get their act together. If only they put all the effort they put into the PR into their actual products. I've like AMD for a long time and before that ATi (I still have a AGP Radeon 9200 up in the attic,) but the simple fact is that nothing they're doing really gives tangible gains. I don't want new drivers, I don't want fancy features, I want a GPU that outperforms the cards that have already been produced for too long. I want new hardware, not new rhetoric.

The simple fact is that if AMD doesn't release a new GPU soon, they're not getting my money. I'm not paying for old technology regardless of how much they polish it up, old tech is old tech.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 9, 2014)

It be best to build and test a new driver series for their new line and then launch a separate set for r 5***-r9 290X instead of making empty promises. I just got my rig back online snd im staying with 14.9 till i guess 15.9s


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## erocker (Dec 9, 2014)

These drivers are:

1. New
2. Work
3. Good.

Good enough!


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## Dieinafire (Dec 9, 2014)

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/Catalyst_14.12_Performance/5.html

Same old ish


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## EarthDog (Dec 9, 2014)

erocker said:


> These drivers are:
> 
> 1. New
> 2. Work
> ...


If only it were that easy... 

Well it is, but AMD is a marketing machine and sadly, have little substance.


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## the54thvoid (Dec 9, 2014)

I agree with discussions surrounding the hype about things.  If it's not another PR guy saying how great the 290X is compared to the 980 and basically BS'ing left right and centre, it's this software hype.

HOWEVER, caps required because I'm not a hater, here's where they've kicked Nvidia's ass.  Their XDMA implementation of crossfire has proven (across the bulk of reviews) that their dual card set ups (using XDMA) out perform Nvidia's sli (fingers) solution.  If you remove the DX9 and previous generation Tahiti cards crossfire pish, they've actually come through with an excellent implementation.  It's disappointing that Nvidia haven't implemented a PCI lane solution.  It's done wonders for crossfire (again, in the bulk of reviews).

That's what AMD should be shouting about now - how much better crossfire is compared to how it was (and that a single 290X get's bested by a GTX 980 at 4K but in crossfire, the experience is better).


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## R00kie (Dec 9, 2014)

I'm not really sure whether it was a patch or this driver, but the framerate in AC: Unity just jumped from being utterly disgusting to actually pleasantly fluid and playable.


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## EarthDog (Dec 9, 2014)

XDMA is an improvment. The last review I read about frame pacing is that the frame times were brought back down to not visible and inline with nvidia. Has it since improved to be better? 

I'm not trying to pick on amd, but I'm a bit tired of seeing the hype  only to bring out a good, but very overhyped options. I'm still waiting on mantle not to have a memory leak... True audio..lol? Outside of pricing, there are little performance based reasons to own anything. I hope their new series gpus are as fast as or faster than nvidia and use similar power. I wish their next cpu woupd too... I'd jump back red in a heartbeat...


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## erocker (Dec 10, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> If only it were that easy...
> 
> Well it is, but AMD is a marketing machine and sadly, have little substance.


 
One press release and a blurb on their website. Hardly a machine as one dude working at AMD could of achieved this.

Let's face it though, a part of a company is marketing. They don't have much in terms of new hardware to market, the marketing department needs something to do and voilà!


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## AsRock (Dec 10, 2014)

New drivers been working great, been checking out the VSR with a few games FC4 i had to turn off SMAAx4 to get 35+ (23+ w SMAAx4) fps but it looked pretty good how ever enjoyed it much more in D3. But it does let me know for sure that it's pointless for me buying a 4k monitor as i don't want to go CF\SLI.


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## OneMoar (Dec 10, 2014)

welp looks like the hype-train Derailed


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## GreiverBlade (Dec 10, 2014)

EarthDog said:


> If only it were that easy...
> 
> Well it is, but AMD is a marketing machine and sadly, have little substance.


still erocker take the point. 



erocker said:


> One press release and a blurb on their website. Hardly a machine as one dude working at AMD could of achieved this.
> 
> Let's face it though, a part of a company is marketing. They don't have much in terms of new hardware to market, the marketing department needs something to do and voilà!


2nd point taken.



OneMoar said:


> welp looks like the hype-train Derailed


nope... they still are OK well they don't live up the "Omega" name, but who really care? they are good enough.


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## EarthDog (Dec 10, 2014)

erocker said:


> One press release and a blurb on their website. Hardly a machine as one dude working at AMD could of achieved this.
> 
> Let's face it though, a part of a company is marketing. They don't have much in terms of new hardware to market, the marketing department needs something to do and voilà!


Don't be so literal... while one guy posted it, there was a board room full of monkey's coming up with and approving this 'tactic'.

Blowing things out of proportion and setting its users up for a let down again, and again, (did I mention) and again really has to grind people's gears.


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## INSTG8R (Dec 10, 2014)

Nice stable drivers with some much requested Bug Fixes and some new features for new cards. Fine set of drivers I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. The "Hype" everyone is on about was created by, well everyone not AMD.


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## GreiverBlade (Dec 10, 2014)

INSTG8R said:


> Nice stable drivers with some much requested Bug Fixes and some new features for new cards. Fine set of drivers I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. The "Hype" everyone is on about was created by, well everyone not AMD.


i noticed some improvement in frames stability (too bad my TV doesn't handle VSR heheh ... i had to DDU the driver in safe-mode and re-install it afterward ) only in Archeage i notice some stuttering (well the frame stability isn't as good as i saw in other game if i had to put it with other words) IE: before solid 80fps+ nearly everywhere and now drop under 49fps sometime (less a burden with Vsync but i am a antivsync most of the time ... my fault so  )


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 10, 2014)

INSTG8R said:


> The "Hype" everyone is on about was created by, well everyone not AMD.



True dat.

it starts when some reporter calls it 'groundbreaking' when really its a slight overhaul with a few tweaks and bug fixes.


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## GhostRyder (Dec 10, 2014)

GreiverBlade said:


> i noticed some improvement in frames stability (too bad my TV doesn't handle VSR heheh ... i had to DDU the driver in safe-mode and re-install it afterward ) only in Archeage i notice some stuttering (well the frame stability isn't as good as i saw in other game if i had to put it with other words) IE: before solid 80fps+ nearly everywhere and now drop under 49fps sometime (less a burden with Vsync but i am a antivsync most of the time ... my fault so  )





INSTG8R said:


> Nice stable drivers with some much requested Bug Fixes and some new features for new cards. Fine set of drivers I wasn't expecting anything spectacular. The "Hype" everyone is on about was created by, well everyone not AMD.





FreedomEclipse said:


> True dat.
> 
> it starts when some reporter calls it 'groundbreaking' when really its a slight overhaul with a few tweaks and bug fixes.


I mean, its not really that hyped, they showed a chart and called it "Omega" but I did not see like some AMD guys running around everywhere talking about the Omega driver or anything like that so I do not count it really as hyped other than a few posts from different sites claiming it is amazing.

It works for me, I did a fresh install this time around since it added a lot and I decided it might be necessary to make sure everything went off without a hitch (Better safe than sorry).  Works great and honestly I have not experience enough games yet to say how big the improvements are.  I think its nice considering this driver came with such a huge amount of new features, bug fixes for a variety of things, and some improvements across the board which to me counts as a job well done.


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## EarthDog (Dec 10, 2014)

Perhaps it was the media then..."Groundbreaking"...

But they sure as hell hyped Mantle/TruAudio which, at this time, hasn't panned out.


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## D007 (Dec 10, 2014)

So groundbreaking that it broke my girlfriends PC.
I will never again buy ATI.
Drivers are such shit.
I thought Nvidia was bad but this is ridiculous.
The driver won't even install on tons of peoples PC's and it's a known issue.
All it did was like totally corrupt my gf's pc and make it almost unusable.
Horrible lag, resolutions and CCC disappeared entirely, error message that "no ATI driver is installed", etc.
What a  hunk of garbage.


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## AsRock (Dec 10, 2014)

D007 said:


> So groundbreaking that it broke my girlfriends PC.
> I will never again buy ATI.
> Drivers are such shit.
> I thought Nvidia was bad but this is ridiculous.
> ...



May i ask what video card you installed it for ?.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 10, 2014)

Just installed this driver for my 6310M  I will see if it boosts my GW2 fps past 15 lol


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## INSTG8R (Dec 10, 2014)

D007 said:


> So groundbreaking that it broke my girlfriends PC.
> I will never again buy ATI.
> Drivers are such shit.
> I thought Nvidia was bad but this is ridiculous.
> ...


PEBKAC! People that won't install for are trying to install the wrong version. The rest is pure PEBKAC


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 10, 2014)

INSTG8R said:


> PEBKAC! People that won't install for are trying to install the wrong version. The rest is pure PEBKAC



I had to google what that meant




Spoiler


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## Devon68 (Dec 10, 2014)

> I had to google what that meant


Thanks for saving me the time to look it up.


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## INSTG8R (Dec 10, 2014)

OneMoar said:


> feel free to ignore D007 hes the same guy that went on a 30 page rant spanning 4 separate forums about how he could't get 4K over HDMI when all he had todo was enabled one option in his tvs menu ..


 
So I am prolly correct it's a PEBKAC


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## GreiverBlade (Dec 10, 2014)

Devon68 said:


> Thanks for saving me the time to look it up.


well i have another word set for it in my signature 

hummmm i noticed that  after the DDU safe-mode my FPS wen't quite smoother than clean install via AMD method, DDU might be labeled "dangerous" but if used correctly it's a rig saver (if not life), since in safe-mode you can't uninstall CCC or drivers, and in windows : screen resolutions problems (user fault  since i tried to use VSR on a screen that was not, but really not adapted for that)


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## GLD (Dec 10, 2014)

I wonder why the Omega drivers didn't work on my system? Tried twice with a fresh dl.


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## TheMailMan78 (Dec 10, 2014)

All I can think of when I read "Groundbreaking" and "AMD driver" in the same sentence.....


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## INSTG8R (Dec 10, 2014)

GLD said:


> I wonder why the Omega drivers didn't work on my system? Tried twice with a fresh dl.



I grabbed mine from here. Of course you made sure you grabbed the right ones?


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 10, 2014)

TheMailMan78 said:


> All I can think of when I read "Groundbreaking" and "AMD driver" in the same sentence.....



When i see posts like this I can imagine AMD's PR Department saying....


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## Mussels (Dec 11, 2014)

D007 said:


> So groundbreaking that it broke my girlfriends PC.
> I will never again buy ATI.
> Drivers are such shit.
> I thought Nvidia was bad but this is ridiculous.
> ...




did you do a clean install? i've had no issues with clean installs or upgrades on my machines.


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## D007 (Dec 11, 2014)

Mussels said:


> did you do a clean install? i've had no issues with clean installs or upgrades on my machines.



Yea, multiple times.
Ended up doing a system restore.

I just did some looking around on the matter and it seems that using DDU to uninstall then install the driver in safe mode, it is the way to go. Not sure if it will work yet.
But doing a clean install and standard install method, does not work for her computer.
i7 and 6950.
Win 7 x64.

Seeing as I build computers and do my own support all the time.
I think I know how to install a display driver XD.



GLD said:


> I wonder why the Omega drivers didn't work on my system? Tried twice with a fresh dl.



You get that figured out?


And another topic here about having issues with it.

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/new-catalyst-omega-is-borking-my-desktop.207938/

I guess none of us know how to install a driver.....
Some of you people need to try not being such trolls all the time.


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## AsRock (Dec 11, 2014)

D007 said:


> Yea, multiple times.
> Ended up doing a system restore.
> 
> I just did some looking around on the matter and it seems that using DDU to uninstall then install the driver in safe mode, it is the way to go. Not sure if it will work yet.
> ...



I be willing to try the drivers with my 6970 if ya like see if it happens as with my 290X i have had 0 issue witht he omega driver or any for a long time in fact.


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## eidairaman1 (Dec 11, 2014)

Not bein trolls. Im stickin to 14.9s. Only thing I deem necessary to update driver wise is the motherboard drivers. As of 3 years ago my bro's machine I can install Catalyst Drivers ontop of one another and they only update the files needed and leave the rest alone. I'm unsure what to tell you but Instead of ranting here get in reach with AMD and say something about it. Saying something here really doesn't get the drive makers attention.


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## Octopuss (Dec 11, 2014)

D007 said:


> So groundbreaking that it broke my girlfriends PC.
> I will never again buy ATI.
> Drivers are such shit.
> I thought Nvidia was bad but this is ridiculous.
> ...


This is one of the most stupid posts I have seen in last months.


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## Devon68 (Dec 11, 2014)

> This is one of the most stupid posts I have seen in last months.


Well it seems he just has bad experience with AMD.
I never had any issues with AMD drivers. Currently using version 14.4


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## Octopuss (Dec 11, 2014)

I think it's far more probable that he's just incompetent and blames a driver, which millions (I guess) of people are using without problems. Also the style of his post is so typical I feel like googling some memes up.


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## RCoon (Dec 11, 2014)

Chill thy beans brethren. Ain't no need for talk of under bridge dwelling species and men resembling lady parts.

More discussion on the use of the word "groundbreaking"


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## AsRock (Dec 11, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Chill thy beans brethren. Ain't no need for talk of under bridge dwelling species and men resembling lady parts.
> 
> More discussion on the use of the word "groundbreaking"



VSR is groundbreaking, some thing that should of happened many years ago.


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## Mussels (Dec 11, 2014)

RCoon said:


> Chill thy beans brethren. Ain't no need for talk of under bridge dwelling species and men resembling lady parts.
> 
> More discussion on the use of the word "groundbreaking"



i figured it was groundbreaking, as in they 'broke ground' to dig a hole to bury the people who over hyped this driver.


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## FreedomEclipse (Dec 11, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i figured it was groundbreaking, as in they 'broke ground' to dig a hole to bury the people who over hyped this driver.


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## INSTG8R (Dec 11, 2014)

Mussels said:


> i figured it was groundbreaking, as in they 'broke ground' to dig a hole to bury the people who over hyped this driver.


But it works fine on your card doesn't it? I have tried COD:AW, The Crew, and FC4 all work great and that's what I am playing right now so what's to complain about?


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 11, 2014)

This thread.  A lot of people are encountering serious problems with 14.12


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## INSTG8R (Dec 11, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> This thread.  A lot of people are encountering serious problems with 14.12


Sorry Ford but less than 6 people certainly doesn't amount to "A Lot" of people...


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 11, 2014)

For something that should never have any obvious problems at the desktop, it is a lot.

I've been using ATI/AMD cards since the original Radeon (PCI 32 MiB) and they never screwed up this bad before.  Come to think of it, it seems like I had a Rage before Radeon debuted.


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## INSTG8R (Dec 11, 2014)

FordGT90Concept said:


> For something that should never have any obvious problems at the desktop, it is a lot.
> 
> I've been using AMD cards since the original Radeon (PCI 32 MiB) and they never screwed up this bad before.


Yeah me too: Been with them since the RAGE  but that still doesn't make it a widespread issue. I just uninstalled the 14.11.2's and installed the 14.12's as I am sure most users did without issue.


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## GreiverBlade (Dec 11, 2014)

and me since Mach64VT .... (PCI FTW!)

i will quote myself ... (nope i am not a schizophrenic )


GreiverBlade said:


> only 1 problem for me : tried to activate VSR on a screen who is not meant to be used with it  i had to safe mode boot and DDU the driver (safemode also in DDU options) but after that, smooth as butter and less instability in framerates in games (well in the games where i noticed a drop instead of a imprivement.)
> 
> for the so called borking desktop : user fault at most, when i installed the drivers they prompted me, when i opened CCC, to change the DPI according to my resolution, well i ended with humongous icons.
> easy to correct anyway, but if you never used that option previously you might end cursing the driver, afaik a pop up windows who ask you to change your DPI (if you are fine with your desktop : no reason to do so) require a user action, aka: press OK button ... but as i wrote a bit above, if you are fine with your current DPI then no need, so tick the "never show again" box and press cancel.
> ...



also i should add that the driver update solved a problem with full screen overscan i had for quite a while, now i can directly full screen 1080p with no problems.


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## D007 (Dec 11, 2014)

> This is one of the most stupid posts I have seen in last months.



You're an idiot and anyone who thinks I don't know how to install a simple display driver and wants to resort to insults like a child, please refrain from talking to me.

I'm not the only one dealing with this:
http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...ga-is-borking-my-desktop.207938/#post-3206478

If you care this much about people having problems with driver releases, you need to get a life.

Can't install it or most resolutions disappear and CCC disappears then on reboot it says no hardware or driver can be found.

Also if you need to do a clean install to make their drivers work, why do they make "clean install" optional?
Seems dumb to me.

Regardless, I did a clean install multiple times with the same result.
If you can't handle that then I don't really care what you have to say.
There is a button here I use to deal with people like that. Ignored..

The ONLY way to make it work for some people "per google searches" is to use DDU in safe mode then install the drivers in safe mode.
Which is also beyond stupid.
I have never had to do that with Nvidia.
Fan boys and their rage.. eesh..



INSTG8R said:


> Sorry Ford but less than 6 people certainly doesn't amount to "A Lot" of people...



What a gross understatement.
Just because only 6 report SO FAR, means nothing..
Could be 6 thousand or 60 thousand with issues..
Most people don't report, they just wait for fixes.


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## Octopuss (Dec 11, 2014)

...PEBKAC


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## FordGT90Concept (Dec 11, 2014)

Point is, this isn't fanism that's causing the resentment towards these "omega" drivers.  There's _are_ problems with them that AMD has to work out.  If they can't or won't, it spells bad news for AMD over the long run.


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## erocker (Dec 11, 2014)

Shutting thread down for redundancy and to moderate/infract posts against forum guidelines.

Use this thread for discussion: http://www.techpowerup.com/207878/amd-releases-catalyst-14-12-omega-software.html


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