Monday, June 18th 2018

AMD Raven Ridge APUs Not Getting Beta Drivers, 3-Month WHQL Only

by
crazyeyesreaper
 Discuss (14 Comments)
AMD's latest Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.6.1 Beta, which is available now, lacks Raven Ridge APU support. Driver support for the APUs are limited to WHQL releases only, as noted by an AMD representative on the Overclockers UK forum. Currently AMD is set to use a three month release cycle for APU drivers. Understandably, this has caused some concern with the latest driver to offer support for the Raven Ridge APUs being the Adrenalin Edition 18.5.1 driver released in May. The only good news here is the limited driver releases allow AMD to further optimize their costs in regards to testing and qualification.

Limited or outdated drivers, with such a long period between releases, means games could perform sub-optimally on AMD's latest and greatest APUs. Worse yet, consumers could be stuck waiting three months for an updated driver. Even then, if a problem arises and is a fringe issue, fixes could take even longer. Essentially Raven Ridge owners are being left out in the cold to some extent in regards to hot-fixes and performance improvements. This makes AMD's Raven Ridge APUs with built in VEGA graphics for both desktops and mobile systems a bit less appealing. This issue is further exacerbated by the fact Intel's Kaby Lake G series which also features AMD's VEGA graphics has seen a new driver released that is based on the 18.6.1 driver.
Source: Overclockers UK Forums

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14 Comments on AMD Raven Ridge APUs Not Getting Beta Drivers, 3-Month WHQL Only

#1
GoldenX
Same as with older APUs.
Posted on Reply
#2
Final_Fighter
this does not seem all that bad. apus are not on the same level as discrete gpus and i would expect amd to pour more resources into its mid to higher end products to begin with. another thing is most apus are going into low end to somewhat mid tier systems. usually these systems are pretty stable and are usually put together and setup in a way that people dont mess with or want to mess with drivers.
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#3
fec32a4de
I never quite understood the need to release drivers for every new major game and so often.

Sometimes there are issues with newly released games that require drivers, but otherwise constant driver updates aren't really necessary*

*except for any critical security issue or other serious issue which may be present.
Posted on Reply
#4
windwhirl
Considering the market they are targeted at most of the time, it's OK I guess, as long as they are on time with major Windows 10 updates...
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#5
Brusfantomet
As a owner of a Raven Ridge computer, i can say that this a non issue for myself.
Posted on Reply
#6
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
Non Issue, it is a non issue for Desktop too (those who upgrade constantly have to deal with fresh arrows in the back)
Posted on Reply
#7
danbert2000
I actually think this is an issue, because the APUs released so far are usually just on the edge of providing 1080p medium/high quality settings at 30 fps. A driver update released with a game can be the difference between sub-30 fps performance or an acceptable experience. I understand that AMD probably wants to create as stable an experience as possible for their APUs, but 3 months before you get an update to make your game playable is too long. If they had a 2 week or 1 month wait after releasing GPU drivers to validate for APUs, that would be much more acceptable.
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#8
Vayra86
danbert2000I actually think this is an issue, because the APUs released so far are usually just on the edge of providing 1080p medium/high quality settings at 30 fps. A driver update released with a game can be the difference between sub-30 fps performance or an acceptable experience. I understand that AMD probably wants to create as stable an experience as possible for their APUs, but 3 months before you get an update to make your game playable is too long. If they had a 2 week or 1 month wait after releasing GPU drivers to validate for APUs, that would be much more acceptable.
But in that case you bought a CPU full well knowing it wasn't capable because there is no bench that showed 30+ FPS in this hypothetical situation you speak of. A rather strange train of thought if you ask me...
Posted on Reply
#9
Foobario
Vayra86But in that case you bought a CPU full well knowing it wasn't capable because there is no bench that showed 30+ FPS in this hypothetical situation you speak of. A rather strange train of thought if you ask me...
If someone is buying this APU for gaming they are not what you would call cutting edge gamers. Probably not ones that need to be buying new games on the day of release. Information on what games are cool trickles down from the real gamers and by the time these APU gamers are ready to pull the trigger on a new game three months has probably already passed anyway.

I guess an alternative would be to buy an Intel Igpu and they can wait for infinity until games become playable. :/
Posted on Reply
#10
pokazene_maslo
Not to mention that AMD stopped supporting Windows 8.1 completely!!! The latest driver for Windows 8.1 x64 is 17.7.1!
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#11
dj-electric
Gamers who use APUs for gaming can't wait months to fix issues.
This is bad.
Posted on Reply
#12
kid41212003
I think that's a reasonable update cycle. I have the GTX1070 and I don't update my driver every month. I either play online games that came out years/months ago that don't really need any new drivers or discounted new games (6 months+). I think AMD's decision in this case makes perfect sense.

Who's going need a new driver for the latest games, for an APU?
Posted on Reply
#13
sutyi
dj-electricGamers who use APUs for gaming can't wait months to fix issues.
This is bad.
Taking a glare to the Known Issues list on RR APU drivers I don't see it as a terrible problem, the same issues are present in the desktop variant that was freshly realeased.
If people would be facing some sort of terrible problem where a Vega APU rig would hang or restart due to a game, they would probably hotfix it quite soon as they always did.

Although these new Vega based APUs are quite good as far as integrated graphics go, a new game optimized profile with a 3-5% performance uplift probably doesn't make a whole lot of difference they way you are using the product.

More stable WHQL realeases every 3 months is not that bad, consider that the very same drivers are used for OEM builds and mobile Raven APUs.
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#14
NC37
FoobarioIf someone is buying this APU for gaming they are not what you would call cutting edge gamers. Probably not ones that need to be buying new games on the day of release. Information on what games are cool trickles down from the real gamers and by the time these APU gamers are ready to pull the trigger on a new game three months has probably already passed anyway.

I guess an alternative would be to buy an Intel Igpu and they can wait for infinity until games become playable. :/
More travel centric gamers would. Those who have gaming rigs but need something small and light for travel. Sticking as much power as possible into a small case.

APUs would be a win design if AMD had innovated ways to get around the shared VRAM limitation. I just got done shopping for one of these machines. Needed a small and light 13 inch. Ryzen wins in the CPU area for the price. Intel's offerings are junk for that. But graphically, for the same price you can get 4C/8T Intel with MX150 that will beat the ever loving crap out of the Ryzen APU. Which is pathetic. There is no excuse for AMD to be getting outclassed by nVidia's budget offerings. Their IGP competition should be nVidia, not Intel. Which is at least trying with it's Iris line. AMD should have answered Iris, not continued to peddle the same APU designs from the first gen.
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