Friday, November 23rd 2018
AMD Responds to Lack of Ryzen Mobile Driver Updates, Claims OEMs are the Issue
AMD's Ryzen Notebook lineup seems to be very important to company, at least when going by how often it gets mentioned in the AMD financial analyst calls. That's why it's even more surprising that the driver situation for these products has been nothing but terrible. Some Ryzen Raven Ridge based notebooks haven't seen a single driver update since their release over a year ago, which is much worse than on any other notebook platform.
Users complained about this on Reddit, and AMD responded through an official account that the issue is that "drivers are typically tailored for specific OEM platforms", and that "releasing generic APU graphics drivers across all AMD Ryzen mobile processor-based mobile systems could result in less-than-ideal user experiences". AMD also made it clear that they will be working with OEMs to increase the release frequency of Ryzen Mobile graphics drivers, targeting two releases per-year in 2019.
To me this explanation sounds like bs.
OEMs don't buy customized APU chips from AMD, they all use the same physical chip, with the same capabilities. All the "driver tailoring" usually is just a bunch of logos and adding or removing features, which quite often is actually harming the user experience. While of course other components in the laptop might differ (networking, storage, audio), and the connected displays might run various refresh rates and resolutions, it's not like such differences have any significant effect on traditional desktop PCs. Imagine having to wait for your monitor vendor to approve and release a graphics driver update.
This somehow reminds me of the Android ecosystem, where phone makers were responsible for validating and releasing updates to the Android OS. Of course they already had your money, so why would they invest time and resources into improving something that yields no return and can possibly lead to support calls for issues with the upgrade (they'll happily sell their new phone model though). Just like AMD is trying now, Google has then started forcing OEMs to increase the update frequency, which never really worked out. An alternative approach is what NVIDIA does. Besides the vendor-supplied drivers, they offer a generic notebook driver on their website, that is updated with every new driver release and that you are free to use, and that as far as I know, works with nearly no issues.
Many users had success using the "force install" option in Windows Device Manager, and report that they're actually having fewer issues with that approach than when using the official driver. I think we can all agree that business users and casuals don't need a lot of driver updates, but the tech enthusiasts are a significant driver of AMD's business and should be kept happy (and they'll beta test the drivers, too, for free). Enthusiasts will tell their relatives and friends (who might not even know of AMD as a tech brand), what products to buy or to avoid, which is very important for a company like AMD that wants to establish a foothold in the highly competitive laptop market.
AMD'S full statement below:
Source:
AMD on Reddit
Users complained about this on Reddit, and AMD responded through an official account that the issue is that "drivers are typically tailored for specific OEM platforms", and that "releasing generic APU graphics drivers across all AMD Ryzen mobile processor-based mobile systems could result in less-than-ideal user experiences". AMD also made it clear that they will be working with OEMs to increase the release frequency of Ryzen Mobile graphics drivers, targeting two releases per-year in 2019.
OEMs don't buy customized APU chips from AMD, they all use the same physical chip, with the same capabilities. All the "driver tailoring" usually is just a bunch of logos and adding or removing features, which quite often is actually harming the user experience. While of course other components in the laptop might differ (networking, storage, audio), and the connected displays might run various refresh rates and resolutions, it's not like such differences have any significant effect on traditional desktop PCs. Imagine having to wait for your monitor vendor to approve and release a graphics driver update.
This somehow reminds me of the Android ecosystem, where phone makers were responsible for validating and releasing updates to the Android OS. Of course they already had your money, so why would they invest time and resources into improving something that yields no return and can possibly lead to support calls for issues with the upgrade (they'll happily sell their new phone model though). Just like AMD is trying now, Google has then started forcing OEMs to increase the update frequency, which never really worked out. An alternative approach is what NVIDIA does. Besides the vendor-supplied drivers, they offer a generic notebook driver on their website, that is updated with every new driver release and that you are free to use, and that as far as I know, works with nearly no issues.
Many users had success using the "force install" option in Windows Device Manager, and report that they're actually having fewer issues with that approach than when using the official driver. I think we can all agree that business users and casuals don't need a lot of driver updates, but the tech enthusiasts are a significant driver of AMD's business and should be kept happy (and they'll beta test the drivers, too, for free). Enthusiasts will tell their relatives and friends (who might not even know of AMD as a tech brand), what products to buy or to avoid, which is very important for a company like AMD that wants to establish a foothold in the highly competitive laptop market.
AMD'S full statement below:
Feedback is a critical part of how AMD delivers great products. You have made it clear we have room for improvement on graphics driver updates for AMD Ryzen Mobile processor-based notebooks, both for APU-only platforms and discrete GPU notebook designs. It is important to understand that our graphics drivers are typically tailored for specific OEM platforms, so releasing generic APU graphics drivers across all AMD Ryzen mobile processor-based mobile systems could result in less-than-ideal user experiences. So what can AMD do?
We are committing to work with our OEMs to increase the release frequency of AMD Ryzen Mobile processor graphics drivers. Starting in 2019, we will target enabling OEMs to deliver a twice-annual update of graphics drivers specifically for all AMD Ryzen Mobile processor-based systems. Because the release is ultimately up to the OEMs, this may vary from platform to platform, but we want to put out a clear goal for us and our OEM partners. Those updates should be available for download on the respective OEM websites.
In addition, AMD will continue to evaluate ways in which we can offer validated graphics drivers for AMD Ryzen Mobile processor-based notebooks aligned to the latest AMD software updates, and will provide updates as soon as we are able. Thank you to the community of AMD users who voice their opinions on this issue.
130 Comments on AMD Responds to Lack of Ryzen Mobile Driver Updates, Claims OEMs are the Issue
Still, you're right that it would be a bit odd if this only applied to one model - but then again it seems the statement came as a response to some complaint gaining traction online, which might not mean that it's actually representative.
No matter the truth here, I'll be very happy to see AMD pick up the pace with APU driver updates, though I'd be even happier if they just separated the GPU drivers from this entirely and kept them aligned with dGPU drivers. How hard can it be?
If this was indeed the manufacturer's fault, I really wish AMD would fry them for that in that public statement instead of the "we're work with them to make things better". Because few things annoy me more than things getting locked up for no good reason.
www.amd.com/en/support/apu/amd-series-processors/amd-a12-series-apu-for-laptops/7th-gen-a12-9730p-apu
Both A12 mobile and Ryzen mobile has GCN iGPUs. Why the inconsistency?Find mobile Ryzen OEM supplied driver greater than version 17.7 e.g. 17.9 or 17.10I update my Surface Pro 4's GPU driver from Intel's web site.
I can see how this used to be a problem, particularly older vaios. I remember their suite had w/e software was needed for the chip that facilitated the onboard to third party GPU hand off. In these cases its annoying but understandable. Honestly though atleast within the last few years laptops seem to take vanilla drivers without issue.
1- It's all the OEMs fault for everything
2- AMDs drivers are perfect. You only need one release and it's done.Are you saying my GTX980 is functionally obsolete? And I was just about to give it to someone as a hand me down. I guess I should just throw it out.
Other than that, nobody is saying anything to the tune of the drivel you're trying to parody up top here.
The oldest card I have in daily use is an HD 5570 that's 8 years old. Works perfectly fine but I doubt it has had driver optimizations for years.
Remember, the reason why cards can be used longer is because of DirectX 10. Very little has changed in the hardware since its debut thanks to the unified shader and Display Driver Model it demanded. You can use virtually any card with Microsoft's generic video driver but performance will be terrible.
I force update with 23.20.821.2560 drivers from support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-envy-15-cp0000-x360-convertible-pc/20270303/model/21869521 on my bq100cto model which doesn't have locked to native resolution problem for the mentioned games but it has occasional BSOD after sleep state.
Catalyst 18.10.1 (25.xx.xxx.xxxx) has better stability with locked at native resolution problem with certain games.