Editorial It's Now Been Over 160 Days Since a Catalyst WHQL Release

[64K]

Updated drivers are most important for people running Crossfire/SLI as already mentioned. If you look at W1zzard's performance review of The Witcher 3 you will see that the R9 295x2 actually ran lower FPS than a single 290x. For early adopters that paid $1,500 for the 295x2 to not get a Crossfire profile pretty quickly would be unacceptable.

I don't update my drivers a lot but I certainly would if I were running Crossfire/SLI.

 

[Caring1]

This just means the existing drivers work and don't need to be fixed.
Why fix what isn't broken!
Constant updates doesn't always mean the product is better.

 

[librin.so.1]

I should also point out that AMD is also working hard on open-sourcing some parts of their [closed source] driver on Linux, bit by bit; they already FOSS'd one part.

Why am I bringing it up? Simple! A VERY large portion of the driver is platform-independent / shared between the platforms.
This strongly implies AMD is working hard to clean up their driver internals overall.
A cleaner codebase does not mean "hurr durr fancee feeturz" but it does imply being faster and more stable.
But, while in the process of such a clean up the driver can be much more brittle, especially if "ancient" parts are touched.
So, just give them some time – they will dish out a much more improved driver, even if that means hardly any new features.

 

[moproblems99]

Not sure why all the hate for this editorial. I agree that it may be a little sensationalist but there is a lot of truth to it as well. I still only have 6850's in crossfire. That extra 6850 is would be very nice to have for the Witcher 3. I have been holding off on buying a new card until they get off their asses with either the 300 or 400 series, whichever it will be. I waited for them to come out with an improved CPU arch, they didn't do it so I left my 4 year old 1100T for an i7.

I am getting ready to do the same thing with my next GPU purchase but right now both companies are sucking. With rumors of nVidia ignoring 700 series already and AMD ignoring everybody....what do you do? Maybe more sites calling companies out on their bullshit will help, I dunno...I just have money waiting to be thrown at one of them.

 

[Solaris17]

I get a WHQL AMD driver like every other week with windows 10.

 

[the54thvoid]

To those that think TPU is pro Nvidia, you need to take your heads out of your asses. Just because you disagree with an editorial doesn't make it invalid.
As for drivers, I agree, the beta's mostly do the job, from both sides. But if things aren't being kept up to speed, crossfire profiles as an example, it ought to be highlighted.
Also, as Solaris says, W10 is getting the love. So perhaps a sign of AMD's focus, which is just as bad as NV neglecting older architectures.

Meh...

 

[qubit]

Well, another site falls to the NVIDIA PR machine. Previously I'd viewed TP as pretty impartial ... however the rhetoric has changed in btarunr's posts lately. Now we get outright FUD like this.

Pretty sad.

Do you have any clear, solid arguments to counter this apparent FUD, or is this wishful thinking?

 

[TheBense]

There are two options for GPUs.
* AMD
* Nvidia

I started using nvidia with the nvidia riva tnt2 when I built my Socket462/SocketA AMD "T-Bird" machine. If you really, really care about super stability, use professional graphics such as Quadro/Firepro.

If you have general needs, run the WHQL drivers.
If you play games, run the AMD Beta drives.

In my X99 machine, I have an AMD R9 290, as well as an Nvidia GTX 770, so I keep up to date with both.

I run into zero problems running the AMD Beta drivers, and until I do, I cannot find any reason to be concerned.

When it comes to performance/cost, AMD consistently wins. I look forward to the R9 400 series that are planned to be released later this year.

The end.

 

[Octopuss]

It seems like you're just trying to scare people into buying nvidia products instead of AMD...

I wouldn't be surprised, considering half or more of the news posts have (PR) in front of them. Maybe TPU is even being paid to put that stuff there.

 

[RCoon]

Maybe TPU is even being paid to put that stuff there.

Oh man, I wish we got paid to post a company's PR. Sadly we do not.

 

[vega22]

• News poster posts factual information regarding recent events, nothing opinionated, merely stating facts and informing readers of the present situation
• Some readers then proceed to rain down all hell upon news poster, making various angst-filled comments for no particular purpose other than to hate on the information provided

Don't shoot the messenger. The only reason people are getting all defensive is because of the lifelong feud that still (stupidly) exists between NVidia and AMD.

Asus haven't released a decent Xonar driver in years but nobody defends them for being "too busy" or "good enough".

has anybody posted on the front page about how the lack of xonar drivers is such a big issue?

no.

you can call all those posting as fanbois if you want, but it is all started by 1 with an axe to grind and the ability to put things on the front page.

lets look at it from another angle, amd have been using the same gpu tech for a couple of years, the drivers for that hardware are mature and they do not need to fix them every other week for new games as they already work.

yet another angle to see this from is nvidia drivers are so bad to start with they need to be fixed for every new game...

sad part is this site used to leave the fanboism to the members posting. shame all it takes to buy the news is a couple of gimped gpu hey.

peace.

 

[midnightoil]

To those that think TPU is pro Nvidia, you need to take your heads out of your asses. Just because you disagree with an editorial doesn't make it invalid.
As for drivers, I agree, the beta's mostly do the job, from both sides. But if things aren't being kept up to speed, crossfire profiles as an example, it ought to be highlighted.
Also, as Solaris says, W10 is getting the love. So perhaps a sign of AMD's focus, which is just as bad as NV neglecting older architectures.

Meh...

WHQL is completely meaningless, and NVIDIA's driver situation is far more controversial - not only have they introduced a lot of bugs lately, but update after update they downgrade the performance of the last generation, sometimes to levels where it's farcical. He's yet to write an editorial about this, and I'm sure he won't. I absolutely guarantee you he's either received favour / recompense for this, or is hoping to curry favour as he knows how kindly NVIDIA looks on this kind of crap. It's so utterly blatant, especially as it comes in the middle of a negative PR storm against NVIDIA because of GameWorks & driver shenanigans.

Previously I had adblock disabled for TPU. As of reading this article, it's enabled. I'd strongly urge anyone else who disagrees with this kind of propaganda to enable ad-block too.

 

[Casecutter]

For those I Thanked, nice editorials!

When I read the headline all I could think was "slow-news day?"

Well what we don't see that AMD announced they will host a "press event" at Computex on June 3rd (that's 15 days). Saying they will introduce its latest product lineup for both "300 Series and Carrizo offerings", promising to disclose "comprehensive details". So Ok, yes a "paper launch", but btarunr then implies that such "new drivers" won't appear until what is the point retail sales of such cards are to start, and we know AMD would offer new drivers for reviewer prior to launch.

Editorial? What does that even mean?

Normally it would be based around a current ongoing topic within the community providing one side of a debate or issue. As this is not prompted/provoked by anything, it's more the incite of a personal opinion manafesting more as a rant from one's bully pulpit!

wasn't cross fired injection on cars a mess too)

1982-1984 I worked for GM and on Cross-Fire Injection in Corvettes and Camaros. Now, while not as nice as later Multi-Port, when all the sub-systems, sensors, and harness where reporting everything properly it offered actually remarkable drivability and performance. Honestly it was an enhancement over a carburetor, especially those that where computer controlled, specifically given the smog laws domestic manufactures where intended to achieve.

At that time, that was the first iteration of On-Board-Computers and feed-back loop (CCC) for a production performance car, it was light-years ahead of the time. Even most upscale European brands that offered electric fuel injection, might of had an oxygen sensor though most not offering supplicated feed-back loop other than some of the top-ends’ of a marquee. The imports just weren't held to the stringent CAFE rules to sell the number vehicles GM and the other domestic brands were made to.

Have you ever read a newspaper?

My HS had a Print Shop that had two Linotype machines, to which I learned to set type for the shools newspaper.

 

[ZoneDymo]

• News poster posts factual information regarding recent events, nothing opinionated, merely stating facts and informing readers of the present situation
• Some readers then proceed to rain down all hell upon news poster, making various angst-filled comments for no particular purpose other than to hate on the information provided

Don't shoot the messenger. The only reason people are getting all defensive is because of the lifelong feud that still (stupidly) exists between NVidia and AMD.

Asus haven't released a decent Xonar driver in years but nobody defends them for being "too busy" or "good enough".

ermmm not really, when I looked for user reviews on the Xonar when I was thinking of buying it everyone and their mother was saying how it has the worst driver support ever, so bad they would even recommend Creative over it so your example falls a tad flat Im afraid.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Oh man, I wish we got paid to post a company's PR. Sadly we do not.

Well you kinda do... every time people come here to read stuff you get paid, thats how it works.
Its almost the same as people on youtube rather uploading a bunch of small vids then one long vid as more small vids means more hits on adverticement, one long vid is just one hit.
The more you post essentially the more people visit to read said postings, the more money is being raised.

 

[raghu78]

Aren't you supposed to write news articles? This is not the section to vent your opinions.
Also, stop repeating the same stupid mantra about the WHQL stuff. AMD repeatedly stated the "betas" were just as stable as the WHQL version, and the ONLY difference is the four letters.

I wouldn't have expected such stupid and useless thread from a staff member.

The Nvidia FUD machine is at full work. Maybe they are scared of what AMD is coming up with next month. seriously this is a pathetic attempt by a tech site to malign AMD. How does it matter if the driver is beta or WHQL as long as it does what its supposed to do ? (which is to play games and provide a stable experience )

Well you kinda do... every time people come here to read stuff you get paid, thats how it works.
Its almost the same as people on youtube rather uploading a bunch of small vids then one long vid as more small vids means more hits on adverticement, one long vid is just one hit.
The more you post essentially the more people visit to read said postings, the more money is being raised.

they really think we don't know their ulterior motives and how their website works. really sad that a lot of sites have become an extension of Nvidia PR & marketing.

 

[moproblems99]

they really think we don't know their ulterior motives and how their website works. really sad that a lot of sites have become an extension of Nvidia PR & marketing.

As long as they don't start toying with benchmarks, I don't care what they write.

 

[midnightoil]

As long as they don't start toying with benchmarks, I don't care what they write.

... do you trust the site to publish reviews which are impartial, and have no steering, selectiveness or preferential treatment after this? It's a joke.

 

[ensabrenoir]

Its sad that people really believe Amd to be some sort of........the people's company and that they price stuff looking out for the little guy..... seroiusly?

 

[64K]

I would just remind everyone who thinks W1zzard is a Nvidia puppet that when the shit hit the fan about the GTX 970 W1zzard posted that Nvidia lied to us and they lied to you.

 

[moproblems99]

... do you trust the site to publish reviews which are impartial, and have no steering, selectiveness or preferential treatment after this? It's a joke.

I don't fully trust anyone, everyone has agendas. But honestly, this post made no impact on my perception of them. TPU is also not the only place I get my information from. So if something they do doesn't jive, I can cross check else where.

 

[raghu78]

Its sad that people really believe Amd to be some sort of........the people's company and that they price stuff looking out for the little guy..... seroiusly?

thats not the point here. This article could have been written 2 months back. The same arguments could still have been made. The fact that its happening now before AMD's next gen flagship with HBM launches and the editorial even mentions "Such a slow driver update cycle would do little to inspire confidence in buying the next-generation Radeon product, even if it establishes a performance lead over GeForce." is what makes any person with common sense to suspect TPU's motives.

Does TPU have any proof that AMD's beta drivers are not stable and do not play well with the latest games ? Do they have any proof that AMD is not regularly updating their beta drivers to provide a good experience with the latest games ? If not then they should shut up.

What were TPU doing when Gameworks licensees like Ubisoft and Techland took months to enable CF support through game patches ? Why doesn't TPU investigate the pathetic performance of Kepler cards in recent Gameworks titles like Farcry 4, Project Cars, Witcher 3 ? Why don't they write about how Nvidia Gameworks titles run poorly on AMD cards while AMD GE titles like Civilization Beyond Earth, Alien Isolation, Dragon Age Inquisition run very well on Nvidia cards . Nvidia and by extension their licensees are basically destroying PC gaming. TPU can write about so many things which Nvidia does which is unethical. But they chose to be mum because of the kickbacks and other incentives like ad revenue, free hardware, invites to major Nvidia product launches/events . The double standards here is appalling. Shame on these people.

 

[Solidstate89]

The persecution complex is strong in this thread.

Laughably so.

 

[ensabrenoir]

thats not the point here. This article could have been written 2 months back. The same arguments could still have been made. The fact that its happening now before AMD's next gen flagship with HBM launches and the editorial even mentions "Such a slow driver update cycle would do little to inspire confidence in buying the next-generation Radeon product, even if it establishes a performance lead over GeForce." is what makes any person with common sense to suspect TPU's motives.

Does TPU have any proof that AMD's beta drivers are not stable and do not play well with the latest games ? Do they have any proof that AMD is not regularly updating their beta drivers to provide a good experience with the latest games ? If not then they should shut up.

What were TPU doing when Gameworks licensees like Ubisoft and Techland took months to enable CF support through game patches ? Why doesn't TPU investigate the pathetic performance of Kepler cards in recent Gameworks titles like Farcry 4, Project Cars, Witcher 3 ? Why don't they write about how Nvidia Gameworks titles run poorly on AMD cards while AMD GE titles like Civilization Beyond Earth, Alien Isolation, Dragon Age Inquisition run very well on Nvidia cards . Nvidia and by extension their licensees are basically destroying PC gaming. TPU can write about so many things which Nvidia does which is unethical. But they chose to be mum because of the kickbacks and other incentives like ad revenue, free hardware, invites to major Nvidia product launches/events . The double standards here is appalling. Shame on these people.

.....your points have some validity.....how ever......do you think that any of it will stop an enthusiast from buying Amd's new top cards? Most of the line is rumored to be re brands so they will be fine. The top tier cards buyers are a customer base that really don't have issues bouncing between the two camps. The middle and low tier have little to worry about.

 

[qubit]

WHQL is completely meaningless, and NVIDIA's driver situation is far more controversial - not only have they introduced a lot of bugs lately, but update after update they downgrade the performance of the last generation, sometimes to levels where it's farcical.

This is the first I hear of this and it seems a bit incredible that they'd do something so stupid. I run NVIDIA cards, having many older ones as well as 780 Tis and I'd be very interested to test this out. You got any examples of combinations of graphics cards and drivers I could try out?

You can be sure I'll be loudly calling NVIDIA out if my testing shows this.