The AMD Experience - Facts only

[Gouhan]

There are fewer things as exceedingly trying of one's patience as dealing with AMD hardware. It is not the hardware itself that I have any issue with, but the drivers and software.
AMD is either not committed, incapable or plainly unconcerned with software development. To my experience and knowledge, this is where it all falls apart and it is a mirror of how the entire organization functions. What follows are things you may test yourself at any time. They are not in any way related to game performance, frame pacing, pricing or anything else that is usually argued about (these are rarely if ever debates). I am not concerned with any of that but what you will find below is a repeatable experience of what it is like owning one machine with an AMD GPU and another with an NVIDIA GPU. For all intents and purposes, identical platforms and machines.

1. Let's start where the normal AMD experience begins and compare that with the equivalent NVIDIA one, actually you may substitute INTEL here as well.
- You will note, there is no mention of Windows 10 anywhere or at least mentioned. So if you have the beta/preview builds installed. you're out of luck=
- There is no FreeBSD, support either (Solaris as well etc)

2. NVIDIA has What's New | GeForce, but if you go try Radeon.com this is where you end up instead.

3. Assume that you want to find a driver for your FuryX, R9 390X/390 GPU right? The latest and greatest from AMD. These GPUs are in retail outlets.
- You will be greeted with an Omega driver from 2014 as the last official non-beta driver
- Scroll down the page to find Catalyst 15.6 dated June 22 2015, however Catalyst 15.6 does not support AMD Radeon FuryX, 390X or 390 at all.
- Now you may think it's because FuryX was only officially out on the 24 and perhaps AMD held all drivers for the new line of cards back until all GPUs were released. Far fetched, but one must seek reason always. This is quickly undone by the realization that, the only driver that works with these cards is dated June 20 2015, which is even earlier than the driver they released later. More over, 290/290X and 390/390X as we know are exactly the same silicon right down to device ID.
- But wait, there's more. The Supporting 300/FuryX driver isn't even on the driver and support page you will find on the right in Teal. "Latest AMD Catalyst™ Drivers and Software" None of which support the R9 300 series

4. Compare this with just going to the Geforce site

It is that simple. You need 1 click to get to a place where you select your OS and GPU. That's it! (980Ti to GeforceFX)

5. Now imagine you finally get a driver and install it, (had trouble with this as well and still do where the GPU will not resume from standby. I won't go into that as it's immaterial)
You would think since VSR came at the very least two months after DSR. (Only the heavens know why AMD didn't do it sooner. The employees will claim VSR had nothing to do with inspiration from NVIDIA's DSR, that goes for HD3D which came after 3DVision; FreeSync after G-Sync; Get In The Game after "The way It's meant to be played", and Gaming Evolved after NVIDIA Gameworks)
That it should be better or at the very least offer the same options is a fair assumption, no?
Well, below is VSR and below that DSR

Keep in mind that you will have a total of 7 DSR resolutions on the same screen where VSR gives you one and it's not the claimed 4K they have been promoting.
This is VSR's limit, all of 1 resolution A known problem which you can read about here as well - VSR (Virtual Super resolution) Downsampling - MOD - Guru3D.com Forums
I do not want to reference that place, but it is just an example of folk trying to fix VSR

6. These are the game options AMD gives you compared to the ones NVIDIA offers below that. Again I couldn't scroll down far enough to fit all the NVIDIA control Panel options in.

7. Then finally what inspired this entire post. It's simply that on my QHD VX24AH, the AMD card by default is set to 1920x180@ 60Hz and there's absolutely no way to change that within the driver. Same screen is picked up at QHD on any NVIDIA GPU, even as far back as GeForce 500 series.
To gain access to 2560x1440, I need to use a 3rd party tool called the AMD/ATI Pixel CLock Patcher 1.27
After which I can then set my monitor to it's native resolution. However, I can't do 75Hz. Something that simply works on the NVIDIA Control Panel.
Again compare what AMD offers for custom resolutions below

FRESH AIR
NVIDIA control panel allows this

So I'm not bashing AMD hardware at all, but it is simple things like this that prove the most disappointing. The most obvious and basic elements in usability are absent from AMD's software. I have a hard time placing any reason behind a belief which states this team and all other units like it will turn things around.
Even if I wanted to, I could never use an AMD GPU for my gaming system and it has nothing to do with performance. I simply can't get my 75Hz and VSR working.

 

[baasgene]

A couple of posts will soon surface claiming they've had no hassles with Amd in decades, but that's how the dice rolls I guess. I've had quite a couple of red cards and the HD6990 was the last one ever. I will never touch them again.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Had many many problems with my 5770 back in the day, it always crashed, never had an issue with AMD cards after that, what pisses me off is that AMD takes months to release drivers, luckily I dont care much for games. But having a new range of cards out and still having the omega 14.12 as the latest is pretty pathetic, those beta drivers usually causes instability in my experience.
[MENTION=22636]baasgene[/MENTION] those dual gpu cards are usually unstable, just look at the gtx590 what a piece of crap that was.

 

[El Matador]

Well. You can take this any way you like! I'm still running a HD5870 (Yes it's very old) 15.4 driver & it's running sweet ever since I bought it. I had 3 Nvidia cards die on me within 18 months before I got the 5870. So Nvidia probably wont see me again!!

As for the drivers you are raging about: It's right in front of your eyes.
AMD Catalyst

View attachment 35000

 

[ooogz]

Honestly I've owned x1650, 4850 then 4850 cf, 5850, 7950... I've honestly never had any problems with amd. I've gotten a gtx 970 recently just to change it a bit and I have no problems except for driver crashing when browsing in chrome. I've been happy and maybe lucky with my cards. The only card that has ever died on me was my 5850 but that was after I changed the thermal paste. Must have given to much static or something... im using nvidia now but I will go back to amd one day in the future.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Well. You can take this any way you like! I'm still running a HD5870 (Yes it's very old) 15.4 driver & it's running sweet ever since I bought it. I had 3 Nvidia cards die on me within 18 months before I got the 5870. So Nvidia probably wont see me again!!

As for the drivers you are raging about: It's right in front of your eyes.
AMD Catalyst

View attachment 35000

Some systems just didnt like the 5000 series, the guy I sold my 5770 to never had any issues, I bought another 5000 series gpu and it also crashed, then i got a 6870 and it ran fine for as long as i had it. I buy what ever the hell I can afford because I dont make alot of money, nvidia or amd i dont care, fan boys just piss me off whether they are green or red, what a load of crap, its always the guys with too much money and systems that can give Tianhe-2 a run for its money.

 

[El Matador]

Some systems just didnt like the 5000 series, the guy I sold my 5770 to never had any issues, I bought another 5000 series gpu and it also crashed, then i got a 6870 and it ran fine for as long as i had it. I buy what ever the hell I can afford because I dont make alot of money, nvidia or amd i dont care, fan boys just piss me off whether they are green or red, what a load of crap, its always the guys with too much money and systems that can give Tianhe-2 a run for its money.

Yeah that's very possible. It all comes down to what people like/ can afford. I buy red because it's quite a bit cheaper price/performance wise. And I like the brand because I have no trouble with their products so far.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Yeah that's very possible. It all comes down to what people like/ can afford. I buy red because it's quite a bit cheaper price/performance wise. And I like the brand because I have no trouble with their products so far.

I was stuck with the GSOD with my 5770
[video=youtube;BooP43JTc4Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BooP43JTc4Y[/video]
As far as having to navigate to download a AMD driver, well thats never been hard to do either.

 

[Gouhan]

Sigh...
Pretty much missed the entire point of the post.
Read, please. This is a forum and the means by which we communicate is the written word. This is of utmost importance. [MENTION=26025]El Matador[/MENTION] See that thing that says "n00b" underneath your user name. Never has it been more appropriate as it is pertaining to your responses.

As for the drivers you are raging about: It's right in front of your eyes.

I found the drivers, in fact had them before they were even public. That isn't the issue. Follow what is in the opening post and read, comprehend and you will realize that at no point did I say I didn't find the drivers. I took screenshots with the driver installed. It's right there young man Who is raging? Calm down and learn to read.
As I stated when starting the thread, this has nothing to do with personal experience or what has served you better over the years and what hasn't. That is entirely subjective, there's no proof to back that up and it isn't something we can debate or discuss. What I posted is precisely the experience anyone will have today, right now. Anyone can check this for themselves. Thus far you've served to detract from the topic at hand and moreover have added nothing to wherever it was you had attempted to steer the topic.

It's imperative to learn how to read and comprehend. You will need this skill in future, start practicing it right now.
To those who would want to say they have owned x,y,z. Again that is besides the point. We are not comparing how many Graphic's cards anyone has owned, when and how come. That doesn't prove anything. I have quite possibly owned more GPUs in the last two years than all of the posters above in their entire lives, combined. It is my job. Even with that, my personal experience means absolutely nothing as evidence. What I posted is pertaining to an experience which is void of any personal bias or experience. Take it for what it is and share an opinion based on what is presented. Not your personal experience which we can neither verify nor confirm.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Sigh...
Pretty much missed the entire point of the post.
Read, please. This is a forum and the means by which we communicate is the written word. This is of utmost importance. @<u><a href="http://carbonite.co.za/members/el-matador/" target="_blank">El Matador</a></u> See that thing that says "n00b" underneath your user name. Never has it been more appropriate as it is pertaining to your responses.

I found the drivers, in fact had them before they were even public. That isn't the issue. Follow what is in the opening post and read, comprehend and you will realize that at no point did I say I didn't find the drivers. I took screenshots with the driver installed. It's right there young man Who is raging? Calm down and learn to read.
As I stated when starting the thread, this has nothing to do with personal experience or what has served you better over the years and what hasn't. That is entirely subjective, there's no proof to back that up and it isn't something we can debate or discuss. What I posted is precisely the experience anyone will have today, right now. Anyone can check this for themselves. Thus far you've served to detract from the topic at hand and moreover have added nothing to wherever it was you had attempted to steered the topic.

It's imperative to learn how to read and comprehend. You will need this skill in future, start practicing it right now.

I understand your post and like I said AMD really dont do much about releasing drivers more frequently. watch this vid haha.
[video]https://youtu.be/Vx8Uu64gIS8?t=2m[/video]

 

[Gouhan]

I understand your post and like I said AMD really dont do much about releasing drivers more frequently. watch this vid haha.
[video]https://youtu.be/Vx8Uu64gIS8?t=2m[/video]

The Sweat under dude's armpit. dont' know why I find that so funny.
1. So NVIDIA is re-branding by taking a TITAN-X and cutting down some SMM units to make is a 980Ti? This is coming from AMD Wow

 

[reactor_sa]

ShockG, can you share some insights as to why nvidia release a whole new 350mb driver every time a new game is released? I've yet to experience any benefits from these drivers and no change to the tdr problem.

So on one hand we have AMD with a new driver every 6 months and nvidia with a "new" driver every 2 weeks. And the consumer just never winning.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

The Sweat under dude's armpit. dont' know why I find that so funny.
1. So NVIDIA is re-branding by taking a TITAN-X and cutting down some SMM units to make is a 980Ti? This is coming from AMD Wow

oooh sick haha didnt notice the swimming pools under his arms! Mr elric saying amd is releasing drivers frequently, uh uh uh tisk tisk. ghm isnt that just what usually goes on, take the flagship card and start cutting down, think he is confused with what re branding is, but he will learn that at AMD now. Im just making jokes here XD

 

[CUDlyBunny]

I struggled to find a Windows 10 driver for my R9290 but windows update actually finds it for you.
Even with the version of the driver known I still can't find it anywhere by googling it, I don't get why its
not just easily available from their website. Driver works though as expected and can run the dx12 test in 3dmark.

 

[Gouhan]

ShockG, can you share some insights as to why nvidia release a whole new 350mb driver every time a new game is released? I've yet to experience any benefits from these drivers and no change to the tdr problem.

So on one hand we have AMD with a new driver every 6 months and nvidia with a "new" driver every 2 weeks. And the consumer just never winning.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with having a new driver every two weeks. You're not obliged to download it. If you don't see any benefits it's because the changes made do not affect your particular game.
It's like this. If Nissan decides on a 2016 performance tuning for the GTR specifically for the Suzuka circuit in Japan. That you took your car in and they performed the tuning for free, but don't notice any performance changes when driving at Spa or Monaco, does not mean it was without merit. It also doesn't mean it isn't a worthwhile exercise for Nissan. More importantly it doesn't take away from your current GTR experience. It helped those who were in a position to be helped by the tuning. The ones who were racing at Suzuka.
It's exactly the same thing with drivers from NVIDIA. They have plenty because they are constantly working on optimizations, fixes etc. for particular games. You don't have to download them if the change log in no way reflects that the games you play will be affected.

The issue is when there are no driver updates for long periods of time. The list of fixes grows. Some people even finish playing particular games in the time it takes for a driver fix to come around. Frequent driver updates aim to curb poor user experience before it happens, not after it has taken place. For instance the Project Cars issue. AMD had sent no communication, be it a driver an engineer, nothing at all for more than half a year. That means they don't get the latest builds and even when they do, they do no driver tuning. The game came out and performance was poor. Only after this was in public did AMD then work on a fix. That is the issue with late driver updates.

 

[El Matador]

Sigh...
Pretty much missed the entire point of the post.
Read, please. This is a forum and the means by which we communicate is the written word. This is of utmost importance. [MENTION=26025]El Matador[/MENTION] See that thing that says "n00b" underneath your user name. Never has it been more appropriate as it is pertaining to your responses.

I found the drivers, in fact had them before they were even public. That isn't the issue. Follow what is in the opening post and read, comprehend and you will realize that at no point did I say I didn't find the drivers. I took screenshots with the driver installed. It's right there young man Who is raging? Calm down and learn to read.
As I stated when starting the thread, this has nothing to do with personal experience or what has served you better over the years and what hasn't. That is entirely subjective, there's no proof to back that up and it isn't something we can debate or discuss. What I posted is precisely the experience anyone will have today, right now. Anyone can check this for themselves. Thus far you've served to detract from the topic at hand and moreover have added nothing to wherever it was you had attempted to steer the topic.

It's imperative to learn how to read and comprehend. You will need this skill in future, start practicing it right now.
To those who would want to say they have owned x,y,z. Again that is besides the point. We are not comparing how many Graphic's cards anyone has owned, when and how come. That doesn't prove anything. I have quite possibly owned more GPUs in the last two years than all of the posters above in their entire lives, combined. It is my job. Even with that, my personal experience means absolutely nothing as evidence. What I posted is pertaining to an experience which is void of any personal bias or experience. Take it for what it is and share an opinion based on what is presented. Not your personal experience which we can neither verify nor confirm.

Ok let me clear things up a bit. I'm not the only one to go off topic( I think )
"A couple of posts will soon surface claiming they've had no hassles with Amd in decades, but that's how the dice rolls I guess. I've had quite a couple of red cards and the HD6990 was the last one ever. I will never touch them again."

The above quote is actually where my "personal experience" is aimed.

"AMD is either not committed, incapable or plainly unconcerned with software development. To my experience and knowledge, this is where it all falls apart and it is a mirror of how the entire organization functions"
You did discount your experience in the reply, however It's still one of the first things everyone who reads this thread is going to see. (maybe I understood it wrong - but it is confusing)

"3. Assume that you want to find a driver for your FuryX, R9 390X/390 GPU right? The latest and greatest from AMD. These GPUs are in retail outlets.
- You will be greeted with an Omega driver from 2014 as the last official non-beta driver
- Scroll down the page to find Catalyst 15.6 dated June 22 2015, however Catalyst 15.6 does not support AMD Radeon FuryX, 390X or 390 at all.
- Now you may think it's because FuryX was only officially out on the 24 and perhaps AMD held all drivers for the new line of cards back until all GPUs were released. Far fetched, but one must seek reason always. This is quickly undone by the realization that, the only driver that works with these cards is dated June 20 2015, which is even earlier than the driver they released later. More over, 290/290X and 390/390X as we know are exactly the same silicon right down to device ID.
- But wait, there's more. The Supporting 300/FuryX driver isn't even on the driver and support page you will find on the right in Teal. "Latest AMD Catalyst™ Drivers and Software" None of which support the R9 300 series "

The above indicates that 1. you were unable to find the drivers. or 2. The drivers are not yet available. (300 / FuryX drivers)

On point 5. I will humbly concede, you did actually find the drivers
On G-sync & Free-sync I have no comment, having never seen it in person & not really knowing how it works.

On the topic of steering the thread, no steering was intended. But as always people will throw their opinions in the fray.
As for the "Raging" comment: maybe you failed to notice the at the bottom. It was not meant as an insult/attack.

I'm not here to fight

Lastly I think that maybe this should be kept between people who actually own the cards in question? As everyone else will be judging on what the read...Which is stuff other people wrote.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

We should not be fighting, ill get the hoola hoops and the peace pipe.

 

[Sola Scriptura]

Well that other dude in the vid said they will be working harder on the drivers etc so lets be positive that AMD will be have more frequent driver roll outs as well as better software in the future.

 

[VPII]

Ok let me clear things up a bit. I'm not the only one to go off topic( I think )
"A couple of posts will soon surface claiming they've had no hassles with Amd in decades, but that's how the dice rolls I guess. I've had quite a couple of red cards and the HD6990 was the last one ever. I will never touch them again."

The above quote is actually where my "personal experience" is aimed.

"AMD is either not committed, incapable or plainly unconcerned with software development. To my experience and knowledge, this is where it all falls apart and it is a mirror of how the entire organization functions"
You did discount your experience in the reply, however It's still one of the first things everyone who reads this thread is going to see. (maybe I understood it wrong - but it is confusing)

"3. Assume that you want to find a driver for your FuryX, R9 390X/390 GPU right? The latest and greatest from AMD. These GPUs are in retail outlets.
- You will be greeted with an Omega driver from 2014 as the last official non-beta driver
- Scroll down the page to find Catalyst 15.6 dated June 22 2015, however Catalyst 15.6 does not support AMD Radeon FuryX, 390X or 390 at all.
- Now you may think it's because FuryX was only officially out on the 24 and perhaps AMD held all drivers for the new line of cards back until all GPUs were released. Far fetched, but one must seek reason always. This is quickly undone by the realization that, the only driver that works with these cards is dated June 20 2015, which is even earlier than the driver they released later. More over, 290/290X and 390/390X as we know are exactly the same silicon right down to device ID.
- But wait, there's more. The Supporting 300/FuryX driver isn't even on the driver and support page you will find on the right in Teal. "Latest AMD Catalyst™ Drivers and Software" None of which support the R9 300 series "

The above indicates that 1. you were unable to find the drivers. or 2. The drivers are not yet available. (300 / FuryX drivers)

On point 5. I will humbly concede, you did actually find the drivers
On G-sync & Free-sync I have no comment, having never seen it in person & not really knowing how it works.

On the topic of steering the thread, no steering was intended. But as always people will throw their opinions in the fray.
As for the "Raging" comment: maybe you failed to notice the at the bottom. It was not meant as an insult/attack.

I'm not here to fight

Lastly I think that maybe this should be kept between people who actually own the cards in question? As everyone else will be judging on what the read...Which is stuff other people wrote.

El Matador the thing is ShockG with his experience and most manufacturers appoaching to review their products it is fairly difficult to argue with him. But knowing ShockG he'll be happy to admit when he was wrong and correct it with those involved.

Then again, I'm coming from a view of someone who mainly used Nvidia for the past few years, thus my view may be clouded taking nothing away from ShochG's experience seen on his online mag.

 

[Gouhan]

To my experience was talking about the company and how they do things in general. Even outside of the drivers and how they interface with the users. Experience with AMD an an organization and how this is reflected in the products or overall experience.
In 2007, AMD had a Phenom X4 running in a demo rig upstairs for a private event, where they were talking about it's native quad-core nature and how it is a revolution, offering superior xyz etc. I don't expect any company to say that their product is struggling or not up to scratch. That would be absurd and AMD was right to make these claims about their product. All sensible marketing would do so. That isn't an issue. The issue instead became their claim that they had delivered a superior product to INTEL's QX6700 which was not native quad core, relied on the FSB and had no IMC. These were amongst other things leveled at INTEL and the basis upon which AMD had the superior product. There was no need to mention INTEL at all, nor their products. Just show is what AMD had brought and what improvements they had made over the Athlon 64 X2 line of products. No instead it was about how INTEL couldn't do x,y,z. Meanwhile downstairs, INTEL was not only showing off QX6700 being overclocked etc. retailers were selling CPUs, machines etc. As we know as well from history, the Phenom lost every single benchmark or game against INTEL's QX6700, by oddly enough a phenomenal margin.

From 790FX, to 880FX to 990FX, these are identical chipsets from AMD. Today, their most high end CPU in the FX-9590 relies on a chipset from 2007 in the 990FX guise. So there's been no USB 3.0 implemented (they missed the entire generation from USB 3.0 inception right up until 3.1 which is now), no SATA 6Gbps, no PCI-Express 3.0 (PCIe 4.0 comes next year to market) etc. Plenty other features missing. Yet, even today when one speaks to AMD people even informally, in a social environment they will look at you straight and say they have a competitive chipset.
[MENTION=26025]El Matador[/MENTION]. The point I was making is not that the drivers do not exist. It is that they are harder to get to than they should be. For the product that is on their landing page, the drivers for it are not where it says Drivers and Support. What is a two click process on Geforce.com needs you to do much more at AMD.com
Why AMD does not own Radeon.com is puzzling when there's obviously a cyber squatter and it would be easy to show in a court of law why they (AMD) should have the domain name. Yet, they've not done this. It is the way in which AMD communicates with itself and with the outside world that places it here at 20% of the GPU market share and even less in the CPU market.
It was this lack of commitment, focus and just rudimentary reasoning that placed them here. Many of these things I highlighted are not related to money or some other resources. It's at least from the outside lack of care.
This is the user experience that reviews do not share at all. FPS is great, frame time, thermals etc. All of that is wonderful, but that isn't all there is to it. It isn't games I'm struggling with, in fact the 390X Gaming 8GB OC is mighty quick, beating out the best GeForce GTX 780Ti in a number of games. However that isn't the issue. If one has to decide between the two today, using a 24" QHD screen like one of the monitors I use. You simply aren't going to get an equal experience. If you don't find access to the display clock patcher you're stuck at 1920x1080 at 60Hz. Even if you do, at least you get native resolution, but will not be able to run your 75Hz. You'll not be able to experience downscale resolutions of UHD because AMD has a limit of 3200x1800 built into the driver. Nothing to do with gaming or anything else. Just an observation.

 

[Mr-Day-Wing]

To my experience was talking about the company and how they do things in general. Even outside of the drivers and how they interface with the users. Experience with AMD an an organization and how this is reflected in the products or overall experience.
In 2007, AMD had a Phenom X4 running in a demo rig upstairs for a private event, where they were talking about it's native quad-core nature and how it is a revolution, offering superior xyz etc. I don't expect any company to say that their product is struggling or not up to scratch. That would be absurd and AMD was right to make these claims about their product. All sensible marketing would do so. That isn't an issue. The issue instead became their claim that they had delivered a superior product to INTEL's QX6700 which was not native quad core, relied on the FSB and had no IMC. These were amongst other things leveled at INTEL and the basis upon which AMD had the superior product. There was no need to mention INTEL at all, nor their products. Just show is what AMD had brought and what improvements they had made over the Athlon 64 X2 line of products. No instead it was about how INTEL couldn't do x,y,z. Meanwhile downstairs, INTEL was not only showing off QX6700 being overclocked etc. retailers were selling CPUs, machines etc. As we know as well from history, the Phenom lost every single benchmark or game against INTEL's QX6700, by oddly enough a phenomenal margin.

From 790FX, to 880FX to 990FX, these are identical chipsets from AMD. Today, their most high end CPU in the FX-9590 relies on a chipset from 2007 in the 990FX guise. So there's been no USB 3.0 implemented (they missed the entire generation from USB 3.0 inception right up until 3.1 which is now), no SATA 6Gbps, no PCI-Express 3.0 (PCIe 4.0 comes next year to market) etc. Plenty other features missing. Yet, even today when one speaks to AMD people even informally, in a social environment they will look at you straight and say they have a competitive chipset.
[MENTION=26025]El Matador[/MENTION]. The point I was making is not that the drivers do not exist. It is that they are harder to get to than they should be. For the product that is on their landing page, the drivers for it are not where it says Drivers and Support. What is a two click process on Geforce.com needs you to do much more at AMD.com
Why AMD does not own Radeon.com is puzzling when there's obviously a cyber squatter and it would be easy to show in a court of law why they (AMD) should have the domain name. Yet, they've not done this. It is the way in which AMD communicates with itself and with the outside world that places it here at 20% of the GPU market share and even less in the CPU market.
It was this lack of commitment, focus and just rudimentary reasoning that placed them here. Many of these things I highlighted are not related to money or some other resources. It's at least from the outside lack of care.
This is the user experience that reviews do not share at all. FPS is great, frame time, thermals etc. All of that is wonderful, but that isn't all there is to it. It isn't games I'm struggling with, in fact the 390X Gaming 8GB OC is mighty quick, beating out the best GeForce GTX 780Ti in a number of games. However that isn't the issue. If one has to decide between the two today, using a 24" QHD screen like one of the monitors I use. You simply aren't going to get an equal experience. If you don't find access to the display clock patcher you're stuck at 1920x1080 at 60Hz. Even if you do, at least you get native resolution, but will not be able to run your 75Hz. You'll not be able to experience downscale resolutions of UHD because AMD has a limit of 3200x1800 built into the driver. Nothing to do with gaming or anything else. Just an observation.

I concur with this. It's one of the reasons I jumped back to Nvidia because the control panel is so easy to use and I can oc the hz on most if my screens I've had. I'm very reluctant atm to move back because Nvidia control panel has been a pleasure to use with my qnix screen no hassles at all I didn't have issues with AMD drivers, its just these simple things that should be mandatory in their control panel is not standard which is sad.... Otherwise they would have my business so your findings [MENTION=64]ShockG[/MENTION] are very spot on like usual

Sent from my HUAWEI G6-L11 using Tapatalk

 

[The_Assimilator]

See, this is why I prefer nVIDIA. Not because I'm a "fanboy" but simply because they give you the whole package, the full enchilada. You feel like you're getting your value for money with nVIDIA, even if you have to pay a bit more. With ATI/AMD you feel like you are paying for half a car with the promise that you'll get the other half later... maybe. Possibly. Perhaps.

I honestly don't know what happened at AMD's GPU division since the glory days of the 6000 series, and it's sad because they were doing so well. I really feel that if ATI were to leave AMD, we would see proper competition again - no resources being wasted on marketing and rubbish CPUs.

 

[Mr-Day-Wing]

See, this is why I prefer nVIDIA. Not because I'm a "fanboy" but simply because they give you the whole package, the full enchilada. You feel like you're getting your value for money with nVIDIA, even if you have to pay a bit more. With ATI/AMD you feel like you are paying for half a car with the promise that you'll get the other half later... maybe. Possibly. Perhaps.

I honestly don't know what happened at AMD's GPU division since the glory days of the 6000 series, and it's sad because they were doing so well. I really feel that if ATI were to leave AMD, we would see proper competition again - no resources being wasted on marketing and rubbish CPUs.

Imagine if Intel bought out ATI

Sent from my HUAWEI G6-L11 using Tapatalk

 

[Oj0]

I understand your post and like I said AMD really dont do much about releasing drivers more frequently. watch this vid haha.
[video]https://youtu.be/Vx8Uu64gIS8?t=2m[/video]

ShockG insisted I watch the entire video, so I did. I'm contemplating billing SOMEONE for my time after that. There are a grand total of three things said during the 22 minute clip that I agree with:

Their CPUs can't complete with INTEL's
HBM is indeed a new technology
The Levolution events in BF4 are incredible (especially Flood Zone!)

That's it. Now onto the nitty gritty.

• This guy gives NVIDIA and INTEL FAR too much of his time. Unless you listen to the intro or know who he is, at times it's difficult to tell which of the three companies he works for. Refer to "the competition", don't lead people directly to NVIDIA/INTEL.
• Frequent driver updates? Uh, what? I started playing with a Radeon HD 7950 last Saturday, the latest WHQL driver I could find was something like nine months old. That's not frequent. No, I don't want beta drivers, I want something I know I can trust as other than gaming my PC does some mission critical work.
• The GeForce GTX 980 Ti is a rebrand of the GTX TITAN X? How? It does not replace the TITAN X, the two cards sell side-by-side. They are aimed at different markets, with the TITAN X being aimed at the money-is-no-object-I-want-the-absolute-best-of-the-best market. This is rather rich coming from a company that just rebranded and entire SERIES. If selling a lesser product of the same architecture is rebranding, let's take a look at AMD's heyday. They had the Athlon64 3700+ which must have been a rebrand of the 4000+ which must have been a rebrand of the FX-55 which was later rebranded to the FX-57. None of them have castrated cache or anything of the kind, the only difference between them is the multiplier/stock multiplier - they were even manufactured alongside each other, I have one of each of the four with the week code 0516. They're FAR more alike than the 980 Ti and TITAN X.
• "If the 970 really had 4 gig of RAM" - You... did... NOT... just say that. The 970 DOES have 4 GB RAM, the last 512 MB segment might not have the same amount of bandwidth that the first 3.5 GB does but the card certainly DOES have 4 GB RAM. This is not even an issue which came up in reviews, it only showed up when someone ran bandwidth tests on the card. Games were fine until then. People couldn't buy the GTX 970 quickly enough. Suddenly the memory bandwidth issue gets shown and the 970 is the worst thing ever made... For about a month, then the news was forgotten and people started buying the 970 for its performance once more. Also...
  
  
• "We're much better at video than anybody" - OK, someone please call Pixar and tell them they're a bunch of idiots for buying the Quadro K6000 instead of FirePro cards. In fact, tell the entire industry. At around 15 %, the FirePro enjoys an even SMALLER segment of the market than the Radeon, with NVIDIA owning around 85 % of the professional market. I wouldn't be too surprised if the Mac Pro is the only thing that got AMD into the double digits, to be honest. Roy Tailor can give one of two explanations here: Either he's talking nonsense and the FirePro is NOT better than the Quadro, or his marketing team is an absolute failure cause their "better" cards are being outsold six-to-one to customers who DO know what's what in the market, such as animation studios.

 

[El Matador]

To get back to how difficult it is to find certain drivers. Below I have laid out the click - by - click process for Nvidia & AMD.

From each homepage:

Visual Computing Leader | GPUs & Processors | NVIDIA

Hold the mouse over the button titled "drivers" > click on "GeForce Drivers" > and select all the boxes that apply to your specific product. 6 boxes in total. (2 clicks Main) + (6 clicks if all the boxes needs to be ticked) though this is nitpicking

Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD

Mouse over "Drivers+Support" > click on your operating system (windows8.1 64bit for me) > mouse over "Drivers+Support" again > click on "AMD Radeon R9 300 series Drivers" > and there is the driver download link in the middle of the page.
(3 clicks)


I noticed on the US site the R9 300 series drivers show directly under "Drivers+Support" the first time you hold the mouse over it. No need for the operating system selection.
(2 clicks)

So my bottom line, is that one is no harder to find than the other! The just have 2 vastly different ways of doing it.
And just to clarify I'm not a "fanboy" of either, I buy what suits my wallet/needs at the time. I just think both needs to be seen in a fair way.

 

[Oj0]

To get back to how difficult it is to find certain drivers. Below I have laid out the click - by - click process for Nvidia & AMD.

From each homepage:

Visual Computing Leader | GPUs & Processors | NVIDIA

Hold the mouse over the button titled "drivers" > click on "GeForce Drivers" > and select all the boxes that apply to your specific product. 6 boxes in total. (2 clicks Main) + (6 clicks if all the boxes needs to be ticked) though this is nitpicking

Global Provider of Innovative Graphics, Processors and Media Solutions | AMD

Mouse over "Drivers+Support" > click on your operating system (windows8.1 64bit for me) > mouse over "Drivers+Support" again > click on "AMD Radeon R9 300 series Drivers" > and there is the driver download link in the middle of the page.
(3 clicks)


I noticed on the US site the R9 300 series drivers show directly under "Drivers+Support" the first time you hold the mouse over it. No need for the operating system selection.
(2 clicks)

So my bottom line, is that one is no harder to find than the other! The just have 2 vastly different ways of doing it.
And just to clarify I'm not a "fanboy" of either, I buy what suits my wallet/needs at the time. I just think both needs to be seen in a fair way.

Mouse over Drivers + Support, click Windows 8.1 64 bit and it takes me straight to Omega 14.12 (dated last year)?! Then you've got to ONCE AGAIN mouse over Drivers + Support, and this time the menu is different? How must people smell that they must do it twice? I discovered it by accident.

 

[El Matador]

Mouse over Drivers + Support, click Windows 8.1 64 bit and it takes me straight to Omega 14.12 (dated last year)?! Then you've got to ONCE AGAIN mouse over Drivers + Support, and this time the menu is different? How must people smell that they must do it twice? I discovered it by accident.

Yes, It's a little weird. You basically choose the OS first, instead of in a dropdown menu later in the process.

 

[Oj0]

Yes, It's a little weird. You basically choose the OS first, instead of in a dropdown menu later in the process.

It's more than just a little weird, you've got to do the same procedure twice but with different results. That's not a little weird, that's not even arse-about-face. That's insanity.

[video=youtube;F_C5hdndk40]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_C5hdndk40[/video]

This is not a new issue either, I can't find the chat now but around 2009/2010 I was complaining to ShockG about how the latest AMD drivers don't necessarily support the latest hardware and the highest number isn't necessarily the newest driver. I did find this little bit of gold though, email addresses removed:

Five years later on they're still cocking up something as simple as driver downloads.

 

[h3dg3h0g]

And this is why 'Candy Crush and FarmVille' are taking over

[emoji16]
Just joking


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Gouhan]

First off, although we don't always see things the same way I definitely agree with Tom on his statements that ATI should not have chose to present the Radeon 8500 this soon. Even had NVIDIA not released their Detonator 4 drivers earlier than expected, the Radeon 8500 was in no shape to be evaluated at all. The drivers were buggy and they lacked support for the full Radeon 8500 feature set. Although it's definitely interesting to see what the Radeon 8500 can do, ATI should be very worried that too many of you will get the wrong idea about the product. All I can do is present you with the picture as I see it.

The next statement I'm about to make has been true for most of ATI's cards and it is that the Radeon 8500 has a lot of potential. As usual, that potential is contingent on solid drivers which ATI has not been famous for in the past but they have been improving over time. There is no doubt that the Radeon 8500's architecture and technology is sufficient to allow it to become a GeForce3 killer, however whether or not its drivers will allow it to is another question.

- From a review by Anand of Anandtech back in 2001 about the Radeon 8500 and 7500.
That has pretty much been the narrative of ATI/AMD for over a decade, soon to be two.

We often blame AMD for taking over ATI and perhaps guiding it astray, but the truth is ATI was seeing diminishing market share already by the days of the TNT in 1998. By the time AMD took over in 2006, ATI was worth half of what their chief competitor was worth. The only thing AMD did in regards to ATI drivers and user experience is allow them to continue to underwhelm with little to no consequence.
It will be 10 years next year since AMD took over ATI and in an entire decade they have nothing to show for it, in a single successful product.