Wednesday, May 20th 2015
It's Now Been Over 160 Days Since a Catalyst WHQL Release
As of today (20/05/2015), it has been over 160 days since AMD released a WHQL-signed Catalyst driver update, in what is a clear sign of decay in the company's after-sales support for the consumer graphics market. Once tuned to a near-monthly release of its Catalyst Software suite, which added optimzations for new games, improved upon support for existing ones; CrossFire multi-GPU support profiles; even if not adding support for new GPUs; AMD slipped into quarterly WHQL release cycle in 2013-14. It now seems to have deviated from even that.
The company's last WHQL-signed Catalyst release was Catalyst 14.12 Omega WHQL, which released on 09/12/2014, 161 days ago. The company has since only released two "Beta" drivers, notably Catalyst 15.4 Beta, with optimization for Grand Theft Auto V, and AMD FreeSync support. In contrast, NVIDIA adopted a faster driver update cycle than its previous monthly GeForce WHQL driver releases, under its "Game Ready" driver program. New WHQL-signed releases predate almost every AAA PC game release. There's still no word on a Catalyst WHQL update, and with launch of new graphics cards slated for the third week of June, it's unlikely that the company will release one interim. By then, it will have been 196 days since a Catalyst WHQL driver release. 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.
The company's last WHQL-signed Catalyst release was Catalyst 14.12 Omega WHQL, which released on 09/12/2014, 161 days ago. The company has since only released two "Beta" drivers, notably Catalyst 15.4 Beta, with optimization for Grand Theft Auto V, and AMD FreeSync support. In contrast, NVIDIA adopted a faster driver update cycle than its previous monthly GeForce WHQL driver releases, under its "Game Ready" driver program. New WHQL-signed releases predate almost every AAA PC game release. There's still no word on a Catalyst WHQL update, and with launch of new graphics cards slated for the third week of June, it's unlikely that the company will release one interim. By then, it will have been 196 days since a Catalyst WHQL driver release. 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.
161 Comments on It's Now Been Over 160 Days Since a Catalyst WHQL Release
Why fix what isn't broken!
Constant updates doesn't always mean the product is better.
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.
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.
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...
* 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.
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.
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.
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.My HS had a Print Shop that had two Linotype machines, to which I learned to set type for the shools newspaper.
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.
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.
Laughably so.
You can be sure I'll be loudly calling NVIDIA out if my testing shows this.
No company, be it Intel, AMD, nVidia or ATI (as it happens to be, AMD, I know that) has the monopoly of the best cost/benefit across all the spectrum.
Having said that, it is clear that nVidia happens to have the upper hand in high performance GPUs today. Last time it was otherwise was back in late 2009, with ATI's 5xxx series and nVidia's misproduct response, the 470 and 480, the later running hotter than the surface of the sun.
In your particular case, I would expect a X99 platform to be running a 780 or 9xx card.