AMD Pulls Catalyst 14.4 WHQL, Reposts it with a Cautionary Note

[Steevo]

I find it more funny that people on a enthusiast site, who overclock and push hardware complain that it causes issues when their overclocks and issues they cause themselves cause issues.

Or the people, Why isn't my 9800 AGP card getting updated drivers, this one causes it issues!!!!!!!

 

[R-T-B]

Lots of laughs. Hopefully nobody takes your "recommendation" seriously; both brands have issues.

Hey man, just my experience. I admitted I could be wrong on a different board. Most of my systems I were building back then were of the same exact config, for reference.

Personally, I still have yet to find a AMD card that has fixed the "ghost image" in the end issue in minecraft, that's been there since uh.... the X1900 series. That's pretty sad. Just one example.

I think it's a well known fact that AMD has shitty OpenGL support though. Some people may not care.

 

[GhostRyder]

I think it's a well known fact that AMD has shitty OpenGL support though. Some people may not care.

Then what do you call nvidias OpenGL support since it's horrible?

Anyways I have been with nvidia for years then decided because the 590 was out of stock to get some 6990's. Since the , I have been with AMD and had no issues other than a few with bf4.

 

[R-T-B]

Then what do you call nvidias OpenGL support since it's horrible?

It's performance is well documented to be better, and I have yet to see one OpenGL graphics glitch in NVIDIA cards personally. I've used both. This is VERY aparent in linux binary drivers, less aparent on windows OpenGL but still shows through in minecraft in particular.

Admittedly, minecraft is not the best OpenGL benchmark, but at least in that game it's night and day difference on any configuration. AMD can't even get mipmapping working without a huge performance penalty.

Since most games are Direct3d though anyways, I'm not too worried. And to be fair, AMD is making major strides everyday in performance on OpenGL. I just wish they'd fix a few of the long lingering bugs I've noticed.

Like this:

http://img.techpowerup.org/140512/2014-05-11_19.17.33.png

See that cloud/whirlpool in the distance? That should not be there, ever.

 

[Blín D'ñero]

Oh no not another one. Please stop infesting this (and any other) AMD thread with your nVidia fanboyism, could you please? This is the "AMD Pulls Catalyst 14.4 WHQL, Reposts it with a Cautionary Note" thread k thankyou.

 

[R-T-B]

Fanboy? I run an AMD graphics card, a 7970 no less... I just happen to be a developer and kind of know what I am talking about. I like most developers, work with both brands of hardware (Intel drivers are pretty crappy too BTW).

By the way, the issue I referenced is well documented to be AMD's fault, and is listed here:

https://bugs.mojang.com/browse/MC-1607

I can't tell you personally how many times I've had to work around AMD's buggy openGL implementations. Mojang seems to suggest it even extends to DirectX, this has not been my experience. AMD's excellent hardware and decent improvement rate is the reason I bought into AMD now. I believe they have the ability to fix the graphics driver issues, but pulling the wool over your eyes won't fix anything... I mean come on. A problem is a problem.

The fact that they pulled the driver is at least evidence that they are being proactive about this quality issue, which is more than I can say for several users here. Just because major games work (and have implemented appropriate workarounds) does not make AMD hardware drivers "good."

 

[GhostRyder]

It's performance is well documented to be better, and I have yet to see one OpenGL graphics glitch in NVIDIA cards personally. I've used both. This is VERY aparent in linux binary drivers, less aparent on windows OpenGL but still shows through in minecraft in particular.

Admittedly, minecraft is not the best OpenGL benchmark, but at least in that game it's night and day difference on any configuration. AMD can't even get mipmapping working without a huge performance penalty.

Since most games are Direct3d though anyways, I'm not too worried. And to be fair, AMD is making major strides everyday in performance on OpenGL. I just wish they'd fix a few of the long lingering bugs I've noticed.

Like this:

http://img.techpowerup.org/140512/2014-05-11_19.17.33.png

See that cloud/whirlpool in the distance? That should not be there, ever.

Your speaking specifically about Linux drivers it seems sir and not specifically OpenGL in general. As far as that's concerned there is need for work.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-290-review-benchmark,3659-13.html

Most of the AMD cards come out on top of the Nvidia cards with the K5000 in this benchmark being on top with the old W9000 right behind it. That of course leaves some of the more recent cards out, but its pretty apparent that most of the AMD cards outmatch the Nvidia cards. The new W9100 is a blaster when it comes to OpenGL.

 

[R-T-B]

I was referencing openGL gaming performance, but perhaps my data is obsolete, admitedly i don't worry about performance so much anymore. However, nvidia used to obliterate them there in the doom3 era. Then again as I have said, they are making major headway.

The linux drivers are crap, but everyone knows that and honestly I can't blame them for giving it a low attention level. The thing that still irks me and has been longstanding is them (as Mojang put it) playing "playing fast-and-loose with graphics APIs." Admitedly as a dev I have only noticed this in OpenGL land, but their cards do behave differently than NVIDIA ones (or most other manufacturers for that matter) when using some common commands, and I refuse to believe that issue is situated in hardware. It's the drivers.

Ironically, the FireGL drivers do seem much better and more spec accurate, but the average Radeon user can't get them.

 

[GhostRyder]

I was referencing openGL gaming performance, but perhaps my data is obsolete, admitedly i don't worry about performance so much anymore. However, nvidia used to obliterate them there in the doom3 era. Then again as I have said, they are making major headway.

The linux drivers are crap, but everyone knows that and honestly I can't blame them for giving it a low attention level. The thing that still irks me and has been longstanding is them (as Mojang put it) playing "playing fast-and-loose with graphics APIs." Admitedly as a dev I have only noticed this in OpenGL land, but their cards do behave differently than NVIDIA ones (or most other manufacturers for that matter) when using some common commands, and I refuse to believe that issue is situated in hardware. It's the drivers.

Ironically, the FireGL drivers do seem much better and more spec accurate, but the average Radeon user can't get them.

It really just comes down to the programs and what they rely more on in the OpenGL field in all honesty. Some programs will slaughter on an AMD card no matter what and some will be more even in certain areas or a little better on the Nvidia card. But AMD's gaming OpenGL has not been much of a focus due to low implementation of game developers in general so it comes down to the game developer itself. Minecraft is not well optimized in general and has issues running on different hardware for random reasons which seems to change when a new patch is changed. There are times it literally won't even use enough of the GPU to hit 60fps on some GPU's even though they should have way more than enough power.

 

[tacobender5000]

Just installed 14.4 drivers last night before rebooting, upgrading bios, and swapping my RAM. I was banging my head for a few hours before I actually READ their notice haha. I have an ASUS with the 785G/SB710 chipset (which is one of the affected chipsets).

I couldn't live boot to Ubuntu, Backtrack, Fedora, Windows 7, and for whatever reason I couldn't boot to the Startup Repair for Windows...

I gave up last night and left my PC unplugged, since I started diving into posts about sleep mode and sleep issues (I have narcolepsy too so that's kinda funny haha). ME AND MY PC ARE LYK BROs.

Anyways... tried Windows 7 again this morning and no-go still, but Startup Repair worked the 2nd time. It BSOD'd on me the first.

Resolution (so far): was to go back to an earlier restore point, which rolls back your drivers (not your files), and start researching. I might install a slightly older version of the software until they get this fixed. Pretty sure my PC wants AHCI working. Also, off the top of my head, I know there's a noahci parameter in Linux that should prevent the OS from hanging upon boot. I was too lazy to try it. I pretty much pin-pointed it to the SATA settings in the MOBO or sleep/suspend settings.

Good luck to everyone. Hope this helps someone.