PSA: AMD's Graphics Driver will Eat One CPU Core when No Radeon Installed

[efikkan]

There is never an excuse for poorly behaving software, but leaving the driver & associated application installed after the relevent GPU is no longer present is just asking for trouble.

These are contradictory statements.
If your software can't handle other hardware being present, then your software is broken.
And as I said, both DirectX 12 and Vulkan is designed to have a mix of GPUs, so they should be aware of this and test it before shipping a new driver.

 

[Nater]

No time to read the whole thread, but I get a sense of the back and forth now...

Has anyone here independently reproduced the issue?

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

These are contradictory statements.
If your software can't handle other hardware being present, then your software is broken.
And as I said, both DirectX 12 and Vulkan is designed to have a mix of GPUs, so they should be aware of this and test it before shipping a new driver.

Clearly not worked in a test department.
That's a Op reading fail right there.

The problem occurs when hardware ISN'T there but the software for it IS.

Who uses Mgpu with multiple cards missing and how?.

To test for this AMD's test department would have had to do similar, remove their GPU and use Dgpu or fit a competition GPU while leaving their software on, I have done application testing ,you stick to thing's you expect to happen not such outliers typically.

Now a code review could find these issues and really is required at this point but some of your expectations for testing are ridiculous IMHO.

 

[rtwjunkie]

No time to read the whole thread, but I get a sense of the back and forth now...

Has anyone here independently reproduced the issue?

Yes, if you read the thread: @Mussels did on his server.

Doesn't occur here, you might try reinstalling as you suggested.



I've been buying products since the very first Radeon 32SDR became available, so no, you don't have to do the whole condescending attitude and assume. People can make mistakes, they're allowed. Publishing this ridiculous farce was a mistake, though, and admitting mistakes is the first step on the road to admitting problems that may exist.

No way of knowing if you knew what ATI was, that’s why I asked. Forums get filled with new members who are young and think anything from 5 years ago is ancient history, and know nothing of the past while thinking they have all the answers. So no, not condescending.

Second, the only reason this is a “farce” to you is because you’re obviously acting defensive. It was a clear, in depth investigation into a problem, using coding skills, and published as a bug report and advisory. I’m sorry you live in such a perfect world that no one should ever learn anything from other’s mistakes (W1zzard’s and AMD’s both). There, now THAT was condescending.

 

[R-T-B]

Perhaps the overhead is "absurd" if you make an isolated test case, but it's not absurd in practice.

In the sense that it impacts actual fps in a non-cpu bound game, no, it's not.

In the sense that it is in actual cpu usage vs the competition (and that will hurt cpubound games), yes, it most certainly is. I've looked into this a lot. dxvk outperforms their dx11 driver in cpu overhead.

 

[Vayra86]

I'm sure, you will be able to share with us, some personal stories about the talentless AMD employees and how they condone shitty quality work.
Driver oopsies happens with everyone. Many WHQL Nvidia drivers have Hotfix releases.
I don't know about microcode problems with AMD, what i do know is that, i had to update my Intel chipset firmware yet again, because of 20+ CVE's.
The amount of times i had to update IME firmware because of CVE's is mind-boggling.

Its very well possible AMD has talented engineers on those drivers, but if they do, they sure don't get to do their job right. Mismanagement can be a cause of bad software releases as much as lack of talent. Or both. Who knows, I just judge the results. AMD driver issues happen and they're often pretty influential on the experience, and fixes don't always come as quickly as you'd want. Nvidia has its oopsies too, but fixes a lot faster, and the magnitude of those oopsies is often less impactful.

 

[medi01]

on those drivers

It is page 9 and the piece of code in question is still referred to as "drivers".
Good job.

 

[windwhirl]

It is page 9 and the piece of code in question is still referred to as "drivers".
Good job.

We know the difference, but for the average user it might as well be all the same thing.

 

[zlobby]

When the shit goes down, you better be ready! And I think W1zz was not.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Just so ya know Nvidia is not so innocent with bad coding either, despite consistent driver updates.

Old GeForce Experience Bug Won’t Let Some PCs Sleep But There’s A Fix

An old bug in NVIDIA's GeForce Experience grabs input from game controllers and stops the PC from going to sleep. Here's how to cure it.

hothardware.com

 

[jayseearr]

Its very well possible AMD has talented engineers on those drivers, but if they do, they sure don't get to do their job right. Mismanagement can be a cause of bad software releases as much as lack of talent. Or both. Who knows, I just judge the results. AMD driver issues happen and they're often pretty influential on the experience, and fixes don't always come as quickly as you'd want. Nvidia has its oopsies too, but fixes a lot faster, and the magnitude of those oopsies is often less impactful.

well said^ at the end of the day results are the most important thing, how many of these issues actually reach/affect the end user? Myself personally, i've had multitudes of issues with AMD software/drivers/firmware whereas my issues with nvidia have generally been not only much less consistent but less impactful. I like AMD just as much as anybody else, but it doesn't mean I can't/won't admit that they have(had) issues on the soft-ware side of things.

Kinda sad to see how some people have so much of their being/soul attached and invested into a particular brand that they feel the need to get insulted and take every criticism as a direct attack rather than appreciating the fact that it could it potentially improve the thing that they already love SO much.

 

[R-T-B]

Just so ya know Nvidia is not so innocent with bad coding either, despite consistent driver updates.

Old GeForce Experience Bug Won’t Let Some PCs Sleep But There’s A Fix

An old bug in NVIDIA's GeForce Experience grabs input from game controllers and stops the PC from going to sleep. Here's how to cure it.

hothardware.com

True. I'd like to see what's making that happen too.

 

[Mescalamba]

As for those multiple entries. Noticed that on PC from 2009. So AMD/ATi drivers dont change since then. Also it loves to load drivers multiple times, to the point that hybrid sleep and start is broken (some AMD driver just cant cope with it).

 

[WeeRab]

I didn't realize W1zzard was such a novice.
Even a novice knows to use DDU or summat similar to uninstall previous graphics drivers before installing new ones.
Strewth!!

 

[zlobby]

As for those multiple entries. Noticed that on PC from 2009. So AMD/ATi drivers dont change since then. Also it loves to load drivers multiple times, to the point that hybrid sleep and start is broken (some AMD driver just cant cope with it).

I guess we are pretty far from lean, concise and robust drivers. Basically, they need to get everything from the ground up. There is simply no way for them to refactor such a mess of spaghetti.

 

[wolf]

I'd say I'm blown away by how far people will go to insinuate this is a witch hunt, downplay it as a foolish user, white night for AMD, shit on AMD etc, but unfortunately I can't say that hand-on-heart.

The software should not act like this, period. That's really all there is to it.

This PSA will help people (as it already has in this comments section) and hopefully, lead to the issue being fixed for all.

Put down the pitchforks...

 

[R-T-B]

I didn't realize W1zzard was such a novice.
Even a novice knows to use DDU or summat similar to uninstall previous graphics drivers before installing new ones.
Strewth!!

Yes, because novices totally know how to disassemble a program and assemble a PSA like this...

/s, if it isn't obvious. You "fans" are honestly giving AMD a bad name.

 

[rtwjunkie]

I didn't realize W1zzard was such a novice.
Even a novice knows to use DDU or summat similar to uninstall previous graphics drivers before installing new ones.
Strewth!!

You display your ignorance on your shirt like it’s a badge of honor.

 

[Mussels]

No time to read the whole thread, but I get a sense of the back and forth now...

Has anyone here independently reproduced the issue?

Yep, it was affecting my games server

 

[OneMoar]

./thread

 

[lexluthermiester]

I didn't realize W1zzard was such a novice.
Even a novice knows to use DDU or summat similar to uninstall previous graphics drivers before installing new ones.
Strewth!!

Wow! That really says infinitely more about you than W1zzard. Would you like to offer any more gems of insight to amuse the rest of us?

 

[Mussels]

God i love this

"BUT YOU CAN FIX IT"


yes.... we know. we all know. a PSA is to make people aware that they need to fix it...

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

You display your ignorance on your shirt like it’s a badge of honor.

Wait, what badges? I have one here somewhere....

 

[R-T-B]

I have on here somewhere....

Not anymore. W1zzard siphoned all our knowledge-badges and combined them to give himself superpowers.

Or at least, that's how I'm going to explain my incompetence at work today (OT, don't ask).

 

[Aoyagi]

It's not just when there's no AMD GPU either. It's doing the exact same thing on my 2700U.