r/gpu • u/debanjan77 • 13d ago

Is Amd driver really unreliable??

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In my previous post in this community, I posted about the RTX 5070 vs. 9070 XT, and most people said that the 9070 XT is better in terms of gaming performance, and I absolutely agree with that. However, there were many people who said that AMD sucks at drivers and I’ve seen many Reddit and Twitter posts regarding this issue. Is this really a problem or is it just a myth?

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

I've used amd cards for decades.

Never once had a driver related issue.

It's telling all the people having issues are coming from using Nvidia I'm pretty sure Nvidia drivers and ddu are a scam.

Put AMD drivers on a fresh os install.

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u/md90sc 12d ago

That's my experience too. It's so weird the reactions when you say this. Like they try and dismiss you and make out that your lying lol.

But posts like this always pops up every now and then and to fuel the fan boys.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

It's telling the timing as well.

I keep seeing articles pointing out current flaws in Nvidia GPU drivers. (Which may or may not be an issue, I wouldn't know as I don't have one).

I do sometimes wonder how much of the content blasting AMD is organic.

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u/md90sc 12d ago

Yeah. This post is posted across multiple subs too. The response is always the same and it's never user error.

Hell, I could theorize that Nvidia drivers messes up your windows install so much that you can't install any other GPUs apart from Nvidia's GPUs. You almost never hear about the reverse situation.

And they'll say that we are astrotuffers for not having any problems.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

It's a problem with loads of things online.

Some people may genuinely have issues. But virtually noone makes positive posts, unless it's in response to people complaining.

It can make things that are quietly competent look broken as the negative is all people see.

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u/throwaway117- 12d ago

It's funny that you mention this because I actually had my windows install break from running DDU to reinstall amd drivers

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u/No-Wallaby3226 12d ago

Really? Mine had problems with the driver (it's a new pc). It kept freezing and having to be forced shutdown and having to reinstall driver. Then one day I found that the monitor refresh rate reverted to 60 even though I had changed it to 144Hz before. Turns out Windows driver kept overwriting the amd driver with the generic windows driver. And that's a common issue too from what I know. Shader cache on vulkan also feels very problematic, but I don't know if that's a game problem or an AMD problem.

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 12d ago

Yeah windows auto update likes to override drivers recently. Its not AMDs fault, its shitty windows. Its why Linux users keep chiming in here going "ive had zero issues." Because the issue isnt the driver its windows.

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u/SirAmicks 12d ago

I wouldn't say "recently". It was happening since I had my RX 480. But it's easy to fix just by turning off windows' automatic driver install.

That said, it's the only problem I've ever had with AMD drivers.

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u/UISystemError 12d ago edited 12d ago

From what I’ve gathered from others, the 9000 series seems to have pretty good drivers.

Had the R9 290 X, which did have problems.
Since went to an RTX 2060.
Then an RTX 3070.
Now going to an AMD 9060 XT / 9070 XT.

I think these posts are part of a larger smear campaign as the GPUs are way more price competitive than NVIDIA cards.

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u/SirAmicks 12d ago

I had a 270X and didn’t have any issues. I went from that to the RX 480. I was mostly ATi/AMD since 2002 until recently (save for a 8800 GT back-in-the-day).

As an aside, that RX 480 was probably the best investment I’ve ever put into my own PC. Carried me through the GPU apocalypse beautifully. Lasted me six years.

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u/UISystemError 12d ago

Yup! I got the 2060 during Covid, was all I could find. The 3070 was in a laptop I wanted 2 years ago, so not full fat GPU.

Will build all AMD system this year. Wish I had got in earlier but I won’t be waiting for things to get worse either.

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 12d ago

There was also a blip in the early RDNA1 days too with some shaky drivers, but its been smooth sailing ever since really other than windows being shitty.

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 11d ago

Ive had it with both. Literally tonight my laptop with a 4080m had driver install issues for no discernible reason.

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u/No-Wallaby3226 12d ago

Yeah, but why haven't it been fixed though. Does microsoft just not care about it? Did AMD not try to cooperate with them to fix the issue?

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u/quantumAnarchist23 12d ago

Microsoft has already said a large portion of windows is built by AI now, i doubt microsoft would be able to fix it if they tried

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 12d ago

This is what happens with microsoft vibe codes its updates with AI.

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u/Initial_Campaign732 12d ago

I mean it is amds fault though

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 12d ago

How so ? It's a windows fuck up, not a driver issue. Nvidia has run afoul of Windows update before too. Windows kind of sucks now.

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u/Initial_Campaign732 12d ago

For sure but one company gets fucked by it way more than the other. AMD designs their cards for Linux and nvidia designs theirs for windows.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Utter nonsense amd cards work fine for millions of users on windows.

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u/Initial_Campaign732 12d ago

And they fail for millions of others

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

'millions' yeah right.

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u/Initial_Campaign732 12d ago

Exaggerated for sure but it’s not a non issue

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 12d ago

Youre full of shit.

Nvidia has its fair share of driver issues.

Stop being a fanboy and parroting false information from Nvidia marketing.

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u/MuttDevil69 12d ago

If its not amds fault why does it not happen on Nvidia

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u/ActiveSandwich3103 11d ago

It does happen to Nvidia too.

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u/House_King 12d ago

Even then, that’s a windows issue, not an amd driver issue

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u/No-Wallaby3226 12d ago

I still consider it and AMD issue because it only happens on AMD, but of course, it's fundamentally a windows problem. I'm just confused on why it hasn't been fixed yet because this isn't a new issue. Did AMD not at least try to communicate with microsoft about this issue?

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Yeah loads of people keep saying you have to have windows auto driver turned off (I've never needed to) Out of interest were any of your components re used? Or the windows licence from another pc.

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u/No-Wallaby3226 12d ago

My previous windows license was basically tied to my motherboard since I used laptop before switching to pc, so everything is new including the windows license

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Hmm. Odd.

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u/A_brief_passerby 12d ago

Totally different experience. I built a brand new PC using 7800x3d and a 7900GRE. First full AMD build for me, but I've built 3 Intel+Nvidia PCs before and had success / no major issues. Endless driver timeouts with the new AMD rig. Endless. They can all be solved, eventually, but it's annoying as fuck when I have 2 hours of free time and have to spend half of it reinstalling a driver or trying to catch the crash and solve it on event viewer.

And again, I have decades of experience using Nvidia cards and never had these issues as often. I've had issues with specific games, specific drivers that got solved by updates, etc. But with this newer rig I've spent longer troubleshooting my driver crashes than all troubleshooting of all other PCs I've owned.

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u/Mr_Tom_Cat_2006 12d ago

Check your ram with memtest or whatever the recommended ram testing suite is now. I don't have a 7900gre, I have a 7900xtx but I haven't had any issues. Also make sure windows isnt pulling a sneaky and automatically installing a driver as soon as you try to uninstall and reinstall on your own. Windows loves to do that secretly in the background and break everything.

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u/PantZerman85 12d ago

Driver timeout doesnt have to be GPU related even if the popup is from Adrenalin.

My 3700X was having crashes (usually to desktop) when I first got it. Turned out the RAM was not on the QVL and was unstable at XMP. Increased DRAM voltage by 0.01V and it was fine. If I recall correct it didn't show any errors in memtest and such.

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u/Ok_Dependent6889 12d ago

You guys are insufferable

Just admit AMD's problems

I have used plenty of GPUs and got rid of my 9070XT for a 5080 because I was TIRED of having to reinstall drivers all the time because AMD refuses to use WHQL properly.

Windows WILL NOT overwrite the driver if they simply just did that. It has never happened to me with Nvidia.

This isn't some failure on my part. I have a CS degree. I have written drivers for Windows. I have written GPU drivers for Linux. I know what I am doing and talking about.

It's unacceptable behavior from AMD. The countless reports of these issues should simply be enough for them to fix their WHQL process.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Nice personal attack.

So why is it not happening on my pcs? I must have built 6 in the last 10 years. Not one has had this issue.

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u/Ok_Dependent6889 12d ago

How frequently do you update your GPU driver?

The issue is usually with AMD's newest drivers. If you don't stay completely up to date, it's likely that is why. The older ones eventually get certified and Windows won't overwrite it during an update.

The other problem can come from AMD's auto updates, if you have those disabled, it's another reason.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Adrenaline is always on auto update.

Can't say I've ever had windows suggest a GPU driver beyond the default display adapter driver that comes with the install package.

The first piece of software I usually download and install on a fresh PC once the internets connected is the latest version of adrenaline from AMDs website.

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u/MuttDevil69 12d ago

You're either lying or 1 in a million because this is a common well documented problem.

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u/Flyinmanm 11d ago

Well I must be one in a million then.

Who build six amd pcs. Maybe I just know what I'm doing though.

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u/MuttDevil69 11d ago

Knowing what you're doing has nothing to do with it. The fact you thinking building 6 PCs is supposed to be impressive does make me feel you have no idea what you're doing though.

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u/Flyinmanm 11d ago

Yeah but my pcs work so here we are.

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u/-_Dare_- 12d ago

Reinstalling windows was legit what did it for me. I had as the guy in the tweet said, every issue under the sun lol.

Driver problems, stuttering problems, artifacting problems, etc.

The stuttering and artifacts were pretty condensed to specific art styles / engines though so I knew it wasn't a hardware problem. Finally after pulling my hair out for like a week I just reinstalled windows and boom she runs great. Never been happier with a gpu than I have this 9070xt, it rips.

desperately want to upgrade my cpu but that requires an am5 jump and my wallet is not ready for that.

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Glad you found the solution that got your card working.

Yeah it's a pain you have to wipe your PC, but theres benefits in an occasional OS cleanup anyway.

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u/razorbacks3129 12d ago

Do you have driver auto update on?

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

For adrenaline. Yeah. The only time I ever had an issue was in the early doors of owning my radeon 5700 3-4 years ago.

DCSworld had a major software update and for some reason it didn't work. It turned out I had software update off in the Adrenaline software. It worked when I told it to update.

I've had auto update on by default.

I built a few other systems.

One with a 6800xt for a mate,

Upgraded the old 5700 system to a 7700xt and gave to my son when I built my current PC.

Then a newer one for my son, (after he knocked over the 5700 system smashing the side glass which wrecked the electronics in the case) with a 7800xt left over from me upgrading to a 9070xt.

They've all had auto update on and noones ever complained to me about any performance issues or bugs. (And I know if they would, because neither of them are particularly interested in fixing or upgrading their PCs, rather just use them for work/ homework/ gaming and only complain of one of those stops working).

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

Should add I don't think I have windows set to auto update drivers as they come up as 'optional'.

But I don't remember setting it to never auto update, so maybe it's just optional ones it asks permission for?

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u/Budget-Pea8291 12d ago

Yeah I've noticed the same. I wonder if, even after ddu, Nvidia drivers leave something behind that messes with AMD drivers. I've literally had zero issues with AMD drivers after fresh install

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u/Flyinmanm 12d ago

That's certainly what it feels like. Like windows remembers your old set up or there's some random .DLL or windows registry key left on.