AMD Radeon driver updates via Steam

[Pantalaimon]

AMD and Valve to include Radeon driver updates via Steam platform:

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2010/09/1...-up-to-provide-ati-catalyst-updates-on-steam/

 

[dug777]

I for one welcome our new Steam overlords

I have grown to like Steam a lot, since those dark dark days when I was trying to get half-life 2 working from within a college network and tearing my hair out! It is very convenient, and depending on how well this is integrated I almost certainly use this to get my drivers

 

[WildW]

So long as there are no issues with rolling back or using older driver versions. New Radeon drivers have a habbit of breaking things

 

[GaiaHunter]

I have grown to like Steam a lot, since those dark dark days when I was trying to get half-life 2 working from within a college network and tearing my hair out! It is very convenient, and depending on how well this is integrated I almost certainly use this to get my drivers

Well I remember the HL2 days - I just go so frustrated that I downloaded the pirate version and was playing it before getting my legit copy to work. That made me ignore Steam until Empire Total War required steam to work.

 

[Sylvanas]

Good idea. This will hopefully help out casual users who may not even know what a driver is and just want to play their games with nothing going wrong (I know quite a few).

 

[Idontcare]

So long as there are no issues with rolling back or using older driver versions. New Radeon drivers have a habbit of breaking things

Good idea. This will hopefully help out casual users who may not even know what a driver is and just want to play their games with nothing going wrong (I know quite a few).

Yep, I see it as a two-way street. Unawares steam users will get the benefit of improved drivers (stability/performance) that they might not have otherwise realized was available to them AND AMD will get feedback from steam regarding driver instability issues.

Basically we all get to benefit from steam giving AMD access to a huge testbed of reportable results from driver upgrades. AMD will be able to identify driver issues more quickly because their reported statistics will be much higher, steam isn't about to lose money and clients over buggy AMD drivers so steam will be in the customer's corner driving AMD to improve drivers rapidly.

(kinda like a pseudo-WQHL process)

 

[brybir]

Yep, I see it as a two-way street. Unawares steam users will get the benefit of improved drivers (stability/performance) that they might not have otherwise realized was available to them AND AMD will get feedback from steam regarding driver instability issues.

Basically we all get to benefit from steam giving AMD access to a huge testbed of reportable results from driver upgrades. AMD will be able to identify driver issues more quickly because their reported statistics will be much higher, steam isn't about to lose money and clients over buggy AMD drivers so steam will be in the customer's corner driving AMD to improve drivers rapidly.

(kinda like a pseudo-WQHL process)

I would imagine that somewhere in a Steam survey is the information on what driver version people are on. Valve probably looks at this and figured that a large majority have old drivers which is making the games the play (and buy from valve) run poorly. Seems like its probably in Valve's interest to get the best performance it can out of its users video cards so they have the best experience they can when dealing with valve games.

 

[Mem]

I would imagine that somewhere in a Steam survey is the information on what driver version people are on. Valve probably looks at this and figured that a large majority have old drivers which is making the games the play (and buy from valve) run poorly. Seems like its probably in Valve's interest to get the best performance it can out of its users video cards so they have the best experience they can when dealing with valve games.

You'll be surprised how many people including gamers that don't know how to update their drivers,I know a few people like that and even after I've said I'll show them how easy it is to do they still resist to learn.

 

[tviceman]

Excellent move on the part of AMD. Steam is becoming an actual "platform" more and more every day.

 

[WelshBloke]

I've always wondered why NV/AMD don't have auto updaters for their drivers, just about every other bit of software I use either automatically updates itself or notifies me that there's a new version.

 

[Voo]

Oh god where can I disable that once and for all? Thank you, but I don't like playing the guinea pig for new driver releases..

 

[v8envy]

There are good reasons for NOT doing this. Newer drivers sometimes break old hardware. It's only natural -- the regression testing for software and hardware that's a few years old is probably very cursory. Someone playing CS 1.6 with a radeon 800XT may not WANT catalyst 10.8. Worse yet, playing a non-Steam game.

A user without enough clue to do driver updates will be doubly clueless when suddenly confronted with incompatibility fallout. "But I didn't change or install ANYTHING and it stopped working!"

 

[nitromullet]

I wonder how this is going to work on Steam. Is it just going to auto-update anyone's drivers with an AMD card, or will you have to install the drivers via Steam initially to get the auto-updates?

edit: I don't see any announcement on http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/amd about this. I just get re-directed to http://store.steampowered.com/

 

[smackababy]

I would say there is probably a download newest update option. That would be the best route. This doesn't effect me so much, as I install the newest drivers unless they are bugged enough to break what I am playing.

 

[Absolution75]

I really like this idea, though there should definitally be a way to opt-out.


Lots of people don't even run windows updates to get drivers 1 year old - they just stick with the release drivers.

 

[Martimus]

Yep, I see it as a two-way street. Unawares steam users will get the benefit of improved drivers (stability/performance) that they might not have otherwise realized was available to them AND AMD will get feedback from steam regarding driver instability issues.

Basically we all get to benefit from steam giving AMD access to a huge testbed of reportable results from driver upgrades. AMD will be able to identify driver issues more quickly because their reported statistics will be much higher, steam isn't about to lose money and clients over buggy AMD drivers so steam will be in the customer's corner driving AMD to improve drivers rapidly.

(kinda like a pseudo-WQHL process)

:thumbsup:

That is exactly the way I see it. In fact your post made it so I didn't have to post at all, since you covered every point I would have made.

I guess I posted anyway for some reason, so maybe I just like seeing my post count go up or something ...

 

[veri745]

:thumbsup:

That is exactly the way I see it. In fact your post made it so I didn't have to post at all, since you covered every point I would have made.

I guess I posted anyway for some reason, so maybe I just like seeing my post count go up or something ...

Thanks for not posting anything

I think this is a really good idea. Hopefully it will give people with old drivers a much better game experience, which can only help to improve PC gaming in general.

And hopefully it will reduce the number of driver releases that break features/games, while at the same time provide a way to revert the drivers if things do break.

I wonder how this is going to work on Steam. Is it just going to auto-update anyone's drivers with an AMD card, or will you have to install the drivers via Steam initially to get the auto-updates?

edit: I don't see any announcement on http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/amd about this. I just get re-directed to http://store.steampowered.com/

The AMD page link is now working for me

 

[CrystalBay]

This worked, very slick ...It was also optional and took a lot less time than going to AMD's site...

 

[Meghan54]

Not to be outdone by rival ATi, nVidia announced it is going to offer its own drivers on EA Download Manager.

 

[Demo24]

I wonder how this is going to work on Steam. Is it just going to auto-update anyone's drivers with an AMD card, or will you have to install the drivers via Steam initially to get the auto-updates?

edit: I don't see any announcement on http://store.steampowered.com/hardware/amd about this. I just get re-directed to http://store.steampowered.com/

I don't know if it will ever force it, but under the 'steam' menu there is 'update AMD driver' option. I just did it and it worked quite nicely. Finally, updating drivers!

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Just used it (spare 5770 in lanbox) quick, clean and easy.

I approve.

 

[Skurge]

So is this a sign that AMD's gaming evolved or whatever its called is actually doing something?

Can't wait to see what they are going to do next.

 

[ShawnD1]

Uhhh big deal? Drivers are already updated through Windows Update. All of my computers with integrated graphics use ATI graphics, and they all update through Windows Update. All of my dedicated cards are Nvidia and they all update through Windows update. Both my gaming computer and my media computer downloaded new Nvidia drivers through Windows Update last week.

 

[netxzero64]

very helpful indeed... they'll just keep you posted on steam.. nice!

 

[WelshBloke]

Uhhh big deal? Drivers are already updated through Windows Update. All of my computers with integrated graphics use ATI graphics, and they all update through Windows Update. All of my dedicated cards are Nvidia and they all update through Windows update. Both my gaming computer and my media computer downloaded new Nvidia drivers through Windows Update last week.

Just out of interest what are the latest versions on windows update?