AMD driver install Questions ...

[VRAMdemon]

Ok, I'm getting ready to do some upgrades to our gaming computers. They are getting somewhat outdated and I want to get rid of our power hungry 30 series Nvidia cards. I will do my my wife's first since all I'm going to do right now is get a new video card (Her system currently 11700kf, @4.5ghz 3080ti 32 gb ram ASrock Steel Legend MB, 2 gb M.2 SSD 48" OLED TV @1440p) I am actually going to buy my first EVER AMD video card (I know, wtf! lol) I am looking at the white Asrock steel legend 9070XT. We were in our local Miami Microcenter looking around and she saw the fucking thing and HAD to have it. It matches her motherboard (women! lol!) It's at a reasonable price ($700.00) and I will be trading in her 3080ti.

Anyway, my question is with the driver install. I've been Installing Nvidia drivers forever with the custom install with just drivers only. No Nvidia bloatware. This has worked awesomely well over the years for me. I see there is the same option for AMD drivers, which is cool. But I'm wondering if I will be missing something with the Adrenaline suite. Is it essentially bloatware? Is it stable? I have been watching some YouTube videos on Adrenaline. I won't be doing any overclocking with the card. Do most of you just install drivers only? Thanks for any input.

 

[Iron Woode]

I install the suite because it allows for serious tuning. Unlike Nvidia drivers, AMD drivers have little in the way of overhead issues.

Also, I use revo-uninstaller for apps and drivers.

 

[Quintessa]

Do most of you just install drivers only?

If you're coming from Nvidia's "drivers-only" mindset, AMD's Adrenalin isn't quite the same kind of bloat. It's the control panel + driver in one, so if you skip it and go "drivers only" via Device Manager, you lose:

• Radeon Chill/Anti-Lag/Boost
• Per-game profiles & custom fan curves
• Easy firmware updates
• Quick undervolt tools (useful for the 7900 XTX to drop temps & power draw without losing perf)

That said:

• It's stable for most people, but clean install via the Adrenalin installer (or AMD Cleanup Utility) is highly recommended.
• Disable what you don't use (e.g., ReLive recording, overlay) and it runs quietly in the background; no Nvidia GFE-style account nagging.
• If you truly never tweak anything, the basic driver is fine, but you'd be leaving features on the table.

For a new AMD card, I'd install full Adrenalin first, disable extras you don't want, and only go "bare driver" if it misbehaves. That way you can test features before deciding.

 

[bba-tcg]

I'd recommend installing Adrenalin if for no other reasons than being able to easily set fan curve and limit FPS.