[H]ard|OCP: AMD CrossFireX Drivers - Opportunity Lost

[notty22]

AMD CrossFireX Drivers - Opportunity Lost

AMD likes to tell us that it is "Gaming Evolved." The fact of the matter is that when it comes to driver support for its high end GPU configurations in CrossFireX, AMD has been doing anything but evolving. In fact, we think AMD has been regressing in the last year. AMD still has an opportunity to shine in 2012. Will it step up?

.......................

The Bottom Line


We have to just sit here with our heads in our hands and wonder why AMD is seemingly trying its best to piss off its customers that spend the most on its retail products; the CrossFireX gamer. We have seen more than a few AMD video card owners openly express that AMD’s lacking driver support is pushing them to not consider an AMD GPU for their next buy. And honestly, it is hard to hold that decision against them.

Remember the days of monthly Catalyst Driver releases? Remember the days of Terry Makedon, the "CatalystMaker" pushing those out? That all seemingly ended when Terry moved to CPU marketing and AMD seems to think that all of those efforts are no longer important. Let’s sit back and see if AMD squanders what could likely be it best GPU ever.

As we are getting ready to publish this, AMD's PR company has sent us a new CFX driver, but it is still full of bugs. We have been told though that RC11 is coming later this week, and "that is planned to be released publicly as well." No date was given. If you put down big cash on HD Radeon 7970 CrossFireX you are not being ignored, but you surely are not being attended to either.

 

[blackened23]

The CFX driver is on the installation cd that comes with all 7970 cards. I really have no idea what he is talking about, CFX works fine for me and many others. The driver on the AMD website doesn't support CFX, this is true. You have to use the one
that comes on the installation CD to get CFX working, plenty of us at OCN have cfx up and running.

I'm also confused why you're posting this, other than to bait? Did you buy xfire in the past day? Shrug.

 

[Rvenger]

Seems that HardOCP tries to bash AMD at any open opportunity they can get. I never had an issue with their graphics cards.

 

[nanaki333]

The CFX driver is on the installation cd that comes with all 7970 cards. I really have no idea what he is talking about, CFX works fine for me and many others.

I'm also confused why you're posting this, other than to bait? Did you buy xfire in the past day? Shrug.

agreed. i haven't had any problems with my crossfire 7970 not working or having any noticeable bugs or slowdown. drivers installed fine from disc as well.

 

[Nintendesert]

Maybe we need a rule here like in other subforums where the OP has to actually have a comment or opinion on a linked article and not just drop bombs and run to watch the ensuing flamewar.

 

[jacktesterson]

Typical from HardOCP

 

[VulgarDisplay]

So 1 week after the 7970 releases AMD has already failed. Nice to know...

Worst article ever.

 

[Xeth]

Seems that HardOCP tries to bash AMD at any open opportunity they can get. I never had an issue with their graphics cards.

I doubt they have an anti AMD bias since AMD just sponsored their gaming convention last weekend. AMD just pissed them off by asking them to hold off on a review until they get some "special" drivers, and then not delivering the drivers.

 

[Grooveriding]

Seems that HardOCP tries to bash AMD at any open opportunity they can get. I never had an issue with their graphics cards.

This is not the case at all. I like [h] reviews because they always come off from the perspective of someone who likes to game and has an aptitude for reviewing hardware as well. Crysis 2 Pretty Much Sucks a Sloppy...

I'm betting he ran into some of those games where CF is not scaling on the 7XXX series and got pissed when he was trying to do benchmarks. If he was biased, he would just do a benchmark suite showing piss poor performance knowing that it was due to a lack of scaling rather than genuine poor performance.

He gives credit where it is due AMD Radeon HD 7970 Overclocking Performance Review. I agree with him in his sentiments in the review. The 7970 is the best GPU AMD/ATI has ever put out, it performs and scales ridiculously well with overclocking. I think we will see an even smaller disparity between AMD and nvidia this generation once nvidia releases a flagship and AMD refreshes against it.

He's right in this review though, it's pretty poor to have that many crossfire driver issues as it gives a bad impression at product launch. I don't get the start trek online dx11 thing, who cares really, didn't even know that game existed myself It will get fixed, but it should of been working from the get go.

His opinion piece sounds like he's pissed he can't do a proper crossfire review of his 7970s and is putting it in the context of what people who actually paid for the cards might be thinking if they are seeing the same issues.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Only thing about CFX that bugged me was the fact that they took 10 years to release the Skyrim CAP, other than that, everything's been good.

 

[Stuka87]

I agree, is the OP just trying to start a flamewar here? Its known that [H] is always trying to bash AMD and constantly spreads misinformation.

And I have no clue what he is talking about when he states that AMD doesnt do monthly driver releases. Last I checked, I have gotten at LEAST one new driver every month for quite some time now.

 

[chimaxi83]

I'm also confused why you're posting this, other than to bait? Did you buy xfire in the past day? Shrug.

Seriously

Thru xfire 5850's, 6870's, and 6950's, I've only ever had one issue (flashing map textures in Rift). Its understandable that there is anger over AMD not having the best Xfire drivers on day 1 of AAA titles, but seriously, all the "oh noez don't buy AMD their drivers are teh sux" is bs.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Isn't the Crossfire driver the same driver as the regular driver?
Isn't 7970 working in several games (even most of the games)?
How can some sites have shown CF reviews?

From the guru3d games tested, only Anno 1404 doesn't seen to scale, unless I'm mistaken.

Even BF3 seems to scale fine.

Confused.

 

[notty22]

Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Kyle is speaking out for the owners. His piece will benefit owners of these cards eventually.

 

[blackened23]

I like [H]. I don't think they're biased. In this case I think he -is- wrong.

Obviously many other websites have done CFX reviews already, and many users (including myself) have gotten it to work.

So I don't know what the deal is.

 

[RavenSEAL]

Isn't the Crossfire driver the same driver as the regular driver?
Isn't 7970 working in several games (even most of the games)?
How can some sites have shown CF reviews?

From the guru3d games tested, only Anno 1404 doesn't seen to scale, unless I'm mistaken.

Even BF3 seems to scale fine.

Confused.

Crossfire requires additional drivers (0.18MB download) called "CAPs" or "Crossfire Active Profiles" most of the time.

 

[YBS1]

Personally, I think he's spot on. I've had more driver issues the past few months than I ever recall having at any point in the past...Mostly crossfire related non sense. Rage, Skyrim, Black Ops, Portal 2 (not sure if this is Xfire related or not yet though). They seem to get one thing fixed and manage to break shit that was previously working fine with half of these releases as well. I'm no nVidia fan, in fact due to past practices I'd like to steer clear of them altogether given another choice with remotely similar performance, but I'm almost certainly going to go green this round providing they put up similar or better performance numbers. Even if I do stick with AMD, barring an amazing turn around concerning crossfire driver issues it will probably be a single card.

 

[blastingcap]

Seems that HardOCP tries to bash AMD at any open opportunity they can get. I never had an issue with their graphics cards.

I've seen [H] bash everything they didn't like, including broken NV SLI drivers on Civ V. [H] was also openly critical of Fermi temps, power, and noise, including a video with sound purporting to show how noisy GTX 480 was. Etc. It's ridiculous to me that people would call [H], of all sites, biased. They are among a few hardware sites I trust to be unbiased.

Maybe we need a rule here like in other subforums where the OP has to actually have a comment or opinion on a linked article and not just drop bombs and run to watch the ensuing flamewar.

Mods, make it happen, please.

 

[kami]

People should be happy they are holding AMD accountable to provide the best drivers possible. I'd rather them speak their mind then blindly praise AMD just cause its the fastest card at the moment. hardOCP sticks it to anyone who deserves it, including nvidia.

 

[Obsoleet]

Seems that HardOCP tries to bash AMD at any open opportunity they can get. I never had an issue with their graphics cards.

I always found them to be strongly biased towards AMD, honestly.

Seemed because both are largely based in Texas they had a pretty tight connection with each other..

But honestly, HardOCP are a bunch of scumbags. I refuse to visit that site anymore. Just a lot of crude humor involving some of their past posts. While I've always felt AT was Intel and NV biased, that doesn't really bother me in the end- I have no time for OCP's homophobic crap.

 

[3DVagabond]

You'll find that they are biased against both nVidia and AMD depending on who's fans you ask, team red or team green. Same goes for w1zzard @ techpowerup. He's either complaining because AMD doesn't support PhysX and CUDA or blowing up 590's. lol

I agree that a poster should have to state the purpose and give input on his/her threads. Especially when they are going to pull the low points out of an article and hi lite them.

 

[tweakboy]

Im shocked, not BID red... sighs..

sorry for your issues the gurus help know about AMD. thx gl

 

[AnandThenMan]

Im shocked, not BID red... sighs..

sorry for your issues the gurus help know about AMD. thx gl

Someone translate this please.

 

[LOL_Wut_Axel]

LOL, what utter nonsense. The card was only hard launched like a week ago and these guys are whining about it being a failure when newer drivers haven't even been released. Give me a break.

 

[3DVagabond]

Im shocked, not BID red... sighs..

sorry for your issues the gurus help know about AMD. thx gl

Someone translate this please.

He said, It could have been worse, the release drivers could've caused it to blow up. :snicker: