Why dose ATI/AMD hide their chipset drivers?

[Operandi]

So I built a new machine based on a the 740G chipset. Everything is up and running as excepted. I go to the AMD site to look for up to date chipset drivers and find nothing, not a single mention of chipset "drivers" in their "support and drivers" section.

Next go the ATI site and choose drivers for motherboards (which points to hidden AMD page, btw) and while I find drivers there is no mention of anywhere on the AMD chipset page, 690 and 780 is there but no mention of the 740. Neat, perhaps it's just a figment of my imagination :roll:?

Whats the deal with this? ATI's graphics driver page is clear and and easy to navigate, nVidia doesn't have this problem. It's not as if the ATI/AMD merger too place last week.

 

[heyheybooboo]

I imagine the idea never crossed your mind that you could use that thang called the internets to visit the page for your specific oem motherboard and click on the hyperlink called 'Drivers'? Behind that 'Drivers' hyperlink you will find such titles to files as ....

""Chipset / VGA / SATA RAID""

""Audio""

""LAN""

They are so efficient they orgainize them by type, date and version with a specific description of each. Some actually have these things called 'notes' that describe in great detail the process necessary to download and install the individual driver files.

 

[Operandi]

It did cross my mind. This is what Biostar offers in terms of driver downloads; SATA, and integrated audio. Just a bit lacking I would say...

Not that thats a valid point, it shouldn't be up to the motherboard OEMs to provide driver support. AMD needs to get their act together in this department, the merger was over two years ago now.

*Edit*

Upon further looking on AMDs site there is only technical documentation of their chipsets, no drivers whatsoever or where to find them.

The chipset drivers are actually on the ATI site under "integrated/motherboard" but only the Radeon graphics driver is specifically mentioned, and only the graphics hardware is listed (x1200 for example) not the actual chipset. Pretty misleading, but once you follow the link the rest of the drivers are there.

 

[Sylvanas]

NB and chipset drivers are included in the Catalyst package.

 

[Fox McCloud]

Dunno about you but It cant get much simpler than this...
http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

 

[deruberhanyok]

As Sylvanas said, the drivers are included in the Catalyst package. It's the same package for pretty much all of the chipsets going back to RS480, at least, as far as I am aware.

I don't understand what's so difficult about that.

 

[chucky2]

Originally posted by: Sylvanas
NB and chipset drivers are included in the Catalyst package.

Starting now with the 8.7's, they are not.

I just did a fresh Vista install on my cousin's machine last night after dropping a 4850 into his 690G motherboard (AHCI for the SATA enabled).

On past Catalyst sets (and using his old X1950XT), I could download the Catalyst drivers and they would include the Southbridge drivers: Not so for 8.7.

This time, when I installed the Catalyst 8.7 drivers, there were no Southbridge options. I had to go and download the Southbridge drivers from the chipset page (Choose Vista, Integrated/Motherboard, and then for me, X1250).

I agree with you Operandi: AMD's driver page for its chipsets is a joke, and completely unprofessional. They should be fixing this out of embarrassment ASAP.

Chuck

 

[BLaber]

I think during the recent job cuts at AMD the person responsible for making sure all the drivers are in place at their website got fired lol

And AMD hasn't found any replacement yet !!!~

 

[Peter]

I've just installed XP on a BIOSTAR 740G, and the drivers were right there with all the others on the regular Catalyst driver download page,

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

 

[Quiksilver]

Is this a troll thread or something? Cause if you can't find the 'support & drivers' hyperlink then you shouldn't be building your own computer.

 

[chucky2]

Originally posted by: Peter
I've just installed XP on a BIOSTAR 740G, and the drivers were right there with all the others on the regular Catalyst driver download page,

http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

That's good that they're there, but on that same page, when you click on AMD Chipset Drivers on the left hand side, what do you get? See the problem? It's just not done well...

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Is this a troll thread or something? Cause if you can't find the 'support & drivers' hyperlink then you shouldn't be building your own computer.

Have you read this thread??

Chuck

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: chucky2

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Is this a troll thread or something? Cause if you can't find the 'support & drivers' hyperlink then you shouldn't be building your own computer.

Have you read this thread??

Chuck

I skimmed it, but it just sounds like he couldn't find the drivers period. Also the ATI main site is going to have the more current drivers and straight froward site than the amd gamer(as I'd like to call it sames it's mostly marketing) site.

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Is this a troll thread or something? Cause if you can't find the 'support & drivers' hyperlink then you shouldn't be building your own computer.

The driver and support page is nonsensical and makes no sense, its sucks.

AMD's support site for chipset drivers consists of nothing but socket A Athlon and Duron chipsets dating back to 2001. Nowhere is there even a mention of drivers for their modern chipsets or where to get them. so Legacy drivers exist on the AMD site but not current hardware?, that makes sense??? It's an AMD chipset, if the drivers are not going to hosted on the AMD page they could at the very least tell you where they are and point to the ATI download page.

ATI driver and support for motherboard only makes mention of the integrated GPU, no mention of the north or south bridge, much less witch GPU corresponds with what chipset (who identifies their chipset by the built in graphics??? ). This leads you to believe that the driver is the GPU only, its the only component mentioned, why would anyone assume there would be drivers for anything else? The drivers are indeed through that link but I never expected them to be there, nor could I imagine anyone else expecting to find northbridge and southbridge drivers through a GPU driver link.

 

[Quiksilver]

Originally posted by: Operandi

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
Is this a troll thread or something? Cause if you can't find the 'support & drivers' hyperlink then you shouldn't be building your own computer.

The driver and support page is nonsensical and makes no sense, its sucks.

AMD's support site for chipset drivers consists of nothing but socket A Athlon and Duron chipsets dating back to 2001. Nowhere is there even a mention of drivers for their modern chipsets or where to get them. so Legacy drivers exist on the AMD site but not current hardware?, that makes sense??? It's an AMD chipset, if the drivers are not going to hosted on the AMD page they could at the very least tell you where they are and point to the ATI download page.

ATI driver and support for motherboard only makes mention of the integrated GPU, no mention of the north or south bridge, much less witch GPU corresponds with what chipset (who identifies their chipset by the built in graphics??? ). This leads you to believe that the driver is the GPU only, its the only component mentioned, why would anyone assume there would be drivers for anything else? The drivers are indeed through that link but I never expected them to be there, nor could I imagine anyone else expecting to find northbridge and southbridge drivers through a GPU driver link.

I see what you are saying now. It is a bit of a crap shoot, I just skimmed the thread and thought you couldn't find the driver page at all.

However while looking here:
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx

You can find the motherboard/IGP drivers for your chipset.

While the release notes don't specifically say "740G" it apparently still works according to another user who posted before. Also from what I read (did research on the chipset) from what I can tell it's the same thing at 690G except a die shrink.

Just gotta scroll down to the right operating system.

 

[deruberhanyok]

NB and chipset drivers are included in the Catalyst package.

Starting now with the 8.7's, they are not.

I just checked. They're still included:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/driv...spx?p=xp/integrated-xp

ATI driver and support for motherboard only makes mention of the integrated GPU, no mention of the north or south bridge

The link I posted above pretty clearly states "south bridge driver" and is even listed as "motherboard/IGP drivers."

I see what the issue is now, though. I didn't understand the complaint at first, my apologies.

The discrepancy between "AMD" chipsets and "ATI" chipsets when it comes to drivers isn't helping them. The wording, at the very least, could benefit from a change. Ideally they'd integrate the two driver/support websites together.

 

[chucky2]

Originally posted by: deruberhanyok

NB and chipset drivers are included in the Catalyst package.

Starting now with the 8.7's, they are not.

I just checked. They're still included:

http://game.amd.com/us-en/driv...spx?p=xp/integrated-xp

Do a fresh install with AHCI enabled, with an ATI graphics card, and let me know:

1.) When you install the video card Catalyst driver pack (which did indeed used to have the Southbridge drivers) if you get any of the Southbridge driver options to check or uncheck.

2.) When you go to install the dedicated Southbridge driver if it already indicates that what it's trying to install was already installed by the video card Catalyst driver pack.

I realize the release notes for the video card driver pack indicate it includes a Southbridge driver, but, in reality, it does not - or at least it doesn't install it during install time.

Chuck

 

[Operandi]

Originally posted by: deruberhanyok
The discrepancy between "AMD" chipsets and "ATI" chipsets when it comes to drivers isn't helping them. The wording, at the very least, could benefit from a change. Ideally they'd integrate the two driver/support websites together.

Yeah, at best it's incoherent and confusing. Just bring the two pages together in a logical way and the problem would be solved.

 

[clank120]

I have a laptop with an ATI X1200 and I just downloaded Catalyst driver 8.7. While installing near the end, a screen came up and the title was "South Bridge Catalyst Drivers" or something like that. I waited a few minutes, but nothing came up and Windows Task Manager said it was not responding. So I exit out and it automatically installs the rest of the drivers. Did something bad happen or was this supposed to happen? BTW, I have Windows XP Pro.