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FrostedSaber 26 May, 2014 @ 3:00am
Sooo... Does AMD Even Care?
Because it kind of seems like they don't.

I've wondered if maybe it's because they produce both processors and video cards that they're spread out too thin, while Nvidia only has to be exceedingly good at one thing.

I know gaming on Linux is only just picking up momentum, but I've heard AMD drivers on Windows are also a bit lackluster compared to Nvidia.

I get the odd feeling that AMD is not especially passionate about what they do, and that they scornfully trudge ahead in this business, shirking responsibility and accountability whenever possible.

The other possibility I've considered is that maybe they lack sufficient resources or personnel to do what's needed.

Whatever it is, AMD strikes me as fairly silent and unresponsive, with little or no ways to get in contact with them. As someone with an AMD GPU, I do submit feedback on their developer site (http://devgurus.amd.com/community/steam-linux), but I have no idea if anybody from AMD is actually reading or considering any of it.

I'd love to see AMD snap into action, and become a worthy competitor on Linux and SteamOS. Competition is good, lest Nvidia someday become complacent.

Am I ill-informed or missing something? What do you think?
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Showing 1-8 of 8 comments
Dusk of Oolacile 26 May, 2014 @ 3:07am 
Well, the amd forums are almost dead. When only 10-15 people out of hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) have issues I wouldn't say drivers are bad on windows. But strange thing is even the linux section is deserted.

Most people who have issues have faulty or at least strange hardware or it's simply a user error. Real drver bugs are so rare I could maybe count on one of my hands how many I saw in the last 10 years (and that inludes ATi as well).

You don't know how to contact AMD, even though there is a "contact AMD" link on all pages under the amd.com domain. Well, that's a bit strange, isn't it. You can also use the usual issue reporting forms.

One more thing to contradict what you're saying.
1. The witcher 2 came out in a broken state.
2. Next day AMD released a hotfix for it.
3. Looks like they don't care, doesn't it?...
#1
phillippi2 26 May, 2014 @ 3:33am 
They also help develop the open source driver, don't they?
#2
Akaii Panda 26 May, 2014 @ 3:46am 
Originally posted by phillippi2:
They also help develop the open source driver, don't they?

Yep they are going to develop something. But I read only for their newest APUs but im not sure if its true
#3
Dusk of Oolacile 26 May, 2014 @ 4:23am 
Originally posted by Pointex:
Originally posted by phillippi2:
They also help develop the open source driver, don't they?

Yep they are going to develop something. But I read only for their newest APUs but im not sure if its true
Nope, they've been doing it for years. The current radeon driver for all current cards already conains a bunch of code provided by AMD. An example: code to use UVD functions has been added a few months ago.
#4
Letalis Sonus 26 May, 2014 @ 12:44pm 
They don't just add (partly really huge) sets of patches from time to time, they do have several main developers on their payroll as well. Those one-time contributions are mostly related to legal problems that are being worked around internally first.
#5
Godspeed 29 May, 2014 @ 11:47pm 
Amd has been slowly dying for years. I used 12 years of AMD Rigs and few months ago i gave up. Last computer what i had was Fx-8150 and Crossfire 6870's the performance was awful even in windows compared to intel. Sold the last remaining Amd HW and bought Intel.

Funny thing is that i got nice deal of First Generation I7-870 and it runs mutch better on every all day use.

And old GTX580 runs so mutch better on games even it does get mutch lower points in every benchmark.

I have had two Crossfire systems in use and both were dissapointing.

I feel they dont care about their customers very mutch and their releases are not intresting enough for customers. And for linux users they just turn blind eye to their customers.


Good Day
#6
Dusk of Oolacile 30 May, 2014 @ 8:37am 
Originally posted by Godspeed:
Amd has been slowly dying for years. I used 12 years of AMD Rigs and few months ago i gave up. Last computer what i had was Fx-8150 and Crossfire 6870's the performance was awful even in windows compared to intel. Sold the last remaining Amd HW and bought Intel.

Funny thing is that i got nice deal of First Generation I7-870 and it runs mutch better on every all day use.

And old GTX580 runs so mutch better on games even it does get mutch lower points in every benchmark.

I have had two Crossfire systems in use and both were dissapointing.

I feel they dont care about their customers very mutch and their releases are not intresting enough for customers. And for linux users they just turn blind eye to their customers.


Good Day
I think you are mistaken. We're talking about GPUs here, not CPUs. No one denies AMD CPUs are weak compared to Intel. Still, they're good when it comes to pricing, so I wouldn't say they're dying. There are always more poor people than rich. Intel makes quality fast CPUs no one can buy without being a criminal or politician (well, the 2 things are the same thig...). :D
#7
Letalis Sonus 30 May, 2014 @ 4:23pm 
Originally posted by LOLCAT:
There are always more poor people than rich.
And MASSES of people who just want cheap office devices... It's not like it would only be a question of available money.

And while already speaking of it: Money plays a rather big role in this whole driver mess. AMD has been struggeling to get a positive balance within the last years, you simply can't invest into improvements if you've got nothing available to spend. Therefore money is focused on what's most import, and on Linux that's definitely still the professional sector.
Multiple AMD devs have confirmed on Phoronix that the fglrx driver is still primarily being optimized for professional usage scenarios.

We can really be thankful that the few paid devs working on the free driver have that much skill, compared to the huge manpower that's still sitting behind the fglrx driver it is just unbelievable how far it has come.
#8
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Steam for Linux > AMD Graphics Cards > Topic Details
Date Posted: 26 May, 2014 @ 3:00am
Posts: 8

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