Article AMD Radeon GPU Drivers Reportedly Still A Mess – Black Screens, Stuttering, Flickering, Inconsistent Clocks & More

[happy medium]

Wow I didnt know it was this bad.
I remember having problems with my 5750 years ago,it took months for them to fix it.

Despite All Efforts, AMD Radeon GPU Drivers Reportedly Still A Mess - Black Screens, Stuttering, Flickering, Inconsistent Clocks And More Issues

Even 7 months after launch, AMD Radeon RX GPU drivers for Navi are still a mess with users reporting black screens, stuttering & more issues.

wccftech.com

 

[Stuka87]

I too, am having a problem with ALL of the 2020 drivers. Whenever I watch a video, in youtube, twitch, facebook, etc. After about 3 minutes, the audio begins to de-sync from the video. Audio gets too fast for the video to catch up, and people talking looks like an old Ancient Chinese Theater on USA channel. But works great in games!

Video card is Sapphire Vega 56. I have had to roll back to 19.12.1

As a work around you could try to disable GPU acceleration inside your browser. Out of curiosity, are you using HDMI audio out to your monitor? Although I suppose if that was the case games would be impacted too.

 

[peterjedi]

I am still on Sapphire Vapor X 290 and EVGA Classified 780. I vaguely remember there was a video issue with hardware accelerator (browser), but it has been resolved or I simply disabled it. I mainly use the 290. No issues what so ever. If AMD can do a better job with their driver issues, then I think 5700 XT might eventually be tie or faster than 2070 Super. When initial reviews come out Nvidia is normally faster, but over time (based on 290 vs 780) AMD cards catch up and surpass Nvidia in the same level cards, but unless you know what to search for most reviews that have been done don't get updated so you might think Nvidia is faster. Nvidia does a good job with the new releases, then they focus on the next product. This cycle repeats. That is why Nvidia has good sales numbers. AMD need to address the drivers issues from the get go to break this cycle.

 

[happy medium]

Seems this problem is worse than I thought.
It's on youtube, reddit and ,just about every tech site I go to,
but yet there are a few that don't like that I posted it.
These are the members that don't care about you, the member, but are for the company they support.

 

[happy medium]

I am still on Sapphire Vapor X 290 and EVGA Classified 780. I vaguely remember there was a video issue with hardware accelerator (browser), but it has been resolved or I simply disabled it. I mainly use the 290. No issues what so ever. If AMD can do a better job with their driver issues, then I think 5700 XT might eventually be tie or faster than 2070 Super. When initial reviews come out Nvidia is normally faster, but over time (based on 290 vs 780) AMD cards catch up and surpass Nvidia in the same level cards, but unless you know what to search for most reviews that have been done don't get updated so you might think Nvidia is faster. Nvidia does a good job with the new releases, then they focus on the next product. This cycle repeats. That is why Nvidia has good sales numbers. AMD need to address the drivers issues from the get go to break this cycle.

That's because your supposed to buy a card every new node switch, that's how companies make money.
DO you think a company like ASUS motherboards wants AMD to keep the same socket for 10 years?
How long should a video card company OPTIMISE drivers for older cards?
Navi is a new architecture do you really think new drivers will help a rx290?
Usually buy the time AMD catches up its time for a new card.

AND this is not an AMD vs Nvidia thread, this is for people having problems with AMD's latest card drivers.

 

[Shamrock]

As a work around you could try to disable GPU acceleration inside your browser. Out of curiosity, are you using HDMI audio out to your monitor? Although I suppose if that was the case games would be impacted too.

No. I am using a DP cable. My monitor does have speakers, and it installs the AMD Audio driver. I always disable it in the device manager.

I'll try the acceleration trick.

**EDIT** Taking off hardware acceleration made it worse. It would skip 5-8 seconds. I even fooled around with the processes. 8 seems to do the best.

 

[peterjedi]

That's because your supposed to buy a card every new node switch, that's how companies make money.
DO you think a company like ASUS motherboards wants AMD to keep the same socket for 10 years?
How long should a video card company OPTIMISE drivers for older cards?
Navi is a new architecture do you really think new drivers will help a rx290?
Usually buy the time AMD catches up its time for a new card.

AND this is not an AMD vs Nvidia thread, this is for people having problems with AMD's latest card drivers.

There is no rule that you have to buy a new card at every new node. If you can show it to me that be great. Maybe company will make money off you every new node, but it doesn't apply to everyone. What does Navi drivers have to do with a 290. Nothing.

I don't see how your thread is about people having problems with AMD's latest drivers. If that be the case you would have listed the latest driver version with all the problems with know issues that are not fixable with the latest drivers. I don't see any post from your thread that offers a solution to the driver issues.

I read your thread to mean AMD is bad. Don't buy it. Drivers are not fixable. Get Nvidia. You will always have issues if you buy AMD.

My post is to acknowledge there are issues with some drivers, but if AMD could fix them, in the long run you could benefit with an AMD 5700 XT card with future performance and saving dollars!

 

[BFG10K]

Wolcen benchmarks: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/wolcen-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/4.html

You can see the 2070 Super is far faster than than the 5700XT, especially at the CPU limited 1080p.

Once you move outside benchmarked AAA titles you'll find this scenario repeats a lot, especially in legacy DX9/OGL titles, and with Indie titles that don't receive game-specific optimizations. nVidia's drivers are far more consistent with performance and compatibility across a wider range of titles.

This is one of the main reasons why AMD tried to push Mantle, forcing the optimization problem back onto developers. The problem for AMD is that DX12 is a virtual failure. Despite claims to the contrary on this very forum, telling us DX11 was "legacy" and going to "die off", and that Indie titles would get "automatic" performance gains from DX12.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Hmm.

Guess I should be glad that the latest driver releases only make it hard to OC this Radeon VII. Vega20 4 lyfe?

 

[railven]

Kind of sad that Anandtech has turned into what it is. Can't even discuss hardware issues anymore. The whole "like" system just shows who's subscribed to which echo-chamber. Dat tribe mentality!

Either way, read a few interesting things on r/amd. Makes me want to pick up a card just to tinker! (but ain't no one got time for that!)

They suspect ULPS might have something to do with the downclocking issues. Possible, some tin-hattery theories about Navi being two chips, yada yada. Then someone posted this image which hit my curious monkey brain with a "wah!?"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/f5s1ls

https://imgur.com/b8MKrhi

Seems you can "eject" the gpu from the tray. Haha. This seems weird. One user said they did it accidently and it basically "bricked" their card. No video out (even in BIOS which adds a level of "did this happen").

I'm so curious to see if AMD ever states what the actual issue is.

 

[DrMrLordX]

@railven

I'm pretty ignorant about the downclocking problems with Navi, but the latest drivers cause downclocking on some Radeon VII cards (like mine) if you attempt any overclocking. Some managed to defeat the effect by turning fans to 100% (which is . . . sketchy for me, since mine is under water). Didn't work for me. That's why I'm still on 19.7.5 .

AMD obviously has some driver problems.

 

[railven]

@railven

I'm pretty ignorant about the downclocking problems with Navi, but the latest drivers cause downclocking on some Radeon VII cards (like mine) if you attempt any overclocking. Some managed to defeat the effect by turning fans to 100% (which is . . . sketchy for me, since mine is under water). Didn't work for me. That's why I'm still on 19.7.5 .

AMD obviously has some driver problems.

The two commonly reported issues I'd love to learn the culprit for are the downclocking issues (honestly this would make me rip out the GPU and throw it away, personally) and the black issues (I'm an ex-AMD user, I'm not a fan of these kind of issues but I'm also not a stranger to them - remember black displays when system came out of sleep mode? Railvenfarm does!)

I wasn't aware Vega users got OC'ing blocked, but I've read tons of posts about wattman acting a fool. So anything related to Wattman to me is now just par for the course.

Think AMD can do a quick fix with just releasing a barebones driver. At least save themselves some PR issues.

 

[railven]

Does anyone know how ULPS work? I'll play my ignorance card, the last time I had to deal with it was during my HD 7970 XFire days.

I remember it had something to do with the idle clocks, and specifically having to disable it to fix a crossfire issue which annoyed me since disabling it turned off ZeroCool which resulted in the second card chilling at max clocks (thus unwanted heat and noise).

I've read now two (one here one over at r/amd) regarding uses with M.2 drives. The people discussing how ULPS work make reference to PCI-E devices and how they are put to rest states.

Would be interesting if this is causing some of the stability issues. But of course too many variables and not enough info.

Can any AMD users with the newer drivers check if eject lists their device?

 

[Bouowmx]

My useless thoughts on the frequency issue.
Polaris has 7 power states. One could disable the lower power states in WattMan; oh wait, that feature was removed in the 2020 GUI redesign.
Navi has some 3-point curve which idk what is going on. A feature like locking to a specific voltage-frequency point like in NVAPI would be helpful.

 

[Despoiler]

Wolcen benchmarks: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/wolcen-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/4.html

You can see the 2070 Super is far faster than than the 5700XT, especially at the CPU limited 1080p.

Once you move outside benchmarked AAA titles you'll find this scenario repeats a lot, especially in legacy DX9/OGL titles, and with Indie titles that don't receive game-specific optimizations. nVidia's drivers are far more consistent with performance and compatibility across a wider range of titles.

This is one of the main reasons why AMD tried to push Mantle, forcing the optimization problem back onto developers. The problem for AMD is that DX12 is a virtual failure. Despite claims to the contrary on this very forum, telling us DX11 was "legacy" and going to "die off", and that Indie titles would get "automatic" performance gains from DX12.

You definitely need all those FPS. Those 5700xt owners must be suffering, absolutely suffering, with only 130 FPS @ 1080p in an ARPG. How ever will they complete the game?

I have no idea how they did their benchmark because they didn't say and there is no in game bench. They also call 1600p 1440p which is amazing. Have they always done this? That being said my Radeon VII is usually 120-130 avg fps @ 1440p with all settings maxed unless I'm in one of the random areas where something is bugged. FPS will tank to 30-60 fps if that is the case. The point being I have no idea where they get their numbers from.

The optimization "problem" is a developer issue. They write the software. A driver's job is not to band-aid or hand hold for poor coding. Mantle, DX12, and Vulkan are the proper implementation of an API. If a dev cannot handle it they should look to writing simpler software for a use case other than graphics.

 

[Zstream]

Wolcen benchmarks: https://www.techpowerup.com/review/wolcen-benchmark-test-performance-analysis/4.html

You can see the 2070 Super is far faster than than the 5700XT, especially at the CPU limited 1080p.

Once you move outside benchmarked AAA titles you'll find this scenario repeats a lot, especially in legacy DX9/OGL titles, and with Indie titles that don't receive game-specific optimizations. nVidia's drivers are far more consistent with performance and compatibility across a wider range of titles.

This is one of the main reasons why AMD tried to push Mantle, forcing the optimization problem back onto developers. The problem for AMD is that DX12 is a virtual failure. Despite claims to the contrary on this very forum, telling us DX11 was "legacy" and going to "die off", and that Indie titles would get "automatic" performance gains from DX12.

Can you show me a two, or four core relatively popular CPU with these benchmarks? Nvidia uses more CPU than AMD on its drivers. I'd be willing to state the opposite results are found as the scheduler is done on CPU for Nvidia. In fact, try multitasking while playing a game.

I'm not one to run stupid hardware, which very few people have, to prove a point.

 

[Stuka87]

The only times I have noticed clocks dropping on my 5700XT is when I am in a game with vsync enabled which results in the GPU not having to work very hard. As in, with VSYNC off, it would be running at like 120fps, but with vsync on at 60Hz, the card can down clock and still run fine. When I get home I will check my ULPS settings. Also, i think I have windows energy setting set to Performance, not Balanced or Power Saving.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seems you can "eject" the gpu from the tray. Haha. This seems weird. One user said they did it accidently and it basically "bricked" their card. No video out (even in BIOS which adds a level of "did this happen").

I'm so curious to see if AMD ever states what the actual issue is.

That's a bit bizarre that Windows lets you "Eject" a GPU, or sub-components of such. But what is actually happening, is the ESCD profile for that hardware is being set to disabled/power-off, and it needs to be "removed" and then "re-connected" to activate again. So I would think that swapping video cards, or using another card in a secondary slot, and connecting the monitor to the secondary, and then unplugging and re-plugged the AMD GPU, and/or going into Device Manager in Windows, and selecting "Enable/Disable" on that hardware, or "Scan for New Hardware", would, I think, fix the issue, after "Ejecting" the GPU. In theory, at least. Maybe there's more at play here that I'm not seeing.

 

[railven]

That's a bit bizarre that Windows lets you "Eject" a GPU, or sub-components of such. But what is actually happening, is the ESCD profile for that hardware is being set to disabled/power-off, and it needs to be "removed" and then "re-connected" to activate again. So I would think that swapping video cards, or using another card in a secondary slot, and connecting the monitor to the secondary, and then unplugging and re-plugged the AMD GPU, and/or going into Device Manager in Windows, and selecting "Enable/Disable" on that hardware, or "Scan for New Hardware", would, I think, fix the issue, after "Ejecting" the GPU. In theory, at least. Maybe there's more at play here that I'm not seeing.

My apologies, I didn't include he did fix it, and he stated what he did. I was at work and trying to get the image to work properly was frustrating me haha.

The poster claims after ejecting the GPU he lost video. He couldn't get any video out of the GPU even after power cycling the system. He said he had no BIOS boot prompts either. His solution was physically removing the card and let it sit for a day (assuming he just left it over night).

It would satisfy the concept of ejecting it (physically) before the system would recognize it again.

But if that's true, that is one hell of a crazy thing to happen, if you ask me. This is like next level "plug and play" Haha. Just eject my 5700 XT and put in a 5500 XT without any kind of resets/reboots required? (I'm being jovial with this unlikely scenario).

 

[Stuka87]

So, checked my settings here. Windows energy saver is set to "Better Performance", which is the middle one. I do also have computer sleep and display sleep set to never. No clue if that impacts ULPS or not.

 

[railven]

So, checked my settings here. Windows energy saver is set to "Better Performance", which is the middle one. I do also have computer sleep and display sleep set to never. No clue if that impacts ULPS or not.

Next time you get the chance, could you check if your GPU/VGA Device is listed under the Eject Device notification short cut?

I checked on my end, and my GPU/VGA device is definitely not listed, only my Nexus 7 tablet.

 

[DrMrLordX]

I wasn't aware Vega users got OC'ing blocked, but I've read tons of posts about wattman acting a fool.

There's been multiple OC problems in Wattman. In pre-May 2019 drivers, you'd get memory downclocking in certain applications if you OCed memory (it was usually GPGPU stuff). Now it's GPU downclocking with GPU overclock. But you can defeat it using MorePowerTool and a third-party OC tool (instead of Wattman). I'm just too lazy to get away from all my nifty Wattman profiles, so I stay on an old driver.

 

[coercitiv]

AMD obviously has some driver problems.

One of the reasons I bought AMD cards was complete control over voltages/clocks/fan speed. Unlike many here I like my cards underclocked, undervolted & fans running @ 800 RPM. Doing everything in Wattman without third-party software intervention was a plus. At some point in time I lost the ability to drive fans under 30% on my Vega cards, and I'm forced to rely on AfterBurner to continuously override fan settings. The default key shortcut overrides that new drivers brought along were also annoying (they messed with Firefox, Photoshop etc.), although they can be disabled one by one.

Fortunately this is the end of my driver related problems, apps and games run fine. What I hear about Navi cards is bad though, they need to get on top of this.

 

[Stuka87]

Next time you get the chance, could you check if your GPU/VGA Device is listed under the Eject Device notification short cut?

I checked on my end, and my GPU/VGA device is definitely not listed, only my Nexus 7 tablet.

I did actually, and there were no GPU related devices there. Just an SD Card I had plugged in.

 

[zinfamous]

Seems this problem is worse than I thought.
It's on youtube, reddit and ,just about every tech site I go to,
but yet there are a few that don't like that I posted it.
These are the members that don't care about you, the member, but are for the company they support.

what is the purpose of this bizarre screed at the end? are you "the one person," "the only good man," that can protect all of us?

where does this kind of thinking even come from, to try and color your threads in such a way?

By the way--I know the answer. There is a specific rhetorical genre for exactly what you are engaging in, but pointing that out runs against the rules of this forum.

 

[Glo.]

what is the purpose of this bizarre screed at the end? are you "the one person," "the only good man," that can protect all of us?

where does this kind of thinking even come from, to try and color your threads in such a way?

By the way--I know the answer. There is a specific rhetorical genre for exactly what you are engaging in, but pointing that out runs against the rules of this forum.

The funiest part is that he cannot even bring anything to the topic, because he does not even use Navi GPUs, and he actually does not care about solving the problem.

Thankfully, there are people here who actually care about the problem, and are adding to the topic something(anything constructive), even if the problems are so random.