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News AMD rolls drivers into Steam

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 17 Sep 2010.

  1. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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  2. Jezcentral

    Jezcentral Minimodder

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    This is excellent news. The closer we get to just having the one button to press (i.e. launch Steam) to make all the updates automatic, the better.
     
  3. do_it_anyway

    do_it_anyway Minimodder

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    What a damn fine idea.

    The green camp should take note. I would love to have this for my GPU
     
  4. the-beast

    the-beast What's a Dremel?

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    So long as they don't make steam mandatory for driver updates in future or make the updates mandatory themselves (Remember the graphics card company that releases a update that had buggy fan control code and so lots of cards got fried?) then its a good idea.
     
  5. Javerh

    Javerh Topiary Golem

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    It sounds like a nice idea. However, at the moment it seems a bit buggy. Yesterday when I tried to run the steam updater it crashed on me.
     
  6. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    No matter what I don't think I'll ever use this feature. Especially them mentioning "automatic updates"... no thanks.
     
  7. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    is it really necessary to update your drivers that often? Especially with older cards newer drivers are often just...bloated.
    Strange though that the automatic updates that don't always work from the driver conrol panel, are now supposed to work from steam.
     
  8. Spiny

    Spiny What's a Dremel?

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    Wow, cool.
     
  9. Kúsař

    Kúsař regular bit-tech reader

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    That's almost a great idea. But they should also provide a way to revert to older version of drivers. I know that catalyst newer than 10.4 totaly f* up support for older OpenGL games - ie. id tech 3 and older.
     
  10. loftie

    loftie Multimodder

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    I used Steam to update it, and I lost Catalyst Control Centre from my tray, couldn't get it back either, or even run it from the exe. Had to download the driver from AMD's website, uninstall it and reinstall to get it working.
     
  11. johnnyboy700

    johnnyboy700 Minimodder

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    Yep, I'll be using this once they've ironed out the bugs.
     
  12. ChaosDefinesOrder

    ChaosDefinesOrder Vapourmodder

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    so has no-one noticed that nVidia drivers are included in Windows Update in Windows 7?

    Granted it's under "optional" but still!
     
  13. TWeaK

    TWeaK Minimodder

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    AMD's drivers are also in Windows Update
     
  14. Redsnake77

    Redsnake77 Useless Idiot

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    Having an alternative location to DOWNLOAD the drivers from doesn't change what a pain in the asre that INSTALLING them is.
     
  15. Mraedis

    Mraedis Minimodder

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    Last time I installed ATI/AMD drivers in Windows 7 (3 days ago) I simply clicked, it installed, and I got back to work. It didn't even ask for a reset and my screen resolution was automatically set back to the proper size. :eyebrow:
     
  16. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    The drivers from Windows Update aren't the full releases, though: they don't come with the respective control panels, and often are based on outdated versions - for the longest time, Nvidia's Windows Update driver crippled the OpenGL performance when the direct download ones were fine.

    The key thing here is that AMD is offering the Catalyst driver pack - not just a single WHQL driver for a specific card.
     
  17. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    I get emails for my machines with Nvidia cards in direct from Nvidia when new drivers including Beta's are out. I think it would be a bit of an inconvenience when you go to click on "Play" and it stops and says "Install this new driver now". If it does it automatically while steam is running in the background then fine.

    For both Nvidia and ATi cards I have, I've install a driver or two in the past that has then just killed the game of the day. So a quick rollback is needed until the game or the driver gets a further tweek.

    It's a positive move none the less.
     
  18. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    :D :D :D :D :D

    Sorry, I just had to. Have you checked the dates? I got an update.... 2 days ago: drivers from June. Thanks Windows 7! :D
     
  19. HourBeforeDawn

    HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz

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    This is great as long as its not forced, then awesome, as for windows updates and drivers they tend to be months behind and I never trusted driver updates through windows anyways.
     
  20. Kris

    Kris Lord Lolwut

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    I installed new drivers through steam. worked like a charm! :)
     
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