Drivers & Software

[falita]

Ever since Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-21.10.2-Win10-Win11-64Bit-Oct25 came out, none of the updated ones work properly with VR applications without some sort of problem and this kept going... two years later and this latest 22.5.1 and 22.5.2 is even worst, I think AMD forgot about VR and all related to that so i strongly recommend if your card is supported on the last properly working driver 21.10.2 please use that one otherwise i'm sorry for you, your only alternative is using virtual desktop with h264 encoding.

This is the part where some dev, community manager or anyone that can deliver this small list to the drivers team that actually has a quest 2 and is not blind so it can check easily and see how terrible it is (most likely this will die here like all the threads related).

This are the problems with any newer driver after 21.10.2:

Airlink: For some reason bitrate is capped at 65-75Mbps (i think this cap appeared with 22.5.x), looks awfull, tons of compression artifacts, stuttering every few seconds, depends on the driver version sometimes you get like a bad reading on the controls and the screen keep shackin like you'r moving while staying still. And the encoder HEVC from AMD is not supported and seems like it never will be, why not reach out to the meta team? and get support from the most used headset on the market?.

ALVR: The configuration of 150% scale, 90hz, 150Mbps, HEVC that worked smoothly now has stuttering issues, white dots appearing and makes the app unstable with possible crashing but H264 gets very choppy forcing a scale of 100% tops, unfortunely making it look blurry.

Relive VR: I have made a thread here related to the beta 2.0
https://github.com/GPUOpen-LibrariesAndSDKs/Radeon-ReLive-VR/issues/121
TL DR: You won't get the same image quality as Airlink, ALVR or Virtual Desktop, but it will work. (preferable to play with a cable at this point unless you are ok with a blurry, low quality image)

Virtual Desktop: The only app that works BUT the encoder has to be H264 otherwise you will crash in games, in SteamVR, some at the moment of loading like Hellsplit: Arena, or other like GORN or Into the Radius will crash after a few minutes or hours and when it happens you will be lucky if you don't need to reboot the system in order to get the Adrenalin menu to work again or steam to launch a game properly.

Tested on a 6800XT and 6900XT.

[Bernek]

AMD doesnt care at all Why does this forum exist if nobody officially answers ?! I have a feeling I'm wasting my time posting here. 

[CarloAbarth]

Yesterday I put my Nvidia RTX 4090 into operation. Now Raceroom works again and all other racing games in the highest resolution absolutely smoothly. Never again AMD graphics cards.

[Nytevizion]

They've acknowledged in the latest 7900 (23.1.2) driver that "Maximum encode bitrate is limited to 100Mbps for certain applications."

Hopefully, that includes AirLink.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-23-1-2-kb 

[Vivien_Hardgas]

where better VR support

[Wali763]

Hi.

I already posted somewhere above.

I now have a 6950XT. Wanted to get a 7900XTX but the reported VR-problems scared me away and the prices are also too steep for my liking.

Anyway. As I said above, plz AMD do something about your VR-situation.

I for the most part when gaming play DCS (flight sim) in VR. Then I also do some GoogleEarthVR and HalflifeAlyx and Assetto Corsa.

Anyway. Because of DCS and GoogleEarthVR I can only use driver 22.5. Later driver cause problems with GoogleEarthVR and also with DCS. All drivers from 22.8 up to 23.3 cause flickers on one eye while playing DCS. One month ago I was able to solve that by reverting back to 22.5 but today I got the flickering again. After some testing I found out, that Win10 had updated my driver to 22.10 (I think). Before reverting back to 22.5 I briefly tried 23.3 with no success. Both DCS and GoogleEarthVR had problems.

I might have to add, that only DCS in OpenXR causes problems. When running the new "native" OpenXR I get occasional to moderate flicker on one eye and on OpenComposit-OpenXR I get horrible stutters. Playing DCS over SteamVR works but has other problems with low fps and bad reprojection. With OpenXR I can avoid reprojection by using low settings to get 90fps on my G2 most of the time.

I just can say, using an AMD-GPU with VR for sure gives me a really challanging situation.

I dont want to go with Nvidia for their often consumer-unfriendly practicies. But since AMD is learning in that deparment too, all these problems might push be back to the green "luxury"-brand eventually.

[jakosik]

I'm having the same issue. Almost impossible to play anything using H265 HEVC. Also bitrate is super low. Anyone can help me. ¿Whats the best driver right now for VR gaming? I'm on a RX6700XT. Thanks in advance

[EmilG]

Best driver is 22.5.1

[bobjones]

I can't do this anymore... I'm giving up on my 6900XT and AMD graphics cards.

This machine is a full time photo editor and I had to update my graphics drivers due to random export errors with Capture One. I was forced to update to the latest drivers for Capture One.

VR is broken again after updating to the latest drivers. The last drivers that worked were from 2021 and I've been hanging on to them for as long as I could.

I'm done, I give up... *uck you AMD. I'm buying a 4090.

[Roderick]

Jep. Me too, I'm absolutely fed up with this! I've been fiddling with this cr@p since December 2022 and I have literally wasted multiple working days worth of hours on this issue to date, and yet I still haven't found a viable workaround, nor has AMD done their job and fixed the driver issues. For an almost €1000 GPU this is absolutely unacceptable AMD! Had I known the sorry state of your drivers I would have never have even considered buying one of your GPUs, so I guess I've gotta look for a second hand RTX3090 now, or I have to shell out another €1600 for a 4090, but honestly I just do not want to reward Nvidia for their ridiculous scalper pricing so I guess I'm going to get a second hand 3090.

Cheers guys, thank you for all your posts because they have been incredibly informative!

I wish you all the best of luck with these terrible, and incredibly buggy cr@p drivers from AMD, but I am outta here.

TLDR: Screw you, AMD! I'm going back to Nvidia!

[amdsucks420]

Really dissapointed and upset reading through this forum after deciding to get back into VR

I had purchased my 7900 XTX back in early January and STILL waiting for support.. air link is borderline garbage with so much pixelated junk across my screen its not even playable. Using virtual desktop (My internet is a spectrum 500mbps plan with the default router given for the extra $5 monthly) and Its not allowing me to even go past 18 mbps.. anything higher I get intense stuttering and network latency over 75 ms... making the game unplayable. This whole experience has been a letdown, and I was the idiot that paid $1200 for the XTX before they dropped the price. You guys suck and I'm actively looking for someone locally to trade for a 4080 or even a 3090 TI. I used to love being on team red but I cannot express how hard you guys suck with your driver compatibilites and video encoding. Get your s*** together and do your jobs, we arent paying you guys minimum wage for these gpus, some of these prices are legit car payments or rent payments. There has to be more, we deserve it. 

But not for me anymore, screw team red and every single Dev there. Its good to be going back to GREEN where everything works as should ON RELEASE. 

[cyberstorm64dd]

I think AMD stopped putting the VR-Ready certification on GPUs ever since RDNA came out.
If you go here https://www.amd.com/en/technologies/vr the page no longer exists. And not even AMD's most powerful consumer GPU is labeled VR-Ready. I think for wireless mode the unified hardware media engines might be to blame as they seem to be less flexible than before. e.g. 1x4k60 HEVC encode at a time. Also, I noticed AMD fails to list encoding performance on their dedicated GPUs beyond "it can do HEVC" basically.

TLDR, AMD seems to have given up on VR entirely, the "new" encoders are less flexible than what GCN used so that might affect wireless VR, AMD does not list encoding performance specs fully.

[Nytevizion]

Over the past couple weeks I began playing with the VR again. To my surprise I find that everything is working again with Airlink. Both codecs.

Latest 23.11.1 AMD drivers.

It still takes a few tries to establish a connection. Often a wifi toggle on/off or restart of the software is required to get Airlink to connect but once it connects, it's pretty stable. 

[Nathan5643]

The last message sent on this post was on December 1, 2023, today is January 27, January 24 saw the release of version 24.1.1 of the Adrenaline drivers.

Am I the only one who has problems with this version regarding VR ?

(With an RX 7900XT and an Oculus Quest 2)

Until a week ago, everything was fine, I wasn't getting incredible performance, but it was playable.

Now, as soon as I'm in the Quest Link menu, I get distortions, graphic cuts, elements moving all over the place and so on.

It's as if I had an invisible screen in front of me following my head movements and destroying everything as soon as I move my head.

So it's unplayable, even when I launch a game I see the Quest Link menu in the background... in short, everything gets mixed up.

Then it started to stop detecting the Quest Link, even though my cable works fine, it has the specifications I asked for, and I've been using it for 2 years with no problems.

I decided to go back to the previous version (when everything was fine), and it's doing the same for me, there's no change.

I've tried every possible version, and nothing changes.

I find myself playing with Virtual Desktop with a more than horrible visual and "black bands" on the side when I move my head quickly...

I'm really getting tired of having to deal with incompetent people, to whom I've paid more than 800€, only to get a terrible service, it's a shame.

I'll end up selling my graphics card, losing money and going to the green brand.

Of course, they're very expensive! But they don't piss off their customers with every driver update.

[norrest]

With latest drivers i had problems in VR on quest 2. 7800 xt. Air link full freezing scream.