General Discussions

[vaintelog]

I have a Lenovo Ideapad 330-15ARR with Ryzen 5 2500U and Radeon 540 dGPU. I'm a bit confused as the dGPU performs poorly on some old games even though I installed official Lenovo drivers. CS:GO runs from 40-60 fps at max settings with V-Sync off which is a bit questionable since this is a really lightweight title and the dGPU should be able to life Source Engine without a problem. Looking at its spec sheet, it seems like the equivalent card would be the RX variant RX 540 which has a higher memory bandwith and texture compute units unlike the base 540 only. There are no reviews and comparisons for this specific GPU online so it's a bit confusing to see what this was really made for.

[kingfish]

Configuring Laptop Switchable Graphics on a Windows® Based System | AMD 

The 540(M) graphics is a OEM graphics chip that is customized by the manufacturer for a specific laptop(s). You can not really compare a desktop graphics card with any Mobility (laptop) graphics chip, as they have been heavily modified to work in a small/laptop environment. Same holds true for Mobility Ryzen processors...modified by the OEM. This is why you see no graphics drivers/processor updates from AMD. The responsibility lies with the manufacturer. Like it or not, that's the way it is. Laptop manufacturers are notorious for their lack of support..update wise. AMD addressed this issue a month or so back, indicating it was going to work more closely with it's OEM suppliers to rectify the situation. We'll see.

Game benchmarks (scroll down)  https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-RX-540-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.214540.0.html 

PassMark Software - Video Card (GPU) Benchmarks - High End Video Cards  

Lenovo IdeaPad 330-15ARR (Ryzen 3 2200U, Vega 3) Laptop Review - NotebookCheck.net Reviews 

Apart from the integrated Radeon RX Vega, the manufacturer also offers various dedicated graphics options up to the Radeon RX 540. 

Recommendation:

AMD recommends using the graphics drivers provided by your notebook's manufacturer (OEM)as the manufacturer has customized the drivers to support the built-in display and the features and functions specific to the notebook. Customized graphics drivers are available for download from most notebook manufacturer's web site.

If the current operating system is not the version originally installed on the notebook it may not meet all requirements and compatible graphics drivers may not be available. Please refer to the notebook manufacturer for supported operating systems and drivers.

AMD Mobility Radeon™ Graphics Driver:

AMD provides generic reference drivers for AMD Mobility Radeon graphics with limited support for notebook specific features and functions.

[black_zion]

And to add to that: No Mobility RX series are listed as supported.

[vaintelog]

But with the soon to be released Zen 2 Ryzens, will that change? They announced from CES 2019 that they would supply drivers for Ryzen Mobile APUs straight from their website (Anandtech).

[kingfish]

This is all I know...

AMD announced quite a handful of new Ryzen Mobile 'Picasso' APUs at CES 2019. On the heels of this reveal, the company also announced that it will be providing driver updates for these APUs directly via Radeon Software updates. 

Looks like AMD has realized that things should be streamlined and has now announced that, starting Q1 2019, APU owners will be getting driver releases in the same cadence as regular AMD GPU owners directly via Radeon Software. This means, less reliance on OEMs for drivers, better day-zero game support, feature additions, and bug fixes for APU owners. 

[leyvin · Accepted solution]

Classically speaking, the official stance from AMD is that they provide the Embedded Semi-Custom GPU ASIC to those who wish to use them... primarily this is going to be Laptop / Notebook OEM., but you'll be surprised where Radeon-Based GPUs end up; as from my recollection a few Set-Top and Smart TVs use them. 

Now as a keynote., while technically the RX 540 (Discreet) and RX 540 (Embedded) might seem the same... strictly speaking they're not.

Keep in mind that the Discreet Variant is a "Complete" Package., where-as the Embedded is instead the "Core" Package... this means that things such-as Video Codec, Memory Interface, Access Point, etc. well they all become highly dependant upon how the OEM Manufacturer has produced their Hardware. 

This isn't to say that the AMD Drivers can't or won't work... you can of course simple FORCE it to install as an RX 540, and it will most of the time work "Fine" as it were., but this isn't a guarantee. 

Remember that the AMD Drivers are designed and tuned to work with the AMD Specification Discreet and Integrated Graphics., which Embedded OEMs don't have to (and often don't) follow. 

As such, this means AMD supplies the OEM with access to the current Recommended (WHQL) Driver as a Base; and it's the OEM's responsibility to make it Compatible with their Specification. 

Now something to note is that AMD made quite a big announcement at CES. 

That is that the Official AMD (Adrenalin 2019) Drivers will soon be providing support for ANY Radeon (GCN) Based System... which includes Notebooks / Laptops, as their OEM Partners have frankly been absolutely shockingly bad at providing said support to their AMD Customers. 

Providing such support, isn't a small undertaking., especially since AMD Unified the Integrated (APU), Discreet (GPU) and Professional (Accelerator) Drivers into a single codebase. 

So now to support all of the variations that OEMs can create; well it's A LOT more complicated. 

Still it will mean that for those who are constantly waiting months (if not years) for OEM like Dell, HP, Acer, etc. to actually pull their fingers out and provide updates or even just support the damn GPUs properly... well you'll soon have an option available to you that should provide more constant performance, stability and compatibility improvements. 

[vaintelog]

Providing such support, isn't a small undertaking., especially since AMD Unified the Integrated (APU), Discreet (GPU) and Professional (Accelerator) Drivers into a single codebase. 

So now to support all of the variations that OEMs can create; well it's A LOT more complicated. 

So does that mean drivers that comes from AMD are more generic than those that would come from OEMs themselves?

[leyvin]

vaintelog‌ • In a manner of speaking, yes. 

But there are some elements, such-as say Local VRAM which might be accessed in a unique way by the Notebook Motherboard... which the AMD Drivers won't be able to detect exists., so they'll Fallback to UMA (i.e. using System Memory) instead. 

Meaning Lower Performance, and Less Available System Memory for the OS / Processor. 

And an OEM might handle it that way... so that in "Low Power" Gaming., it can switch back to UMA Mode; which can say maintain 30 / 60FPS in say a game like Counter-Strike and saving the Memory Power Cost (which could mean say another hour or two of battery life) … while the High Performance VRAM is there for more demanding games like say Skyrim. 

As noted, the AMD Drivers won't be able to detect such … or if they do, they won't engage in said behaviour. 

Still, if it's a choice of that OR poor GPU Support., eh... personally I'd chose the Generic Driver and simply keep the Laptop plugged in to the wall while I Game. 

[jenis]

I Found Extely Same problem But it Doesn`t Work in that Way I Put Laptop with charging Still Core clock stuck @551Mhz instead of 1046Mhz.