PC Drivers & Software

[Noiseland_27]

I'm so shocked about the experience I have with the FANTASTIC hardware I bought for nothing.

First, I was looking recently for a solution as I needed a monthly payments options for a GPU on Amazon , a GPU that would be used in first place for VR working and some VR games.

One day , I see this FABULOUS specs Radeon rx6800 sold by monthly payments .

I check quickly on the WEB to see what VR experience we can expect with this card. I saw so much videos showing full performance Oculus Quest 2 VR that I had no doubt it would support it. I admitt I did not counter verified at AMD and Oculus as what I was looking at was very high end VR like in Half Life Alyx etc. I was so excited to have this high end GPU for less than it's Ndivia competitor price that I decided to try it.

I installed first the last driver listed as " optionnal " that I didn't first see. With Nvidia we call it BETA I think. The driver never installed with factory settings , it rebooted and the installation wasn't ending . Ok , I told myself this can happen for many reasons , sometimes it's even not due to the brand but to another component . I re-tried un-clicking the factory settings option and it finally installed. 2d games seemed pretty awesome , all seemed at first to work until I try Oculus Quest 2. This was even totally unplayable , jiggling and stuttering like a freak or like my headset was a bomb about to explode . Ok , I said myself after checking on the WEB , that a Optionnal driver is like a BETA at AMD so I tried the previous driver.  Oh that stopped the crazy jiggling with the headset but still plenty of moments where I had strange image tearing or stutters , or radical unexplained framedrop. My GPU wasn't higher than 45% and my CPU too so it wasn't bottlenecked but it felt like it . On half of my installation trials , the virtual Bureau natively found in the Oculus PC app wasn't working at all , showing intermittent images and stroboscope feeling. 

All kind of problems in VR making me feel there is a major down with this GPU . I contacted Oculus , had at first a staff member telling me Oculus VR would work for rx6000 series . Then I continued to try , downgrading to Windows 10 because I've been told Oculus is new on Win 11 and still had adjustments to do. Not a single improvement in Windows 10. The last driver still abandon VR experience on Oculus and I still had to re-install ( painfully ) the previous driver that causes other bugs like the black screen bug when using some freesync options etc. The VR was now worst than in Windows 11 , even with the non-BETA driver , it was almost un-usable in Adobe Medium application and very stuttering in some games , more than on my old old old 1080 GTX from Nvidia.

I returned to Oculus , asked them what was going on as AMD rx6800 cards are AWESOME and even better than RTX 3070 in most games . I couldn't believe they just dropped support for AMD products . I've now been awnsered today that they simply don't support my GPU at Oculus according to their list. I awnsered them : " Why you made it functionnal the time we all buy the GPU's and after that , suddenly it's no more supported and how I could know ? "  If you see only good experience in VR on youtube , with previous drivers dating from 2021 , most of consumers won't bother Oculus to have a legal confirmation it supports it. They see the FPS is nice on all influencers videos and they trust this most of the times. Normally I countere check but I was too much confident in Radeon as I already had one and it was super compatible , a serious product etc. It's part of my error.

When I bought on Amazon , the rating was almost perfect but now people realize Oculus don't give a **bleep** to integrate seriously AMD in compatibility list , the price dropped a lot and Amazon seems like it tries to get rid of the rx6800 series with very attracting prices 1/3 cheaper. It's like everybody on the market but the user knows this GPU is a pain in the ass for Oculus VR but they try to get rid of the problem .

Recently , after I bought the GPU , I saw a lot of bad review for VR on rx6800 and AMD is certainly loosing a lot of money , as Amazon too ... but Oculus seems they don't care at all. I almost feel like there is a kind of " cartel " in the gaming industry that does everything , maybe pay companies to not support the most competitive products , which here are AMD products.

It's revolting , I've put all me remaining economies in this GPU . In some videos , I even was told it was sometimes doing better VR than Nvidia but in 2022 , all has changed .

It's like AMD and Oculus don't care about their reputation and won't get to an agreement for an official VR support. I can't believe it. 16gb , 256 of bandwith , more than 2400mhz  ... ultra powerfull GPU and different awnsers at Oculus depending on the staff I talked to. One told me it is supposed to do well according to his notes ... the other mentionning me my model isn't supported.

I asked : " Will it be ? Is it just temporary or you plan to just never support my BEEFY rx6800 working better than RTX 3070 in all my games ? "

If it was just about time to get support on Oculus VR , I'd probably keep the GPU and continue VR with some glitches and strange stutters , the time they repair the drivers etc but it's nebulous and it's like we never gonna get an awnser.

I am shocked. I've put 1000$ on this and with as high specs , it's like Nvidia pay compagnies to litterally ruin our VR experience. I see no major other reasons as since RSR and FSR improvements , AMD is back as a serious competitor to Nvidia . Strange thing it's happening almost at the same time AMD solved it's superscaling problems in games. It's the best time to compete but , as magic , META don't give a **bleep** about respecting AMD users or ... AMD doesn't care about collaborating with META to give real support. 

How much of my gamers friends have a Oculus headset ?  A lot . We talk about hundreds or thousands of people using this and VR is no more a .... BETA thing , it is on the market and it will stay. Why not accomodating us ? I'll probably be forced to send back my GPU and as a producer of documentaries, be sure I'll document this horror story I have now and I'll do very bad publicity for AMD GPU's and Oculus ( META ) . I don't want to but it will certainly have major impacts on AMD what is done with the VR experience.

If I have no confirmation from META they WILL add support and that it's just a question of a bit more time , that they are working on this with AMD ... or equivalent awnser to my problem , be sure I'll post videos on the web to prevent people being kind of pranked with this so exciting offers on AMD GPU's . It feels like this GPU is on a hardware point SOOOO NICE and high specs but has been litterally abandonned by AMD or ( and ) Oculus because Nvidia is too big and hold-em in the pocket.

Actually , I sent bad reviews on Amazon , warning every consumer to not buy for VR and reconsider because drivers are really not finished. I played previously on games like Skyrim Special Edition maxex out. The GPU is nice and performs a lot. It's a total disapointment for me as I can't have decent awnsers . I'm making documentaries, didn't have the money to buy a 3080 GPU , this was like one of my last solutions in times of pandemic and I feel like someone that was litterally pranked. I have a Ryzen high end 3700x with 16 threads , 32gb of 3000mhz ram set " chirurgically " by a Ram calculator from Amd , I ran this computer without any problems on 1080 GTX for last 2 years and it performed even in VR without RTX on it. I feel like I'm the guy who has been sold bad drugs on the street of Chicago but in fact I bought what appears to be an unfinished driver GPU and the industry tells me politely to go **bleep** myself. 

Now , I don't know what to do . I'm still on Amazon warranty but they will certainly try to refund me -20% for restocking fees but .. .. I don't want to return the GPU , I want it to work because I know it can deliver. If I return this GPU , I'm not sure I'll find another in monthly payments at Amazon so it adds more and more disapointment . It's the worst GPU experience of my life and the only explaination from Oculus is that rx6000 is not in their supported models ... but 3 days before , other staff told me that yes , it's supported . What the hell ? I know the problem may be on Oculus side , not AMD but as it impacts directly AMD sellings and as it was compatible at the start , it's just a huge failure on the consumer side.

At least , if AMD or Oculus or both would ensure me me GPU will get supported , I'd have hope and maybe keep it . If not , I'll sell it and I'll tell every consumer not to  trust a product that has a big lack of market support , possibly victime of some kind of commercial mafia with Nvidia , taking agressively all the VR market. I don't know if AMD realize it but this brand is about to suffer a lot lot lot lot on the gamers market. I know some told us VR wouldn't last compared to 2d games but it's not true at all since more than 2 years. You won't be able , sooner or later,  to sell card without general VR support for major brands. It will come with it or it will die passed a point. General applications for 3d modelers are HUDGE in Vr and a lot of consumers will come after it .

What will I do ? I guess if I get no satisfying awnsers from AMD or Oculus , I'll go get a RTX at higher price with less ram , less GPU mhz and less performance , to use VR that needs max GPU , max RAM and max performance.  That's nonsense.

I'd very appreciate to get a real view on what's the next step . If there is no hope getting better VR experience in apps like Adobe Medium or getting long term working VR , this GPU is of almost no use for me. This product could be my life saver for my documentaries on autism but it's what will put me totally down and abandonned.

The worst in that is I don't know which is shamefull for what I live ? AMD ? Oculus ? For sure, AMD is loosing a lot of sells on the market and if the brand doesn't react quickly to awnser to people like me , they will loose millions of dollars. I see strange stutters in Adobe Medium happening while non of my hardware is bottleneck and I can't have awnsers , it's easy for Oculus , they just have to tell it's not supported but in facts , we can clearly see this product has all it needs to do way better .. way way better VR . I can't plan to do projects in VR as Oculus tells me I got ZERO insurance they will support my GPU . The first update that will come may one day prevent me to log into VR ... completely so it's not an option. I can't rely on " maybe it will still work not so bad tomorrow " . No support from Oculus means that it's randomly half supporting it in some cases , some not and Oculus won't take energy to correct this . I'm politely told to " f**k off " . For me , it's the beginning of the end when users have such bad experience.

If anyone has the power to talk to Oculus and make them change their approach with AMD , it would avoid me another technical tragedy. I'm out of energy to handle more.

Marc-Andrew