PC Drivers & Software

[forkwny]

Just a FYI that Parsec is broken, from the client side, after installing the latest 23.2.1 AMD Radeon drivers. The HOST functionality works fine (if the host is running the latest AMD 23.2.1 drivers, or older AMD Radeon drivers) if you're connecting to the device from a system running drivers prior to 23.2.1, but clients cannot connect. Error -14 (decoding error) pops up from the client on ANY system running 23.2.1. I've confirmed this behavior on 5 different AMD systems (laptops, desktops w/discrete GPU's, etc.). Likely an incompatibility with the new AMD drivers for Parsec clients, so hold off on updating to 23.2.1 if you rely on Parsec to connect to other Parsec hosts. I've notified Parsec via Discord but no ETA or confirmation on a fix yet. 

[KitNibbles]

Just to add another report to this, also experiencing this issue - I used Parsec fine this morning before upgrading to the new drivers, after having done so I started to get the same error, pictured here.

I was able to use Parsec again after turning off H.265 and turning the decoder back to software, in the client settings, in case somebody else comes across this looking for a short term solution.

Here is hoping this gets fixed promptly.

[forkwny]

Thanks for confirming...exact same issue on my end. I've seen this across several different AMD systems that are running the latest 23.2.1 AMD Radeon drivers, using different AMD graphics hardware - I've seen this on a Radeon 6700XT, as well as different integrated Vega GPU's on AMD laptops.

Software decoding w/H.265 HEVC OFF is the only way to connect to other Parsec hosts on the newest drivers. If you're running a driver OLDER than 23.2.1, you can connect just fine to HOSTS running 23.2.1 (with AMD hardware decoding enabled + H.265 HEVC), so this is a decoding issue rather than an encoding issue. 

Probably won't see another AMD Radeon driver update for at least a month or longer, so it'll be left to the Parsec dev team to fix the problem. If Parsec is having problems, apps such as OBS Studio for desktop recording are likely also affected since both apps use similar methods for decoding/encoding.

[joshms]

I'm having the same issue, immediately after upgrading to 23.2.1.   The drivers are good enough in all other aspects though (so far) that I'm inclined not to roll back to 22.5.1.   

That said, installing ffmpeg as the encoder also seems to work and will let you use HVEC 4:4:4, etc... 

[forkwny]

I've spoken with Parsec support. Adrenalin 23.2.1 included a number of rolled-up changes that were implemented for the 7000 series AMD Radeon GPU's, including a broken decode. I'm not sure how many other applications will be affected by decode being broken in 23.2.1. From the testing I've done with the new 23.2.1 drivers, games and other 3D graphics apps involving the GPU seem to run fine. Steam Remote Play, which utilizes some form of hardware GPU decoding, is also working fine. I rely on Parsec for streaming, remote desktop access, and remote gaming, so it's a big inconvenience in my case having decode broken in AMD's latest drivers. OBS Studio is also impacted and does not run properly under 23.2.1.

The AMD Link app for Windows is also broken. As of yesterday AMD Link refused to connect to any of my AMD systems running the latest 23.2.1 driver. Today I launched the app and it says an update is available, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the app to update as it will not update within the Microsoft app store. As of this post, the AMD Link client app is broken in Windows 11.

[forkwny]

Wanted to add another workaround possibility - while Parsec is sorting out driver issues with AMD decoding, you can grab ffmpeg, install the dll's to Windows\System32 and use ffmpeg as the decoder. It's not as ideal as using the AMD hardware decoding option, but you can re-enable H.265 and get a sharper, less-dithered experience vs the Software decoder. 

[joshms]

Has anyone tried parsec on 23.2.2?  

Not sure if this applies?

• Maximum encode bitrate is limited to 100Mbps for certain applications.

[forkwny]

Yes, I've tried Parsec on 23.2.2, hardware decoding is still broken on the Parsec client side with the newest AMD drivers. Best workaround is using ffmpeg as the decoder, as that lets you use H.265 HEVC again. 

If you check the HOST config for Parsec, their maximum encode rate is 50Mbps, well below the maximum bitrate set by AMD.

On an unrelated tangent...hopefully some day AMD will support 4:4:4 encode on all of their GPUs, currently it's not supported...4:4:4 has been available on numerous other GPU brands for quite awhile.

[joshms]

ok thanks for the info forkwny. 

Not to be pedantic, but in case AMD sees this thread, I want to reiterate that this isn't just lack of 4:4:4 support.  Parsec doesn't work at all if you're on a client with an AMD graphics card and are attempting to use AMD hardware decoding running 23.2.1-2 drivers. 

[forkwny]

That is correct...the Parsec client was broken beginning with the 23.2.1 driver, and remains a problem under 23.2.2. Parsec decoding is broken when using "AMD" as the decoder from any AMD graphics client on the latest AMD drivers. The Parsec devs are aware of the problem and are working on a fix, to the best of my knowledge. No ETA on when the fix will be available. Some reported that they switched to h.264 using Software decoding to work around the problem...the better solution (for the time-being) is to use ffmpeg (and set h.265 to ON), as it's much less dithered than h.264/software.

[forkwny]

I wanted to add that I don't mean to point fingers at Parsec for this issue, this could be a problem with the driver itself and changes that were made to how the driver handles decoding. Parsec does not have these issues on non-AMD products, or on AMD driver versions prior to 23.2.1. What I would recommend is using the bug report tool in the AMD Radeon app (for desktop), choose the Parsec app as experiencing the problems, and state that it's a problem with current and previous drivers. 

[forkwny]

Parsec Client decoding is still broken under 23.3.1 when AMD is chosen as the decoder method, whether h.264 or HEVC h.265 is used. The error -14 is gone but what happens is a complete frame is never returned when attempting to connect to a Parsec host. What you'll see is the image below instead of an error being thrown. The driver seems to be getting further than it did before. The AMD overlay now pops up when connecting to a host in fullscreen mode, but no frames are returned/decoded.

The workaround using ffmpeg (as the decode method within the Parsec client, requires some files to be installed) continues to be the only choice while this issue is being sorted out with the newest drivers, 23.x.x. The other workaround is to roll back to AMD Radeon driver 22.11.2, as that driver has zero problems from the Parsec client side. I've rolled back to 22.11.2 on my AMD laptop (Ryzen 7 4700U w/Vega iGPU) as I use the Parsec client frequently from that laptop. FFmpeg is more CPU-intensive and much more laggy than AMD decode on 22.11.2, so ffmpeg is not ideal on a laptop utilizing an iGPU. Parsec hosts using 23.x.x. are fine. 

[forkwny · Accepted solution]

FINALLY...Parsec decode on the client side, when using AMD as the decoder, WORKS under the newest 23.3.2 Radeon drivers just released today, 3/22. All seems well again.