PC Drivers & Software

[Aroecien]

is it worth upgrading to win 10 because the last update on win 8.1 is like 17.7.1 on rx 470

[elstaci]

AMD stopped supporting Windows 8.1 in 2017. So those Windows 8.1 drivers are the last updates from AMD.

If you want to continue getting updated drivers it is best to upgrade to Windows 10 which is supported both by Microsoft and AMD and all other manufacturers.

[colesdav]

AMD really stiffed their Windows 8.1 GPUs  users when the dropped support for Windows 8.1 drivers on their GPUs without notice or warning even though the OS was defined on the technical specifications for those GPUs on Website and GPU Boxes.

You can install Adrenalin  19.12.1 Windows 7 GUI/UI and drivers on Windows  8.1. 64bit. 
I am still running those drivers. 

I believe the later versions of Adrenalin 2020 Windows 7 drivers with the new Adrenalin 2020 GUI/UI and installer simply refused to install on Windows 8.1 64bit. 

There is a method to keep the Adrenalin 2020 19.12.1 GUI/UI but just update the drivers. 

There were some posts on this forum detailing how to get later Adrenalin 2020 Windows 10 / 7 driver versions installed and running on Windows 8.1. 

No company or person should force people to move to another OS just because they cannot be bothered spending a little bit of effort to fix their installer or run some testing so that their GPUs will still work on an older supported OS before it's EOL. 

I will be running my Windows 8.1 OS PC tonight to update my Norton Licenses. 
I will double check exactly what AMD driver version combination I am running on Windows 8.1 64bit. 
I run an Nvidia GPU as primary on that PC. Nvidia still provide working drivers for that OS for the GPU I am running. 

[colesdav]

Hi,

I was/am running Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI on latest version of Windows 8.1 64 bit, patched with latest updates as of today.
Those drivers are working fine for Blender on that machine and i did not touch them.
Also they are the latest Windows 7 version drivers that will install.

I had tried to install the following version of Windows 7 Adrenalin 2020 with the new GUI/UI:
Win7-Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-Edition-19.12.2-Dec12
Here are the release notes.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-19-12-2
This was the first version of the new Adrenalin 2020 with the new GUI ergonomic design and layout from hell. 

The software would not install - I believe it gave an Error at the time, telling me the installation could not proceed. 
I cannot remember exactly what the error was at the time.
I would have to look that up. I did report it on the old AMD Community forum but lots of my posts went missing transferring to this new one.

I just tried to run the following latest WHQL Windows 7 driver to see if the following AMD Installer would install those drivers.
AMD might have put a little effort in to help their Windows 8.1 Users.
Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-21.3.1-Win7-64Bit-Mar24
Release Notes here:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-21-3-1

I ran the -Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 Windows 7 64Bit installer.
I would post a screenshot but I cannot post any more pictures.
It says the following:

Oops! Something went wrong.
Error 184  - AMD Installer cannot continue due to an unsupported Operating System.
There is a GET MORE DETAILS button.

It points to this document.
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-kb184

Just FYI I have been able to download and install the very latest version of Nvidia GeForce Experience and install the very latest drivers from Nvidia and and run them on my Nvidia GPU on this Windows 8.1 64 bit system no problem.

I might investigate  to see if I can keep the Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI and see if I can use Windows Device Manager to update the AMD GPU device Drivers to Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 drivers.

That might "work" but as before, stated by AMD themselves, - even installing Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 drivers on your Windows 8.1 64bit OS is done "At your own risk".

I will quickly swap OS drives on this machine and install Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 drivers. on Windows 7 and Windows 10 Pro on the same machine and GPUs.

[colesdav]

I was on Windows 8.1 64bit with Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 already installed and working and I already tried and to install Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 WHQL Windows 7 Version on Windows 8.1 64bit.

The installer would not proceed but all of the Extracted driver packages are still under the following directory:
C:\AMD\Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-21.3.1-Win7-64Bit-Mar24

Here is my Hybrid Driver install method.
If you try it - it is at your own risk.

I tried this, just for fun, starting with installed Adrenalin 2020 2019 19.12.1 driver:

1. Open Device Manager - (Run as Administrator).
2. Go to Display Adapters.
3. Select an  AMD GPU. (I only have one connected at the moment (an R9 FuryX).
4. Right Click a menu should appear.
5. Left click click on "Update Driver Software..."
6. Another menu appears "How do you want to search for driver software?"
7. Left click on Browse my computer for driver software.
8.  Enter the following into the search for driver software in this location box:
C:\AMD\Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-21.3.1-Win7-64Bit-Mar24\Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF
9. Make sure you have selected the include subfolders option.
10. Click on Next.

It updated the drivers o.k.
It then asked me to reboot the PC.

On reboot I now have a Hybrid Driver Combination of Adrenalin 2019 12.12.1 Windows 7 GUI and Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 Windows 7 WHQL drivers.

Running on Windows 8.1 64bit.

The Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI is updated and reports that Adrenalin 2020 20.3.1 drivers have been installed.
Most of the Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 Grapichs driver Global Options are there, although Frame Rate Target Control is missing in the GUI/UI.

AMD probably changed the name for the windows registry variable they used to turn FRTC control back on in the Adrenalin 2020 GUI/UI 20.3.1 driver version.
They switched off FRTC since Adrenalin 2020 19.12.2 mess.
The old registry variable is probably set to off.
The Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI likely looks for the old registry variable
I might take some time to try to turn FRTC back on again by using registry hacks.

That is as far as I got with the install.

I have to stop here.

Bye.

[colesdav]

Hi, 

I just tested the Graphics card with the  Hybrid Driver. 
Wattman etc seem to be working fine. 
Main issue I see is lack of FRTC in the GUI/UI. 

Games launch and run o.k. so far. 
I ran a 3DMark Fire Strike an the results are fine. 
I will post a link to the 3D Mark Fire Strike result showing I am running the latest Adrenalin 2020 20.2.1 WHQL Drivers next.

Just as I write this I see that Adrenalin 2020 20.3.2 has been released.
Install method should still work for that driver.

[colesdav]

I installed Adrenalin 2020 20.3.1 WHQL on the following OS on the same machine.
All OS installations pass all Windows Checks and have very latest Windows Update patches applied. 
All were perviously running Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1, and in each case, Global FRTC was available and working with that driver.  

I did NOT run DDU to uninstall the previous old Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 driver before upgrading to Adrenalin 2020 20.3.1 WHQL.

I used a full Adrenalin 2020 20.3.1 WHQL driver install with "Factory Reset" turned on to remove the old driver.
I did this to see what happened. 

I note the following. 

(1). Windows 7 Adrenalin     2020 20.3.1 - Global FRTC is missing. 
(2). Windows 10 Adrenalin  2020 20.3.1 - Global FRTC is present and working. 

Since:

 Hybrid Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI + 2020 20.3.1 drivers is missing FRTC. 

This leads to the following options:

- FRTC is not enabled at all in the Windows 7 driver.
- DDU is needed on Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 install. 

[colesdav]

I ran 3DMark Fire Strike tests at stock clocks for all components on the PC to compare the R9 Fury X GPU performance of: 

1. Windows 7    with Adrenalin 2020 20.3.1. WHQL driver installed. 
2. Windows 8.1 with Hybrid Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI and 2020 20.3.1 WHQL drivers installed. 

Result.

Performance is ~ identical, within margin of error. 

I can post the 3DMark Fire Strike Performance test results and comparisons if you wish.

[colesdav]

Hi, 

Not sure if you are still here or even interested in this question anymore. 

Regarding the missing Global FRTC Slider in the Hybreid Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI + Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 Windows 7 64bit drivers on Windows 8.1 64bit. 

It looks like theh slider is missing in the Hybrid install because Global FRTC is actually missing in the Windows 7 version of the Driver. 

Please see this thread for any update/details:
https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/frame-rate-target-control-frtc-missing-in-adrenalin-20...

Thanks.

[colesdav]

You can get Global FRTC working using the Hybrid Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 Windows 7 GUI/UI and Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 / 21.3.2 Driver install on Windows 8.1 64bit. 

(1). In the Windows 8.1 driver registry I  see the following after after installation of Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 Windows 7 Driver. 

KMD_FRTCInitialStatus 1
KMD_FRTEnabled          0
KMD_MaxFrameRateRequested  60.

(2). When I use Windows device manager to update the AMD GPU to Adrenalin 2020 21.3.1 or 2020 21.3.2 driver and reboot  I see the following: 
KMD_FRTCInitialStatus 1

The other two valuse are missing. 

(3). To test I can get FRTC to work I do the following.

Use Regedit to create the following 32bit DWORD entries: 
KMD_FRTEnabled          1
KMD_MaxFrameRateRequested  33.

(4). On reboot, I open the Adrenalin 2019 19.12.1 GUI/UI - there is STILL no FRTC Slider. 

(5). Test running 3D Mark Fire Strike. 
I see the test locked at constant 33 FPS. 

Therefore using registry entries with the Hybrid Driver install on Windows 8.1 64bit  works. 

(5). I went on create multiple registry saves of the GPU Driver settings. 
So I have saved the following to my desktop: 

FRTC_FPS_33.reg

FRTC_FPS_59.reg

FRTC_FPS_60.reg

FRTC_FPS_120.reg

FRTC_FPS_300.reg


FRTC_OFF

So I can simply load the FRTC settings for the GPU quickly to set them. 

I still have to reboot the PC for them to take effect. 

On Reboot, login and opening the GUI/UI everything looks the same. 

No Global FRTC Slider. 

However. 

FRTC works when I run 3D Mark Fire Strike and the benchmark runst at the appropriate FPS settings. 

You can of course just use Regedit to apply the settings you want manually, but I think setting up a set of files with FRTC values and loading them is safer than manually editting registry entries each time. 

Hopefully when/if AMD fix the problem in the Windows 7 Driver GUI/UI itself, it will translate across to the Hybrid driver install for Windows 8.1 64bit.