PC Drivers & Software

[qrzychu]

Hi, in December I bought my first ever AMD card, a XFX RX580. When the PC came, I went to https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics/radeon-500-series/radeon-rx-500-series/radeon-rx-580 and downloaded the latest drivers.

It turns out, that I downloaded the unstable BETA version, namely 18.12.3. It caused many issues, including the card overheating, droping video signal for few seconds every 2 minutes etc.

I have returned the PC thinking I got the bad specimen - that's OK, it can happen. But it turns out that it was just the drivers - there is a problem with fan speed management in the "Optional" version which caused the card to just overheat

I had this issue: .RX 580 Black Screen While Gaming - Windows 10 - 17.9.3

It makes sense, it was BETA version after all.

In the shop they just installed 18.12.2 and it works perfectly. They told over the phone that I'm like the 3rd guy with the same problem - beta drivers.

I'm not an idiot, I build quite a few PCs by myself back in the day, I reinstalled Windows before returning the PC to erase all my personal data. But how did I install BETA VERSION drivers twice in a freaking row?!
The answer is easy: they are the first ones on the list, with latest date and NOTHING else. Oh, there is a word "Optional" in exactly same font as everything else.

How am I supposed to know that "Optional" means unstable? That the first thing I see after googling "rx 580 drivers download" can destroy my card?

For GeForces, you have google "geforce beta drivers" to be able to download something unstable. Even then, there is a RED ON WHITE text saying BETA:

Can this post make a difference and get the website changed? I sent my computer back just before Christmas, still waiting for it to come back.

I could't use it for 3 weeks because someone decided to put unstable drivers on the website without any sing of it.

[ggg]

Both nvidia and amd has their bad drivers, even WHQL.

Idk how much bad drivers has both of them but they are definitly exist on both sides.

AFAIK WHQL is only meaning amd/nvidia pay some money to MicroSoft for "checking" driver and including it to windows drivers update or something like that.

[qrzychu]

I'm not saying that drivers are bad. The website that download them from is bad, because if you want just to download the latest stable version, you end up with beta version.

For today, 18.12.2 should be on top. It should be hard to find 18.12.3.

[ggg]

It's like you did not read what i wrote.

Whql is just 4 letters and nothing special, you can easily have non-whql driver version better and more stable than whql.

[elstaci]

I also noticed that all BETA/HotFixes drivers are labeled "Optional" while all WHQL have no labels. It would be nice to have AMD verify and post for all Users which Drivers are WHQL and which are actually BETA or 'Hotfixes".  Even though the word "Optional" suggest that it is up to the User to decide whether to download and install the driver. That it is not necessary.