AMD Sync now on Steam

Overheal

...Steam, valve's bastard-child e-gaming platform, has partnered with AMD to check for updates to your ATI AMD Radeon driversm and keep them up to date, as it could with any of your steam library games.

Not sure this does this automatically - It appears to be optional, as one of the new Top-Menu commands. Makes sense given that gamers can be at times pretty finnicky about which drivers they wish to operate with.

AMD Press Release wrote:

SUNNYVALE, Calif. —9/15/2010 AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its collaboration with Valve to deliver ATI Catalyst™ graphics driver updates via its Steam platform, a leading platform for PC games and digital entertainment. Steam users can now detect and install the latest ATI Catalyst driver for their ATI Radeon™ graphics card directly from within Steam. Valve’s most recent Steam Hardware Survey shows that fully 87 percent of DirectX® 11 gamers are enjoying ATI Radeon or ATI Mobility Radeon™ hardware.
“Steam represents an evolution for PC and online gaming, and the availability of ATI Catalyst graphics driver updates directly on the Steam platform can help further enhance the PC gaming experience for users of ATI Radeon products,” said Ben Bar-Haim, corporate vice president of software for AMD. “AMD now has the opportunity to help deliver an even better experience for PC gamers.”
"Valve is extremely pleased to be working with AMD to provide automatic driver updates for AMD's leading edge products on Steam," said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. "PC gamers demand the most of their gaming hardware and providing these updates automatically will help ensure those playing via Steam are playing at optimal performance."
This announcement is another example of the AMD Gaming Evolved initiative in action. The program, which represents AMD’s deep commitment to PC gamers, PC game development and the PC gaming industry, is dedicated to creating the best possible gaming experience on the PC. The auto-notification of driver updates delivered via Steam to users with ATI Radeon graphics hardware will provide gamers the opportunity to optimize their PC gaming experience.
Designed to enable high performance, industry-leading stability and an intuitive gaming experience for ATI Radeon graphics customers, regular ATI Catalyst driver updates represent AMD’s ongoing commitment to stability, performance and innovation.
Supporting Resources

• Visit the AMD Hardware Partner page on Steam
• Learn more about AMD Gaming Evolved
• Download the latest ATI Catalyst™ drivers
• Follow the AMD@Play blog for the latest gaming news
• Follow AMD graphics news on Twitter at @ATIGraphics
• Become a fan of AMD on Facebook

Gonzovision

Tried this last week and ccc froze while installing the drivers. Not sure if it was a Steam issue or a ccc issue though.

PogMoThoin

I tried update Ati drivers without Steam and ended up having to do a system restore. My next gpu will be Nvidia regardless of the value Ati give (they did give, they're keeping the price up now), their drivers are better

dreamers75

ATI4LIFE


Not a ****ing chance im going back to the nvloop CTD ever.


Seriously it ****ed me over so many times, also not having any sort of problem with an ATI card has made me ATI4LIFE. The 4870 is the single greatest thing to happen to pc gaming ever shame ATI and their pricing structure didnt cop onto that.

Nehaxak

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I tried update Ati drivers without Steam and ended up having to do a system restore. My next gpu will be Nvidia regardless of the value Ati give (they did give, they're keeping the price up now), their drivers are better

Same reason I switched a while back too, the driver support from ATI was terrible. I would've hoped it would improve with the whole AMD takeover but apparently not. Linux support is also generally pretty bad, which is not gaming I know but still, you have a PC, no harm in trying something new if you wanted but without being fecked over by crappy graphics card drivers.

Use http://downloads.guru3d.com/ and check their forums also when any new driver is released before you install it, they're usually quick to find any problems and notify others, so you don't take such a risk.

Overheal

I did it while i was writing the post and had no problems.

Either way, it will be more years to come before I go back to nvidia after that entire spiel.

KilOit

I used this steam feature last week and updated without a problem, when i first got the ati card few months ago it was a pain to update but seems to be working fine now, my previous card 9800gtx lasted a whole year before it failed :mad:

Dcully

Read about this last week,i had planned on updating drivers andyway so decided to try this.
Worked perfectly, it done everything for me, no need to manually uninstall drivers or anything, it took care of everything.

Gummy Panda

Nehaxak wrote: »

Same reason I switched a while back too, the driver support from ATI was terrible. I would've hoped it would improve with the whole AMD takeover but apparently not. Linux support is also generally pretty bad, which is not gaming I know but still, you have a PC, no harm in trying something new if you wanted but without being fecked over by crappy graphics card drivers.

Use http://downloads.guru3d.com/ and check their forums also when any new driver is released before you install it, they're usually quick to find any problems and notify others, so you don't take such a risk.

One of the reasons i use ATI is the drivers. I had a Nvidia GeForce 8800 and kept getting a .dll error every few months. Lots of complaints on forums about it.

I did the ATI driver update through steam yesterday and it was painless.

Antar Bolaeisk

Steam is now one step closer to taking over the world

Kinda funny that it's offering AMD updates though since only half the amount of Steam users have an AMD card as those with an nVidia card. Still, I'm not complaining as it worked brilliantly here.

uberpixie

PogMoThoin wrote: »

I tried update Ati drivers without Steam and ended up having to do a system restore. My next gpu will be Nvidia regardless of the value Ati give (they did give, they're keeping the price up now), their drivers are better

I have been hard fcuked by both companies as regards drivers tbh. I wouldn't rate one over the other.

i) Nvidia 8800 GTS 320mb: past a certain driver revision I got random blue screens in games without fail. Roll back to an earlier driver, card worked a treat in any games including Crysis with my CPU overclocked to over 3ghz. So it was purely the drivers and NOT the card. Sold the card on to a mate who had no issues with it and bought a radeon 4870 512mb which I still game on.

ii) At the moment I can't install the catalyst control centre or update my drivers properly after using a beta 10.3 driver. I prob need to nuke windows to get it right. I have tried driver sweeper/driver cleaner from safe mode etc with no joy :-(

My system restores don't go far back enough so I may bite the bullet and go with an Acronis image I took of the install 6 months ago long before the drive install.

Unless I can figure out how to properly unfcuk CCC

Overheal

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Steam is now one step closer to taking over the world

Kinda funny that it's offering AMD updates though since only half the amount of Steam users have an AMD card as those with an nVidia card. Still, I'm not complaining as it worked brilliantly here.

Overall thats true, but the DX11 stats show ATI clearly dominating the nextgen market.

Sierra Oscar

All that is needed now is for Nvidia to come on board . . .