Help Understanding Modded Drivers

[Alastair]

So I am trying to work out what the point is of the Amernime/ NimeZ drivers or whatever they are called. Ive been using them for a while and haven't really noticed a difference between the regular drivers. I installed the Navi versions for my Vega because I seemed to remember seeing somewhere that the modded drivers helped unlocked features such as SAM and RSR and those sort of things for "unsupported" hardware. But I have no new features and the performance seems about the same. So I am not quite sure what the drivers are trying to accomplish. Can someone help me understand? Ive been using vendor drivers since forever so this is my first foray into modded drivers.  

[pio]

The Vega might not see a whole lot of an improvement because its still so much newer to be honest.  Latest official driver for HD5000-6000 would be I believe it was 13.9's?  But thanks to modded drivers, I think i'm running something like 15.7's or something on my HD6970 and HD5870, thus furthering their lifespan that much longer....allowing them to play more modern titles easier.  Example, Borderlands 3 on my HD6970, it wouldn't even launch because "driver not supported".  Updated to the modded drivers, and it plays now....plays pretty well actually.

 

They can also improve stability on older legacy cards.  Another example, my Radeon 7500.  The official drivers, the thing crashes on 3d if you load up the whopping 32MB of VRAM too hard.  On modded drivers, it works fine.  Still trying to remember which ones I used for that card because they were for all the way up to X1900's, and I have an X1900 that's crashing on load too now, probably driver related..... 

 

So.....your Vega, while it MIGHT not actually see improvements with modded drivers TODAY, give it some time and it absolutely will.  The modded drivers are USUALLY more stable though too.  Not always, but usually.  They CAN add extra features and support that AMD themselves dropped at the driver level.   Again, maybe not today, but it could happen.  It really does depend on a number of things.  But basically, TLDR, modded drivers extend support further for legacy cards.

Edited November 10, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[Alastair]

Hmmm. I see. I guess I was hoping for more like some unlocked features. I saw somewhere that the Amernime drivers could unlock SAM. and I was also hoping to get RSR support. I see no reason why Vega can't support resizeable bar and RSR. Especially RSR since FSR works on Vega and RSR doesn't need explicit game support. 

 

 

I guess these drivers would if been more useful for me. If I was still running my Fury's. Still another thing that AMD did recently I don't get was discontinuing driver support for GCN 1-3.

[pio]

14 hours ago, Alastair said:

Hmmm. I see. I guess I was hoping for more like some unlocked features. I saw somewhere that the Amernime drivers could unlock SAM. and I was also hoping to get RSR support. I see no reason why Vega can't support resizeable bar and RSR. Especially RSR since FSR works on Vega and RSR doesn't need explicit game support. 

 

 

I guess these drivers would if been more useful for me. If I was still running my Fury's. Still another thing that AMD did recently I don't get was discontinuing driver support for GCN 1-3.

Now THAT, I couldn't tell you since I'm still using official drivers on my 290x, Fury, and Vega.  You're right, I don't see any reason either why Vega shouldn't support SAM, or at the very least RSR, same with Fury.  Heck, an RX 580 supports RSR, and Fury is just as fast as a 580 is, 290x is as fast as a 580 is.

Hmmm, I'll have to dink around with drivers more next time I have those rigs on the bench.   If you find anything out about that, please update!

[gupsterg]

On 11/11/2022 at 14:23, Alastair said:

Hmmm. I see. I guess I was hoping for more like some unlocked features. I saw somewhere that the Amernime drivers could unlock SAM. and I was also hoping to get RSR support. I see no reason why Vega can't support resizeable bar and RSR. Especially RSR since FSR works on Vega and RSR doesn't need explicit game support. 

 

 

I guess these drivers would if been more useful for me. If I was still running my Fury's. Still another thing that AMD did recently I don't get was discontinuing driver support for GCN 1-3.

 

You did:-

 

i) Disable CSM in Mobo bios?

ii) Enabled SAM in Mobo bios?