AMD driver bug

[Darklegend222]

specs:

CPU: i9-10850k

GPU: Radeon RX 6700XT

Drive: 2tb Samsung Evo SSD

Ram: 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz

Monitors: MSI OPTIX Mag27cq, and an old Element TV.

 

Issue: Upon getting the 6700xt, i've noticed flickering and darkening textures when I walk.

 

More info: The flickering and darkening occurs when I do ANTYING, walking/attacking/looking around on everything. I haven't noticed any flickering on enemies but that could be since I'm not looking hard enough. I tested the game on my old GTX 960 2GB (yea I'm that guy) and it had no problems on either monitor. I've noticed the game SCUM has issues with flickering as well where the ENTIRE screen flickers white every 4-8 seconds rendering it unplayable (I'm well aware its a different game, its to shed more light on whats going on). For some reason I can't catch the issue when I do a recording or an instant-replay, I can do a recording on my phone if you make it so.

 

Attempted solutions: Testing each monitor individually, used the old/new HDMI, DP, DVI cables, upgrading the AMD drivers to the latest 21.6.1, and downgrading to the least (I'm using not the least but currently using 21.3.2), lowering all settings to low and high within the game, changed the MSI monitor's refresh rate to off/extreme, disabling and enabling "Freesync", moving the game to a different drive, using DDU to completely wipe all the Nvidia and AMD data, disabled every Radeon feature, OpenGL launch option, and used different ports on the GPU.

 

Edit: it's a 6000 series issue. Unsure if it's a game developer, or a Radeon driver issue.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Darklegend222 (see edit history)

[Fox]

All AMD GPUs tend to have issues with games, that's why they're the inferior brand to go with (their current CPUs are awesome though). Their drivers and software has always been kind of bad when it comes to games.

 

To fix your issue, apparently just messing around with some settings in the control panel will solve (or at least lessen) the issue. Don't ask me what though as I haven't used an AMD GPU for gaming in over 15 years. I just know this based on what everyone else has said on this forum (and others).

 

EDIT: To the 3 dummies that gave me a thumbs down... do some research before judging (it literally only takes a minute to prove me right). It is a very well known fact that this game and most other games favor Nvidia GPUs while being developped as they are more commonly used in games and it is well known that AMD has a bad reputation with their drivers and software since pretty much the beginning. If you're a casual or new to gaming, then maybe there's a small possibility that you may not have had that many issues yet, but this is the reason why the majority of gamers and devs favor Nvidia despite the higher price tags.

Additionally, I'd like to clarify that I in no way dispute the performances of both brand names, only the reliability and support.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[Beelzybub]

9 hours ago, Darklegend222 said:

i've noticed flickering and darkening textures

Is the gpu running hot maybe?

[Darklegend222]

26 minutes ago, Beelzybub said:

Is the gpu running hot maybe?

Not at all, 60c.

 

I don't know anyone else with the 6700XT to confirm the issues so it really puts a damper on confirming what works/doesn't work.

[Beelzybub]

10 minutes ago, Darklegend222 said:

I don't know anyone else with the 6700XT to confirm the issues so it really puts a damper on confirming what works/doesn't work.

To narrow it down, I'd start by turning off every graphic option both in the game and in AMD's software. (or lowest if off is not available) Then see if it still does it.

If not, then turn them up one by one until you can repro the issue.

 

Is power possibly an issue? 6 and 8 pin connected? Maybe check them. Power supply? Your cpu and gpu are both pretty power hungry.

[Darklegend222]

34 minutes ago, Beelzybub said:

To narrow it down, I'd start by turning off every graphic option both in the game and in AMD's software. (or lowest if off is not available) Then see if it still does it.

If not, then turn them up one by one until you can repro the issue.

 

Is power possibly an issue? 6 and 8 pin connected? Maybe check them. Power supply? Your cpu and gpu are both pretty power hungry.

I can play ark on 1440p on epic settings without a single graphical issue, same with Horizon Zero Dawn. The Gpu hits 80c and the cpu hits 60% so i can vouch for power being fine.

 

I should've added that i disabled every single radeon setting available to off/application controlled. It makes the flickering less noticeable (still there) on 7 days to die.. while making the entire game look like a giant blob.

 

Edit: I'll also add, i had to downgrade the AMD driver to 21.3.2 in order to even play Horizon Zero Dawn as it is the only one that doesn't crash the game.

Edited August 29, 2021 by Darklegend222 (see edit history)

[Beelzybub]

What about trying glcore instead of directx from the launcher?

[Darklegend222]

5 hours ago, Beelzybub said:

What about trying glcore instead of directx from the launcher?

I've used that too, the game looks a lot more pixelated with lines on certain blocks of different colors, and the flickering is 4x worse, especially if the sky is on the screen anywhere.

[Darklegend222]

If anyone is still possibly reading this, the issue is within the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series cards.

 

I've had confirmations within multiple discussions on multiple forums and discords.

 

It's still a gray area whether it's on AMDs end, or the game developers end. People are saying it's possibly game developers not optimizing for Radeon, or card manufacturers doing bad with software.

 

All I've managed to figure out with the help of the community: Radeon 6000 series is buggy and we're still on 100% is causing it. Flickering is a problem for everyone, and crashes on other games like Praey for the Gods are occurring as well.

 

Do with that information what you will, I'm not equipped enough to dive deep into the possible fixes for it, but it's a good idea to bring it to the attention of everyone otherwise a fix will never be on the radar or in sight.

[meganoth]

7 hours ago, Darklegend222 said:

If anyone is still possibly reading this, the issue is within the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series cards.

 

I've had confirmations within multiple discussions on multiple forums and discords.

 

It's still a gray area whether it's on AMDs end, or the game developers end. People are saying it's possibly game developers not optimizing for Radeon, or card manufacturers doing bad with software.

 

All I've managed to figure out with the help of the community: Radeon 6000 series is buggy and we're still on 100% is causing it. Flickering is a problem for everyone, and crashes on other games like Praey for the Gods are occurring as well.

 

Do with that information what you will, I'm not equipped enough to dive deep into the possible fixes for it, but it's a good idea to bring it to the attention of everyone otherwise a fix will never be on the radar or in sight.

Thanks for the update, but can you be more specific:  Are the confirmations only about different Unity games? Or are they about games with different graphics engines?

 

At least Praey according to the internet seems to use Unity as well.

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by meganoth (see edit history)

[Beelzybub]

7 hours ago, Darklegend222 said:

, the issue is within the AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series cards.

Maybe the card manufacturer has a firmware/bios update that will help? Try underclocking?

[Darklegend222]

7 hours ago, meganoth said:

Thanks for the update, but can you be more specific:  Are the confirmations only about different Unity games? Or are they about games with different graphics engines?

 

At least Praey according to the internet seems to use Unity as well.

 

 

 

I am believing it's more based on shaders. I see minimal flickering at noon within the game, but in the shade/night it gets atrocious.

 

Praey has intense crashing issues on the latest drivers, i did more testing and an older driver fixes it.

 

As for SCUM, I believe it uses Unity as well, and I've found turning the lighting effects to the lowest possible setting makes the lightning not cause my entire screen to go white, just all the trees and the sky. It also has terrain with a lot of black patches moving around the terrain, which a lot of games are having the issue.

 

It seems to be a shader issue from what I've gathered. Yet I'm not sure whether drivers or game developers need fixes/patches, perhaps both?

1 hour ago, Beelzybub said:

Maybe the card manufacturer has a firmware/bios update that will help? Try underclocking?

I've undervolted, and disabled XMP to test. There's a lot of forums and discords claiming the 6000 series is having problems in Unity and Early Access games.

 

I've not noticed anything in Killing Floor, Ark, Minecraft, Deep Rock Galactic, Doom, or Skyrim.

 

It's purely in select games which is rather odd, I don't know a lot of people with a 6000 series card to do their own testing. But there are plenty of forums of people having issues, so I think it's safe to say my card isn't faulty as not every game has problems and out of my 200 game library, this is what I found.. So far.

[SylenThunder]

Reminds me of the issues with the 5700-series when it released. Took AMD something like a year and a half to fix the driver package.

[Darklegend222]

5 hours ago, SylenThunder said:

Reminds me of the issues with the 5700-series when it released. Took AMD something like a year and a half to fix the driver package.

I haven't stopped delving into the problem despite that I can't fix anything on my end (aside from a Nvidia card) and it is really going to come down to their drivers from what I can tell.

 

An RX 580 has 0 graphical issues, my old 960 didn't have issues, the 5000 series "had" issues, and the 6000 series has massive issues. From what I've continuously gathered, it might be another 2-6 months before it gets resolved/worked on, and it might take a lot of the top-tier articles putting pressure on AMD to fix them much like the 5000 series.

 

It's a shame, more vram and core clock than a 3070, AMD genuinely peaked my interest but it may be back to Nvidia when this card "fails".

[Jugginator]

Could you snag a quick video showing the glitches?

[Darklegend222]

23 hours ago, Jugginator said:

Could you snag a quick video showing the glitches?

I've actually had one, it's difficult with how long it takes to upload on YouTube.

 

But I'll get the video to you within the day hopefully.

 

Edit: i made a recording, it's not great but it's the best I could since a 55mb file takes 40 minutes to upload, a 1gb file straight from the recording software would take literally forever.

 

 

I managed to get a recording of SCUM on my phone at the very least, but YouTube won't let me upload more than 1 video in a 24 hour-period.

Edited September 16, 2021 by Darklegend222 (see edit history)

[BruiseSwayne]

Here's what I am seeing on my 6900 XT.  Some are saying it is water but there is no water in this scene.  This is a NEPA base and there are some very reflective textures.  There is water (DF rain catchers) on the roof, but not visible.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by BruiseSwayne (see edit history)

[meganoth]

On 11/16/2021 at 11:13 PM, BruiseSwayne said:

Here's what I am seeing on my 6900 XT.  Some are saying it is water but there is no water in this scene.  This is a NEPA base and there are some very reflective textures.  There is water (DF rain catchers) on the roof, but not visible.

 

 

 

Does it go away if you turn off reflections?

 

[BruiseSwayne]

On 11/19/2021 at 9:40 AM, meganoth said:

 

Does it go away if you turn off reflections?

 

Apologies for the delayed response.

 

No.  Changing Reflections Quality and/or Shadow Reflections does not affect it.  I turned them both to Off and the issue was still there.

[Fox]

On 9/15/2021 at 12:05 PM, SylenThunder said:

Reminds me of the issues with the 5700-series when it released. Took AMD something like a year and a half to fix the driver package.

Pretty much the same card, that's why. It apparently uses the exact same core configuration using the exact TSMC 7nm manufacturing process, they just optimized or overclocked it a little bit.

Edited December 1, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[poyo]

Bro I hate to say it but I think your GPU is dying or faulty.  I'd get in contact with whoever you bought it from and get it replaced ASAP or live with the glitches if you cannot.

[Fox]

2 hours ago, Lindar said:

 

Typical fanboy statement... I have both next to each other: an old 2080 ti and a new 6900xt. None is better or worse than the other one. The latest hotfix orgy of NV proofes you wrong.

 

link removed


For normal shader based rendering the AMD's win while RTX is Nvidia's goal.

I wasn't referring to performance at all. I was referring to drivers and software and how they support gaming (aka, reliability). You're the one being a fanboy looking for some way to defend a company you probably know nothing about. Also, linking me to a sketchy german website with popup ads breaks the rules here.

The devs for this specific game have already mentioned that they favor Nvidia when coding the game because of the majority of gamers use them. It's not that they don't support AMD, but Nvidia does come first. It's like that with most games.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)

[Reid]

On 11/16/2021 at 2:13 PM, BruiseSwayne said:

Here's what I am seeing on my 6900 XT.  Some are saying it is water but there is no water in this scene.  This is a NEPA base and there are some very reflective textures.  There is water (DF rain catchers) on the roof, but not visible.

 

 

Seeing the exact same thing on my 6900 XT as well. It's a lot worse when inside a structure.

Only occurs with this game. Other Unity (and non-unity) games run perfectly fine. If it's a driver issue or Unity issue, then all other games have somehow managed to fix it.

Specs are:

• i7-9700K
• RX 6900XT (ASUS TUF)
• 64 GB DDR4 (3200 mHz)
• 2TB NVMe drive (XPG SX8200 Pro)
• 1440p 60Hz monitor

[meganoth]

8 hours ago, Fox said:

I wasn't referring to performance at all. I was referring to drivers and software and how they support gaming (aka, reliability). You're the one being a fanboy looking for some way to defend a company you probably know nothing about. Also, linking me to a sketchy german website with popup ads breaks the rules here.

The devs for this specific game have already mentioned that they favor Nvidia when coding the game because of the majority of gamers use them. It's not that they don't support AMD, but Nvidia does come first. It's like that with most games.

 

Sure and your clarification is going more into possible causes. But your original post simply points at AMD as the culprit (their drivers are bad) and presents facts that you simply can't know with certainty.

 

Since most games and probably even graphics libraries will optimize first for nvidia as the market leader it is not possible for us to reliably know which driver is more stable. Not even game developers like Fataal can be sure because they view the graphics driver through the eyes of an intermediate graphics library like Unity where the same bias might exist. The only reliable sources I can think of would be developers for Unity or Unreal Engine or game developers programming their own graphics engine.

 

Naturally for a buyer this still means if stability is his only criteria Nvidia as the better supported platform is better. And if we talk about probabilities, nvidia has more cash and manpower to throw at the software and therefore has a higher probability of having a more stable software.

 

 

 

 

 

[Fox]

37 minutes ago, meganoth said:

 

Sure and your clarification is going more into possible causes. But your original post simply points at AMD as the culprit (their drivers are bad) and presents facts that you simply can't know with certainty.

 

Since most games and probably even graphics libraries will optimize first for nvidia as the market leader it is not possible for us to reliably know which driver is more stable. Not even game developers like Fataal can be sure because they view the graphics driver through the eyes of an intermediate graphics library like Unity where the same bias might exist. The only reliable sources I can think of would be developers for Unity or Unreal Engine or game developers programming their own graphics engine.

 

Naturally for a buyer this still means if stability is his only criteria Nvidia as the better supported platform is better. And if we talk about probabilities, nvidia has more cash and manpower to throw at the software and therefore has a higher probability of having a more stable software.

 

 

 

 

 

I agree. But there is some facts that prove the possibility of drivers / software "could" be the culprit as they have been in the past. SylenThunder already posted about the 5700 series cards taking a year and a half to fix their own drivers. 6700 series being pretty much another re-labeled 5700 card with tweaks and whatnot to squeeze out more performance out of it, the possibility is definitely there. Also, I hear their software is still a bit janky according to tech channels. AMD GPUs have always been like this, even back when it was called ATI. It was so bad back in the day, someone decided to make alternative drivers which worked far better, called Omega drivers. I don't think it comes down to manpower or money, I think they just lack enough interest in gamers because that isn't where they get the majority of their money from. You're right, I can't know for sure, especially since I'm not a dev for this game and therefore can't tell a game code and driver issue apart, but it was still worth posting no matter how many fanboys get triggered by it because I feel like ppl deserve to know.

Edited December 7, 2021 by Fox (see edit history)