Valve and AMD team up to offer Catalyst updates through Steam

[Sweetz]

Apologies if this news has already been posted somewhere else, but I didn't see anything.

http://blogs.amd.com/press/2010/09/1...ates-on-steam/

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Sept. 15, 2010 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its collaboration with Valve todeliver ATI Catalyst™ graphics driver updates via its Steam platform, a leading platform for PC games and digitalentertainment. Steam users can now detect and install the latest ATI Catalyst driver for their ATI Radeon™ graphics card directly from within Steam.

...

”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 is very cool. I've often made the complaint that I can't believe that it's 2010, and that for the most part we still have to keep an eye on the news, seek out and manually install driver updates same way we did over 10 years ago.

Proper, pro-active automatic driver updating for video cards has been too long in the making and I'm glad a company is finally trying to make some progress to that end.

I'm just hoping that Valve didn't sign some exclusive agreement with AMD, and that they'll offer a similar system for nVidia drivers as well - because ultimately, having end users on properly updated drivers is as much benefit to developers as it is to the end users.

[EfrainMan]

Nothing changes for the 3 or 4 gamers out there that don't use Steam

[void4ever]

It'd better only be automatic if i set it that way. I don't appreciate anything or anyone installing stuff to my system whenever they feel like it.

Void4ever

[spyre]

You don't have to use them, they are not forced install.

[Sweetz]

Originally Posted by void4ever

It'd better only be automatic if i set it that way. I don't appreciate anything or anyone installing stuff to my system whenever they feel like it.

Yeah I knew inevitably someone would say that. I'm sure you'll be able to turn it off if you want.

I will say this - the thing about automatic driver updates is that they have to make sure the driver updates are very solid. When you have potentially millions of people automatically getting drivers as soon as they're available, you don't have room to have a put out a set with a bug that breaks a popular game. E.g. there's an almost non-existent window of time to pull a bad driver set. If a bad set did go out, the exposure could be very large and correspondingly so would the amount of bad will it could generate.

Of course on the other side of things - if a bad set does go out, automatic updates makes it very easy to quickly distribute a correction to the entire affected user base. Plus they could theoretically put out updates (especially small, simple things like profile updates) on a much more frequent basis without annoying people who don't want to be manually downloading an installing a new driver every week.

So in my opinion at least, automatic driver updates are a good idea all around. It forces them to step up their QA a little, but also gives them the ability to roll out faster and more incremental updates.

[void4ever]

I'm not sure you quite understand whats going on here bro. Were not talking game patches that valve themselves can whip up in a day or two if something breaks, like say TF2.

I think automatic updates for video card drivers is a horrible idea, be it ATI or Nvidia. If you watch the new driver threads for both cards there are tons of issues that crop up. And just because ATI is partnering up with Valve doesn't mean all the sudden were gonna start seeing 10 hotfix's in between official releases. Nor will there 12 drivers a year schedule change. Atm were lucky if we see 1 hotfix per release really.

Now don't get me wrong i love my ATI card, and i personally rarely see any of the issues that are constantly reported, probably because i'm a single card user. But lets take for instance the recent bug that cropped up that broke borderlands causing it to CTD after a short period of game play. We didn't receive a hotfix for that, we had to wait a whole month for the fix. And i guarantee had this partnership with valve been in place we still wouldn't have seen a hotfix.

With the amount of system differences and complexity of it all i just don't see automatic updates in this respect being a good idea.

No i didn't miss that they won't be automatic (unless chosen). Just responding to Sweetz.

[fellix_bg]

Apparently Valve is ready for deployment now -- it's AMD's turn to deliver the goods:

[Sweetz]

Originally Posted by void4ever

I'm not sure you quite understand whats going on here bro.

I understand perfectly, I was saying in theory it could be used to distribute more frequent updates - and in perfect world it would be. I was not predicting that it will happen. However, I would also caution against making predictions that it's never going to change - because you should never say never in the realm of computing.

At a minimum, it at least opens the opportunity to do small things like frequent Crossfire/AA compatibility profile updates without having to completely change how their driver update dynamic.

[narciso]

Originally Posted by Sweetz

I understand perfectly, I was saying in theory it could be used to distribute more frequent updates - and in perfect world it would be. I was not predicting that it will happen. However, I would also caution against making predictions that it's never going to change - because you should never say never in the realm of computing.

At a minimum, it at least opens the opportunity to do small things like frequent Crossfire/AA compatibility profile updates without having to completely change how their driver update dynamic.

That was the task of CAP, and it's not working.

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by narciso

That was the task of CAP, and it's not working.

Yes, actually it is.

[narciso]

Originally Posted by caveman-jim

Yes, actually it is.

How it's working, when CAP's are released monthly and not when new games arrive. CAP's are a good idea, the problem is they aren't released when we need them.

[{0}Salamander{0}]

So for years ATi were in bed with Valve until about 2007 when Valve did a deal with nVidia, and all the ATi logos vanished from CounterStrike menus and so on. Does this mean then that Valve and ATi are back in bed together?

[red_star]

That is scary **** knowing that both Steam and CCC are bloated.

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by red_star

That is scary **** knowing that both Steam and CCC are bloated.

bloated like your mom

[Cartel]

I don't know what steam is, but I wanna keep it that way.

[void4ever]

Originally Posted by Cartel

I don't know what steam is, but I wanna keep it that way.

It's just amazing that in this day and age you can get internet hooked up at the "rock you've been living under"!

[Sound_Card]

I think this is a very cool idea!

Kudos to AMD on this.

[red_star]

Originally Posted by caveman-jim

bloated like your mom

Seriously man

[red_star]

Originally Posted by Sweetz

Apologies if this news has already been posted somewhere else, but I didn't see anything.

http://blogs.amd.com/press/2010/09/1...ates-on-steam/

SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Sept. 15, 2010 — AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced its collaboration with Valve todeliver ATI Catalyst™ graphics driver updates via its Steam platform, a leading platform for PC games and digitalentertainment. Steam users can now detect and install the latest ATI Catalyst driver for their ATI Radeon™ graphics card directly from within Steam.

...

”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 is very cool. I've often made the complaint that I can't believe that it's 2010, and that for the most part we still have to keep an eye on the news, seek out and manually install driver updates same way we did over 10 years ago.

Proper, pro-active automatic driver updating for video cards has been too long in the making and I'm glad a company is finally trying to make some progress to that end.

I'm just hoping that Valve didn't sign some exclusive agreement with AMD, and that they'll offer a similar system for nVidia drivers as well - because ultimately, having end users on properly updated drivers is as much benefit to developers as it is to the end users.

You would think ATI would offer driver update through their software rather than using Steam.

[red_star]

Originally Posted by caveman-jim

bloated like your mom

CCC is written in .NET -> crap. CCC should be done in C language. But i guess since Microsoft don't care about memory footprint of their OS, why would ATI? Right?

[caveman-jim]

Originally Posted by red_star

CCC is written in .NET -> crap. CCC should be done in C language. But i guess since Microsoft don't care about memory footprint of their OS, why would ATI? Right?

Feel free to submit your resume to Microsoft and AMD, to show them how it's done right.

[spyre]

His mom would get the job since she is much more versatile and accommodating as she bends over backwards to provide good service

[red_star]

Originally Posted by spyre

His mom would get the job since she is much more versatile and accommodating as she bends over backwards to provide good service

What else to expect from British wanker.

[caveman-jim]

That's two British Wankers, actually.

[Danny Nissan]

Told my friends (gamers, but do not care about tech/drivers) about this and they loved how simple it is. Steam does it for them and no reboot required.

[Riou]

This is a good idea as long as the latest drivers work properly.

[kn00tcn]

the drivers didnt need a reboot in the first place (except CF)

[zebra 204]

Does this even work? Yes or no?

[zebra 204]

Originally Posted by zebra 204

Does this even work? Yes or no?

Just did it. The answer is no. Fail.

[Crawdaddy79]

Originally Posted by zebra 204

Just did it. The answer is no. Fail.

I have Steam, and I have an ATI card.

I'll be damned if I can figure out how to update my drivers through Steam.

Currently running 10.6.