AMD Drivers, WHQL vs non-WHQL?

[Sniper Charlie]

Does it matter? I noticed there are beta drivers, are those safe? I do read all the fixes and the things that are still broken, but as of right now, the only WHQL driver I have been on recently is the 17.7.2, and it works fine, but when I want to play certain movies, I get some HDCP Status error that causes it not to play. I read drivers after mine fixed it, but I wasnt sure if I needed to wait for WHQL?

Thanks for the help.

[Missing Spartan]

Beta drivers are fine. They just might have some bugs and not perform as well and what not.

[Sniper Charlie]

Should I play it safe and wait for a WHQL? I researched a little more, and found AMD released a driver on Oct 3rd that is WHQL, however, it says its beta?? I think it was 17.9.2 or something?

[Art of *S]

I use 17.10.3 and it works fine for me.

[Sniper Charlie]

Alright, I will give it a try. Just one last question, I use CCleaner after I uninstall a new driver, but I read there was another driver cleaner? Is CCleaner good enough or should I use another?

Thanks again by the way for the help.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Beta Drivers can be just as good, if they don't cause you specific issues.
Which vary from config to config...

You will want to fully Disable the WHQL Checking in WinOS before attempting to use any Beta / Non-WHQL Drivers firstly though. Here's how to do that:
https://www.howtogeek.com/167723/how-to-disable-driver-signature-verification-on-64-bit-windows-8.1-so-that-you-can-install-unsigned-drivers

Then be sure to fully wipe out current Drivers using the DDU app.
https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=921

Please note that when you wipe out Drivers with DDU, while it is mainly just for clean wiping all GPU Drivers to avoid issues, it can wipe out Motherboard Chipset Drivers as well. Which is not a problem, just install the latest for the Chipset Driver as well, which you can easily get directly from Intel or AMD.

Intel Chipsets (9-series up to current)
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775

AMD Chipsets (9xx series / Ryzen / ThreadRipper)
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/chipset?os=Windows%2010%20-%2064

[LiMpY]

ALWAYS create a restore point before updating. For the first time in a long time my attempt to update from the WHQL 17.7.2 to a beta, 17.10.2, failed and I needed to roll back.
Personally I've never had to use DDU when updating drivers but always use it when downgrading. This might change after my last experience.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by LiMpY:

ALWAYS create a restore point before updating. For the first time in a long time my attempt to update from the WHQL 17.7.2 to a beta, 17.10.2, failed and I needed to roll back.
Personally I've never had to use DDU when updating drivers but always use it when downgrading. This might change after my last experience.

The OS does that automatically, u never have to do that.
Every instance of anything installing or uninstall auto triggers a separate restore point save.

Use DDU each and ever single GPU driver change, thats what its for. It makes that process faster and easier and ensures other drivers/software related to GPUs can't be an issue/conflict in anyways. Like when folks update GPU drivers. NEVER update GPU drivers, always wipe out and do fresh.

[LiMpY]

I wish that was true. Just checked and it was disabled!! WTF? And only one existing restore point from an afternoon a few days ago. Nothing from when I did it manually and nothing from the driver install. Scary!
Also DDU will wipe monitor profiles apparently so not everyone wants that, and If we were using winXP I'd agree with you 100%. Now in the world of Win10 using DDU shouldn't be necessary for updating. You're right that it's a good idea albeit slower vs an over the top udate.

[Sniper Charlie]

Its kinda scary to think that they made it so you can update right from the Radeon Settings, with folks thinking its easy and will work, yet not knowing that old files and what have you, linger behind that can cause unpredictable things.

Seriously, thanks for the help, I will download that DDU and make sure I watch what it does and read how to use it properly. And make sure to first make a manual restore point.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Originally posted by LiMpY:

I wish that was true. Just checked and it was disabled!! WTF? And only one existing restore point from an afternoon a few days ago. Nothing from when I did it manually and nothing from the driver install. Scary!
Also DDU will wipe monitor profiles apparently so not everyone wants that, and If we were using winXP I'd agree with you 100%. Now in the world of Win10 using DDU shouldn't be necessary for updating. You're right that it's a good idea albeit slower vs an over the top udate.

Wiping Monitor Profiles is optional, it's in the DDU options.
And DDU even also does a system restore point save when used.

Actually it's mostly due to Win10 we need things like DDU, cause users are letting WU handle Drivers, which does that all wrong. But that also hasn't changed really since the days of WinXP, in terms of MS wanting to handle Drivers.

[slymeasy]

I think the WHQL drivers are compatible with a larger variety of games.

I just had to rollback to the WHQL in order to play State Of Decay YOSE. The game would crash every time. I would get a DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET fatal error. Saints Row 3 and Saints Row 4 would crash like that also. Now State Of Decay is running perfectly.

I read a lot of nonsense ideas about hardware failing and factory overclocks being bad etc. etc. etc. Rolled back to the 17.7.2 driver and now it works fine.

The WHQL are the drivers that are verified by Microsoft to work. So if you have any games that black screen or crash then rollback to the last WHQL driver. That being said, I had 37 other games that ran just fine on the NON-WHQL drivers. When you go to download the drivers manually the filename will start with NON-WHQL or WHQL.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Has nothing to do with Games. WHQL are signed off by Microsoft directly.
non-WHQL stamped ones are "Beta"

[slymeasy]

Originally posted by Bad_Motha:

Has nothing to do with Games. WHQL are signed off by Microsoft directly.
non-WHQL stamped ones are "Beta"

The developer of State Of Decay says to use the WHQL drivers if you are having problems with the game.