I'd hardly call it useless, especially for enthusiasts who have late gen hardware. Recent patches often give performance increases, especially in SLI or CrossFire configurations and having your system recently patched can help that. This may also help the casual gamer who loves Plants Vs Zombies but doesn't really know what graphics drivers do to keep their system more up to date.
As someone that builds and supports systems on the side, automatic driver updates would be an absolute god send. It would cut out allot of work for me.
I do agree, for the non gamer, allot of times "if it ain't broke don't fix it" applies, but for gamers, regular driver updates are really necessary, and most of my customers want to play games without the fuss.
How much better has Steam made the experience of patching your games? Would you want to go back to searching for patches on gamershell.com.... Hell no.... Once you can have steam update your video driver, you will never, ever want to go back.
Its a nice innovation. I have no doubt that Nvidia will follow AMD's lead here.
I'm sure it can be useful to a good amount of people, but its also going to cause some problems. As Mirage mentioned I many times skip new driver releases because while they may increase performance in some games, I've many times had an update cause problems in other games (most recent being one that caused frequent crashes with Borderlands).
Updating applications (i.e. games) in Steam can be acceptable and useful. But drivers are a part of operating system and it is not acceptable to me that Steam starts changing my operating system files as well. I wonder what Microsoft thinks about this; they will also be answering the support calls for OS problems after all (BSODs, etc). I wonder if AMD's main concern is increasing their hardware share in Steam hardware survey. I will keep getting my drivers from either Microsoft or WHQL certified ones from the manufacturer, nowhere else.
What's the difference between Steam updating your system files or Windows Update updating your system files?
Visibility. Most people don't do anything other than an automatic Windows update. They never bother with recommended updates, and thus miss driver updates.
I prefer the Steam route of notifications because it's more likely to be a timely release. Microsoft waits until "Patch Tuesday" to release anything but emergency fixes, so the driver version could be a full release behind by then.
yea, update my video drivers maybe twice a year. 5fps isnt even worth an extra = on the 8===D epeen scale
I can also see joe six pack playing some steam game, "oh hey new drivers okay i'll download them, wait, WTF, why is barnyard beer bonaza crashing all the time now, FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU"
I feel compelled to bring up the nV driver update that roasted cards. Or the four consecutive ATi driver updates that were supposed to fix the corrupted cursor issue but instead broke other things.
It'd be all right if they ask, but it seems like it's just asking for trouble. Even gamers should be updating drivers when they have issues or when they get dissatisfied with performance, not as soon as the updater comes out.
I think some of y'all (though some get this point) are missing the point: this is not mandatory if you own Steam and Steam is not going to go update your video drivers without asking you. This is for power users that want the latest drivers as soon as they come out and for that, this will be a great service.
Won't power users that want the latest drivers know when the latest drivers are released? I mean, I guess it's not like ATi's drivers come out on a sched- oh, wait. They do.
Won't power users that want the latest drivers know when the latest drivers are released? I mean, I guess it's not like ATi's drivers come out on a sched- oh, wait. They do.
yea Video drivers on Steam is for the stupid nation, not us Icrontians
A reduced headache is a reduced headache. Once again, I can go to Gamershell and find my own game patches, but Steam does it for me. I can go to AMD.com and update my driver, but Steam is going to do it for me so......
This wouldn't be Steams updater, it would still be AMD's, so who would help if it borked your system? AMD, just like they would help now if you manually selected to install. Which, I am sure, you will still have to do.
Either I missed something in the article or there are some huge assumptions in this thread, wow.
My opinion is that this will be a use it if you want, don't if you don't feature. After all not all Steam users have AMD video cards, do they? (in b4 rhetorical question )
Basically, you can download install.exe through Steam. What is the big deal? It's the same as going to game.amd.com and downloading it; instead Steam downloads the right version for you and clicks SETUP.EXE for you.
Alot of FUD going on here. For once, I agree with Cliff. This is nothing more than a convenience. I'm a fan.
Same boat as Brian, but either I wasn't paying attention or the updater it downloads is simplified and doesn't give you the option to select what packages to install. I didn't want to really install the AMD video transcoder, "opt-in" communications feature, and Catalyst Control Center but it did that anyways. Hope they change it so users have more control, but at least they didn't go so far as to install the game demos that usually come with the full package you get off game.amd.com.
Pros: Convenience. It gets the right version automatically. Speed.
Bandrik
Elkhart, IN Icrontian
Comments
As someone that builds and supports systems on the side, automatic driver updates would be an absolute god send. It would cut out allot of work for me.
I do agree, for the non gamer, allot of times "if it ain't broke don't fix it" applies, but for gamers, regular driver updates are really necessary, and most of my customers want to play games without the fuss.
How much better has Steam made the experience of patching your games? Would you want to go back to searching for patches on gamershell.com.... Hell no.... Once you can have steam update your video driver, you will never, ever want to go back.
Its a nice innovation. I have no doubt that Nvidia will follow AMD's lead here.
Really depends how they do it I guess. We'll see.
Suppose I am Windows got a BSOD while trying to answer your question, who would help Microsoft or Steam?
I prefer the Steam route of notifications because it's more likely to be a timely release. Microsoft waits until "Patch Tuesday" to release anything but emergency fixes, so the driver version could be a full release behind by then.
For non gamers, its fine, for gamers, it does not cut it.
Also just ask Drasnor about automatic windows updates being a problem. His computer got bricked for a while because of a bad patch.
I'll update my drivers when I'm dead.
I can also see joe six pack playing some steam game, "oh hey new drivers okay i'll download them, wait, WTF, why is barnyard beer bonaza crashing all the time now, FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUU"
It'd be all right if they ask, but it seems like it's just asking for trouble. Even gamers should be updating drivers when they have issues or when they get dissatisfied with performance, not as soon as the updater comes out.
Oh, I see.
yea Video drivers on Steam is for the stupid nation, not us Icrontians
That is what I see so far here.
This wouldn't be Steams updater, it would still be AMD's, so who would help if it borked your system? AMD, just like they would help now if you manually selected to install. Which, I am sure, you will still have to do.
Either I missed something in the article or there are some huge assumptions in this thread, wow.
My opinion is that this will be a use it if you want, don't if you don't feature. After all not all Steam users have AMD video cards, do they? (in b4 rhetorical question
Basically, you can download install.exe through Steam. What is the big deal? It's the same as going to game.amd.com and downloading it; instead Steam downloads the right version for you and clicks SETUP.EXE for you.
Alot of FUD going on here. For once, I agree with Cliff. This is nothing more than a convenience. I'm a fan.
That is all. Just go ahead and lock the thread
Pros: Convenience. It gets the right version automatically. Speed.
Cons: Dumbed down install.