Framework Drivers vs Newer AMD Drivers?

Disclaimer: I haven’t seen or heard anything about this, but I’ve just come to find this out on my own as it was a remedy for all the problems I was having.

Only download your drivers from here in the Framework forums
So far, I am under the impression that you are not supposed to download automatically recommended drivers from AMD’s website or their automatic driver installer, rather that you should instead download your drivers and BIOS from here in the Framework forums. When I setup my Framework, I downloaded the Framework bundle first, and then upgraded my drivers and Adrenaline software from the AMD website after I had my Framework all setup and working. After upgrading to newer driver versions and a newer Adrenalin software version, I started having problems. I was able to remedy said problems when I clean reinstalled the AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition Version 23.40.18.02 Released: 2/22/2024 and its drivers that are found here: Framework Laptop 16 BIOS and Driver Releases. This solved all my problems with CPU/GPU temperature + usage alongside severely disappointing framerates and frame stuttering in games.

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Hey, rather than continue in the other thread, I thought I’d ask my question here. Is it possible that your initial install of the Framework bundle missed something? I know you are using Windows 11 and I Windows 10, but I had to run it twice (maybe even three times) for all the driver installs to succeed. So my hypothesis is rather than the actual GPU drivers being the issue, some other driver may have been missing and finally successfully installed when you installed the driver bundle again. Did you happen to check Device Manager at any point to see if any drivers were missing?

Another variable to consider is whether or not you have installed AMD drivers from Windows Update / Advanced options / Optional updates.
I have installed all of them, along with the all the latest from the AMD website and everything seems stable.
I think maybe it’s made the laptop run at a little bit more like an optimal performance setting, while with just stock drivers maybe it seemed a bit more towards an optimal battery life. It could just be my imagination, though.
Please also note, that I have a Framework 13 with AMD, not a Framework 16 which could make a difference.

I installed the driver package and then updated the graphics drivers through AMD Software and I haven’t had any issues. It actually fixed an issue I was having where I wasn’t able to launch No Man’s Sky without a fairly complicated workaround. Upgrading my drivers actually improved my experience.

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There are some known issues in the latest drivers from AMD which are the topic of some lively discussion on the internet. I have been getting regular timeout errors with the latest drivers and following advice from many others have gone back to Adrenalin 24.5.1 which uses 23.40.18 as the graphics driver. This is a much more stable version as you have discovered. This is not just for Framework computers but across the whole AMD graphics range it would appear.

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I’ve asked a similar question here Difference AMD Adrenaline Framework and Stock version
But there was no answer by Framework
@Kieran_Levin or @Morpheus636 can you help us?

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Framework’s driver’s have some customizations that make sure they work well with Framework laptops. They recommend that you install their driver releases instead of the upstream. I don’t know anything more specific than that, as I am not a Framework employee.

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I kept getting mixed info about this, but coming from a community moderator, I think I’ll go back to using the Framework AMD drivers and just update whenever the driver says there’s an update available.

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I’ve always used every new driver directly from AMD and never had any problems.
Would be interesting to know what’s really the difference between the drivers and why the changes are not upstream.

Me too. But AMD themselves say that with laptops, there can be important customisations in the manufacturer’s versions of their drivers.

NVidia and AMD tell this since … forever.
This was true 15 years ago but until now, I’ve never seen any real reason.
No company tells you why their drivers are better then the direct AMD/NVidia version.

Go straight to AMD, Nvidia, Intel for drivers. Only go to framework for bios updates. :slight_smile:

So on the AMD Laptop 13 you suggest going without any functional Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or fingerprint reader?

Those things are often generic and work with an Ubuntu based distro of Linux out of the box and with windows update. But if not go to framework.

Intel amd nvidia:
CPU
GPU

Framework:
Bios
Fingerprint
Wifi (maybe)
Trackpad (maybe)

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This is not evidence of this being true. Often time vendor specific changes have to do with power optimization, tweaking of settings, etc. that will not be present in the standard driver packages you can get from AMD, etc.

That doesn’t mean your device will blow up, but doesn’t mean it is running perfectly either.

I would follow the advice given to stick with Framework’s supplied driver bundles.

No. They are the things I know from experience don’t work from Windows update.

  1. I mentioned often

  2. Windows update is shit

  3. Windows update is a pain

  4. Go download from framework if windows update doesn’t work

  5. I hate windows update

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I’m still not convinced about this.
3 months newer drivers from AMD have probably more optimizations than the older drivers from Framework.

Having gone back and forth a few times. I would recommend just sticking to the Framework released drivers. I have head far more issues with the direct from AMD drivers.

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I’ve updated to 2024.12.1 today with BIOS 3.0.5 and have no problems.