AMD Releases Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition: Streaming for Videos, Games, & VR
by Nate Oh on December 13, 2018 9:01 AM EST"Hey Radeon, Start Streaming": AMD Link's Voice Control and More
Like Radeon Overlay, AMD Link was introduced with the original Adrenalin Edition, and similarly brought together a lot of Radeon Software settings, offering a different kind of accessibility.
For Adrenalin 2019, AMD Link finally integrated WattMan controls, as we saw earlier. Aside from the game streaming functionalities, the other improvements look towards enabling it as a useful PC peripheral rather than just a tool for remote management, as it needs to be on the same wireless network as the paired PC.
The most interesting change is the new voice recognition, supporting English and Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin). With natural language commands, AMD Link will listen for certain keywords for select actions, which currently includes streaming/recording controls and displaying metrics.
The drawback is that a long-press on the app’s bottom navbar is needed to bring up the voice recognition screen in the first place, upon which instructions need to be prefaced with the word “Radeon.” Given the sometimes frenetic nature of streaming though, this might counteract the hands-free advantage of voice recognition.
There was also the new capability to remotely update Radeon Software to a new version with 'Express Upgrade', though because both mobile device and PC still need to be on the same wireless network, the applicability is somewhat limited in scope.
Otherwise, the new version of AMD Link sees improvements to connection reliability, where original AMD Link had a somewhat clunky reconnection process upon re-opening the app. For one, recently connected PCs are now listed on the Welcome screen rather than elsewhere in the settings. There is also an ‘Automatic Reconnect’ option as well, attempting to connect to the last known PC.
Performance metrics have also seen enhancements, now able to capture average/min/max framerates at a button press.
ReLive on AMD Link can now view screenshots and playback videos, as well as crop and save videos to the mobile device. These were not possible in the previous AMD Link versions, where the files were permanently on the PC with Radeon Software.
And more directly applicable for streamers using multiple devices, ReLive on AMD Link can now view the comment feed while streaming to YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook.
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evernessince - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
Many laptops use custom hardware so reference drivers will only work for models that use reference products. You should read the disclaimer Nvidia puts for it's mobile drivers"As part of the NVIDIA Notebook Driver Program, this is a reference driver that can be installed on supported NVIDIA notebook GPUs. However, please note that your notebook original equipment manufacturer (OEM) provides certified drivers for your specific notebook on their website. NVIDIA recommends that you check with your notebook OEM about recommended software updates for your notebook. OEMs may not provide technical support for issues that arise from the use of this driver."
It's pretty clear that Nvidia does not intend these drivers to work with all laptops nor is that a reasonable assumption. I'll re-iterate, there are tons of custom configurations in laptops that makes it unreasonable to expect drivers to work with each and every one. This is why laptop OEMs provide custom drivers. This isn't something new either, they've been doing this for over 2 decades now.
Manch - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
Ref NVidia drivers work pretty good on ASUS Zen Book(current laptop). Actually a reason I got a Zen Book over a couple others. I detest waiting on the NB manufacturer to customize. I've been burned regardless of GPU vendor. Fortunately both Nvidia and AMD have supported with generic drivers eventually and the communities are helpful dealing with the quirks. The APU situation will get sorted. It sucks that you have to wait but it will get done.limitedaccess - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
You seem to be dodging the issue.The reference driver is provided by everyone except in the case of AMD specifically for Raven Ridge mobile. AMD even provides reference drivers for other mobile products whether APUs or discrete GPUs. This is the problem.
The choice is provided in all cases except this one. And that choice by most cases works better than relying on OEM specific drivers.
Manch - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
The old A8/10 APUs were in the same situation at first and it got sorted.JasonMZW20 - Saturday, December 15, 2018 - link
They're blacklisted by installer for stability and operational reasons. You can force install the drivers via Device Manager, but some issues arise after doing so. Some laptops will no reinitialize display after it sleeps, while others become resolution locked in games (newer games need resolution reductions for acceptable performance), others simply present a black screen after restart, etc. etc. It's a problem, but AMD can't force OEMs to play nice with reference drivers without some sort of opt-in program like Nvidia or Intel. They all have disclaimers, and even AMD's older mobile GPUs don't always work correctly with reference drivers. My old Acer laptop black screens at times (with reference drivers) and I have to use the built-in function keys to turn off/on display to get it back. It's dumb.Mobile/laptop market has always been locked down. Many IT admins prefer that to reduce issues.
abufrejoval - Thursday, December 20, 2018 - link
Never even checked to see if there *was* any OEM drivers for a couple of GigaByte P35X v6 with GTX1070 I'm running. I guess that's because they run CentOS as a primary OS and are used mostly for CUDA stuff. But I also run Windows 2016 and Windows 2019 as a secondary OS on some of them, and I just use the same "desktop" driver I use for my tower workstations (they are bit-by-bit the same, even if the filenames differ when you download them btw.)That's another unforgivable driver development sin AMD has committed in my personal view as a long time "dual stack" operator: Ever since one of these "revolutions" they refuse to install on Windows server editions, which I used to run on APUs for standby backup servers (MSDN developer license, otherwise it would be insane).
Over the last 20 years, ever since I risked replacing an Intel 80486DX with an AM486 DX4-120, they have always gone somewhere beyond the 90% mark, only to hit you with something really hard or impossible to fix, before going to 100% functionality or reliability. I really believe it's necessary to support them, if only to keep Intel from absolute supremacy, but my conviction has cost me dearly for a very long time and I guess I tire more easily these days.
Saabensippen - Thursday, December 13, 2018 - link
I have a Vega 56 red dragon and the zero fan does not work. 25% is the lowest you can set it. The fans never ran (actually zero rpm) unless I was gaming with the previous most recent driver. There was another guy on wccftech who mentioned the same thing although I think he said he couldn’t get the fans below 35% super annoying now I can hear the fans running all the time.Manch - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
Did a clean install of this yesterday in an attempt to get AMDREWARDS to recognize my game code. Support Service fixed it within an hour. While waiting I tinkered around a bit. One big change I noticed is in Wattman. before when doing custom profiles, I could only see the last two steps. FE cards were allowed a few more. Now I can can see the voltages and clockspeed for all steps which is great. I was able to undervolt significantly and after playing around I was able to overclock even more and even out the ramp up. As a result I evened out the frame rate @ 4k for a few games. Normally, driver update...yay. For this update I'm like YAAAASSSSSS!!! I'm glad theyre putting work into their drivers.Manch - Friday, December 14, 2018 - link
theirHaawser - Saturday, December 15, 2018 - link
You had it right the first time, 'they're' is the correct contraction of 'they are'. The word 'their' is completely wrong as it means 'belonging to them'.