AMD to deliver driver updates over Steam

by Pete Mason on 15 September 2010, 11:34

Tags: Catalyst Drivers, Valve, AMD (NYSE:AMD), ATi Technologies (NYSE:AMD)

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Drivers at the speed of Steam

One of the major benefits of Valve's Steam platform is that it keeps everything up to date automatically.  Getting games running with the latest patches is no longer a hassle and happens as an almost completely seamless process.  Now that same luxury has been extended to video-card drivers.

AMD has announced a partnership with Valve to deliver the latest ATI Catalyst software to PCs using Steam.  This will mean that updates should be delivered to your computer as soon as they are released whenever you fire-up the program.

Corporate VP Ben Bar-Haim noted that, "AMD Gaming Evolved and Valve share the belief that ‘Gamers Come First' - we now have the opportunity to work together to help ensure the best possible experience for PC gamers".

Valve's Jason Holtman added that, "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".

Presumably the drivers will still be available for direct download from the company's website, though making them available through Steam just means that there's one less thing to worry about.

This move is a part of the GPU-maker's ongoing 'Gaming Evolved' program that the company claims will help to foster the PC gaming-market by working with gamers and developers.

There are no details on when drivers will become available, but we'd expect to find them on Steam around the time of the upcoming Catalyst 10.9 release.

 

HEXUS Forums :: 15 Comments

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Posted by GheeTsar - Wed 15 Sep 2010 11:49
Mixed feelings about this. Great for convenience if all goes smoothly, but what if the new driver causes an issue in the system/with a given game - can you roll-back? Is it optional?
Posted by Percy1983 - Wed 15 Sep 2010 12:17
I have never had problems with an ATI release but still not sure this is a good idea, personally I have always uninstalled and completely removed the old driver before installing the new one, I guess this won't do that.
Posted by saltyzip - Wed 15 Sep 2010 13:10
Not sure this is the way to go, why not release via Windows Update instead, this seems a more sensible approach, same goes for all driver updates, whether Microsoft hardware related or not?

I suspect Microsoft can't turn around the installs quick enough for ATI's liking and there is probably a charge involved.

I never did understand why ATI avoided releasing their own auto update software, google, microsoft, apple do it, why not ATI, or should that now be AMD?
Posted by latrosicarius - Wed 15 Sep 2010 13:17
Will this conflict with Windows Updates?

Windows Updates in Win7 updates your graphics card drivers as well, but I don't believe it keeps you up to date with the latest. I think it only updates if your current version is considered “too old”.
Posted by redddraggon - Wed 15 Sep 2010 13:19
That's one less thing to worry about I suppose. I think you should be able to “rollback” older if there is a reason to, I suspect the only people who would ever think of rolling back drivers would be pretty computer literate anyway, and be the type who'd be able to work out how to do it, even if steam doesn't make it easy.

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