Problems with Radeon Drivers

[Custodian]

Yesterday, I upgraded the 64 bit drivers for my Radeon RX 580 from version 20.12.1 to the latest optional release 21.6.2.

Following that update, 3D models in GZDoom stopped displaying at all, and no warning messages appeared at startup. I rolled the driver back to the latest recommended version, 21.5.2. This did not resolve the issue. I did a complete uninstall and rolled the driver back to 20.12.1, and that resolved the issue.

I am using GZDoom g4.6.0, downloaded from here. Because rolling back my drivers resolved the issue, I have not tried the latest version of GZDoom with the latest drivers yet. I will be testing that later this afternoon.

If any additional information is required, please let me know. I will update this thread when I have updated my GZDoom and drivers.

[Rachael]

Firstly, try Vulkan, you usually get better performance from AMD with that anyway.

Secondly, for whatever it's worth, my Radeon drivers are 21.4.something (likely 2?) so that's the latest that I can recommend for GZDoom right now.

Thirdly, someone needs to go pester AMD to fix their shit. This happens at least every year if not more.

[Custodian]

I generally get fairly poor performance with Vulkan, which is probably an issue on its own to begin with. It does not help that I'm using a fairly old graphics card. I'll update to 21.4 and see what happens!

[Rachael]

My graphics card is even less powerful than your's, I have an RX 550 (4gb), and I am not having too bad of performance problems with it. Maybe you might need to turn down a few settings? It won't run well at 8k resolution I can tell you that (but runs "okay-ish" at 4k, runs perfect at standard 1080p though) - also you might have to turn down the shadowmaps detail a bit if you have that turned on and high. But everything else should not even make it stutter.

[Custodian]

Thanks for the tips! Here's what I've done:

*Updated my drivers to 21.4.
*Updated to GZdoom GZDoom 4.6.1

Here are my results:
* Models are now displaying again as intended. I have not yet tested GZDoom 4.6.1 with the very latest AMD drivers, but "if it aint broke, don't fix it." This is a satisfactory solution for me.
* I switched to Vulkan and immediately got performance issues. My game became a slideshow.
* I deleted my gzdoom.ini and set up my preferred settings again
* I set the framerate to 'unlimited' and disabled VSync, and this immediately cleared up the performance issues I was having with Vulkan.

I haven't done any more extensive testing, but the reason I enabled VSync to begin with was because I was getting some truly horrendous screen tearing in OpenGL. I haven't explored any further, so I'll report back again if this issue crops up. So far, I haven't seen any screen tearing with my current settings.

EDIT: edited for clarity, spelling and grammar.

EDIT 2:
I am running the game at 1920x1080, I am not using any really advanced effects, so no shadows, no dynamic lights, no Ambient Occlusion or other postprocessing effects. I like my GZDoom crispy and pixelated.

[Rachael]

Ah, then yeah there's absolutely no reason it should run like a slideshow, at all. But, glad you got it working.