Despite Game-Related Glitches, AMD Discontinues Monthly Driver Updates

[wraggster]

Recently AMD announced that it would cease offering monthly graphics driver updates (http://hothardware.com/News/AMD-Kills-Monthly-Driver-Updates-May-Be-Deemphasizing-Enthusiasts/), and instead issue Catalyst versions only 'when it makes sense.' That statement would be a good deal more comforting if it didn't 'make sense' to upgrade AMD's drivers nearly every single month. From 2010 through 2011, AMD released a new Catalyst driver every month like clockwork. Starting last summer, however, AMD began having trouble with high-profile game releases that performed badly or had visual artifacts. Rage was one high-profile example, but there have been launch-day issues with a number of other titles, including Skyrim, Assassin's Creed, Bat Man: Arkham City, and Battlefield 3. The company responded to these problems by quickly releasing out-of-band driver updates. In addition, AMD's recent Catalyst 12.6 beta driver also fixes random BSODs on the desktop, poor Crossfire scaling in Skyrim and random hangs in Crysis 2 in DX9. In other words, AMD is still working to resolve important problems in games that launched more than six months ago. It's hard to put a positive spin on slower driver releases given just how often those releases are necessary."

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/06/03/1541215/despite-game-related-glitches-amd-discontinues-monthly-driver-updates