Adrenalin 2020 drivers not usable with Helios 500 AMD

Added a comment to my ongoing driver thread, but thought I'd put a separate post for this particular issue. AMD just released their annual graphics driver/feature set improvements. Unlike the rest of the drivers which just bork sleep, the latest version pretty much made the laptop useless. Not sure what the improvements were, since the screen was almost too dark to do anything useful. Had to uninstall and roll back driver. If anyone has any better luck, let us know.

To Acer, I don't know what makes YOUR Vega 56 so much different from every other Vega (other than the drivers work on those), but it would be REALLY nice if you got to the bottom of it and fixed this. An expensive, high end, gaming laptop stuck on launch day drivers is a complete joke. Please don't make me regret my first purchase of an Acer product.

Accepted answers

otori0rao

Posted in original topic, but thought i'll share it here too:

fund a solution for freesync missing in newest drivers:

I) clean install newest drivers,

II) get Custom Resolution Utility (it just ads information into system registry for laptop display):

CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) Tips, Tricks and Monitors OC (LCD/LED/CRT) | guru3D Forums

III) run CRU and follow the steps:

freesync reenabled

-> step 7: type in refresh rate range - for this display official range is 60 - 144Hz. Then Accept and OK out of the CRU

-> step 8: restart the pc,

-> step 9: notification about freesync display connected should appear, Freesync option is now available!

Happy to share!

P.S.: Probably new drivers just clear the information from registry about display refresh rate range...

All comments

kingmetal

Haven't done extensive testing but I was able to get the Adrenalin 2020 drivers to work on my AMD Helios 500. The only thing that isn't working is freesync, which is a common issue with driver upgrades on this machine. I also haven't tried putting the machine to sleep since I just hibernate it to get around the sleep issues the other drivers introduce. Getting decent performance in The Outer Worlds.

Not sure what your specific issue is but DDU might get you in the ballpark. These drivers do mostly work!

If anyone knows how to trick the driver into allowing Freesync to work I'd love to know. I may just give it up. I tried doing a clean install of the OEM drivers, ensuring that Freesync was working and then doing an upgrade install (unchecking the Factory Reset button) for Adrenalin 2020 but it still reports Freesync is not supported on the internal display.

xapim

SRB151 as always acer stock drivers are and will always be the best ones they were made to take advantage of the best performance of the hardware (the same happens with the stock flavored windows) regarding your incompatibility with newer drivers that would be probably an amd issue they are the ones who have to upgrade their drivers to support the different features of all manufacturers not acer fault in my view its the the gpu manufacturers job to check it properly with all manufacturers and upgrade it accordingly to support it

kingmetal as i just said its amd that has to make drivers to support all features they are the ones who make all stock drivers for all manufacturers same as nvidia so its their job to provide support for it on newer drivers or just say to everyone once and for all hey we dont support that feature for that gpu on newer drivers anymore get a newer model or stick with the old ones

So if it was me i would be hitting amd forums as this has nothing to do with acer itself because in the end its an amd gpu

SRB151

xapim said:
SRB151 as always acer stock drivers are and will always be the best ones they were made to take advantage of the best performance of the hardware (the same happens with the stock flavored windows) regarding your incompatibility with newer drivers that would be probably an amd issue they are the ones who have to upgrade their drivers to support the different features of all manufacturers not acer fault in my view its the the gpu manufacturers job to check it properly with all manufacturers and upgrade it accordingly to support it

kingmetal as i just said its amd that has to make drivers to support all features they are the ones who make all stock drivers for all manufacturers same as nvidia so its their job to provide support for it on newer drivers or just say to everyone once and for all hey we dont support that feature for that gpu on newer drivers anymore get a newer model or stick with the old ones

So if it was me i would be hitting amd forums as this has nothing to do with acer itself because in the end its an amd gpu

Look, while I always appreciate anyone on here who tries to help others, it's obvious you either don't game or are more casual. The entire point of releasing high end graphics drivers on a regular basis is to fix issues that can cause performance/stability issues with new games. It's not uncommon for a new game to be released with a random crash, or stuttering in certain areas. It is often improved drivers that have specific fixes/optimizations for games. What you keep peddling does indeed apply to intel's integrated graphics, but does not and should not apply to Radeon/Nvidia graphics cards. Do you really think they make that many actual core driver changes that they need to be released monthly?

Again, It is completely UNACCEPTABLE to make a GAMING product that has to use CUSTOM drivers. I have a laptop with VEGA 56 graphics, not Acer laptop graphics with AMD technology. EVERY other manufacture of gaming graphics manages to make custom cards WITHOUT breaking the drivers. It is incumbent upon Acer to figure out why their cards cause the driver issues and work with AMD to correct it....NOT kick it to the curb.

Please stop posting we should be happy with launch day drivers on a $2400 gaming laptop. I didn't buy a $600 Intel ultrabook, and expect better.

SRB151

For those who don't know. Vega graphics (64, 56, VII) are different from other systems in that even the memory is provided on the GPU. All the vendor has to do is add power supply circuits, pcie connection, and video outputs. There isn't a lot a vendor can do with hardware. Having said that, as far as the graphics are concerned, the only thing that really changes is the VBIOS. Vendors (Acer) can and do make changes to AMD's supplied VBIOS for various reasons, chief among them is to raise, lower, or lock down power limits/clocks to fit a particular cooling solution. Acer goes a step further, to make sure programs that allow clock changes and other items DO NOT WORK with this laptop. While I have no problem with that, if it breaks the standard drivers, it is incumbent upon Acer to find a different way to accomplish their goal, or, to provide regular driver updates that work.

By the way, most of the time laptops cause driver/update problems are because of custom programs, hardware, or features that laptop makers use to differentiate their models from the competition. While this is common, and almost expected in most laptops, again, it is NOT acceptable with the graphics subsystem of a gaming laptop.

SRB151

kingmetal said:

Haven't done extensive testing but I was able to get the Adrenalin 2020 drivers to work on my AMD Helios 500. The only thing that isn't working is freesync, which is a common issue with driver upgrades on this machine. I also haven't tried putting the machine to sleep since I just hibernate it to get around the sleep issues the other drivers introduce. Getting decent performance in The Outer Worlds.

Not sure what your specific issue is but DDU might get you in the ballpark. These drivers do mostly work!

If anyone knows how to trick the driver into allowing Freesync to work I'd love to know. I may just give it up. I tried doing a clean install of the OEM drivers, ensuring that Freesync was working and then doing an upgrade install (unchecking the Factory Reset button) for Adrenalin 2020 but it still reports Freesync is not supported on the internal display.

I may try that, although I'm not sure I want to give up freesync,so on the fence. At least 19.11.3 work (without sleep, of course).

kingmetal

I agree that AMD driver revisions have significantly improved the performance / general feature set of the hardware in my Helios 500. I'm not sure whose responsibility it is to maintain that capability, and I have generally been pleased with my ability to use stock AMD utilities with this machine. Freesync and sleep/wake are the only issues I continue to have - I know very little about Freesync but I suspect that Acer includes a hack that forces the AMD driver to see the display as Freesync capable. Looking at tools like CRU, it seems like Displayport and HDMI implement Freesync capability reporting in slightly different ways.

I'm not sure I care that much about Freesync, and would rather just be on the "normal track" for driver updates. AMD has done a great job of adding interesting features to Vega since this laptop came out (Radeon Image Sharpening, Anti-Lag) and I'd rather be able to take advantage of those features and optimizations.

I'm not super interested in who is to blame for things not working in this case, I'm more interested in solutions. If anyone knows the secret sauce that the Acer 17.x.x display drivers use to allow Freesync to work on these machines, I'd love to know more. Perhaps we can come up with our own solution as a community and remove a hurdle.

SRB151

The purpose was not to assign blame, but state that this is not normal and, ultimately, Acer's responsibility, since they have the relationship with AMD.

As for the issues, I am speaking a bit from prior experience. A Lenovo laptop had a similar issue when it was new. Either a windows update or driver update broke sli. It took a few weeks, but Lenovo sent a vbios update and it still works with every driver I've loaded.

As to freesync, It's probably down to how they set up the monitor driver and how they id each other. Have to do some research on that.

SRB151

Just an update....as for freesync, I now am really lost. I thought it picked up freesync from the monitor drivers, I reinstalled 2020 just to check something I saw in a freesync support message from another pc maker. Low and behold, despite freesync being disabled, display refresh rate correctly shows 144hz in windows display information. So display driver appears to be correct. Back to the drawing board.

otori0rao

just check original topic

dcmod

I agree with the thread starter above.. Acer , please fix this incompatibilies with AMD Adrenaline !!. I will monitor any progress or if somebody knows how to do work around so the Adrenaline 2020 drivers will work with the Helios 500 sleep functions

xapim

As it was said check the original thread stick to one only no point in discussing the same issue on multiple threads and seems that otori0rao posted a solution to fix freesync

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/578632/helios-500-amd-ph517-61-r0gx-graphics-drivers#latest

xapim

SRB151 if i didnt game i wouldnt had got a gaming laptop it wouldnt make any sense in wasting money on one either if you dont use it might as well had stayed with my very expensive (at the time ) 7745G which still does the job normally for non hard gamers and even on nvidia drivers i only upgraded from stock because of some games at the time that required that specific driver probably if AMD would lock the drivers needed to some specific games something would get sorted asap so after all this said my drivers are from one year ago (416.94) and still work just fine with all recent games today so regarding nvidia theres no need to keep the drivers updated at all times old drivers work just fine

otori0rao

Posted in original topic, but thought i'll share it here too:

fund a solution for freesync missing in newest drivers:

I) clean install newest drivers,

II) get Custom Resolution Utility (it just ads information into system registry for laptop display):

CRU (Custom Resolution Utility) Tips, Tricks and Monitors OC (LCD/LED/CRT) | guru3D Forums

III) run CRU and follow the steps:

freesync reenabled

-> step 7: type in refresh rate range - for this display official range is 60 - 144Hz. Then Accept and OK out of the CRU

-> step 8: restart the pc,

-> step 9: notification about freesync display connected should appear, Freesync option is now available!

Happy to share!

P.S.: Probably new drivers just clear the information from registry about display refresh rate range...

SRB151

xapim said:

SRB151 if i didnt game i wouldnt had got a gaming laptop it wouldnt make any sense in wasting money on one either if you dont use it might as well had stayed with my very expensive (at the time ) 7745G which still does the job normally for non hard gamers and even on nvidia drivers i only upgraded from stock because of some games at the time that required that specific driver probably if AMD would lock the drivers needed to some specific games something would get sorted asap so after all this said my drivers are from one year ago (416.94) and still work just fine with all recent games today so regarding nvidia theres no need to keep the drivers updated at all times old drivers work just fine

Well, I hobby around with quite a few things, so an 8 core, 16 thread cpu was a very compelling reason for this choice. In addition, I used to run 2 Vega 64 cards in crossfire with my desktop, and found the Vega did fine with most of the games I've played. That, plus my Lenovo Intel 4 core with 750M sli graphics was getting long in the tooth.

As for driver updates, I never said you couldn't use day one drivers, or that the wouldn't work (Although, I've read some games that have). After all, my 750m system still played games fine. Really hard to prove, since I kept those drivers up to date from Nvidia. What I do know, is that two new features were released since the laptop launched, Enhanced Sync and Radeon Sharpening. I've found that these items DO improve the games I play visually without any speed penalty, and are very worthwhile. A lot can change in a year.

xapim

Yup a lot can change no doubt on that

vorob

Call me a troll, but that's AMD... The same **** was in 2011 on my HP laptop which could eat only drivers from HP which they never updated. I won't go to AMD ever. The only Nvidia with the ability to install new drivers from nvidia.com

"acer stock drivers are and will always be the best ones they were made to take advantage of the best performance of the hardware"

Worst thing...

deksman2

vorob said:

Call me a troll, but that's AMD... The same ***** was in 2011 on my HP laptop which could eat only drivers from HP which they never updated. I won't go to AMD ever. The only Nvidia with the ability to install new drivers from nvidia.com

"acer stock drivers are and will always be the best ones they were made to take advantage of the best performance of the hardware"

Worst thing...

Actually, one could express Install the display drivers from AMD website up until version 18.5.2 without losing Freesync or the static noise issues fairly easily - so the desktop drivers aren't a big issue.
Plus, AMD decided to increase the frequency of releasing new mobile drivers themselves since the OEM's never do this (even though they should) - and people haven't had as many (if any) issues since.

Problem is that AMD made a LOT of changes to the drivers since Navi was released, and this can cause minor issues with backward compatibility in Freesync detection (which is apparently remedied with CRU utility).
However, the static noise problem is likely not AMD's fault entirely. Its' Acer's problem as well (because they made the machine in the first place).
Also, Acer customised the Helios 500 to such a degree where Vega 56 (despite it being desktop Vega 56) is soldered directly to the motherboard - as such, those types of connections will be unfamiliar to AMD for proper detection and support (even though desktop drivers DO install and work for that GPU).

As such, it is Acer's responsibility to release new software drivers (support) which ensures compatibility... otherwise, you won't be able to use the unit properly without fear of the screen shutting down at some point (to conserve power or going to sleep) and starting up again with static noise without restarting the unit every time (which is no way to work).

I wouldn't blame AMD for Acer's lack of support.

At the very least Freesync issue was resolved... but now the unit still faces the problem of Static Noise upon waking from sleep.

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