AMD Using Steam to Deliver Catalyst Drivers
ATI users can automatically update their drivers via Steam starting with Catalyst 10.9.
Tuesday AMD senior marketing manager Peter Ross said that the company struck a deal with Valve Software to distribute the latest Catalyst drivers for the ATI Radeon graphics card on Steam. Although no specific details were provided, Steam users will (obviously) be alerted when the latest available drivers for their hardware becomes available on the platform, and will be able to install the package with just one click.
"Earlier this year at GDC we announced AMD Gaming Evolved, a program that demonstrates AMD’s ongoing commitment to PC gamers, PC game development and the overall PC game industry," Ross said in his official blog. "AMD and Valve teaming up to make sure that Steam gamers always have the most recent drivers for their graphics cards is just another way that we are showing our commitment to the promise we developed in our Gamers’ Manifesto."
According to Valve's most recent Steam Hardware Survey, 87-percent of DirectX 11 gamers consist of ATI Radeon or ATI Mobility Radeon hardware. For Nvidia fans, the same survey reveals that 59.11-percent of Steam gamers use Nvidia-based graphics while 32.98-percent use ATI-based GPUs. Only 5.6-percent of the systems surveyed actually support DirectX 11.
Given the popularity of Valve's content distribution network, it's surprising that AMD--or Nvidia for that matter--hasn't already entered into this type of distribution agreement. As Steam now serves as the premier content distribution platform for the PC, it seems only natural that both AMD and Nvidia should take advantage of its prominence.
Nevertheless, Ross said that driver distribution will officially begin on Steam with ATI Catalyst 10.9.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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This is when the oem crippled devices will really shine EX: Creative Sound cards for Dell computers. That do not accept the Creative drivers or even function properly, if at all with a different MB, only the Dell revised ones work (Missing features naturally). They actually crippled my chip-set with a hardware limitation to prevent me from upgrading the RAM beyond 2GB. I guess they do it to promote their XPS line, Lameness.....Reply
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gm0n3y This is a great idea. Normally people are months, often years behind on their graphics drivers. This will work similar to windows updates to remind users to update.Reply -
kelfen nice!!! I downloaded steam just to do just that so I can update instead of kind of a headache uninstalling and installing driver and restart computerReply -
ethaniel Man, I just installed 10.8 last week! This is getting tiresome. AMD needs a new driver model. Period.Reply