Can't update AMD driver on Bootcamp

Hi guys,


I have been experiencing a really annoying problem for a really long time now. I have been trying to update my AMD graphics card driver in Bootcamp for months now, only to receive the same error over and over again. See the screenshot below:

User uploaded file


Specs:

MacBook Pro Retina 15" - Late 2015

AMD Radeon R9 M370X

Running Windows 10 Pro (64 bit version) - installing the latest updates as I write this, but no previous update has resolved this issue


Ps: Bootcamp is also up to date, I have ran the Apple Update software several times and the only thing that isn't installed is iTunes and iCloud Photos, which I don't see how those could resolve a graphics card driver issue.


I hope someone has the answer to this, I would really appreciate some help!

Cheers,

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 30, 2016 6:06 AM

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Posted on Nov 8, 2016 10:35 AM

Absolutely I would be more than happy to share the process of what I do with you.


For M200 series, FirePro and M370X cards the process is somewhat more straightforward than for M300 series users as M300 cards use unique software device settings not found in official AMD drivers.


So anyway for the more straightforward process with the M200 series, FirePro and M370X cards you guys can try this out for your own cards if you enjoy tinkering with AMD's drivers. After downloading the latest driver from the AMD website and opening the .exe file which extracts the required files to Your PC -> AMD, the rest of what you need to do is as follows....


1) We need to make the installer actually be able to run in bootcamp with displaying an error, so we go into Config -> InstallManager.cfg and add the line 'EnableFalcon=true' as a separate line.


Most of the rest of the work now involves editing the .inf found in Packages - > Drivers - >WT6A_INF, normally starting with a 'C' (then an '0' for Windows 10 users e.g. 'C0308528').


2) Open this file up, and now we need to map your graphics card to the code. First, open up device manager then in the dropdown menu expand 'Display Adapters' and open the current AMD graphics adapter by double-clicking. Then in the window that open go to 'Details' and in the drop down menu select 'Hardware IDs'. Copy the first line into clipboard (for M295X it reads 'PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6938&SUBSYS_013A106B&REV_00'.


3) You will notice the 'DEV_6938' bit which identifies the card by its architecture number. Control-F the number (i.e. 6938) in notepad in the .inf file until you get to the first mapping which should look something like this -> '"%AMD6938.1%" = ati2mtag_Tonga, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6938&REV_00'. Replace the 'PCI' and onwards bit with your copied PCI line obtained from device manager. So in the case of the M295X it now looks like this -> '"%AMD6938.1%" = ati2mtag_Tonga, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6938&SUBSYS_013A106B&REV_00'. For the M390X it should end up looking something like this -> '"%AMD6821.3%" = ati2mtag_R577, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6821&SUBSYS_0149106B&REV_83'


4) OK so now we need to remove any code that AMD has added to stop individual cards of a particular brand from installing, including mac graphics cards. To do this, Control-F the first portion of the line on the right after the equals sign e.g. for the M295X it's 'ati2mtag_Tonga' and search until you get to a section called '[ati2mtag_(insertarchitecturehere)]' e.g. '[ati2mtag_Tonga]' or '[ati2mtag_577]' in the case of the Macbook Pro with M370X. At the bottom of this section you will see 'ExcludeID=PCI...' with a list of graphics cards the installer will refuse to install the driver to. You will see it also includes the mac cards. Delete all these 'ExcludeID' lines at the bottom. Now the driver will no longer come up with the 'No supported AMD graphics card detected' error.


5) For Windows 10 users, we need to delete the Anniversary edition section as it causes an unnecessary amount of issues without adding any further compatibility or stability (from my own testing) for the anniversary edition. To do this, Control-F 'Manufacturer' in the .inf file in notepad, which should take you to the '[Manufacturer]' section. You then need to delete 'NTamd64.10.0...14310,' which represents Windows 10 Anniversary edition, leaving all the other ones after it intact which represent Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7 etc. Then, Control-F '[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.10.0...14310]' and delete everything from that line onwards (including that initial line) to the end of the file, which you will see is an awful lot of code to delete but it is completely unnecessary even for Anniversary users as the standard W10 code works just fine too for them.


As I've said this process only works for the older cards, and I've noticed for FirePro users sometimes hard resets being reported using this process, but it is certainly stable for M200 series and M370X users. The process is the same across all versions of Windows, except for the removal of Anniversary code (see step 5) for Windows 10 as it is not needed.


For M300 users I strongly recommend you download my drivers instead of trying to get it working yourself @ bootcampdrivers.com

91 replies

Oct 11, 2016 5:47 AM in response to Loner T

I used the drivers from ADM as per link I posted earlier and yes I can toggle of auto updates (in fact I had to as it wouldn't stop downloading genuine Windows versions that don't work). I also tested using Apple Software Updates on another Windows boot disk (note it can take multiple updates before it ever gets to the drivers if you haven't run it for a few months) and it installs the exact same AMD drivers. BTW I have to boot to Boot Camp on external USB3 SSDs as nMac Pro has such a small internal SSD. If you do a search on in Windows for 'AMD' you can access the AMD control panel and stick on the task bar for easy access. You can now add games to this so they can be configured on a game by game basis, e.g. some cannot use Catalyst with dual GPUs and so on.

Nov 8, 2016 10:33 AM in response to matd2100

Thanks for the detailed explanation. This is also what I suspected is being done.


The primary challenge with such modifications is the stability of the drivers, the second one is to provide reasonable performance. This may work, but requires rigorous testing, which AMD and Apple execute for their flavors. Some Apple drivers throttle performance to avoid thermal issues. The 2011 AMD GPUs on Macs suffer from such issues, as do some of the older nVidia GT86xx/88xx/96xx cards.


The process you describe is very similar to one described this link .

Nov 8, 2016 10:43 AM in response to Loner T

Yes you are correct in that stability certainly can be an issue. You will be surprised at just how stable I've managed to get things with my drivers though for many of the cards, but as you say that has been thanks to rigorous testing over many months until like now I feel like I've near perfected it especially for Windows 10 users. In response to your throttling of performance, with newer cards I tend to overclock ever-so-slightly with MSI Afterburner and I disable 'ULPS' which stops any downclocking from happening (which used to be notorious with the M295X). To offset the potential damage being done due to the generated heat, this means that downloading and using 'MacsFanControl' is also necessary in order to ramp up the fans much sooner -> Apple's stock firmware for the M295X in Windows ramps up the fans far too late by default in my opinion.

Dec 10, 2016 3:21 PM in response to Loner T

OK so I thought I would provide a quick update on what you suggested, Loner T,


After contacting AMD they have said point blank refuse to support or test any modified drivers, which *****.


They are aware of issues with the M290 and M390 cards not working on any of the official drivers (or modified ones). Their engineers are working on it but they do not have a timeframe for when a fix will be issued.


As long as AMD refuse to update the bootcamp drivers alongside official PC releases then I will continue my work to provide the modified drivers.

Aug 14, 2017 3:07 PM in response to ejcii

Apple - Please update your drivers to the latest version provided by AMD as the current graphics update is incompatible with most new graphics intense programs and the latest games! - Please contact AMD and get their update compatible with the below;


MacBook Pro Retina 15" - Late 2015

AMD Radeon R9 M370X

Windows 10 Pro - 64bit


Kind regards,


Jake

Apr 6, 2017 5:09 PM in response to ejcii

Old thread, but this might be useful to someone.


I run Boot Camp on my MBP, which is mostly used for worky stuff - game dev, video editing, VFX, motion graphics. So it's important my GPU is a happy bunny. Late 2011 MBP, Radeon 6750M, Windows 7 Pro x64.


The 15.310 (?) drivers were causing 3ds Max to crash whilst using the Rayfire plugin (GPU accelerated I assume) and causing occasional wireframe corruption under normal use, so I decided to try an upgrade. I'm now on 16.60.2911 with no issues at all so far, Max feels a bit nippier too.


Head over here, and read/follow the PDF that comes with your download: http://www.bootcampdrivers.com/

User uploaded file

User uploaded file

Your mileage may vary, but so far so good for me.

Jul 30, 2016 8:34 AM in response to Loner T

Oh silly me, of course that's an abbreviation for Bootcamp 🙂


I do some light gaming on BC, hence I wish to update to the newest driver - no issue or behaviour I am trying to solve by updating.


If I have upgraded the BC version is there no way to downgrade it so that I can keep upgrading graphics card software?


If the only solution left is to play around with .inf files as you said, I think I will sit this one out. Everything is working fine except the inability to upgrade the software. I just don't understand why Bootcamp versions lock you and if they do, why Apple doesn't push graphics drivers through the Apple Update software rather than having install AMD's software..


I never had this issue with my previous rMBP that had an NVidea card, that is why I am so surprised.

Oct 11, 2016 6:06 AM in response to Digitalclips

Digitalclips wrote:


Amen. That said I am an Apple Developer and spend half my life running bleeding edge macOS betas but then I feel a lot safer there than in Windows World! 🙂

I run all betas on a standalone, non-critical set of Macs and not touch others with such updates for at least 6+ months. Sometimes, beta-testing issues do not get addressed in a GA release.

Oct 25, 2016 1:25 PM in response to ejcii

Please Apple can't you see that so many people request more up to date versions of AMD drivers for bootcamp?

We all spend a lot of money on our fancy macs and I am sure that updated drivers (once in a while) is not to much to ask for. Please do something!


@Loner T: it seems that you work for Apple. Can't you do something internally?

Oct 25, 2016 1:46 PM in response to Tra66i

Tra66i wrote:


Please Apple can't you see that so many people request more up to date versions of AMD drivers for bootcamp?

We all spend a lot of money on our fancy macs and I am sure that updated drivers (once in a while) is not to much to ask for. Please do something!

The closest you can come to influencing Apple is using Product Feedback - https://www.apple.com/feedback/ .



@Loner T: it seems that you work for Apple. Can't you do something internally?

I do not work for Apple. However, I can provide feedback and create developer requests for Apple Engineering. Product Updates are a different matter.

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Can't update AMD driver on Bootcamp

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