What is it with the AMD Adrenaline Software?

Very quick one, I've taken delivery of a new Graphics Card... (oooooo ahhhhh).

And it's a seed change for me as this is my first ever AMD graphics card, so this is of course going in my own main PC, which itself is my first ever AMD CPU powered machine I am therefore all Team Red for the first time ever... EVER!

I have been so excellently impressed with the performance of the Ryzen Zen 2 chip at the heart of my machine and my old EVGA 1080 GTX Superclocked was showing its age.  It was therefore time.

Unfortunately I made a huge mistake... No, it wasn't the model, no it wasn't the price, no it wasn't even paying to import it (because it was cheaper by a margin to have the card fly all the way to me through customs from California than actually buy it here in the UK - Thanks Brexit! - Not).

Anyway, it arrived and I plugged it in, and my monitor didn't come to life; I then found the signal was going to my massive 4K TV (on the HDMI) not my monitor (on the display port - go figure).

That sorted I then needed drivers, so I went to the AMD site and looked and found what it said was the best package to install on Windows 10 64bit for this card....

I don't know ANYTHING about the AMD software, and oh boy is that a mistake.

I installed it and was immediately REALLY REALLY IMPRESSED with it!  Yep, it's beautiful (even if it is backed by Qt and I hate Qt) and smooth and does wonderful things.

Unfortunately, and this is key, it was taking a lot of CPU whilst doing this work... So I closed it... and it STILL took a bunch of CPU, nearly 10%!

Just idle at the desktop, 10% CPU.

I was properly baffled by this, it must be doing something, so I went through all the settings and disabled everything I could see, everything turned off, clean reboot, and it was still taking 10% but now was peaking to 14% on odd occasions just idle!

What the heck, a bunch of goodling and I can find a bunch of folks complaining about exactly this, and one guy properly threatening to boycott their brand unless they explain how to just install the drivers without this software suite.  There was no answer to these please, and they were old posts, like there's been an apparent hard reset of the search results for this kind of question.

I spent a bunch of time trying to fathom this issue to no avail, so I like my forebears in the search results set about trying to find JUST a driver package.  I could not find one,

I therefore just decided to pull the card and possibly return it.  And so uninstalled the AMD Adrenaline Software, it took its time... And really grated on me as it spent about two minutes showing me the text "We value your feedback"... without ever giving me a link or contact in order to tell them anything... and this is during an uninstall process; surely someone when they added this eye stabbing annoying message thought "Oh we need to have them able to give me feedback!" ... Nope, seems not.

Now completely uninstalled and the package opens a website... This website... which I link only for you to see... as it's an advert... for a version of the very card I am uninstalling the software for.... Yes, AMD that's pretty tone deaf, also... WITHOUT YOUR DRIVERS INSTALLED YOU CAN NOT VIEW THAT SITE, so double double own goal there .... Less Advanced Micro Devices and Anyone Might Despair.

Here I am then, flabbergasted, back to a tiny resolution, opening chrome and trying to find just a raw driver package and I can't find one.  My machine has now cooled and I hear the CPU pump has ceased whirring away, as it was constantly with the 10% load on it!

I sat looking for ages when I first installed the card, really ages, we're taking an hour before I went with this Adrenaline stuff.

When suddenly Windows itself kicks into life and installs the Microsoft supplied WHQL driver, and guess what?  Yes, it's the same base driver, and it works absolutely brilliantly... and crucially my machine is not taking any CPU when idle, it's gone quite quen idle, I'm sat now typing this with a YouTube video playing, about 6 chrome tabs open and a copy of Visual Studio Code open too and it is silent, the machine is silent, just as I built it to be (unless under load).

Looking about I see AMD are recruiting software engineers, I have no idea what for, but if they see these pages - I'd suggest a bunch of refactoring is due over there folks.

Software Engineering : Is not Engineering

Right I'm guilty, and annoyed at myself, and making a change... Though I might still keep this as a tab on posts... I AM NOT GOING TO USE THE TERM "SOFTWARE ENGINEER" anymore....

This makes my degree certificate wrong, as it clearly states "Software Engineering", but even though that is indeed what I do every day, and what I read about every night, it is not what; nor who; I am... I am a programmer, a hacker (in the traditional sense), a tinkerer and a student of all things software.

Many other writers have call us programmers out on this, and finally, I'm going to eat humble pie and agree, when one sits down to write code one is not doing what the great engineers did, we are not forging rail-ways, bridges, hulls of great ships or physical tangible results which must stand the test of time.

We are building a more ethereal, almost smoke and mirror concept, results through the action of our instructions through another, that is programming it is what I do.

Why do I want to make this distinction?  Well, as you may tell from some of the recent posts around here, I've been involved in merging parts of teams and companies, meeting both incoming and shifting personnel to fit them into the matrix that spells "results" for a company.

No code has yet been cut, but a new team, and new ideas might very well be needed.  In turn I have reached out there and been talking to others, to recruiters, to other companies, and indeed I've sat before other people.

My friends also call upon my expertise, as one of the few from our graduating class still working in Software or indeed technology, I am often called upon for a little technical guidance.

Results have been mixed, but the determinable difference I have had between success and failure has relied, nearly exclusively, on the other party understanding the term "Software Engineer", it does not mean we can programme your VCR, set the clock on your Microwave, or save your phone contacts to your SIM card.  It means we are able to employ structured methods, to define procedure, and to design, write and test then document code as products for use or sale.

This does not include our being Electrical, Mechanical or Structural Engineers!

I am not trying, willing, or able to build the next Channel Tunnel, or Skylab, or HMS Bullshit.  I am able to cut code to make an existing system, or device, bend to the will of requirements upon it, I am able to look at the said device and decide whether it is fit for the purpose or not, I am not creating that device!

Creating said device is Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, I am Software, the use of the "Engineer" moniker is causing some confusion, some blurring of lines and so to help delimit this boundary and stop this confusion from now on I will self identify as a Programmer, and cease to try to explain all that this entails.

I am a Programmer, a Lead Programmer, a Systems Programmer, a Device Programmer, a Prototype Programmer, a Senior Programmer, a Team Leading Programmer, a Development Provisioning Programmer, no longer am I an Engineer!