AMD Tackles Early Ryzen 3000 Destiny 2 Compatibility Woes With Beta Chipset Driver

AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen architecture deep dive chip
AMD is looking for a few good men and women to test out a new chipset driver that should help to resolve compatibility problems previously discovered between new Ryzen 3000 processors and Destiny 2. When enthusiasts first started taking delivery of their new Ryzen 3000 processors, they quickly vented that Destiny 2 would no longer run.

First of all, AMD's Robert Hallock apologized or the inconvenience to the enthusiast community this week in a reddit post. "This is indeed something we caught after launch. Plain and simple: I'm sorry," said Hallock. "It is not a title that is in our standard test suite, as it's difficult to reliably benchmark."

Destiny 2

To that end, the new chipset driver is designed to get Destiny 2 players back onto the battlefield. "I'm hoping you can help me test a workaround driver that should get you into the game," adds Hallock. "This is a beta chipset driver, and it may give you an installer warning or two if you're upgrading an existing driver, but I believe this should work around the D2 launch issue."

You should clearly take note that this is a BETA driver, and that stability can't be guaranteed on all systems. But with that warning out of the way, you can download the beta driver here.

Thankfully, most users in the reddit thread appear to be having success with the beta chipset driver, which is a good sign as AMD works to deliver a fully-functioning public release for customers (this is an addition to the BIOS updates that AMD has distributed to its motherboard partners).

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Beyond that, Hallock also addresses other complaints raised by the enthusiast community about motherboard compatibility; and more specifically BIOS support for Ryzen 3000 processors:

We do our best to ensure drop-in support, but it's a cold fact that motherboards without the latest BIOS updates don't boot new processors. If the motherboard has been sitting on the shelf for a while, or the BIOS was never updated by the user, there's zero technical way to boot that new processor unless the user acquires an AMD bootkit, updates before swapping CPUs, or upgrades the BIOS at a store.

It's hard to argue with him on those points. Users shouldn't expect that an off-the-shelf motherboard or a motherboard that you currently have in your possession that hasn't be updated in ages to automatically support the newest processors that are released. And for those instances where you are stuck with an out-of-date motherboard that won’t boot with a new Ryzen 3000 processor, AMD does provide the [aforementioned] inelegant solution of a bootkit to get you up and running.

In the end, AMD is making an effort to address lingering compatibility issues and it is being completely transparent about its approach, which is commendable.