On many computers, especially low-end ones, the video card inside is an AMD Radeon or, if the PC was older, ATI Radeon . ATI was the manufacturer of computer video cards which was later acquired by AMD, the leading company, after Intel, in the sale of processors. AMD video cards from China, which bases its graphics cards on AMD chips, can also be considered. Basically it is very likely that an ATI or AMD video card is installed on your PC, if it is not NVIDIA or Intel. Usually this can be seen from the presence of a sticker with the AMD logo or, from Windows, going to the Control Panel> System and Security> System> Device Management> Video Cards . From here you can also see the model of the installed video card which is signed with a number such as, for example, AMD Radeon R7 200.
In the case of problems with the graphics performance of the computer, for example the flickering of the monitor or difficulties in viewing 3D animations or even sudden crashes when using graphics programs and games, almost 100% the cause of the problem is related to the video card .
In this article we will see how to solve these problems on a PC with an AMD Radeon video card which, being cheaper than an NVIDIA video card, can present errors more often.
READ ALSO: Optimal configurations for the NVIDIA and AMD graphics card
1) Detect the installed driver version .
This can be seen from the device management as seen above or, better, from the DirectX diagnostic tools.
We talked about this in the article on DirectX to be installed on Windows.
From the Start menu or the Windows 8 Start screen, search for dxdiag and press Enter to run the DirectX Diagnostic Tool .
On the screen tab you can read all the information relating to the installed video card and the version of the driver in use, with the release date (it is not the installation date but the publication date).
Even if there were no problems, you can easily discover the installed version from here and, as we will see, check if there is a newer one.
Mark on a sheet date and version of the current driver as well as the name of the video card.
2) Reset the Driver
If the ATI AMD card management program, the Catalyst Control Center is installed and if it was used to optimize the display of graphics on the PC, you can use this utility to reset the driver to the initial factory settings.
Then open the Catalyst Control Center (look for it from the Start menu or start it from the icon in the notification area near the clock or by pressing the right mouse button on the desktop), press the Preferences button and click Restore factory settings .
3) Remove the driver
Especially if the video card on the computer has been changed, but also to solve most of the problems, it is worth removing the driver completely to clean up Windows of any software problems that prevent the correct use of the graphics card and start from scratch. This is especially recommended if you are actually suffering from screen display problems or sudden freezes when opening graphics programs or 3D games.
From the Windows program uninstall menu, look for Catalyst Control Center, click on Edit and remove all AMD software.
To do it first you can use a program, which I have already talked about, to uninstall each NVIDIA, AMD and Intel video card driver completely, Display Driver Uninstaller.
This program ensures that nothing is left on the system and that all folders and registry keys are deleted.
3) Install the driver again
To avoid problems, updating video card drivers requires complete uninstallation of the previous version and installation of the new one, without installing one on top of the other.
After cleaning everything up, restart your PC and look for the video card driver on the AMD website.
If we have followed the procedure from the beginning of this article, we will have marked, in point 1, the name of our video card and it will then be possible to search for which driver is available.
On the page, scroll down a bit and fill in the form saying if it is a graphics card for desktop or notebook PC, the series, the model and the operating system in use.
At the end press on Display Results and download the Catalyst Software Suite program which also includes the driver.
You will also be able to see from the date if this is more recent than what we had before.
If you are not sure of the video card installed on your PC, you can always download and install the AMD program for automatic detection.
In case of doubt, you can download, if you are not using a Windows 8 PC, the basic driver ATI Radeon 7XXX Legacy for XP that works with everything even if it is not the optimized one.
After installation all problems related to the video driver should be automatically solved even if there may still be errors. For example, it may be that the PC suddenly shuts down in hot weather or when playing a very heavy 3D game.
In this case, the video card is insufficient or requires internal cleaning of the fan that cannot keep the processor cool due to too much dust.
In other articles we have also seen the solution to the error "the video driver does not respond" and we have explained how disabling hardware acceleration optimizes video viewing .
In case of screen flickering or if the aspect ratio is high, try changing the resolution from the screen settings in the Windows Control Panel ( Control Panel \ Appearance and Personalization \ Screen \ Screen Resolution ) and check which one looks best.
Consider that if there is flickering it might
If everything works well, you can then open the Catalyst Control Center and try a slight overclocking of the AMD Radeon graphics card with AMD Overdrive to optimize its performance.
Do not immediately reject the idea of buying the new computer graphics card by looking for one on Amazon also which costs only 30 40 Euros, but new and certainly more stable than the old one (provided that it was not of the expensive ones of course).
