AMD released the Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 non WHQL driver which carries some promising updates. This includes the newly launched Radeon RX 6700 GPU support and support for DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods Part Two. What did catch my eye, was the inclusion of its newly built in-house Performance Tuning Stress Test Tool.
Built-in stress testing tool
The built-in stress testing tool is a great addition to such software. This way, end users can stress test can their Radeon card’s overclocks on the utility. Usually, people use other stress testing and diagnostic software like MSI Kombuster and MSI Afterburner. This update helps to make the Adrenalin software a complete package. That said, this AMD’s stance with overclocking and warranty:
Overclocking AMD processors, including without limitation, altering clock frequencies/multipliers or memory timing/voltage, to operate beyond their stock specifications will void any applicable AMD product warranty, even when such overclocking is enabled via AMD hardware and/or software. This may also void warranties offered by the system manufacturer or retailer. Users assume all risks and liabilities that may arise out of overclocking AMD processors, including, without limitation, failure of or damage to hardware, reduced system performance and/or data loss, corruption, or vulnerability.
Not surprising and this is something any end users would expect.
Graphics Rendering API Updates
AMD’s Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag now work with Microsoft DX12 API. It also includes certain Vulkan API extensions. Radeon Anti Lag now works with DirectX 9, 11 and 12. For those who are not familiar, Radeon’s Anti-lag works by reducing CPU workloads that it doesn’t overwhelm the GPU, therefore minimizing lag. This however words with CPUs and APUs from Ryzen 2000 series.
There also some optimization and fixes, including the higher than Radeon software’s expected CPU utilization even during system idle. The whole is pretty extensive and that’s what makes this update very promising. The relevant bits and bobs are as follows:
Support For
- AMD Radeon RX 6700 Graphics
- DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two
- Radeon BoostGD-158
- Now supports DirectX12 with Variable Rate Shading for select titles.
- Radeon Anti-LagGD-157
- Now supports DirectX12.
- Performance Tuning Stress TestGD-106
- A new built-in tool for Performance Tuning in Radeon Software that allows users to stress test their graphics products tuning profiles.
Added Vulkan Support
- VK_KHR_synchronization2
- This extension modifies the original core synchronization APIs to simplify the interface and improve the usability of these APIs. It also adds a
- new pipeline stage and access flag types that extend into the 64-bit range. Pipeline stages and access flags are now specified together in memory barrier structures, making the connection between the two more obvious. Additionally, Layout transitions have been simplified by providing generic layouts, which are contextually applied based on the image format. Events are made more efficient as well as they include memory dependency information when they are set on the device. Furthermore, Queue submission has also been changed to wrap command buffers and semaphores in extensible structures, which incorporate changes from Vulkan 1.1, VK_KHR_device_group and VK_KHR_timeline_semaphore. This adds a pipeline stage to the semaphore signal operation, mirroring the existing pipeline stage specification for wait operations.
- VK_EXT_4444_formats
- This extension defines the VK_FORMAT_A4R4G4B4_UNORM_PACK16_EXT and VK_FORMAT_A4B4G4R4_UNORM_PACK16_EXT formats for compatibility with other graphics APIs to help with porting without having to resort to swizzling.
- VK_EXT_conditional_rendering
- This extension allows conditional draws, compute dispatches or clears based on a value in the command buffer memory. These commands could be discarded without the application’s intervention if the condition is not met, which may result in reduced latency.
- VK_KHR_sampler_ycbcr_conversion
- This extension provides the ability to perform colour space conversions during texture sampling operations for the Y′CBCR colour space, which is mainly used for processing inputs from video decoders and cameras. It also adds a selection of multi-planar formats, image aspect plane, and the ability to bind memory to the planes of an image collectively or separately.
Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 Fixed Issues
- Radeon Software may sometimes have higher than expected CPU utilization, even when a system is idle.
- A system hangs or crash may be experienced when upgrading Radeon Software while an Oculus VR headset is connected to your system on Radeon GCN graphics products.
- Minecraft DXR may exhibit corrupted or missing textures when ray tracing is enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
- An application crash may occur in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare when ray tracing is enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
- Lighting fails to render correctly on Radeon RX 6800 series graphics products in Star Citizen.
- A black screen may occur when enabling and disabling Enhanced Sync while Vsync is enabled in some Vulkan API games.
- A black screen or system hang may occur on Hybrid Graphics systems for some Vulkan API games when Enhanced Sync is enabled.
- Bethesda launcher may experience an application crash on startup when launching some games.
- Users may be unable to create a new scene in the Radeon Software Streaming tab on the first launch or after a settings factory reset.
- Game specific performance tuning profiles may fail to load when a global performance tuning profile has been created or set.
- Disabling HDCP support and performing a factory reset and/or system restart may sometimes trigger a system crash or hang on boot.
- Epic Games social overlay or launcher may exhibit colour corruption.
- Xuan-Yuan Sword VII may experience an application crash with DirectX12 ray tracing enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics.
- Colour corruption may be experienced in Cyberpunk 2077 when Radeon Boost is enabled.
- Display flicker or corruption may occur on high refresh rate/resolution multi-monitor system configurations on Radeon RX Vega series graphics.
- Audio loss or cutout may intermittently occur on some TV displays when Windows audio is set to use 5.1 or 7.1 speaker configurations.
Known Issues
- The start and cancel buttons in the performance tuning stress test may disappear when Radeon Software is resized to be small.
- On a limited number of displays, the preferred desktop resolution in Windows may change when the display is power cycled.
- Enabling vsync in Rocket League and setting the game to use borderless fullscreen may cause stuttering or ghosting.
- Radeon RX 400 and 500 series graphics products may experience a TDR during extended periods of video playback.
- Brightness flickering may intermittently occur in some games or applications when Radeon FreeSync is enabled, and the game is set to use borderless fullscreen.
- Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
As always, the Radeon Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 can be downloaded from here.
