[Videocardz] Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition

[Krteq]

Here is the first: ComputerBase tested the driver across 20 games on Vega 64 and RX 580. No change compared to last AMD driver.
https://www.computerbase.de/2017-12/adrenalin-17.12.1-test/3/#diagramm-performancerating-fps

Huh, there are no gain reported in Release Notes, so what?

Btw, nice gain in 99th Percentile in AC: Origins

 

[estarkey7]

Here is the first: ComputerBase tested the driver across 20 games on Vega 64 and RX 580. No change compared to last AMD driver.
https://www.computerbase.de/2017-12/adrenalin-17.12.1-test/3/#diagramm-performancerating-fps

Well, what do you know! Vega must truly be broken.

 

[EXCellR8]

aww yea... AMD mobile app! (that nobody wanted.)

the marketing for this driver release is kind of odd... it suggests that performance would be improved but it's basically just a software facelift and overlay. any performance gains are negligible, as with most regular driver updates/releases.

 

[NomanA]

aww yea... AMD mobile app! (that nobody wanted.)

the marketing for this driver release is kind of odd... it suggests that performance would be improved but it's basically just a software facelift and overlay. any performance gains are negligible, as with most regular driver updates/releases.

One big and very welcome addition in this driver is the support for Radeon Chill in all games. Previously all games were blacklisted, except those for which Chill was supported. Now all games are whitelisted except those that are not supported. It supports DX9,10,11,12 and Vulkan by default.

Enhanced sync is supposed to work better as well, and with older graphic API developed games too. Also crossfire is now supported in borderless windowed mode. Latency has dropped an average of 10-20% compared to the previous (November) driver release. In-game overlay to toggle graphic settings should be pretty useful too.

All in all, a pretty impressive set of new functional and performance enhancements.

 

[William Gaatjes]

We're nearing release schedule.
From Videocardz.com:

Spoiler: AMD Radeon Software Adrenaline Edition Features

AMD Link (mobile APP)
Performance Monitoring

• Monitor and track your PC gaming performance.
• Bar graphs to monitor FPS and system info.

Notifications

• Stay informed about Radeon Software
• Receive real-time notifications when Radeon Software updates are released
• Keep AMD Link up-to-date with the newest features and stability updates

Introducing Radeon Overlay

• In-game control of Radeon Settings and PC performance monitoring (Press ALT+R to enable)
• Greater insight for better gaming
• FPS performance monitoring
• Convenient built-in performance logging
• Supported on DirectX 9, 11, 12 and Vulkan

Radeon ReLive

• Manage, organize and upload your gaming memories
• Share your moments on social media
• Queue uploads to multiple social platforms
• View and trim your video captures

Enhanced Sync — What’s new:

• All Radeon GCN-based products
• Vulkan
• Notebook products
• Multi-GPU
• AMD Eyefinity Technology

Radeon Wattman

• Easily save and load your own profiles
• Share your custom profiles
• Load community-driver profiles

Frame Rate Target Control Now Supporting Vulkan

I hope those notifications can be selectively turned off when desired.

 

[EXCellR8]

for some reason this Ryzen 7 computer hates new graphics drivers... like AMD software just never installs very smoothly. if I do a regular uninstall the screen goes black but instead of the regular feed coming back it just stays black and eventually freezes the entire system. I then have to use DDU to force remove all of the associated files (after a hard restart) and then reboot again; only then can I do a clean install of the full package of downloaded drivers. just kind of a pain in the arse but it's been doing this for the last few installs now.

 

[VirtualLarry]

for some reason this Ryzen 7 computer hates new graphics drivers... like AMD software just never installs very smoothly. if I do a regular uninstall the screen goes black but instead of the regular feed coming back it just stays black and eventually freezes the entire system. I then have to use DDU to force remove all of the associated files (after a hard restart) and then reboot again; only then can I do a clean install of the full package of downloaded drivers. just kind of a pain in the arse but it's been doing this for the last few installs now.

I've been having similar problems too, in Windows 10 1703 and 1709, installing the newest drivers, and doing a "clean" install, which un-installs the current driver. Really maddening. I re-seated my card in the slot, that seemed to help, but it could have been placebo.

Edit: Re-installing the newest AMD Chipset drivers from their site for Ryzen, before installing the newest AMD GPU drivers, seems to help.

I WONDER!

There used to be a problem with the AMD un-installer, un-installing EVERYTHING AMD.

On a Ryzen rig, you need the AMD chipset drivers.

If AMD's GPU drivers, use the AMD un-installer, during the process of a "Clean" install, and that un-installer vacuums up and removes EVERYTHING AMD (including the chipset drivers!), then that might actually indeed be the problem, and why it seemed like it helped to install the AMD Chipset drivers again, before re-installing the new GPU drivers.

 

[ao_ika_red]

There used to be a problem with the AMD un-installer, un-installing EVERYTHING AMD.

It's already known issue since AM3 and FMx era, I believe. DDU once also removed AMD chipset driver, but its recent update seems fixing that problem.
That's also the reason why I'm not too keen on updating Radeon driver. Except for WHQL or major update like this one.

 

[james1701]

DDU is safe to use. It only affects the GPU driver. AMD uninstaller on the chipset driver will wipe everything including the GPU drivers.

I played for about 4 hours last night on the new driver. I was surprised it went so smoothly. Usually when introducing so many new features, I always have problems. So far, its working as advertised. I am pretty happy with them.

 

[Krteq]

Same here. Tried only The Division (DX12) and War Thunder yesterday and both runs butter smooth.

 

[tential]

It's already known issue since AM3 and FMx era, I believe. DDU once also removed AMD chipset driver, but its recent update seems fixing that problem.
That's also the reason why I'm not too keen on updating Radeon driver. Except for WHQL or major update like this one.

Agreed. I'll let others beta test for me.

AMD has been killing it on driver features and publicizing them. Their driver team is definitely improving it's nice to see.

 

[ao_ika_red]

Usually when introducing so many new features, I always have problems

Yeah, I still remember there were some glitches reported when they introduced WattMan a while ago. AMD Link still needs improvement, though. I had some firewall-related issue and some glitches in its mobile app.

Their driver team is definitely improving it's nice to see.

I believe the transformation came after AMD had separate entity called RTG.

 

[Despoiler]

This new driver is awesome! ALT+R for a controls overlay is so incredibly useful. FRTC or Radeon Chill are great for saving power with no hit to performance. They just work. The AMD Link app is great. You don't need to use the performance monitoring overlay. You can just monitor on your phone. Performance overall is great. Everything is nice and smooth. The compute mode delivers more mining performance. Excellent job by AMD on these.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Zero problems on my R7 and RX480 desktop. Didn't even do "clean install", just regular like I always do.

 

[VirtualLarry]

I un-installed the previous drivers, and rebooted, and then installed these. Seems smooth sailing, thus far.

 

[Shamrock]

So far, I've had one game that crashes instantly. It's an oldie. Command and Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath. I also had gibberish on my screen when I selected "GPU scaling", so I had to reboot. Everything else is working fine.

While no gains are to be had, everything "feels" smoother on a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X OC

 

[EXCellR8]

I un-installed the previous drivers, and rebooted, and then installed these. Seems smooth sailing, thus far.

yea, the only new driver for my board was the 5G Aquantia LAN driver, which I had downloaded at some point anyway. after I finally got the old drivers removed and the new ones to take I only got one freeze up but I think it was related to a browser plugin. not sure, but I'd also like to note that when I go to uninstall the AMD software from within the Windows CP (the normal way) the progress gets to about 20% and then just stops dead. Unless 10 minutes or so is an unreasonable amount of time to wait, I get impatient and force close. that's when I attempt to run the update through Radeon Settings but that always crashes the computer.

idk, some kind of driver bug... but the software does work eventually so I guess it could be worse.

 

[Red Hawk]

An overlay to allow for in-game GPU tweaking is actually really nice to have. The system monitor is also nice -- negates much of the need for things like MSI Afterburner.

And I have to give AMD kudos on the graphic design of the interface. It all looks very slick and modern.

 

[EXCellR8]

might need to do a roll back... shortly after my card starts to render 3D it crashes to a black screen and monitoring software loses data; GPU fan spins down. not game specific, so I'm guessing it's a bug with the Radeon monitoring and AIDA64, possibly.

previous driver was perfect so that's a bummer but the card isn't overclocked and temps are nominal, so idk. still can't do a regular uninstallation of the damn Radeon Software, super annoying.

EDIT: rolled back the driver and the card still crashes, great...

 

[SPBHM]

had problems with the overlay and chill on a DX9 game, the overlay would crash first, and at some point chill seem to have crashed the entire driver, not using these features makes the game stable.

edit: also at some point radeon software stopped working and I couldn't change any settings and chill was forced on, I decided to uninstall and use whatever windows update gives me, and now it's all working well with the win update driver.

bad experience, I tried both the main release and betas.

 

[Phynaz]

I actutally think this driver can improve vega performance 20% and probably more in the extreme frontend limited situations where extra performance is mostly needed for gpu mins.

I think we will see a world record performance jump for a driver release. Vega is simply a high freq fury now. When this driver is released its like the card should have been at launch.

Good part is that performance uplift will be very, very real.

I'm curious, is there a cutoff date for you guys when you will say the magic Vega driver isn't coming?

 

[Krteq]

Not at all... we all believe in unicorn driver and silicon heaven.

 

[krumme]

I'm curious, is there a cutoff date for you guys when you will say the magic Vega driver isn't coming?

Yes.
When you stop making post like this.