Stress Testing Just Became a Lot Easier for AMD Graphics Cards

AMD Big Navi GPUs
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

AMD's latest Radeon driver update, Adrenalin version 21.3.1, adds several new features to team red's graphics cards, but the biggest update is a new stress testing utility that allows you to check the stability of your overclocked AMD graphics card right from the Adrenalin software.

When you install the 21.3.1 driver, the new stress test option should be available to you called "Performance Tuning Stress Test." According to AMD, Adrenaline has also been updated to help novice overclockers with newer temperature gauges and easier-to-understand performance readouts, PC Gamer reported. AMD also said it added more indicators to show where performance is being limited on your best graphics card.

Adrenalin Stress Testing Tool

(Image credit: PCGamer)

We aren't sure how much better this stress test is compared to stress testing your graphics card in popular games and applications like 3DMark, Superposition and your favorite graphically demanding video game. But it is nice that you can now stress test right from the Adrenaline software without using any other software to see if your GPU overclock is stable or not.

AMD didn't say if this new stress test was limited to newer Radeon GPUs, so we assume that this new stress testing utility will work on any Radeon GPU that supports the 21.3.1 driver.

More Adrenalin 21.3.1 Updates

A few more highlights from 21.3.1 include added support for Doom Eternal: The Ancient Gods - Part Two, as well as major updates to Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag with both technologies now supporting the DirectX 12 API. Plus, there are a few more updates to Vulkan support. 

Here's the full list of issues the driver fixes, as per AMD:  

  • Radeon Software may sometimes have higher than expected CPU utilization, even when a system is at idle.
  • A system hang 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 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 color corruption.
  • Xuan-Yuan Sword VII may experience an application crash with DirectX12 ray tracing enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics.
  • Color 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.
Aaron Klotz
Freelance News Writer

Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

  • Colif
    wtb a tool from AMD like Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool so we can check their CPU out. Right now I have Prime95 and I would prefer an AMD tool
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    Wow! Now it should be easier than ever to not test the new graphics card you are not able to buy!
    Reply
  • Flyfisherman
    Radeon Adrenalin ver. 21.3.1 locked my left hand monitor (2560x1440) to 640x480 and it is impossible to change the resolution.
    My right hand monitor with 1920x1080 works.

    My first attempt to install ver. 21.3.1 over powered my left hand monitor Aourus F127Q with almost everything so there was not possible to even see anything on the monitor, it went bonkers. The right monitor however worked as before.

    I had to revert to ver. 21.2.3 and then everything is ok.

    There are some serious trouble with the latest driver 21.3.1
    Stay away from this update and I think AMD should revoke this from their website.
    On AMD forum there are several threads about different issues with 21.3.1

    I strongly suggest to everybody to stay away from 21.3.1 and instead using 21.2.3 or earlier versions until AMD has recognized the problem and release a fully working driver/sw.

    And also, please use Adrenalin Bug reporting tool so AMD will be notified by the problem.
    https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/amdbrt
    GPU: ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6900 XT OC
    Mobo: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero
    CPU: Ryzen 9 3950X
    Memory: 16GB @3200MHz
    Monitors: Left main: Aourus F127Q 27" 2560x1440 secondary right BenQ 24" 1920x1080

    Best regards from Sweden.
    Reply