AMD today released a new Adrenalin Driver update, version 22.2.2, with some very unique optimizations for its mobile platforms. AMD boosted system performance in several titles for specific AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs and Radeon 6000 mobile GPUs. All thanks to optimizations done to Smart Acess Memory.
Besides official support for Total War: Warhammer III, the SAM improvements are specific to several current and older games, including Cyberpunk 2077, Fortnite, Gears 5, F1 2021, Borderlands 3, Battlefield 5, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
In Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the Adrenalin update provides up to a 24% increase in performance at 1080P Ultra settings on a Ryzen 7 5800H and Radeon RX 6600M.
With Battlefield 5, AMD promises up to a 23% performance boost in Battlefield 5 at 1080P Ultra settings with a Ryzen 9 5900HX and Radeon RX 6800M.
As for Borderlands 3, you can expect up to an 18% increase in performance using the game's Badass settings at a 1080P resolution with AMD's Ryzen 9 5900HX and Radeon RX 6800M.
F1 2021 will see up to a 17% increase in performance at 1080P with either the game's High or Ultra quality presets, running on a Ryzen 7 5800H and Radeon RX 6600M.
Gears 5 performance was increased by up to 12% with a Ryzen 7 5800H and Radeon RX 6600M at the game's High settings and 1080P resolution.
When playing Fortnite at 1080P Ultra settings, you can expect up to an 11% performance improvement with a Ryzen 7 5800H and Radeon RX 6600M.
Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 shows the lowest performance gains with up to a 10% performance uplift using the game's Ultra quality settings at 1080P resolution with a Ryzen 9 5900HX and Radeon RX 6800M.
These results all compare the new 22.22.2 driver vs. the older 22.2.1 driver. Again AMD says these Smart Access Memory must be enabled to enjoy these performance benefits.
For the uninitiated, Smart Access Memory (SAM) is AMD's take on Resizable BAR, a feature built into the PCI Express interface. The feature allows AMD CPUs to access the entirety of a GPU's VRAM (or frame buffer), which can improve system performance depending on the game.
We aren't sure what improvements AMD has made in these specific games, but these results are massive. Hopefully, we'll see similar gains with desktop GPUs if there's more performance to be extracted from SAM alone.
| Game | Setting | 22.2.2 | 22.2.1 | 22.2.2 vs. 22.2.1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overall Performance (13 Games) | 1080p Medium | 129.8 | 129.9 | -0.0% |
| 1080p Ultra | 89.7 | 89.9 | -0.2% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 66.1 | 66.3 | -0.3% | |
| 4k Ultra | 35.9 | 36.0 | -0.2% | |
| Borderlands 3 | 1080p Medium | 280.1 | 284.9 | -1.7% |
| 1080p Ultra | 184.8 | 185.0 | -0.1% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 131.3 | 131.0 | +0.2% | |
| 4k Ultra | 70.0 | 69.9 | +0.2% | |
| Far Cry 6 | 1080p Medium | 194.7 | 189.3 | +2.8% |
| 1080p Ultra | 164.3 | 157.1 | +4.6% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 140.8 | 139.5 | +0.9% | |
| 4k Ultra | 85.6 | 84.8 | +0.9% | |
| Flight Simulator | 1080p Medium | 139.7 | 140.5 | -0.6% |
| 1080p Ultra | 79.3 | 81.0 | -2.1% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 77.2 | 79.9 | -3.3% | |
| 4k Ultra | 50.4 | 51.3 | -1.8% | |
| Forza Horizon 5 | 1080p Medium | 229.1 | 229.2 | -0.1% |
| 1080p Ultra | 150.0 | 150.7 | -0.5% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 129.2 | 130.1 | -0.7% | |
| 4k Ultra | 91.2 | 91.2 | -0.1% | |
| Horizon Zero Dawn | 1080p Medium | 207.2 | 205.3 | +0.9% |
| 1080p Ultra | 182.6 | 182.1 | +0.3% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 160.1 | 160.2 | -0.1% | |
| 4k Ultra | 84.6 | 85.1 | -0.6% | |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 1080p Medium | 191.5 | 191.0 | +0.2% |
| 1080p Ultra | 132.0 | 134.4 | -1.8% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 112.0 | 112.9 | -0.7% | |
| 4k Ultra | 76.3 | 76.5 | -0.3% | |
| Watch Dogs Legion | 1080p Medium | 172.7 | 172.0 | +0.4% |
| 1080p Ultra | 127.9 | 127.0 | +0.7% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 98.1 | 97.3 | +0.8% | |
| 4k Ultra | 57.8 | 57.8 | -0.0% | |
| Bright Memory Infinite (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 62.7 | 62.6 | +0.1% |
| 1080p Ultra | 48.6 | 48.6 | -0.0% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 28.7 | 28.5 | +0.6% | |
| 4k Ultra | 12.7 | 12.7 | -0.2% | |
| Control (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 113.7 | 113.7 | +0.0% |
| 1080p Ultra | 73.4 | 74.8 | -1.9% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 46.3 | 46.7 | -0.9% | |
| 4k Ultra | 22.0 | 21.9 | +0.3% | |
| Cyberpunk 2077 (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 46.7 | 46.7 | +0.1% |
| 1080p Ultra | 40.3 | 40.3 | -0.2% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 25.1 | 25.0 | +0.2% | |
| 4k Ultra | 11.1 | 11.1 | -0.2% | |
| Fortnite (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 82.6 | 83.6 | -1.3% |
| 1080p Ultra | 45.5 | 46.0 | -1.0% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 27.3 | 27.7 | -1.4% | |
| 4k Ultra | 12.8 | 12.9 | -0.6% | |
| Metro Exodus Enhanced (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 150.1 | 150.1 | +0.0% |
| 1080p Ultra | 66.7 | 66.8 | -0.1% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 50.0 | 49.8 | +0.3% | |
| 4k Ultra | 26.9 | 26.9 | +0.0% | |
| Minecraft (DXR) | 1080p Medium | 60.4 | 61.2 | -1.4% |
| 1080p Ultra | 50.2 | 50.4 | -0.5% | |
| 1440p Ultra | 31.1 | 31.2 | -0.4% | |
| 4k Ultra | 15.2 | 15.2 | -0.1% |
Update: Jarred tested the Radeon RX 6900 XT on our new GPU testbed, with an Alder Lake Core i9-12900K processor, using a suite of 13 games — six of which have ray tracing enabled. The results aren't nearly as impressive as what AMD promises for certain mobile configurations, and in fact tend to fall within the margin of error for testing. Resizable BAR (aka, SAM) was enabled with both sets of drivers. You can see the results above.
