AMD Driver Update: Company Responds to Complaints With a Whopping 40 Fixes

(Image credit: AMD)

AMD has received some flack for driver issues of late, but it says it's doing its best to improve the situation. The team released the Radeon Adrenalin 20.2.2 driver, last week, and now, after a week of further testing, the driver has received WHQL certification. 

In a blog post today, AMD said its latest driver is a direct response to AMD's vocal fan base. 

"You spoke, we listened. The AMD and Radeon communities include some of the most vocal people on the internet. You proudly show off your AMD hardware and rave about how great your system is, but you’re also quick to point out issues that you have come across with equal passion," the blog said. "Our team pays close attention to all your posts, and we’ve worked diligently with our engineers to resolve as many of those issues as possible in the latest release of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition."

The Adrenalin 20.2.2 driver is one of the bigger releases since the Adrenalin 2020 Edition update (which landed in 2019), bringing with it a laundry list of 40 fixed issues. 

According to AMD, fixed issues include: 

  • Performing a task switch with some Radeon Software features enabled or some third-party applications with hardware acceleration running in the background may cause a system hang or black screen.
  • Improvements have been made that allow for more responsive fan ramp up or fan ramp down times on Radeon RX 5700-series graphics products.
  • Performance Metrics Overlay and Radeon WattMan incorrectly report lower than expected clock speeds on Radeon RX 5700-series graphics products during gaming workloads.
  • When Instant Replay is enabled, a TDR or black screen may occur when launching games or applications.
  • A black screen may occur when toggling HDR on in the game settings of Battlefield V.

The team acknowledges that there is still work to be done but hopes that this driver update fixes the most prominent problems AMD's customers have been experiencing.

As typical, the driver also has some known issues, including: 

  • Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Enhanced Sync has been temporarily disabled from the gaming profile, and any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
  • Performance Metrics Overlay and Radeon WattMan incorrectly report higher than expected idle clock speeds on Radeon RX 5700-series graphics products. Performance and power consumption are not impacted by this incorrect reporting.
  • Doom may experience an intermittent system hang or application crash during gameplay.
  • The desktop cursor may intermittently remain visible after toggling Radeon Software’s overlay in some games. A workaround is to bring up the game menu or task switch to refresh the cursor.
  • A system crash or hang may occur when running the Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers benchmark.
  • The Gaming tab in Radeon Software may display some folder locations appearing as games.

For a full list of fixed and known issues, check out AMD's blog post

How to Download

To download the driver, head to this page for more information. For a direct download, there's the Windows 10 64-bit driver or Windows 7 64-bit version.

Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • Rogue Leader
    Was having an issue on my Gaming system (1800X/Vega 64LC) where if the monitor went to sleep it would not wake up without turning the monitor on and off a few times. Installed 20.2.2 last night and that seems to have solved the issue.

    I was not seeing any of the other issues people were saying on this system or my sim system with a 5700XT.
    Reply
  • DaPeacemaker
    Been on 19.11.3, no issues on my R5 3600, 5700XT and Dell S2719DGF. Thought, that it might be mature enough to finally try the new drivers.

    After installing the latest 20.2.2, I was having black screens, monitor sleep and more, mostly only restart worked. Ofc the driver was installed after cleaning the previous one with DDU in safe mode.

    ATM at 20.1.3 and it seems stable, without issues.
    I hope that one day, AMD will have great drivers right from the beginning when they release new hardware
    Reply
  • dan_L
    I had been getting an almost daily black screen for a few seconds only on my computer, not on the other two in our small office -- until I installed version 20.2.2. So far the black screens are gone. Card: Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 5700
    Reply
  • TreborG2
    DaPeacemaker said:
    After installing the latest 20.2.2, I was having black screens, monitor sleep and more, mostly only restart worked. Ofc the driver was installed after cleaning the previous one with DDU in safe mode.

    ATM at 20.1.3 and it seems stable, without issues.
    I hope that one day, AMD will have great drivers right from the beginning when they release new hardware
    Yup .. if I have one more issue with this crap software .. I'm wiping and going back to windows default installed driver for my RX580.

    I too had to use the uninstaller in safemode to get the driver to install.

    And if AMD were listening ... they'd forgotten what many have complained about in the past ..

    first - no ads
    prompt before install to set things like no ads, no game/overlay/etc options
    graphics driver only .. vs this ungodly mega headed pos ..seriously .. go into the driver settings .. its 80+% of my 1080 screen with large button-esq areas to click on etc .. stupid overlay hotkey of ALT+R and F11 ... you actually mapped F11? seriously AMD .. that's a browser and app used key ... browsers have been F11 aware for years longer than amd's adrenaline drivers .. WTF .. :(
    Reply