AMD's RDNA 3 High Idle Power Bug Fixed in Latest Graphics Driver
High idle power usage became a known issue back in December.
AMD has released a new graphics driver which fixes high idle power issues observed by Radeon RX 7000 users. AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 23.7.1, which supports graphics cards from the Radeon RX 400 Series and newer, addresses an unusual high-power usage case in Windows, but at this stage we aren't sure if it has covered all incidences.
We first reported on the headlining high idle power on RDNA 3 cards issue last December. In our story about a fix for RX 7900 XT(X) power consumption - particularly addressing video playback efficiency on these powerful cards - we welcomed the driver update. However, that driver release came with AMD's first admission that “high idle power has situationally been observed when using select high resolution and high refresh rate displays.” It turns out his bug affects the whole RX 7000 family, which has only recently grown beyond the high-end with the release of the Radeon RX 7600.
Improvements to high idle power when using select 4k@144Hz FreeSync enabled displays or multimonitor display configurations (such as 4k@144HZ or 4k@120Hz + 1440p@60Hz display) using on Radeon RX 7000 series GPUs.
AMD driver release notes
The release notes features a bullet point which provides the scope of the idle power fix provided by the Adrenalin Edition 23.7.1 driver. We are sure this fix will be warmly welcomed by users of AMD's newest architecture, as it should reduce the amount of wasted electricity.
Other RDNA 3 architecture bug fixes in this latest Radeon driver include one which causes suboptimal performance or occasional stuttering in VR games and applications. An RX 7900 XTX specific fix has also been implemented to eliminate intermittent corruption when playing WWE 2K23.
The last two fixes are for a wider audience. A crashing and driver timeout issue which annoyed DaVinci Resolve Studio users has been quashed. Lastly, intermittent corruption observed when switching windows while playing Nioh 2 has been fixed. AMD mentions this Nioh 2 bug affected multiple Radeon products including the RX 6800 XT.
There is only one new feature mentioned by the official Adrenalin Edition 23.7.1 release notes. AMD has implemented support for additional Vulkan extensions. If any of your favorite games / apps use the Vulkan API you may appreciate these additions.
AMD's list of remaining known issues outguns the list of fixes, but at least we know the red team developers are working on these specific annoying wrinkles.
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Lastly, we must note that AMD has temporarily disabled the 'Factory Reset' driver install feature. Back in March, we reported on the bricked Windows installs that this driver install option was precipitating. There is a workaround for now; AMD recommends users run its AMD Cleanup Utility if they want / need to start afresh.
Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
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cwolf78 Reply
Same here. A couple of weird things I noticed before this fix is my power usage was 40W while playing a video but went back up to 50W after stopping playback. Also enabling HDR in Windows cut idle power in half. Really bizarreMakaveli said:These drivers are great.
I do 7 watts idle on desktop now instead of 50 watts. -
Makaveli Reply
I notice this also on the previous driver. If I had a twitch stream open I would get lower power usage than sitting on the desktop idling lol.cwolf78 said:Same here. A couple of weird things I noticed before this fix is my power usage was 40W while playing a video but went back up to 50W after stopping playback. Also enabling HDR in Windows cut idle power in half. Really bizarre -
Flyfisherman Apparently some pc configurations with multi monitor and 4K 120-144 Hz are still having problem according to this thread on AMD Support site:Reply
https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/23-7-1-gt-high-power-draw-still-present/m-p/616495#M177151
I was never affected by this on my ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6900 XT OC and dual monitor setup: one with 2560x1440 144 Hz and one with 1920x1080 60 Hz.
Best regards from Sweden -
kiniku Reply
Unbelievable.Admin said:It has taken AMD over half a year to fix this idle power-sucking Radeon RX 7000 family GPU bug.
AMD's RDNA 3 High Idle Power Bug Fixed in Latest Graphics Driver : Read more -
ManDaddio All the AMD and fanboy talk against Nvidia for the 2000 and 3000 series for efficiency and AMD not only releases a product that was not tested enough (hardware and drivers) but is less power efficient than Nvidia. And the power efficiency Nvidia is at is phenomenal.Reply
If this issue was a Nvidia one we would have had the whole tech world non stop talking about it for months. How do I know that? Because I remember the RTX 3090 crying. After Nvidia fixed their issue it not only fixed the excessive power draw at idle but even playing games. No one praised that much.
AMD and it's fanboy/girl base are very hypocritical.
Stop protecting AMD people. -
ManDaddio Reply
The article is referencing 7900 series GPUs I think not 6000.Flyfisherman said:Apparently some pc configurations with multi monitor and 4K 120-144 Hz are still having problem according to this thread on AMD Support site:
https://community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/23-7-1-gt-high-power-draw-still-present/m-p/616495#M177151
I was never affected by this on my ASUS TUF Gaming Radeon RX 6900 XT OC and dual monitor setup: one with 2560x1440 144 Hz and one with 1920x1080 60 Hz.
Best regards from Sweden -
UbergamR Unfortunately its still not fixed completely, i still get 90W on idle with my 7900 XTX and a single 1440p monitor on 240Hz, not to mention that i use two monitors..Reply
https://community.amd.com/t5/graphics/7900-xtx-very-high-idle-power/td-p/613770