We will freely admit that it does feel like graphics card driver updates come so regularly that they are more bothersome than useful. We promise you though, regularly updating them is (nearly) always to your benefit. Well… when they work properly at least. – For those AMD owners among you, however, and particularly the lucky few who have a 6700 XT, then you will almost certainly want to check this out as not only does it bring game ready optimization for DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods, but it also comes with a handful of handy fixes!
AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.3.1 WHQL
As you might expect, the driver update is quite extensive in terms of what it brings and corrects. As such, if you do plan to scour through the below, you might want to grab yourself a coffee first!
Support For:
AMD Radeon RX 6700 Graphics
DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods – Part Two
Radeon Boost:
Now supports DirectX 12 with Variable Rate Shading for select titles.
Radeon Anti-Lag:
Now supports DirectX 12.
Performance Tuning Stress Test:
A new built in tool for Performance Tuning in Radeon Software that allows users to stress test their graphics products tuning profiles.
Added Vulkan Extensions:
VK_KHR_synchronization: This extension modifies the original core synchronization APIs to simplify the interface and improve usability of these APIs. It also adds new pipeline stage and access flag types that extend into the 64-bit range. Pipeline stages and access flags are now specified together in memory barrier structures, making the connection between the two more obvious. Additionally, Layout transitions have been simplified by providing generic layouts, which are contextually applied based on the image format. Events are made more efficient as well as they include memory dependency information when they are set on the device. Furthermore, Queue submission has also been changed to wrap command buffers and semaphores in extensible structures, which incorporate changes from Vulkan 1.1, VK_KHR_device_group and VK_KHR_timeline_semaphore. This adds a pipeline stage to the semaphore signal operation, mirroring the existing pipeline stage specification for wait operations.
VK_EXT_4444_formats: This extension defines the VK_FORMAT_A4R4G4B4_UNORM_PACK16_EXT and VK_FORMAT_A4B4G4R4_UNORM_PACK16_EXT formats for compatibility with other graphics APIs to help with porting without having to resort to swizzling.
VK_EXT_conditional_rendering: This extension allows conditional draws, compute dispatches or clears based on a value in command buffer memory. These commands could be discarded without the application’s intervention if the condition is not met, which may result in reduced latency.
VK_KHR_sampler_ycbcr_conversion: This extension provides the ability to perform color space conversions during texture sampling operations for the Y’CBCR color space, which is mainly used for processing inputs from video decoders and cameras. It also adds a selection of multi-planar formats, image aspect plane, and the ability to bind memory to the planes of an image collectively or separately.
Fixed Issues:
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 raytracing is enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
An application crash may occur in Call of Duty : Modern Warfare when raytracing 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 DirectX 12 raytracing 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.
Where Can I Grab This Update?
As always, if you already have AMD Adrenalin installed on your PC, then a quick check should prompt you to download the latest version. If it doesn’t, however, then you can learn more (and manually download it) via the official AMD update website at the link here!
What do you think? How often do you update your GPU drivers? – Let us know in the comments!