Radeon Driver Changes from ‘Crimson’ to ‘Adrenaline’ on Dec. 2017

AMD is teasing the release of their upcoming next-gen driver software series. It is called the Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition, which is a little less of a mouthful than its predecessor Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition. Add the version number to that, and one can barely even fit it on the 54 character limit for articles on this site. The real question is, does anyone really care what these care called? As long as AMD actually delivers good drivers, they can call it ATI again if they wish.

The idea behind the constant naming is that AMD wants to come across as a company that always updates their drivers. By changing up the name constantly, it presents that image. In reality however, users who install drivers do not remember the name changes, they measure time with the length of waiting for certain issues to be fixed instead. And it is different for each user. Radeon owners who wish to play Overwatch (one of the most popular online games in the world) are still having “render device lost” problem after 8 months now for example.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition Video

AMD released a teaser video. Which makes even less sense than having a press release announcing a name change is coming. Although it is a safe bet that this update will bring the rumoured features from a week ago. A built-in OSD feature is a common feature request by fans for a while.

This is what AMD had to say about their driver efforts lately:

“Radeon Software has delivered to users 70 software releases, launch day support for more than 75 games and over 50 new or enhanced features, with more than 250 million downloads across the globe. Radeon Software continues to lead the way in elevating high-performance gaming and VR experience for gamers, professionals and game developers.”