AMD yesterday leased out the new update for its GPUs, namely Crimson 16.7.1. The update addresses the tumultuous PCIe power draw issues and sprinkles in a slight performance improvement of 3%. The update also added a UI Compatibility Mode toggle switch that reduces power consumption of the RX 480 with a minor performance compromise. Although, the PCIe power draw issue was a highly exaggerated one as PCGamer discovered upon debate with motherboard manufacturers, AMD has taken the right step forward in appeasing its customers and making sure that no notorious issues jeopardize the sales of its latest, budget King of the Hill – the RX 480. Staying true to their claims, the new update has channeled the power draw in a favorable manner and significantly reduced the power draw through the PEG (PCIe) slot, diminishing it to lower than 70W. Tomshardware, in a revision of its older review, revealed that the power consumption charts were slightly off the mark since they were using a filter with a lower sampling rate and in addition to that, the readers misinterpreted them.
Following the release of the Crimson 16.7.1 driver update, PCPer published a 4 page article scrutinizing the update. The results were in accord with our expectations as the power draw has been reduced significantly, eradicating all of the previous issues that agitated the buyers. Hexus re-conducted its benchmarks to account for the performance improvement brought about by the latest driver update and surprisingly, there has been a marked improvement :-
Credits : Hexus
Radeon Software Crimson 16.7.1 Release Notes
Radeon Software Crimson Edition is AMD’s revolutionary new graphics software that delivers redesigned functionality, supercharged graphics performance, remarkable new features, and innovation that redefines the overall user experience. Every Radeon Software release strives to deliver new features, better performance and stability improvements.
Radeon Software Crimson 16.7.1 Highlights
- The Radeon™ RX 480’s power distribution has been improved for AMD reference boards, lowering the current drawn from the PCIe bus.
- A new “compatibility mode” UI toggle has been made available in the Global Settings menu of Radeon Settings. This option is designed to reduce total power with minimal performance impact if end users experience any further issues. This toggle is “off” by default.
- Performance improvements for the Polaris architecture that yield performance uplifts in popular game titles of up to 3% [1]. These optimizations are designed to improve the performance of the Radeon™ RX 480, and should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the “compatibility” toggle.
Fixed Issues
- Radeon™ RX 480 limited PCI-E Bandwidth (PCI-E bandwidth is now at the correct speed on the Radeon™ RX 480) with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
- Minor stuttering no longer occurs in Grand Theft Auto V on Radeon™ RX 480 with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
- Video corruption will not be observed in DOOM with resolutions above 1920×1080 with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
- Hitman™ graphical corruption no longer occurs when the game is set to use DirectX®12 API and using zoom with weapons with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
- Display will not exhibit minor flicker on Radeon™ RX 480 when Freesync is enabled on a games launch or exit with Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1.
