The AMD Driver Thread

Phixsator · 25 Apr 2021 at 19:08

Proto said:
Just wanted to note that the 21.4.1 drivers, although with a few cosmetic niggles, have been largely fine with Vega.

Importantly, for those who have a real or 8+2 emulated 10-bit monitor, the 10-bit pixel format option in global graphics now appears to be working perfectly. Since enabling that option, I am seeing a very noticeable difference in the general colour gradient displayed, and this has been especially noticeable when comparing darker colours such as black and grey without making any gamma adjustments. As an example, general twitch streams for games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, which relies on lighting that falls in the black to grey spectrum to create a realistic effect, appear to more accurately distinguish between different lighting grades to create a noticeably more life-like image.

However, also note that I don't have the documentation or stats to empirically back my findings, so it could just as well be placebo. That said, I largely doubt that it is placebo, and it would make no sense given the obvious difference I think I am seeing. Anyway, you'll probably need to first check if your display is correctly configured in terms of monitor drivers/cables etc. by ensuring the monitor settings in the control panel include 10-bit colour as enabled alongside a maximised colour profile such as wide spectrum RGB 4:4:4.

The "10-bit pixel format option" is buggy for me causing Freesync to behave very weird on my Samsung G7 so I have to turn it off sadly. If I'm forgetting something then feel free to tell me

heartburnron · 25 Apr 2021 at 19:16

LtMatt said:
Does that happen with everything at stock? Because the behaviour you describe happens if the driver detects instability in the system, as well as just a typical driver crash/bug.

Yeah I've tried it at with and without an overclock, native resolution and using VSR. Once it comes across a part causing it to crash, it crashes regardless of settings in would seem. It's a common issue though, it happens to lots of people as per the discussions in the Valhalla thread in the PC Games forum, including those with Nvidia cards.

Edit: Just reading back through the Valhalla thread and I see a few mentions of ensuring system timing is correct; this being out of sync with the Ubisoft servers can cause crashes. If I have the system timing set to automatic, is this likely to drift out of sync though?

Proto · 25 Apr 2021 at 19:20

Phixsator said:
The "10-bit pixel format option" is buggy for me causing Freesync to behave very weird on my Samsung G7 so I have to turn it off sadly. If I'm forgetting something then feel free to tell me

Have you tried with 21.4.1?

FreeSync is working correctly on my system.

Phixsator · 25 Apr 2021 at 20:54

Proto said:
Have you tried with 21.4.1?

FreeSync is working correctly on my system.

Yeah, that is the driver I'm on right now, Freesync is acting up with the 10-bit pixel format option enabled.. I can run 10bit depth just fine but not "10 bit pixel format".

JediFragger · 25 Apr 2021 at 22:22

Phixsator said:
I can run 10bit depth just fine but not "10 bit pixel format

That setting screws with my OLED too, gives games a v slight judder. I leave it off.

LtMatt · 26 Apr 2021 at 04:59

JediFragger said:
That setting screws with my OLED too, gives games a v slight judder. I leave it off.

Works fine now in 21.4.1 for me. It’s only useful for 10bit apps like photoshop though. Normal gamers like us can use the 10 bit option under the display tab.

SpudMaster · 26 Apr 2021 at 14:48

One annoying little niggle with these drivers is the system try icon wont disable for me. It's to hide try icon in drivers but its always there. Right click the icon and select hide the icon but it comes back after a restart!

SkeeterUK · 26 Apr 2021 at 17:07

In amd drivers go to preferences/general and turn off system tray menu that can get rid of it.

SkeeterUK · 26 Apr 2021 at 19:24

Anyone got the issue where your ram is maxed even in idle. Ive looked about and found that its based on your refresh rate of monitor. Mine is just 75hz and only monitor, but if you got dual monitors you might have it too. What reduces your vram speed at idle is changing it to 60hz but i dont want to do that so i hope amd can fix that. Ltmatt maybe u can let amd know if ur still connected?

Fixing it could lead to idle temps dropping a lot from the normal 50 i get with my 6700xt to probs 40 or less, not tested but probably.

boosfuk · 26 Apr 2021 at 19:43

SpudMaster said:
One annoying little niggle with these drivers is the system try icon wont disable for me. It's to hide try icon in drivers but its always there. Right click the icon and select hide the icon but it comes back after a restart!

Same for me, comes back on system start and is turned off in preferences. Annoying

shankly1985 · 26 Apr 2021 at 20:46

I am surprised this wasn't in the release notes.

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-adr...x6000-gpus-power-consumption-in-certain-cases

LtMatt · 26 Apr 2021 at 21:13

SkeeterUK said:
Anyone got the issue where your ram is maxed even in idle. Ive looked about and found that its based on your refresh rate of monitor. Mine is just 75hz and only monitor, but if you got dual monitors you might have it too. What reduces your vram speed at idle is changing it to 60hz but i dont want to do that so i hope amd can fix that. Ltmatt maybe u can let amd know if ur still connected?

Fixing it could lead to idle temps dropping a lot from the normal 50 i get with my 6700xt to probs 40 or less, not tested but probably.

It’s expected and it’s due to the vertical blank timing of your monitor.

SkeeterUK · 26 Apr 2021 at 21:42

Hmm nvidia cards never did that when i had em, or the vega 56 i had previously.

Strange issue imo. Plus some on reddit posts i read find it odd too.

Heinz57 · 27 Apr 2021 at 11:29

SkeeterUK said:
Hmm nvidia cards never did that when i had em, or the vega 56 i had previously.

Strange issue imo. Plus some on reddit posts i read find it odd too.

Yes, it's annoying. It never did it on my Vega 56 either, but it seems to vary from driver to driver with other Radeon cards I've had. Even if the card does need a higher memory clock for higher resolutions, I don't see why it needs to be the full rate rather than something intermediate - have a laptop with a Ryzen +Vega integrated and it's able to run a 1440p 144hz screen with not much memory bandwidth.

LtMatt · 27 Apr 2021 at 13:56

SkeeterUK said:
Hmm nvidia cards never did that when i had em, or the vega 56 i had previously.

Strange issue imo. Plus some on reddit posts i read find it odd too.

I can't comment on Nvidia GPUs. Vega also used HBM so not comparable and a completely different architecture.

If you edit the vertical blank timing using something like CRU, you'll get the memory to downclock. However you may get flickering issues or other such behaviour so YMMV.

I'm running a 120HZ OLED and my memory clock is maxed out. Not that it causes any issues for me so I don't worry about it. However, my previous display was a Samsung CRG 5120x1440 @120HZ that did allow memory downclock due to a lower VBlank timing.

Heinz57 said:
Yes, it's annoying. It never did it on my Vega 56 either, but it seems to vary from driver to driver with other Radeon cards I've had. Even if the card does need a higher memory clock for higher resolutions, I don't see why it needs to be the full rate rather than something intermediate - have a laptop with a Ryzen +Vega integrated and it's able to run a 1440p 144hz screen with not much memory bandwidth.

Laptop screens will no doubt have a different VBLANK timing that allows downclock.

The behaviour should not change for Navi by switching driver version. Can't comment on other GPUs.

oweneades · 27 Apr 2021 at 14:37

From my own experience running two high refresh rate monitors Nvidia cards should downclock the VRAM to a lower state. However, I have noticed this be inconsistent regardless of driver used on multiple Pascal and Turing cards. For the most part it was fine but every now and again the GPU would just decide to run at full memory clock (and sometimes also increase the GPU clock). In the H1 case this was an issue as the GPU temp at idle would keep going over the zero fan threshold causing the fans to ramp up and down repeatedly.

On my 6800 the memory does run at full clock and the card is idling in the 50's according to the metrics overlay (zero fan). Doesn't bother me as it barely gets warmer in game (mid 60's due to the massive XFX cooler) and I don't get the annoying fan ramp when just browsing the desktop (should note that this would be a problem in a smaller case but then the GPU wouldn't fit so....).

Seriously, its quite chonky..

Game · 27 Apr 2021 at 14:44

bloody massive are the most appropriate words

my 6700 is bloody huge

Unseul · 27 Apr 2021 at 15:44

Game said:
bloody massive are the most appropriate words

my 6700 is bloody huge

Loving my 6700xt fighter. It's tiiiiiny. I took out my MSI 1070ti (thinking that was a smallish card), and it was far larger than the fighter.

Game · 27 Apr 2021 at 16:32

the fighter looks the same size as my old power color rx5700

Heinz57 · 27 Apr 2021 at 17:34

LtMatt said:
Laptop screens will no doubt have a different VBLANK timing that allows downclock.

The behaviour should not change for Navi by switching driver version. Can't comment on other GPUs.

Fair enough, although this is using the same 27GL83a I use with my desktop, the integrated screen is just a standard 1080p 60hz job.

Other than the high idle clocks/temp I'm delighted with my reference 6800 which I got a launch. It runs everything well, it's quiet and the first card I've had in years without horrific coil whine (that's probably just luck). Still on old drivers from last year though - not going to update them unless there's a need.