Driver Update: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.8.1

AMD has released an update to its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition drivers. The drivers are only suitable for the HD 7750 and above, the HD 8570 and above, and the R5, R7, R9 and RX series cards. Only versions 7 and 10 of Windows are supported. For people using Windows 8.1, version 17.7.1 the latest version. Drivers for the first generation of Windows 8 are no longer made at all. For older cards, now labeled legacy or non-gcn, Catalyst Software Suite version 15.7.1 is the latest stable release.

Adrenalin Edition is the successor to Crimson ReLive Edition and adds, among other things, a Connect tab, which enables streaming to social media, including easy editing options. In addition, graphics card settings can be adjusted without leaving a game through an overlay, and the settings can also be adjusted via a mobile app. Some issues have been fixed in this update.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.8.1 Highlights

Support For

• Monster Hunter: World
  • Up to 5% faster performance using Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.8.1 on the Radeon RX Vega 64 (8GB) graphics card than with Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.6.1 at 1920×1080 (1080p)
  • Up to 6% faster performance using Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.8.1 on the Radeon RX 580 (8GB) graphics card than with Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.6.1 at 1920×1080 (1080p)
• World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth
• We Happy Few
• Madden NFL 19

Fixed Issues

• Fortnite may experience an application crash on game launch in Windows 7.
• Some games may experience a game crash or hang on multi GPU system configurations when changing or applying resolutions.
• Graphics and memory clock speeds may remain elevated or locked while gaming if video content is also playing on the system.
• Civilization VI may experience a game crash using DirectX 12 API on game or map launch.
• Samsung HMD Odyssey may experience intermittent black screens or flashing on Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.

Known Issues

• Cursor or system lag may be observed on some system configurations when two or more displays are connected and one display is powered off.
• Some games may experience instability or stutter when playing with FRTC and Instant Replay enabled.
• Toggling performance metrics while gaming on a non-native display resolution may cause the game to scale incorrectly.
• Radeon WattMan memory and frequency sliders may not list correct minimum values.
• Upgrade Advisor may fail to show up in Radeon Settings.
• Radeon FreeSync may fail to enable when playing Monster Hunter: World.
• Video profiles may not correctly apply on web browser video content.

Added Vulkan Extension Support

• VK_EXT_descriptor_indexing This extension adds several small features which together enable applications to create large descriptor sets containing substantially all of their resources and selecting amongst those resources with dynamic (non-uniform) indexes in the shader.
• VK_KHR_get_display_properties2 This extension provides new entry points to query device display properties and capabilities in a way that can be easily extended by other extensions, without introducing any further entry points.
• VK_KHR_8bit_storage This extension allows use of 8-bit types in uniform and storage buffers and push constant blocks.
• VK_KHR_draw_indirect_count This extension allows an application to source the number of draw calls for indirect draw calls from a buffer.
• VK_KHR_create_renderpass2 This extension provides a new entry point to create render passes in a way that can be easily extended by other extensions through the substructures of render pass creation.
• EXT_vertex_attribute_divisor This extension allows instance-rate vertex attributes to be repeated for certain number of instances instead of advancing for every instance when instanced rendering is enabled.