On Monday, AMD released a new Radeon Software Crimson Edition driver, version 16.8.1. The only notable features this new driver brings to the Radeon table are support for the new RX 470 and RX 460 cards, and a new AMD Crossfire profile made available for F1 2016. Otherwise, the release notes provide a long list of fixed issues and known problems.
On the gaming front, the new driver fixes a crash related to Overwatch and running the game on several Radeon RX 480 cards in Crossfire mode. It also corrects a Crossfire problem related to The Division and poor scaling in some low resolution configurations. Another corrected Crossfire problem caused “lower than expected” performance in DOTA2.
The only other game-related issue resolved by the new driver pertains to the Radeon RX 480 and Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Apparently, there was a problem with low frame rates or stuttering when running the game on that specific card.
As for other fixes in version 16.8.1, AMD resolved an issue regarding the available maximum memory overclock listed as too low in Radeon WattMan for the Radeon RX 480. There was also an issue regarding the correct Vulkan driver or API version information not reporting correctly in Radeon Settings. The Firefox browser even suffered crashes when hardware acceleration was enabled for playing content before this new driver corrected the problem.
Finally, AMD notes that it resolved an issue regarding the process of updating the driver through Radeon Settings. Previously, many customers would see an error message when the update process failed.
As for known issues, the company points out that a few PC game titles may still fail to launch or will crash if the AMD Gaming Evolved overlay is enabled. As a temporary fix, the company suggests that customers load up the desktop client and disable the overlay. To do this, click on the “wrench” button on the left, click on “Preferences,” and then click on the “In-Game” tab. There customers can uncheck everything and then hit “OK.”
For the uninitiated, the AMD Gaming Evolved desktop client is actually provided by Raptr. This solution lets users know when AMD has dished out new drivers, and will “optimize” supported installed games with just a simple click on each. Other features include capturing and sharing gameplay, dedicated communities for a huge number of PC games, chances to earn free games and hardware, and so on.
As for other known issues, there are quite a few still existing with Ark Survival Evolved, DOTA2, Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Division, Battlefield 4, Total War: Warhammer, World of Tanks, Rocket League, and Ashes of the Singularity. There’s an issue regarding Hybrid Graphics configurations too where the Shader Cache may remain enabled even though it’s switched off in Radeon Settings.
The new Radeon driver arrives as AMD’s Radeon RX 460 graphics card hits the market through its hardware partners. The card is compact and quite inexpensive, aimed at the eSports gamer with a starting price of $100. The RX 460 is currently served up with 2GB and 4GB memory capacities, with prices thus far ranging up to $150.
