August is giving way to September and AMD are concluding it with their third graphics driver update of the month. Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 optimises support for Marvel's Avengers, Fortnite and Project CARS 3, broadens Vulkan API compatibility, and implements a handful of fixes to known issues in games and other software.
This latest driver update is strictly optional rather than heavily recommended. You only need install it if you plan of playing any of the listed titles in the near future or suffer from the fixed issues outlined in the release notes. A more comprehensive update, aggregating this and future changes into one more rigorously tested release, will follow soon.
The specific optimisations for Marvel's Avengers and Project CARS 3 aren't spelled out, but likely reflect weaknesses in the driver stack uncovered during beta testing. AMD are a little more forthright about Fortnite, stating that the drivers improve DX12 rendering performance for Epic's FPS Battle Royal by an average of 12%. That's based on testing with an RX 5700XT so your own mileage may vary.
Support for four new Vulkan functions will no-doubt aid performance and stability in future titles developed with the API, but are unlikely to have any immediate impact in games played right now.
And, of course, fixing a healthy number of known issues is always welcome in any driver release. This time AMD's sights are a little more broad than in previous updates, addressing critical flaws experienced when playing five different games and FreeSync 2 HDR implementation problems.
Still more issues have been identified for their internal hit-list, particularly underlying performance and stability concerns for their driver background application. RSAE 20.8.3 won't fix them, but hopefully an upcoming release will in the very near future.
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 can be downloaded from AMD.com/support by selecting your hardware and OS. This driver supports 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 10, and is compatible with graphics hardware dating back to the HD7000-series (GCN era).
Release Notes
Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 Highlights
Support For
Project CARS 3™
Marvel’s Avengers™
Fortnite™
- Using AMD’s latest driver Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2020 edition 20.8.3, a Radeon™ RX 5700 XT GPU offers an average 12% better FPS performance in Fortnite™ (DX12) on the Epic setting, vs. the previous driver iteration, Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 edition 20.8.1.RS-340
Added Vulkan® Support
VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state
- This extension adds more dynamic states. This allows applications to reduce the need to recompile and bind pipeline state objects.
VK_EXT_private_data
- This extension allows applications to store application-defined data in a 64-bit private data slot.
VK_EXT_image_robustness
- This extension adds stricter requirements such that drivers return default RGBA values instead of undefined values for out-of-bounds reads. The number of components returned depends on the number of components present in the selected format.
VK_GOOGLE_user_type
- This extension indicates the driver’s support for shader modules using the SPV_GOOGLE_user_type SPIR-V extension.
Fixed Issues
- Mortal Shell™ may experience a game or application crash when opening the inventory window in game.
- Enabling HDR on some Radeon FreeSync 2 displays, may intermittently cause the display refresh rate to be forced to the FreeSync ranges minimum refresh rate during gameplay.
- Surviving Mars™ may experience an application crash or hang at launch on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- eFootball PES 2020™ may experience an application crash at launch on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- Radeon Overlay may not be available or may fail to invoke on Hybrid Graphics system configurations when playing Hyper Scape™.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive™ may experience intermittent stutter when some applications are running in the background such as third party matchmaking clients or Discord™.
- YouTube playback may become frozen with Microsoft® Edge player and Chrome™ when played on an extended display on some AMD Ryzen™ 7 3000 series and AMD Ryzen™ 4000 series APU system configurations.
Known Issues
- Project CARS 3™ may experience mirror like corruption when using VR during game menus on GCN based Radeon graphics products.
- Project CARS 3™ may experience performance issues when the Radeon Software performance metrics overlay is enabled.
- Performance issues may be experienced when playing Horizon Zero Dawn™ on select Radeon Vega graphics.
- With Radeon FreeSync enabled on Radeon RX 5000 series system configurations, task switching to another display or application may cause the display to flicker for a few moments.
- Brightness flickering may be experienced on some VP9 video content playback through applications or web browsers on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics product system configurations.
- Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
- Performance Metrics Overlay and the Performance Tuning tab incorrectly report higher than expected idle clock speeds on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products. Performance and power consumption are not impacted by this incorrect reporting.
- With HDR enabled, Windows® desktop may experience flickering, and performing a task switch while in a game may cause colors to become washed out or over saturated.
- Audio may experience instability when connected through an Audio Video Receiver via HDMI® on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- Modifying the HDMI Scaling slider may cause FPS to become locked to 30.
- Some games may exhibit stutter intermittently during gameplay on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- AMD will continue to monitor and investigate any new reports of black screen or system hang issues during extended periods of gameplay closely. Users are encouraged to use the new Bug Reporting Tool for any issues they may encounter.
Footnotes
[RS-340], Testing by AMD Performance Labs as OF August 24, 2020 using a test system configured with an Ryzen 7 3800XT CPU, 16GB DDR4-3200MHz memory, a Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card and Windows 10 x64 with Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3, vs. a similarly configured system with Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.1, using the game Fortnite™ on the Epic preset and DirectX®12. Performance may vary.
Important Notes
AMD Ryzen™ Mobile Processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics FAQ for Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition can be found here.
Package Contents
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 installation package contains the following:
- Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 Driver Version 20.20.27.01 (Windows Driver Store Version 27.20.12027.1001).
Support For
Project CARS 3™
Marvel’s Avengers™
Fortnite™
- Using AMD’s latest driver Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2020 edition 20.8.3, a Radeon™ RX 5700 XT GPU offers an average 12% better FPS performance in Fortnite™ (DX12) on the Epic setting, vs. the previous driver iteration, Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 edition 20.8.1.RS-340
Added Vulkan® Support
VK_EXT_extended_dynamic_state
- This extension adds more dynamic states. This allows applications to reduce the need to recompile and bind pipeline state objects.
VK_EXT_private_data
- This extension allows applications to store application-defined data in a 64-bit private data slot.
VK_EXT_image_robustness
- This extension adds stricter requirements such that drivers return default RGBA values instead of undefined values for out-of-bounds reads. The number of components returned depends on the number of components present in the selected format.
VK_GOOGLE_user_type
- This extension indicates the driver’s support for shader modules using the SPV_GOOGLE_user_type SPIR-V extension.
Fixed Issues
- Mortal Shell™ may experience a game or application crash when opening the inventory window in game.
- Enabling HDR on some Radeon FreeSync 2 displays, may intermittently cause the display refresh rate to be forced to the FreeSync ranges minimum refresh rate during gameplay.
- Surviving Mars™ may experience an application crash or hang at launch on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- eFootball PES 2020™ may experience an application crash at launch on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- Radeon Overlay may not be available or may fail to invoke on Hybrid Graphics system configurations when playing Hyper Scape™.
- Counter-Strike: Global Offensive™ may experience intermittent stutter when some applications are running in the background such as third party matchmaking clients or Discord™.
- YouTube playback may become frozen with Microsoft® Edge player and Chrome™ when played on an extended display on some AMD Ryzen™ 7 3000 series and AMD Ryzen™ 4000 series APU system configurations.
Known Issues
- Project CARS 3™ may experience mirror like corruption when using VR during game menus on GCN based Radeon graphics products.
- Project CARS 3™ may experience performance issues when the Radeon Software performance metrics overlay is enabled.
- Performance issues may be experienced when playing Horizon Zero Dawn™ on select Radeon Vega graphics.
- With Radeon FreeSync enabled on Radeon RX 5000 series system configurations, task switching to another display or application may cause the display to flicker for a few moments.
- Brightness flickering may be experienced on some VP9 video content playback through applications or web browsers on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics product system configurations.
- Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
- Performance Metrics Overlay and the Performance Tuning tab incorrectly report higher than expected idle clock speeds on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products. Performance and power consumption are not impacted by this incorrect reporting.
- With HDR enabled, Windows® desktop may experience flickering, and performing a task switch while in a game may cause colors to become washed out or over saturated.
- Audio may experience instability when connected through an Audio Video Receiver via HDMI® on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- Modifying the HDMI Scaling slider may cause FPS to become locked to 30.
- Some games may exhibit stutter intermittently during gameplay on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products.
- AMD will continue to monitor and investigate any new reports of black screen or system hang issues during extended periods of gameplay closely. Users are encouraged to use the new Bug Reporting Tool for any issues they may encounter.
Footnotes
[RS-340], Testing by AMD Performance Labs as OF August 24, 2020 using a test system configured with an Ryzen 7 3800XT CPU, 16GB DDR4-3200MHz memory, a Radeon™ RX 5700 XT graphics card and Windows 10 x64 with Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3, vs. a similarly configured system with Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.1, using the game Fortnite™ on the Epic preset and DirectX®12. Performance may vary.
Important Notes
AMD Ryzen™ Mobile Processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics FAQ for Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition can be found here.
Package Contents
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 installation package contains the following:
- Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.8.3 Driver Version 20.20.27.01 (Windows Driver Store Version 27.20.12027.1001).
