We're now half-way through April and typically at this time of year new PC games are few and far between. However there is an exception to that rule this week as Saber Interactive launch World War Z, a 4-person cooperative 3rd-person shooter. Marking the occasion, AMD are rolling out a brand new driver update, offering day-0 support for the game including some pretty significant performance improvements.
Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 is the second April GPU driver update from AMD. Chief among its improvements are optimisations for World War Z, boasting up to 24% greater average frame rates depending on hardware and rendering resolution. Normally anything from 7-15% is pretty exceptional, so clawing back almost 25% is certainly an achievement worth updating for.
Part of the improvement may well be down to World War Z's support for Shader Intrinsics, a mechanism by which developers can directly access graphics hardware without going through an API abstraction layer. Not only that, World War Z also incorporates Rapid Packed Math, Async Compute and Vulkan API rendering, all of which Radeon GPUs are almost purpose-built for.
In addition to World War Z RSAE 19.4.2 also offers optimal support for Anno1800, an RTS game set in the 1800's published this week by Ubisoft.
You can download the driver directly from AMD.com/support and selecting the applicable GPU. The driver is compatible with 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 10, and GPU hardware based on their GCN architecture (HD7000-series and younger).
Release Notes
Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 Highlights
Support For
World War Z™
- Up to 24% greater performance with AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2, on a Radeon™ VII in World War Z. RS-293
- Up to 19% greater performance with AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2, on a Radeon™ RX Vega 64 in World War Z. RS-292
Anno 1800™
Known Issues
AMD Radeon VII may experience screen flicker in multi display setups on desktop or while applications are running.
Netflix™ Windows® Store application may experience display flicker during video playback on some HDR enabled displays.
Performance metrics overlay and Radeon WattMan gauges may experience inaccurate fluctuating readings on AMD Radeon VII.
Performance metrics overlay may experience intermittent flicker when playing back protected content with this feature enabled.
System instability may be experienced on ASUS TUF Gaming FX504 laptop when a wireless display is connected.
Important Notes
AMD Ryzen™ Mobile Processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics FAQ for Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition can be found here.
Footnotes
Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of April 4th, 2019 on the 16GB Radeon™ VII, using a test system comprising of Intel i7 7700K CPU (4.2 GHz), 16GB DDR4 memory, and Windows 10x64. PC manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. World War Z (Vulkan™) with the ultra-preset at 1920x1080, when running Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.1, the Radeon™ VII scored 143.7 FPS while Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 scored 177.7 FPS. Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 shows 24% greater performance. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. [RS-293]
Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of April 4th, 2019 on the 8GB Radeon™ RX Vega 64, using a test system comprising of Intel i7 7700K CPU (4.2 GHz), 16GB DDR4 memory, and Windows 10x64. PC manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. World War Z (Vulkan™) with the ultra-preset at 1920x1080, when running Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.1, the Radeon™ RX Vega 64 scored 133.4 FPS while Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 scored 158.7 FPS. Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 shows 19% greater performance. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. [RS-292]
Package Contents
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 installation package contains the following:
- Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 Driver Version 18.50.31.05 (Windows Driver Store Version 25.20.15031.5004)
Support For
World War Z™
- Up to 24% greater performance with AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2, on a Radeon™ VII in World War Z. RS-293
- Up to 19% greater performance with AMD Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2, on a Radeon™ RX Vega 64 in World War Z. RS-292
Anno 1800™
Known Issues
AMD Radeon VII may experience screen flicker in multi display setups on desktop or while applications are running.
Netflix™ Windows® Store application may experience display flicker during video playback on some HDR enabled displays.
Performance metrics overlay and Radeon WattMan gauges may experience inaccurate fluctuating readings on AMD Radeon VII.
Performance metrics overlay may experience intermittent flicker when playing back protected content with this feature enabled.
System instability may be experienced on ASUS TUF Gaming FX504 laptop when a wireless display is connected.
Important Notes
AMD Ryzen™ Mobile Processors with Radeon™ Vega Graphics FAQ for Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition can be found here.
Footnotes
Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of April 4th, 2019 on the 16GB Radeon™ VII, using a test system comprising of Intel i7 7700K CPU (4.2 GHz), 16GB DDR4 memory, and Windows 10x64. PC manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. World War Z (Vulkan™) with the ultra-preset at 1920x1080, when running Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.1, the Radeon™ VII scored 143.7 FPS while Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 scored 177.7 FPS. Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 shows 24% greater performance. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. [RS-293]
Testing conducted by AMD Performance Labs as of April 4th, 2019 on the 8GB Radeon™ RX Vega 64, using a test system comprising of Intel i7 7700K CPU (4.2 GHz), 16GB DDR4 memory, and Windows 10x64. PC manufacturers may vary configurations, yielding different results. World War Z (Vulkan™) with the ultra-preset at 1920x1080, when running Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.1, the Radeon™ RX Vega 64 scored 133.4 FPS while Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 scored 158.7 FPS. Radeon™ Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 shows 19% greater performance. Performance may vary based on use of latest drivers. [RS-292]
Package Contents
The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 installation package contains the following:
- Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.4.2 Driver Version 18.50.31.05 (Windows Driver Store Version 25.20.15031.5004)
