Latest AMD Radeon drivers are meant to address black screen issues

[Julio Franco]

In our recent opinion piece 'Gamers are ditching Radeon graphics cards over driver issues' we discussed how a portion of Navi-based Radeon owners have been suffering from black screen and other instability issues. We haven't gone through this, but many gamers have. This is a real shame considering GPUs like the Radeon RX 5700 series tend to provide killer value.

The latest Radeon Adrenaline 20.2.2 drivers are all about addressing these with extensive patch notes that will hopefully minimize the problems for Radeon RX 5500, 5600 and 5700 series owners. Highlights in the fixed bugs section include:

• Performing a task switch with some Radeon Software features enabled or some third-party applications with hardware acceleration running in the background may cause a system hang or black screen.
• Improvements have been made that allow for more responsive fan ramp up or fan ramp down times on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products.
• When Instant Replay is enabled, a TDR or black screen may occur when launching games or applications.
• A black screen may occur when toggling HDR on in the game settings of Battlefield V.
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt may experience an application hang or black screen during certain parts of the game or intermittently during gameplay.
• Some video content in Chrome may appear as a black screen or be unresponsive on Radeon RX 5000 series graphics products when hardware acceleration is enabled.

Those have been sorted out on the new 20.2.2 drivers though AMD acknowledges in the release notes that "some users may still experience black screen or system hang issues during extended periods of gameplay," and they're actively working to detect and fix those.

Typically we like to give both AMD and Nvidia a few months to iron out bugs when releasing a new GPU series, especially when they're based on a new architecture, as was the case with Turing and Navi. Nvidia went through a fair share of teething issues with Turing, but they went on top of most major issues quickly. AMD, on the other hand, has had several months to sort out Navi and this is coming way too late, which will no doubt bite them back.

As discussed recently, we haven't run into any major issues after countless hours of testing new Radeon GPUs in our labs, but one useful piece of advice that has saved us from having to troubleshoot software glitches is to use the Display Driver Uninstaller tool (DDU) to remove previous driver installations before installing updated drivers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/84228-latest-amd-radeon-drivers-meant-address-black-screen.html

 

[wiyosaya]

All it takes is a site like TS to light a fire...

 

[nnguy2]

All it takes is a site like TS to light a fire...

AMD developers were already reaching out and having discussions on r/amd before the article came out.

 

[Irata]

Good news. Better quality and QC is always welcome.

That said, not having any issues so I will wait for the next whql driver.

 

[grumblguts]

Im AMD user and I didnt suffer a single black screen.
I think its down to people not having a clue what they are doing that is the problem.
Im using latest driver over eyefinity and not seeing anything different.

https://imgur.com/kT4iGUv

 

[nnguy2]

Im AMD user and I didnt suffer a single black screen.
I think its down to people not having a clue what they are doing that is the problem.
Im using latest driver over eyefinity and not seeing anything different.

https://imgur.com/kT4iGUv

Comments like this make no one look good. The majority of people what had black screen issues are enthusiasts that build their own pcs and probably more knowledgeable average consumers.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

AMD developers were already reaching out and having discussions on r/amd before the article came out.

What you fail to mention is that the developers were having "discussions" on reddit and the forums before even navi came out. Things like the black screen problem have been commonly brought to AMD's attention for YEARS, and the stuttering issues have been vocally explained to AMD since Navi came out. These problems were conveniently ignored until the tech media started running stories on AMD leaving their customers high and dry.

Just like frame pacing issues, which AMD users made AMD aware about as far back as the X1000 series, but AMD said was "user error" or "not an issue" Until Nvidia's FCAT test was released, when the HD 7000 series released, then all of a sudden the issue received the first of many fixes two months later.

almost like there is a pattern of AMD ignoring their customers until the media catches wind.

 

[CharmsD]

All it takes is a site like TS to light a fire...

When you want a crowd, play for a crowd. da da dum, smoke on the w

 

[fadingfool]

What you fail to mention is that the developers were having "discussions" on reddit and the forums before even navi came out. Things like the black screen problem have been commonly brought to AMD's attention for YEARS, and the stuttering issues have been vocally explained to AMD since Navi came out. These problems were conveniently ignored until the tech media started running stories on AMD leaving their customers high and dry.

Just like frame pacing issues, which AMD users made AMD aware about as far back as the X1000 series, but AMD said was "user error" or "not an issue" Until Nvidia's FCAT test was released, when the HD 7000 series released, then all of a sudden the issue received the first of many fixes two months later.

almost like there is a pattern of AMD ignoring their customers until the media catches wind.

AMD didn't aquire ATi until 2006 - one year after the X1000 was released.

 

[Adi6293]

Good, my wife ordered a Sapphire RX5700XT Nitro+ Special Edition last night to go with her Ryzen 7 3700X, hopefully there is no issues with the drivers because I will have to deal with it : - P

 

[grvalderrama]

Good, my wife ordered a Sapphire RX5700XT Nitro+ Special Edition last night to go with her Ryzen 7 3700X, hopefully there is no issues with the drivers because I will have to deal with it : - P

You'd only need to uninstall old drivers, run ccleaner to wipe out any register issue and install newest drivers, reset pc and you are good to go... it really isn't that hard.

 

[JimboJoneson]

You'd only need to uninstall old drivers, run ccleaner to wipe out any register issue and install newest drivers, reset pc and you are good to go... it really isn't that hard.

That's exactly what the new drivers did. When I updated it spent a good 5 minutes cleaning and rebooting, and then cleaning some more before re-installing, then rebooting again.

I would guess that alone solved 85% of the issues ...

 

[JimboJoneson]

Comments like this make no one look good. The majority of people what had black screen issues are enthusiasts that build their own pcs and probably more knowledgeable average consumers.

So knowledgeable enthusiasts had these issues, but uneducated average consumers had far less problems ... because? Who are these "enthusiasts" you refer to that can't get around these issue as well as an average consumer?

I'd say what is more likely is that a few enthusiasts that had problems, also have a large audience through various platforms, so everyone hears about it. (clicks and views and likes 'n' stuff also play into this)

I am sure I am not the only one noticing that most of the complaints are coming from people who don't even own an AMD card. Just an observation I had ...

Glad to hear that it is all resolved for those who had issue. (I also have an AMD card and experienced no issues at all with the updated driver suite)

 

[CharmsD]

You'd only need to uninstall old drivers, run ccleaner to wipe out any register issue and install newest drivers, reset pc and you are good to go... it really isn't that hard.

Except when it is.

I would guess that alone solved 85% of the issues ...

So you're only missing 15% of a graphic cards functionality. Neet.

 

[CharmsD]

So knowledgeable enthusiasts had these issues, but uneducated average consumers had far less problems ... because? Who are these "enthusiasts" you refer to that can't get around these issue as well as an average consumer?

I'd say what is more likely is that a few enthusiasts that had problems, also have a large audience through various platforms, so everyone hears about it. (clicks and views and likes 'n' stuff also play into this)

I think (don't know) they've simply reversed the two groups.

I am sure I am not the only one noticing that most of the complaints are coming from people who don't even own an AMD card. Just an observation I had ...

And you know this to be true because...? Speculation?

 

[nnguy2]

So knowledgeable enthusiasts had these issues, but uneducated average consumers had far less problems ... because? Who are these "enthusiasts" you refer to that can't get around these issue as well as an average consumer?

I'd say what is more likely is that a few enthusiasts that had problems, also have a large audience through various platforms, so everyone hears about it. (clicks and views and likes 'n' stuff also play into this)

I am sure I am not the only one noticing that most of the complaints are coming from people who don't even own an AMD card. Just an observation I had ...

Glad to hear that it is all resolved for those who had issue. (I also have an AMD card and experienced no issues at all with the updated driver suite)

Me and every other posters I've interacted with on r/amd. When you troubleshoot the issue to death and it's still recurring because it's driver related, it's not just ******* users not knowing how to use the hardware.

I even shared my save files with AMD developers so they can replicate and troubleshoot the bug in Navi cards that downclocks DX9 games.

The exact opposite of what you are describing is occurring: knowledgeable enthusiasts have trouble with their card and people on r/amd OR r/amdhelp try to help. What ends up happening is you get 80% of dumbasses who DON'T even own the card, offer advice like "have you DDU before update drivers, have tried turning freesync off, have you tried, turning enhanced syn off, have you tried running at stock, have you tried clean windows install."

No, every single one of us with black screen crashes and/or aggressive downclocks have tried nothing and was just sitting with our thumbs us our asses the whole time.

 

[JimboJoneson]

So you're only missing 15% of a graphic cards functionality. Neet.

Yes, because each issue consumed 100% of all various functionality. Cool math eh?

Alright you got me - I usually word may posts better than that.
"solved the issues for 85% of the users experiencing problems" --- better?

 

[JimboJoneson]

I think (don't know) they've simply reversed the two groups.

The entire premise of his post was based on that being true ... so I doubt it. Just horribly flawed logic.

And you know this to be true because...? Speculation?

The word I used was "observation" ...

I read through all the threads and forums re this issue, and since everyone tends to publish their PC specs, I can see through observation, that there are generally more complaints coming from Nvidia users ... this thread is a good start to try and notice this, but feel free to check others as well.

I`m not saying there was no issues (but I didn't have any, aside from manual fan settings), and I am sure someone will conflate my observation as stated with whether or not there was any issues (again, failed logic), so I`m pre-emptively throwing out that disclaimer.

 

[JimboJoneson]

Me and every other posters I've interacted with on r/amd. When you troubleshoot the issue to death and it's still recurring because it's driver related, it's not just ******* users not knowing how to use the hardware.

True in some cases for sure, and I would suspect that you are that ~15% I referred to in the previous post to that one you quoted, who's issues could not be resolved using any typical means. I never said anywhere that no one had any issues and everyone was faking it ... lol. Holy conflation, Batman!

You have to admit, that to believe that only enthusiasts or that enthusiasts had the vast majority of issues vs consumers can't possibly be right (statistically speaking). That was my point ... Not that enthusiasts didn't try harder to resolve their issues, I assume they did. But I would think the number of consumers having issues they couldn't solve would be higher.


BTW, did the latest driver update work for you? (seriously curious)

 

[CharmsD]

Yes, because each issue consumed 100% of all various functionality. Cool math eh?

All math is additive including negatives. Don't mistake me for someone who gives a ****, I just happen to have memorized the minus of 15 from 100.

And you fell for it. Five sigma for everyone!

Alright you got me - I usually word may posts better than that.
"solved the issues for 85% of the users experiencing problems" --- better?

I threw a forum cop badge at it and it bounced right off. I'd say it's perfect, without regard to the redundancy of an extraneous 'experiencing'. A++++

 

[nnguy2]

True in some cases for sure, and I would suspect that you are that ~15% I referred to in the previous post to that one you quoted, who's issues could not be resolved using any typical means. I never said anywhere that no one had any issues and everyone was faking it ... lol. Holy conflation, Batman!

You have to admit, that to believe that only enthusiasts or that enthusiasts had the vast majority of issues vs consumers can't possibly be right (statistically speaking). That was my point ... Not that enthusiasts didn't try harder to resolve their issues, I assume they did. But I would think the number of consumers having issues they couldn't solve would be higher.


BTW, did the latest driver update work for you? (seriously curious)

Yes fixed all my issues. Bfv used to crash within 2p mins, no crashes since patch about 10 hrs worth of game play. I can even lock clock speed in dx9 games (witcher 1), couldn't do that before.

 

[JimboJoneson]

Yes fixed all my issues. Bfv used to crash within 2p mins, no crashes since patch about 10 hrs worth of game play. I can even lock clock speed in dx9 games (witcher 1), couldn't do that before.

Nice ... I'm going to have to check if my manual fan curve setting will work without it getting all weird on me.

 

[nnguy2]

Nice ... I'm going to have to check if my manual fan curve setting will work without getting all weird on me.

Manual fan works too. Previously manual fan settings were disregarded, eg. I set my fans at 45% (1700rpm) but older drivers would run at 2100 ish. They stick at 45% 5700xt red devil.

 

[JimboJoneson]

...
I threw a forum cop badge at it and it bounced right off. I'd say it's perfect, without regard to the redundancy of an extraneous 'experiencing'. A++++

I tend to hold myself to a very high communication standard ... I get enough people not understanding what I am trying to say without the need for me to complicate things with poor wording, lol.

 

[JimboJoneson]

All math is additive including negatives. Don't mistake me for someone who gives a ****, I just happen to have memorized the minus of 15 from 100.

And you fell for it. Five sigma for everyone!



I threw a forum cop badge at it and it bounced right off. I'd say it's perfect, without regard to the redundancy of an extraneous 'experiencing'. A++++

Oh but that "redundant" word is integral to my message ... Without it, we are back to the possibility of your what I assumed to be your first interpretation ... that 85% of functionality had been restored ... it could logically be taken that way.

However, with the added word "experiencing", I force the logic to mean 85% of people, had their problems resolved (actually it might be everyone but it was a guess), a different metric, and the one I intended. So perhaps without intention, you did catch me in a communication generalization (something I try to avoid.) that rendered my intent inaccurate. Not that you care ... just saying.