AMD's 16.7.1 Driver Boosts RX 480 Performance & Reduces Power Consumption

AMD releases Crimson 16.7.ane driver. Delivers on its hope to amend the performance of the RX 480 and reduce its power consumption. The RX 480's PCIe power draw is at present within the 75W PCI SIG standard recommendation. Additionally, the new driver also introduces performance boosts and a new optional low ability profile. Which when enabled brings the card's overall power consumption down fifty-fifty further at no performance toll compared to the previous xvi.6.2 driver.

The company appear the 16.7.i driver two days agone and promised to release it today. It's now upwardly for grabs on the company'due south website. Cerise xvi.7.1 download link.

AMD's full argument - published 00:17 AM on Midweek July the 6th, 2022

Nosotros promised an update today (July 5, 2022) following concerns effectually the Radeon™ RX 480 cartoon excess current from the PCIe bus. Although we are confident that the levels of reported power draws by the Radeon RX 480 practise not pose a risk of damage to motherboards or other PC components based on expected usage, we are serious about addressing this topic and allaying outstanding concerns. Towards that cease, we assembled a worldwide team this past weekend to investigate and develop a driver update to improve the ability draw. We're pleased to report that this driver—Radeon Software xvi.7.1—is at present undergoing final testing and will be released to the public in the adjacent 48 hours.

In this driver we've implemented a modify to address power distribution on the Radeon RX 480 – this change will lower current fatigued from the PCIe bus.
Separately, we've also included an selection to reduce total power with minimal performance impact. Users will notice this as the "compatibility" UI toggle in the Global Settings card of Radeon Settings. This toggle is "off" past default.

Finally, we've implemented a drove of functioning improvements for the Polaris architecture that yield performance uplifts in pop game titles of up to 3%. These optimizations are designed to ameliorate the operation of the Radeon RX 480, and should essentially offset the performance impact for users who cull to activate the "compatibility" toggle.

AMD is committed to delivering loftier quality and high functioning products, and nosotros'll continue to provide users with more control over their production's performance and efficiency. Nosotros appreciate all the feedback so far, and we'll continue to bring further performance and performance/W optimizations to the Radeon RX 480.

AMD xvi.seven.ane Driver Reduces RX 480 PCIe Ability Describe & Boosts Operation

Credit : PCWorld

Brad Chacos - PCWorld
As you can meet, Radeon Ruby-red xvi.7.1 doesn't hinder functioning whatsoever. In fact, in most scenarios operation actually improves cheers to optimizations made in the driver—even when the more stringent Compatibility mode is enabled. Bravo!

Permit's first await into the performance boost. PCWorld found that the RX 480 was faster across the board with the sixteen.7.1 driver compared to the previous 16.6.two version, fifty-fifty with the low power "compatibility mode" profile enabled.

The new driver also successfully addresses concerns regarding power draw from the motherboard slot. PCPer and Tom's Hardware measured power draw from the slot directly with the new driver installed. The result was dramatically lower power depict from the motherboard slot.

We examined the power consumption of all 3 voltage rails and their sums. With the new driver, total describe does increment past around 3W, but load on the motherboard slot (PEG) drops by a whopping 10W!

Interestingly the new driver allows the RX 480 to maintain higher heave clock speeds, which contributes three watts to the overall power draw. Although we're talking about a 1.8% increase in overall power consumption for a three% increase in performance. All the while drawing less ability from the motherboard slot. This is all the more reason to go and download the new driver if you're an RX 480 owner.