AMD has unveiled its latest update for the Radeon Software Crimson graphics driver. The new update, which is dubbed as 17.7.2, comes with plenty of features that will make gaming on Radeon cards more “pleasurable.” Whilst there are plenty of improvements and features that come with this graphics driver, we’re instead going to talk about four of the most prominent ones.
Enhanced Sync: A VSync Alternative
The biggest addition that comes with Radeon Software Crimson 17.7.2 has got to be Enhance Sync. According to AMD, Enhanced Sync is “a display technology which helps minimise screen tearing while decreasing latency and stuttering at a framerate not locked to refresh rate.” In short, this feature allows a graphics card to gain the benefits of Vsync without high stutters and framerate limitations.
AMD claims Enhanced Sync has around 92% decreased stutter compared to Vsync – this was tested with Overwatch. The red company has also said that this feature will work even better when combined with FreeSync displays. Despite this, it’s worth mentioning that Enhanced Sync is only compatible with RX 400 and RX 500 series of graphics cards; RX Vega too, of course.
To enable Enhanced Sync, one has to first navigate to the “Game Manager” on Radeon Settings. Once there, the feature can be found under the “Wait for Vertical Refresh” drop down menu.
New Features For Radeon WattMan
Another interesting addition to Radeon Software Crimson 17.7.2 is two brand new features for the WattMan overclocking tool: Memory IUnderclocking and Power State Controls. The former feature will allow one to have better “engine overclocking” control over their graphics cards. This, of course, will result in better stability and efficiency of one’s Radeon graphics card.
The Power State Controls feature, as the name implies, gives consumers with the ability to control the P-states of a Radeon GPU for better power efficiency and performance.
Radeon Chill Now Expanded
Prior to Radeon Software Crimson 17.7.2, AMD’s Radeon Chill feature was only made compatible with some of its desktop graphics card. This time round, the company has announced that this feature is now compatible with notebook GPUs, multi-GPU setups, and XConnect (external graphics enclosure technology).
According to AMD, Radeon Chill will benefit multi-GPU systems in terms of power consumption. The company claims that this feature improves power consumption by up to 29% (tested using Overwatch). Meanwhile, for notebooks, AMD said that Radeon Chill will improve battery life by up to 30% (tested with League of Legends).
Radeon ReLive Improvements
Finally, AMD has also introduced a few improvements for its Radeon ReLive recording tool; one of them being support for recording at a higher bitrate. With Radeon Software Crimson 17.7.2, gamers will now be able to record their games at an impressive bitrate of up to 100Mbps. Besides that, the company has also introduced “refined notifications” for ReLive to provide gamers with real-time updates during recording.
In addition, Radeon ReLive now features enhanced audio controls as well. This feature enables a user to adjust audio features like adjusting the microphone volume and binding push to talk commands. Lastly, users will also be able to add a webcam feed straight onto their stream as well.
