AMD has promised better performance for both Warcraft and Radeon fans. AMD’s Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.1.4 GPU driver update comes with a whole new wave of optimization for Warcraft 3: Reforged.
This coincides with Blizzard’s decision to launch Warcraft 3: Reforged, an updated version of the class RTS.
If you currently run your PC with a Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card you should see a performance boost of up to 11% when the latest driver is installed. Another game the driver is also optimized for is Journey to the Savage Planet, which should also experience a performance boost.
What Does The Driver Update Include?
The 20.1.4 driver update comes with a series of bug fixes that iron out a few glitches that have been associated with the Vulkan API.
Some of the bug fixes and glitches this driver addresses are listed below:
- Some Vulkan API games experience crashes during task switching when the Radeon Image Sharpening feature is enabled
- Audio might be missing from Radeon ReLive recordings
- Integer Scaling option might not show up or be available on some Windows 7 PCs
- Radeon ReLive might not be able to switch recording to desktop while Radeon Software is open
- Text overflow can occur in toast messages in certain languages
- Red Dead Redemption 2 might experience square or block texture during gameplay when using the Vulkan API
- Grand Theft Auto 5 could experience system hang or black screen when launching while opening Radeon Overlay or performing task switching.
This is a pretty good number of bug fixes which shows that AMD is dedicated to improving user experience through driver releases. Hopefully, we will see something similar for other graphics cards in AMD’s lineup.
Unresolved Issues Remaining
However, this doesn’t cover all the issues with Radeon cards. The release notes highlight a list of eight known issues that are likely to affect the 5700 series of graphics cards.
These unresolved issues include:
- Loss of display with working audio while performing a mode change on Radeon RX 5800 series of graphics cards
- Integer Scaling might cause video flickering when the display resolution is set to less than native
- System crashes might happen while running Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers
- Some games might experience very dark or bright graphics when HDR is enabled in Windows
- Notifications for Radeon’s Anti-Lag might enable or disable when individually pressing keys assigned to the hotkey
- Radeon Software might open the wrong size or might not keep a previously set size
- Radeon Software Overlay hotkey notification might sometimes appear during video playback in web browsers
- Some Radeon RX 5700 series cards could experience a black screen during gaming. This could be temporarily solved by disabling hardware acceleration in apps running in the background
Will Other AMD Card Owners Get A Performance Boost Too?
Unfortunately, we don’t know what other Navi, Vega, or Polaris card owners can expect when it comes to performance boosts while running Warcraft specifically. AMD has only mentioned the Radeon RX 5700 XT so far.
If we do hear more updates from AMD regarding optimization for other games or new drivers for a different series of GPUs, then we will keep you posted.