AMD has been working feverishly to resolve intermittent black screen issues affecting some Radeon RX 5700 series owners, but hasn't quite eliminated the problem entirely. If you own a 5700 series graphics card and are still experiencing them, you should try installing AMD's latest GPU driver.
The update (20.4.2) address nearly a dozen issues, several of which are related to system hangs and crashes in various scenarios. It's not just the Radeon RX 5700 series, either.
One of the fixes listed in the release notes highlights an issue with Radeon RX Vega cards hanging or running into a black screen when running the Folding@home client while simultaneously running an application that uses hardware acceleration. AMD also says it fixed an issue that caused XSplit to hang or freeze when switching scenes.
Here's the full list:
- Radeon RX Vega series graphics products may experience a system hang or black screen when running Folding@home while also running an application using hardware acceleration of video content.
- A system crash or hang may be experienced when using Edge browser to play Netflix content.
- XSplit may experience an application hang or freeze when performing a scene switch.
- Minor stuttering may occur when performing a task switch with performance metrics overlay open in some games.
- Overwatch may experience an intermittent crash while entering a game or during extended gameplay sessions.
- Radeon RX 5700 series graphics product system configurations may intermittently experience a display loss or black screen while gaming or on desktop with a limited number of displays.
- Radeon Software may experience an application crash when playing games with non-alphanumeric characters in the game title.
- Radeon RX Vega series graphics products may experience an application crash with Microsoft Teams when hardware acceleration is enabled.
- An ‘Unable to get requirements’ error message may intermittently occur when viewing the Upgrade Advisor tab in Radeon Software.
- Radeon RX Vega series graphics products may experience a system crash or TDR when playing games with Instant Replay or Record Desktop enabled.
- Resolved an install issue where Error 1603 could occur when an installation prerequisite for Visual C++ was not correctly detected as installed.
The black screen issue affecting some RX 5700 owners is the one that's been lingering since the start of 2020. Last month, AMD asked users who were still running into the issue to submit a bug report on a special site dedicated to the problem.
"If you’re still experiencing any issues on your system, we kindly encourage you to submit a bug report so we can get to work on fixing them. Posting issues on Reddit and other community forums, although helpful, does not necessarily mean we’ll be able to spot your post or get enough information from it, so the best way to get issues resolved quickly would be to submit your report directly to us," AMD stated in a blog post," AMD said at the time. We'll have to wait and see if this latest driver update resolves the problem for good.
In addition to the various bug fixes, AMD notes its driver is optimized for Gears Tactics, which Wes found to be a "shockingly good strategy game," and Predator: Hunting Grounds.
You can download the driver through the Radeon Software utility, or head to AMD's website to grab and install it manually. And for general tips on good practice, check out our guide on how to update drivers.
