AMD's latest GPU driver arrives with RX 5600 XT support and several bug fixes

(Image credit: AMD)

I can't think of the last time AMD or Nvidia launched a new graphics card without also pushing out an updated GPU driver. Today is certainly not one of those times. The Radeon RX 5600 XT joins AMD's growing arsenal of Navi cards, and with it comes a new Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.1.3 driver release with full support for the new card.

That essentially means you should see the best performance on that specific card with this specific driver, as opposed to sticking with an older driver. Beyond that, there is no mention of any game-related optimizations. It's a relatively minor driver update in the grand scheme of things, though it does bring with it a bunch of bug fixes.

Here's the full list of bugs AMD's driver team crushed with this release:

  • An intermittent black screen or loss of display may occur when performing parallel actions such as web browsing, gaming or watching video.
  • A limited number of games such as Nioh, Dragon Quest Builders 2, WWE 2K20, Dead or Alive 6, and Atelier Ryza may crash or fail to launch.
  • Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus is not detected in Radeon Software games manager.
  • Text overflow in some UI boxes or toast messages may be experienced in some language localizations.
  • Fan Tuning may change back to the default state when switching between available GPUs.
  • Copy text options are not available in the display specs table for Radeon Software.
  • An intermittent black screen or loss of display may occur when the system is left idle at desktop.
  • Factory Reset install may keep previously configured Radeon Software game profiles. This can cause mismatch between global graphics settings and per profile settings.

AMD has been fixing issues at a furious pace since releasing its overhauled Adrenalin 2020 Edition driver platform at the beginning of the year. To some extent, that's to be expected, given the number of improvements and new features. Ideally, bug fixes should taper off over time.

That said, there are several known issues AMD is working to resolve. They include the following:

  • Grand Theft Auto 5 may experience a system hang or black screen at launch, when opening Radeon Overlay while in game, or after performing a task switch while in game.
  • Audio may intermittently be missing from Radeon ReLive recordings near the end of recorded clips.
  • Integer Scaling may cause some video content to show flicker when the display resolution is set to less than native resolution.
  • Multiple games may have very dark or very bright graphics in game when HDR is enabled in Windows.
  • Radeon Anti-Lag enable and disable beep notifications may be played in error when individually pressing keys assigned to the hotkey.
  • The Radeon Software Overlay hotkey notification may sometimes be displayed during video playback in web browsers or launching some video player applications.
  • Integer Scaling option is not showing up or available on some Windows 7 system configurations.
  • Radeon Software may open with an inconsistent size or may not keep its previously set size when opened.
  • Some Vulkan gaming applications may crash when performing a task switch with Radeon Image Sharpening enabled.
  • Some Radeon RX 5700 series graphics users may intermittently experience a black screen while gaming or on desktop. A potential temporary workaround is disabling hardware acceleration in applications running in the background such as web browsers or Discord.

You can update to latest Adrenalin driver release through the Radeon Software utility, or follow this link to grab the newest release manually. And as always, check out our guide on how to update drivers for tips on best practices.

As to the Radeon RX 5600 XT, if you're thinking of buying one, check out this roundup of all the available cards (as well as ones that are not in stock but available to preorder).

Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).