AMD RX 480 Power Draw Fix (16.7.1) Will Impact FPS, Resolve GTA V Stutters

We've already had hands-on experience testing AMD's new 16.7.1 driver update, following the 16.6.2 release with the RX 480 cards. Our testing instituted an early beta version of the driver for our 4GB vs. 8GB RX 480 benchmark, which showed that initially reported GTA V stuttering issues have since been resolved.

Unknown to us at the time of the 4GB vs. 8GB benchmark, the 16.7.1 update also aims to resolve some of the PCIe bus power draw concerns. AMD's pre-weekend statement indicated an update on July 5, which was released as below:

“We promised an update today (July 5, 2016) following concerns around the Radeon RX 480 drawing excess current from the PCIe bus. Although we are confident that the levels of reported power draws by the Radeon RX 480 do 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 end, we assembled a worldwide team this past weekend to investigate and develop a driver update to improve the power draw. We're pleased to report that this driver-Radeon Software 16.7.1-is now undergoing final testing and will be released to the public in the next 48 hours.

In this driver we've implemented a change to address power distribution on the Radeon RX 480 - this change will lower current drawn from the PCIe bus.

Separately, we've also included an option to reduce total power with minimal performance impact. Users will find this as the 'compatibility' UI toggle in the Global Settings menu of Radeon Settings. This toggle is "off" by default.

Finally, we've implemented a collection of performance improvements for the Polaris architecture that yield performance uplifts in popular game titles of up to 3%. These optimizations are designed to improve the performance of the Radeon RX 480, and should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the 'compatibility' toggle.

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

We've already speculated that the driver could potentially impact gaming performance, and the above update directly indicates that this will be the case. See the text: “These optimizations are designed to improve the performance of the Radeon RX 480, and should substantially offset the performance impact for users who choose to activate the 'compatibility' toggle.”

It sounds like the power throttle will likely impact clock-rate stability, as we projected. The fix will reduce power through PCIe in favor of additional power through the power header, within normal limitations of that cable. The patch should resolve power distribution between the PCIe connector, which is able to draw its own power through the board, and the power cable. We will validate this on our end to determine the FPS and gaming impact resulting from AMD's RX 480 patch. The patch will be public by Thursday.

* = Made some edits after initial publication.

- Steve “Lelldorianx” Burke.