AMD has just released a new Crimson driver fix for their latest video card Radeon RX 480's large power consumption. The graphics card manufacturer also added a Compatibility toggle for the driver.
According to PC Gamer, they found an issue in regards to Radeon RX 480's exceeding PCIe spec for power draw. The extra draw of power from the PC motherboard would be safe for most high end PC setups, but it could damage cheap or dirty ones, especially if they are overclocked. The graphics card manufacturer has promised to release a new driver update to fix the issue as soon as possible, and recently they released the Crimson 16.7.1 drivers.
The Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.1 implements a modification to how the latest AMD video card draws its power. The new fix lets it shift things around so it will consume the extra power through the 6-pin power connection this time, and not through the PCIe slot in the motherboard. The power connection is built to draw more power, which means the video card will now draw the extra power directly from the power supply on the PC.
For those who are worried about the new fix, the video card manufacturer also added a Compatibility toggle in the Global Settings for the drivers, according to PC World. This option can bring power levels down to its official specification for the motherboard and the 6-pin connector, if the PC owner opts for it. It is usually turned off by default, but this allows the card to have a minimal performance impact.
The testers of the RX 480 actually found two issues in regards to power consumption. The first problem was drawing too much power from the PCIe slot, but the second one was AMD's introductory Polaris that sometimes exceeded its rated total power consumption of 150W. The new Crimson driver solves the two issues the latest video card generated, but it is still up to the users to decide if they want to sacrifice its performance for overall power consumption.
The new driver update has also fixed different issues like the limited PCIe bandwidth that the video card had. It fixed different issues from several PC video games that occurred before the update was installed. The occurrence of a minor flicker when Freesync is enabled when a game is launched was also fixed by it.
Check out the video card's overview video below: