AMD Radeon 19.7.3 Drivers Increase RX 5700 Series Idle Fan

AMD’s current Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.7.Three beta drivers seem to interrupt the fan settings of reference-design Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 playing cards. All earlier drivers for these playing cards provided good idle fan-speeds, regardless of the dearth of fan-stop, with the fan of Radeon RX 5700 XT idling round 14% or 740 RPM. Once the brand new 19.7.Three drivers are put in, the fan-speed by no means drops beneath 23% or 1,170 RPM. This phenomenon could be noticed even on the reference RX 5700, which now idles at 22% fan-speed, or 1,130 RPM, up from 13% or 685 RPM. This will increase fan pace RPMs by 66% for the RX 5700 XT and +57% for the RX 5700. To exhibit this bug, we first put in reference RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 playing cards with 19.7.2 drivers, and logged their idle fan-speeds utilizing GPU-Z. Next we switched to 19.7.Three and recorded the identical knowledge for a very idle card, sitting on the desktop.

The raised idle fan-speeds maintain the GPU cooler when idling. With 19.7.2, the GPU hotspot was noticed to be round 42 °C. Booting from 19.7.3, we see hotspot temperature settle right down to round 38 °C for the RX 5700 XT, and to 37 °C for the RX 5700. Such a small distinction at such low temperatures actually should not have any impact on longevity or the rest. On the opposite hand, greater fan-speeds additionally imply that the idle fan-noise ranges are noticeably greater, and not match the idle fan-speeds measured in launch-day opinions by TechPowerUp and different tech publications.

Update (30/07): We can affirm that the 19.7.four drivers launched late Monday don’t repair this difficulty.

In our opinions we praised AMD for wonderful idle fan speeds that make their playing cards whisper quiet in idle, regardless of the dearth of the idle-fan-stop characteristic. With 19.7.2, the the cardboard’s idle noise output was measured at 27 dBA. With 19.7.Three and its idle fan pace raised, our RX 5700 XT now has an idle fan-noise output of 29.four dBA. The RX 5700 went from 27.eight dBA to 29.7 dBA.

Maximum fan speeds are unaffected, as a result of each playing cards are configured with a sure most RPM fan pace restrict, which is reached after round half a minute of gaming. It appears that in gaming, that restrict takes precedence over the change in fan pace noticed with 19.7.3 Beta.

It’s additionally extraordinarily shocking that AMD’s driver patch notes do not point out such a big change in any respect. There have to be a log of somebody making modifications within the related driver code? While we will perceive that not every part that is new will get reported publicly, particularly if it impacts uncommon edge circumstances, or apps used solely by few customers, adjusting the fan pace type of modifications the product that AMD offered to their prospects, and they need to be made conscious of such modifications promptly.

We reached out to AMD for remark and hope that is only a bug that will get addressed within the subsequent driver replace.

Update: The 19.7.four drivers do not repair this difficulty, neither is it a part of the “known issues” within the driver’s changelog.