Miscellaneous Changes

Linux

It is no secret that despite AMD's best intentions, users on Linux distributions have generally had better performance with NVIDIA products and drivers. AMD wanted to make sure we are aware of the fact that they continue to work on Linux support for Radeon products, with a single suite "Radeon Software for Linux" now containing both open- and closed-source software stacks. This single suite also allows for easy switching between Radeon Software for the consumer side and Radeon Pro Software for the workstation. In addition, there is an AMD Vulkan open-source driver which will potentially enhance Vulkan development on the Linux platform while also enabling running of games such as F1 2017, which only use Vulkan when on Linux.

User Feedback

Going through the slide deck, it wasn't hard to notice AMD specifically mentioning core technologies in terms of top-voted features by the Radeon user community. Indeed, the top three most voted features included Radeon Wattman, Radeon Chill, and Enhanced Sync, which all got updates with this driver release. AMD wants the users to know they prioritize their driver development on user feedback, and welcome it accordingly. In order to do so, click the star icon in the top-right of the driver control panel window, which then opens up a browser tab for a list of ideas that can be voted upon. Here, you can see the top-voted features, and note that the votes are not normalized for time, so it just makes the number of votes for Enhanced Sync show just how important it is for AMD and others to focus on creating a stutter-free gaming experience without input lag.

Freesync per game

FreeSync continues the discussion above by introducing support for variable refresh rate displays and, despite the slower entry to the market relative to G-Sync, now offers more monitors at a wider price range. Combined with Enhanced Sync, AMD aims to offer a better experience at a lower entry barrier. While FreeSync has not received a major update with this driver, you now have the option to toggle it on/off for specific games just in case you experience issues. To their credit, AMD followed up immediately by saying they had not seen a single game that needed this, but that also just confuses us further as to why this was even implemented then.

Themes

Rounding off the updates with the Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition is the addition of themes to the driver. There are three themes to choose from to customize the look further, and presumably this means more support for themes/skins will be incoming as well.