AMD Releases Unified Radeon Software 18.5.1 Drivers

AMD 18.5.1 Driver WHQL Certified

With both dedicated GPUs and APUs, AMD has a large number of drivers to juggle around. Every now and then, the company released a unified driver. This resets the updates for both product families to bring them in line. After an earlier unified released in Q1 2018, AMD is releasing another new unified driver. The new WHQL Radeon Software 18.5.1 drivers are now available to the public.

The new driver is important for a number of reasons. First, it brings official Windows 10 April 2018 Update support after beta support last month. Second, it provides support for Microsoft’s new PlayReady 3.0 DRM. For now, PlayReady 3.0 is only available for RX 400 and RX 500 desktop GPUs. AMD is also claiming some performance boosts, with Ancestors Legacy between 6% and 13% faster. We also have some bug fixes. Most importantly, Netflix corruption for multi GPU configurations is fixed and Radeon ReLive won’t fail Facebook uploads or stream. The Radeon Settings “Restore Factory Defaults” will also work properly now.

AMD Warns Of Installation Bug

For known issues, there are still a number of them pending. Interesting is the stuttering in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. As an older title, it is good to see a fix come out for it still. Radeon Overlay is also having issues with the borderless fullscreen mode. More troubling are two performance bugs. Radeon ReLive Instant Replay may cause stuttering when combined with FRTC. Also, some systems may hang after Radeon Software install if Radeon Settings is launched without a reboot.

Given the last known issue, users should take care when installing or updating Radeon Software. For a while, users have become complacent with live updates working most of the time. Hopefully, AMD will deliver a fix for this issue and for the stuttering soon. Given the late release this month, we likely won’t be getting another driver until June. You can find the full release notes and driver downloads here.