Black Myth: Wukong is an action RPG that elegantly straddles the line between the demanding combat of Soulslike games and the adventurous exploration of classic RPGs. However, the comparison to Soulslike games stops mostly at its shrines for revives. We would put this game closer to a God of War or Nioh style as It’s a linear action-adventure game with Boss Rush type of levels. Whether you’re seeking intense battles against creatures drawn from Chinese mythology or a more forgiving experience with equally engaging encounters, this game delivers a journey that resonates with a broad spectrum of players. Its stunning presentation and generous design philosophy truly set Black Myth: Wukong apart.

You’re not just playing a game; you’re embarking on a visually spectacular odyssey, where you wield a staff as a highly agile monkey, armed with a suite of powerful spells set on a polished and well-performing engine is also technically impressive and a great benchmark for current gamers. It’s been a long time since a game has left such an impression on me.

Black Myth: Wukong Review- An Action Adventure with Cinematic Brilliance

Based on the classical Chinese novel Journey to the West, the game places you in control of the “Destined One,” a reincarnation of Wukong, a legendary monkey who once rebelled against Heaven. Your mission? To remind the various Yaoguai (mythical creatures) that Wukong is back in the game, ready to reclaim the glory Wukong deserved. The gameplay is smooth and combat can often make you feel like you are in an anime, which is why I think it is resonating with many gamers. It has all the right elements of visceral combat, amazing art, wonder, and imagination that beg you to explore it. The polish is clear and minor details, like the flourishes the character does after combat or while in battle, show how much the developer Game Science cared for its presentation.

Black Myth: Wukong offers a captivating blend of cinematic moments and challenging gameplay. The game’s chapters are interspersed with interactive artworks that summarize the story’s progress, connecting back to the source material. There are even some wonky but cool music videos/aminations that help tell the story. A particular one with a white fox was incredible to watch.

While these story elements might be difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with the original tale, they add a layer of depth and authenticity that enriches the experience. The narrative can be somewhat opaque, however, as we have to suffer with a silent protagonist yet again.

We dislike this game design choice – especially after one of the best prologues in recent memory with a fantastic voice actor for the “original Wukong”. Why could we not have that throughout the game? Sure, the Destined One, the player that you control might not be able to have the same voice but anything would have been better than nothing. It feels like a huge missed opportunity and I hope we stop seeing this, especially since the rest of the game is so well-voiced. The sheer spectacle and dramatic encounters make the journey worthwhile for sure but it would have been nice to get some feedback from your character.

Gameplay

The level design itself is mostly linear and some parts of chapter 2 are not the best but it is a worthwhile journey throughout. As you progress, you also gain keys to areas you passed before so can travel back to even near the start of the game for some powerful unlocks. This is optional but it was great to go back and find those mysteries and unlock every secret piece of armor. There is a charge staff for example that builds directly into the smash stance and buffs your damage.

The enemy types you encounter here are also great. A big criticism of some recent games like Dragon’s Dogma 2 or The First Descendant is the sheer lack of different enemy types as you progress. Elden Ring, a masterpiece itself, repeats bosses and this is fine with us as long as they have varied mechanics or fight patterns. Black Myth: Wukong bosses are varied and incredible to play with and even the one huge-head boss that I found a repeat off was different enough and required a different strategy.

There were some frustrating moments for me with certain bosses like a certain crouching one near a temple but I was able to backtrack and get some upgrades to my staff and come back and learn from my previous mistakes. You could also take a different branching path to level up and complete that area or try to brute force your way. That is what makes gaming incredibly fun and rewarding and there is plenty of this here. The game features 90 unique bosses, each with distinct mechanics and designs.

This is not to say the game is perfect, the bosses certainly have some very bad “cheese” and can lead to some “wtf was that?” moments but aren’t the worst we have ever seen. The typical enemies are hiding behind corners or mobs jumping you randomly but it’s still a great deal of fun to combat this with the tools you are given. That being said, the majority of bosses we defeated in one or two tries with some of the more difficult bosses requiring multiple attempts – keep in mind we are mediocre at these types of games.

The combat in Black Myth: Wukong is fluid and dynamic, with an emphasis on stylish staff maneuvers and well-timed dodges. Combat involves combos of light and heavy attacks, different stances, and special abilities. The game offers some deep strategic challenges based on the encounters during its chapters. Players can upgrade their abilities through a skill tree using “Sparks” and customize their builds with equipment and relics, with the flexibility of free re-specs. There is no parry without using up mana with a spell that turns you into a rock, if you time this perfectly it can help stagger large bosses and turn the tide.

Alternatively, you can build into going invisible and leaving behind a clone so you can charge a 3-focus point heavy attack that causes massive damage. There is enough variety here to keep it fun but you still only be playing with a staff throughout the game.

Speaking of focus points, this is an important part of combat, you have to string together light attacks to gain a meter that provides focus points – these you can then spend during combos or a charged heavy attack to unleash a powerful hit.

***Spoiler warning, boss fight*** (also mediocre gameplay warning)

You will also fight mid-tier enemies that you can then capture and embody during battle (spirits), you can also eventually find full-body transformations that you can turn into for a set time during battle – this really helped me during some tougher fights. Defense-wise, Black Myth is rooted in the Soulslike tradition—dodging enemy attacks, managing stamina, and strategically using health-restoring Gourds (akin to flasks). There is no block, however, and as mentioned above instead you have a parry spell that is there if needed.

But unlike many Soulslike games, Black Myth: Wukong strikes a balance that makes it accessible to a wider audience. You do not lose all your progress or “souls” when you die but instead get resurrected at your last shrine to try the level again and again where you can craft spells, tweak armor, increase spirit level, brew power-ups, and so on. It is a great system that doesn’t rely on heavily punishing the player.

The game’s linear but richly detailed environments offer a more focused experience compared to the sprawling open worlds of games like Elden Ring. Thankfully though the world feels authentic and meticulously crafted, encouraging exploration without overwhelming the player.

There are a lot of nooks and crannies to visit for secrets or unlocks and its rewarding throughout and respects your time. Not once did I feel like I fought through a tough horde of enemies just to get some measly gold, even if it occurred in some chests it still felt great.

What did not feel great, however, was the camera. Elden Ring suffered from the same issues, a large enemy locks you in a corner and you cannot tell what you are doing sometimes and are spamming dodge to try to get to a better visual area. It was frustrating at times. For example, in a later chapter, you can drop down into a path with a chest at the end, and suddenly you are surrounded by a dozen or so enemies all hitting you at once while surrounded by walls that the camera is running into – we got through it but not without some gamer rage.

Performance and Benchmarks

Visually, Black Myth: Wukong is breathtaking. The attention to detail in the environments, from the intricate architecture to the atmospheric lighting, is simply awe-inspiring. The game’s world is a visual feast, with every corner offering something new to marvel at. While the game’s design includes some typical video game constraints, such as invisible walls, these are easily forgiven given the overall beauty and immersion. The game boasts high-quality visuals and designs inspired by Chinese mythology, although it occasionally experiences frame rate issues. Maybe about 1% of my time with it I did experience some frame drops or hitching but other than that it’s been incredible.

Black Myth: Wukong does feature path tracing:

The game includes Nvidia’s DLSS Frame Generation which is an AI-driven technology that enhances gaming performance by generating new frames, integrating low latency for responsiveness, and utilizing the advanced features of NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace architecture. This technology, combined with NVIDIA Reflex, significantly boosts performance while maintaining high image quality. It also includes AMD’s FSR 3.0 for upscaling and frame gen.

In Black Myth: Wukong, advanced ray tracing techniques, including full-resolution multi-bounce indirect lighting, reflections, and caustics, are employed to create a visually stunning and immersive experience. These techniques enhance realism, particularly in lighting, reflections, and shadows, elevating the overall graphical fidelity of the game.

Team Green is taking the cake here, although we do wish we had an RX 7900 XTX to compare with the performance numbers show the optimization, DLSS, and frame gen are working wonders to make this game perform well. AMD is playable, however, with lower-end cards performing close to Nvidia’s lower-end offerings.

Unreal Engine 5 is doing well here to not require an enormous amount of RAM like Resident Evil 4 and many recent games.
Here are the minimum requirements:

Performance:
Black Myth: Wukong 1920×1080 (medium), RT OFF

Black Myth: Wukong 1920×1080 (Cinematic), RT Very High

Black Myth: Wukong 2560×1440 (Cinematic), RT Very High

Black Myth: Wukong 2560×1440 (Cinematic), DLSS Quality

Conclusion:

In summary, Black Myth: Wukong is a remarkable achievement—a game that not only meets but exceeds the lofty expectations set by its early trailers. Black Myth: Wukong has garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews and achieved the second-highest concurrent player count on Steam, praised for its engaging gameplay, polished experience, and absence of microtransactions.

Most gamers who play on 1920x1080p will be able to fully enjoy this game but max settings will require a much more powerful card. Our 4080 Super ran this game perfectly with Full settings on and it was a blast to play.

It’s a generous, beautifully crafted adventure that offers both challenge and spectacle, making it a must-play for fans of action RPGs. Game Science has truly announced itself as a major player in the genre, and Black Myth: Wukong is a clear statement that they are here to compete with the best.

Happy gaming!

This review key was provided by Nvidia, this was not in exchange for a positive review and does not change our review process or influence our scores. Thank you, Nvidia!

Overview: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is a powerhouse graphics card, designed for high-end gaming and demanding creative applications. It excels in delivering top-notch performance, thanks to its advanced NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture.

The RTX 4080 SUPER sits above the RTX 4080 which did not have a great reception at launch due to its higher price point. Since launch, the price has come down but its still very high. The RTX 4080 SUPER is launching at an MSRP of $999 which makes it much more attractive – the only issue is if gamers can actually find it at this price at launch and we hope so. The RTX 4080 is being replaced by the SUPER variant in its current lineup. This is the 3rd and final refresh from Nvidia at $200 cheaper than its counterpart but the performance leap is surprisingly low here.

Key Features:

1. New Streaming Multiprocessors: Enhanced performance and power efficiency, delivering up to 2x improvements.
2. 4th Generation Tensor Cores and Optical Flow: Powers AI technologies like NVIDIA DLSS 3 for improved frame rates.
3. 3rd Generation RT Cores: Offers up to 2x ray tracing performance, creating highly detailed virtual environments.
4. Ada Memory Subsystem: Increased L2 cache for better performance, reduced memory traffic, and power efficiency.
5. Shader Execution Reordering (SER): Doubles the efficiency of ray tracing operations.
6. DLSS 3.5: AI-driven graphics enhancement for higher performance and ray tracing quality.
7. NVIDIA Studio: Optimal performance for 3D rendering, video editing, and live streaming.
8. AV1 Encoder: 8th generation encoder providing 40% more efficiency than H.264, benefiting streamers, broadcasters, and video callers.

Let’s unbox this card and discuss it further on the next page.

PROS

• Improved performance over Original RTX 4070 Ti, near RTX 4080 Performance
• Larger 16GB memory pool
• No price increase

CONS

• Pricing compared to AMDs offerings

Overview
The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is a tour de force in the realm of gaming GPUs, boasting an impressive arsenal of AI-powered capabilities and ray tracing technology. Aimed squarely at PC gamers who seek the pinnacle of visual quality, this GPU offers a seamless experience in top-tier games like Alan Wake 2, Cyberpunk 2077, Resident Evil 4, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.

We received the ASUS TUF GAMING RTX 4070 Ti SUPER from Nvidia a little later than we would like due to weather and shipping issues, hope everyone is safe out there! We had around 2 full days to test this card. However, we were able to put it through some great tests and its a fantastic addition to the lineup, replacing the existing RTX 4070 Ti and with the RTX 4080 SUPER coming shortly the lineup is stacked very well for Nvidia.

AI and Ray Tracing Performance
Central to its prowess is NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology, now in its third iteration, which allows for AI-generated pixels, enhancing ray tracing performance by up to four times while maintaining superior image quality. This is particularly evident in its ability to render seven out of eight pixels through hardware-accelerated AI.

Technical Innovations
Powered by the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER features new Streaming Multiprocessors that double performance and power efficiency. It also includes the latest generation of Tensor Cores and RT Cores, which significantly elevate ray tracing capabilities. The Ada Memory Subsystem and Shader Execution Reordering (SER) are other notable enhancements, boosting performance and efficiency.

Gaming and Studio Performance
The GPU shines in 1440p gaming, rendering games at high frame rates even at 4K resolution. Compared to its predecessors, it shows marked improvements – 1.6 times faster than the RTX 3070 Ti and 2.5 times with DLSS 3. NVIDIA Studio further enhances its appeal for creative professionals with unmatched performance in 3D rendering, video editing, and live streaming.

Specifications
Equipped with 8,448 CUDA Cores, 16GB of GDDR6X memory, and a 256-bit memory bus, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is designed to handle demanding games and applications. The inclusion of the 8th generation NVIDIA Encoder (NVENC) with AV1 support underscores its capability in streaming and broadcasting.

Unboxing:

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard (Intel Z690 chipset, v.1008 BIOS)
• CORSAIR Vengeance RGB PRO 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3600 MHz XMP)
• RTX 4070 SUPER FE, Stock Clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• RTX 4070 FE 12GB, stock clocks; supplied by Nvidia
• ASUS TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Ti OC Edition 12GB, stock clocks; supplied by Nvidia
• RTX 3080 FE 10GB, stock clocks
• RTX 3070 FE, stock clocks
• 1 x TeamGroup 1 TB NVMe M.2 SSD
• 2 x WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM850x, 850W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ALIENWARE 34″ CURVED QD-OLED GAMING MONITOR – AW3423DWF

Test Configuration – Software

• NVIDIA GeForce 551.15 game-ready press drivers; ‘Prefer maximum performance’ (on a per-game profile basis); Shader Cache Size ‘Unlimited’ (globally); fixed refresh rate (globally).
• We enable Resizable BAR
• ‘V-Sync application controlled’ in the control panel; V-Sync off in-game.
• We note and specify the main in-game display, graphics, AA, and scaling settings in the performance summary charts.
• Windows 11 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v22H2, High-performance power plan, HAGS & Game Mode are enabled, Game DVR & Game Bar features off, Control Flow Guard (CFG) off on a per-game basis, Hypervisor and Virtualization-based security are disabled.
• We do not install ASUS tools.
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark suite, the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• FrameView, the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall drivers using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.
• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

GeForce Driver Suite-related

• We use DCH Game Ready drivers.
• The display driver is installed.
• We install the latest version of PhysX.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture

• We use FrameView for capturing frame times and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
  
  
• Nvidia Control Panel settings
  Here are the global Nvidia Control Panel settings:

Benchmarks:
Here is the horizontal bar chart showing the 1080p gaming performance comparison across various GPU models:

1920×1080, 1080p

Here is the horizontal bar chart showing the 2560×1440 gaming performance comparison across various GPU models.
2560×1440 Benchmarks:

3840×2160 Benchmarks

Conclusion

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER stands as a formidable choice for gamers and creatives alike. Its blend of AI-powered graphics, ray tracing performance, and technological innovations make it a compelling upgrade for those seeking the very best in PC gaming and content creation.

Nvidia claimed a 10% increase of the previous model and we did achieve mostly that in our testing, with some slightly lower than quoted. Its obvious this card easily surpasses the original model at the same price and its really close to the original RTX 4080 performance point at significantly less than MSRP for the RTX 4080. This will change soon with the upcoming launch of the RTX 4080 SUPER at its lowered price point of $999.00.

The real decision for gamers, in our opinion, looking for a card at this level is looking for a used RTX 4080 or something at this similar price. If you are looking for a new card that can compete with the RTX 4080 for lower entry cost then this is a good choice.

The 7900XT is the obvious value king if you could find one. In response to the SUPER launch, AMD has dropped the 7900XT from $899 to $749. We do not have one of our own to test with but if you do not care about Ray Tracing these cards will be a great value alternative. If DLSS 3 is compelling for gamers who do not mind it, it really comes down to availability and your preference for this technology.

Our RTX 4070 SUPER review is here and that is a good sweet spot for 1440p gamers at a much more palatable price point at $599.

These have been great refreshes and really what we would have liked the original versions to be at launch. The SUPER releases continue next week with the RTX 4080. We look forward to reviewing this and see you soon!

We received the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and XFX RX 7700 XT QICK 319 last week from AMD and have been comparing them in our test bench focusing on raw performance and comparing them directly with their competitors. We received an XFX RX 7700 XT QICK 319 that will cost $459.99 and it launches today. The $499 7800 XT also launches today – with both offering Starfield to make the deal even more compelling.

As you will see AMD is here to play and fiercely sets these GPUs at the top of gamer’s lists. With some significant leads in performance when compared to thier direct competitors. Both the 7700 XT and 7800 XT have many of the same software and hardware features that can often sway many purchasing decisions like FSR 3 and AV1 encoding, but they still struggle to compete in games that feature rasterization.

Features & Specifications

Nvidia’s offerings around this price point left gamers less than impressed with lower VRAM and higher pricing. Although we loved the features like DLSS 3 and rasterization performance, which may be deal breaker for some gamers who want to experience this.

However, pricing was high for raw performance received for non-rasterized games and AMD is on the right path to briging pricing in line. Only gamers can decide if price-to-performance gains here are worth the cost of entry.

AMD is also launching FSR 3 today, September 6th. Purists who do not like upscaling will brush this aside but the latest version of the AMD’s upscaling tech is competing directly with DLSS 3 as it also includes frame generation. As you recall, frame generation is the killer feature that lets us wholeheartedly recommend Nvidia’s offerings for the 40 series of GPUs.

AMD’s FSR 3 includes “Fluid Motion Frames” (frame generation) and “Native Anti-Aliasing,” an FSR mode to sharpen anti-alias games instead of upscaling. This is very exciting and a tech many raw performance enjoyers can fully employ without losing fidelity.

AMD’s FSR 3 will be available for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Forspoken, Cyberpunk 2077, Immortals of Aveum, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Frostpunk 2, Squad, Starship Troopers: Extermination, Black Myth: Wukong, Crimson Desert, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. The feature does not launch with Starfield today which only features FSR 2 and this is a miss in our book, It would have been amazing to bundle these GPUs alongside the tech launch. We will be testing this feature post-launch alongside Nvidia’s offerings.

Alongside FSR 3, Hypr-RX is also launching. This is a toggle that can automatically turn on FSR, Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, and other image processing techniques within AMD’s software for gamers.

Let’s take a look at performance and unboxing

For all the pre-launch chatter and years of build-up, we can rest easy! Starfield is downright incredible. Starfield is the best thing Bethesda has ever done – even besting my favorite entry in the series, New Vegas. I loved Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, and especially Oblivion so I am a huge Bethesda RPG fan. This will be a mostly spoiler-free review, but we can say with confidence this is a stellar new franchise for Bethesda and a labor of love for the studio. The RPG elements are strong, the secrets are the most I have ever seen in a Bethesda game, and there is much to uncover even in the endgame. There is so much to do and fall deeply in love with.

Starfield will be released tomorrow September 1, 2023, in Starfield Early Access for players who have purchased the Starfield Premium Edition, Premium Edition Upgrade, or the Constellation Edition of Starfield.

For players who purchase the Starfield Standard Edition or subscribe to PC Game Pass, Starfield will be released on September 6, 2023.

That’s not to say that the game is without its flaws – combat can feel awkward, planet traversal is sorely lacking vehicles, and the occasional pop-in for conversations or weird interactions will be seen throughout your journey. The “Bethesda games are always buggy on release” mantra leading up to launch is flat-out wrong, however. I encountered bugs mostly with the conversations because I launched them quickly and my companion could not keep up. There were no game crashes or major bugs after more than 100 hours of playtime.

There are, however, some performance issues. Starfield is extremely CPU-heavy, and even with our RTX 4080, Ryzen 7800x3D build we saw some performance dips. Most egregious – there is no DLSS and this is another title that will exclusively feature AMD’s FSR and FSR2 technology. We will never agree with locking out alternative features, especially since I would have loved to have utilized DLSS 3 on my RTX 4080.

I can see why the game is locked at 30FPS for consoles. Even with 10 months of extra polish time on consoles, there are still some drops in performance. I had a few really hard FPS drops walking into some major cities on the Series S that felt bad, even if they were rare. Hopefully these can be fixed. With some patches, we are sure this will be better. I cannot wait for mods, my mind is racing with the possibilities!

Portable PCs, like the ALLY and Steam Deck
Bethesda explicitly noted not to use Asus’ ROG Ally or Steam Deck in our review as they are below recommended PC spec. I could not even get the ROG ALLY to launch the game due to some weirdness with the Xbox app on our Ally but Xbox/PC streaming worked flawlessly. I had to repair the download, and spam the launch button for it to work after about an hour of messing with updates and settings.

Once loaded, the ROG Ally did run the game decently on low to medium settings with FSR2 enabled while in 15W or 30W mode and it is 100% playable for those who have these portable PCs.

How much will Starfield cost?
Gaming only ever wants to get more expensive. The trend continues here, and if you want early access, you will need to pay $100 or the upgraded difference if you are a Game Pass subscriber. Microsoft has been raising the standard game price to $70 USD, Starfield included. Luckily, Starfield has been confirmed as a day-one addition to Game Pass, so most can experience it without any extra upfront cost.

Starfield is epic in scale – Some may not like this

Let me be clear: Starfield is a near-perfect Bethesda RPG with one of the best campaigns they have ever created. I was genuinely in awe in the latter half of the game, and with respect to Bethesda and your journey, we cannot discuss much that occurs in this portion. There is so much to explore but I did find myself mostly traveling within the major cities.

– 1,000 planets, with many that are mostly resource-gathering areas, but most have their main areas to explore and have fun in with hand crafted secret areas and wildlife to discover.
– Multiple faction quests.
– A plethora of side quests that keep spilling into your lap, begging you to explore and talk to as many NPCs as possible.
– A 40 to 50 hour main story quest.
– Excellent end-game activities to keep you busy including many things we cannot spoil. New Game + is also a warm welcome and a nice twist.

I often found myself drowning in activities (do not ignore these!) that became full-fledged amazing side quests, which I had ignored at first. My advice would be to slow down, and this is where Starfield may be an issue for some who have no patience. The game really and truly does not fully show off everything it has until way after 80-plus hours. I have to really emphasize that the scale is massive, and you will get to see so much more if you take your time and enjoy each individual planet first for all it has to offer.

But that’s the beauty of this game – your journey is going to be massively different from mine. For some, however, who want to unlock all the features or systems at once, they may not like having to invest 100 hours or more to get the game “going.”

Here are a few highlights in my journey while trying to be as spoiler-free as possible:
– I stole over 10 ships and immediately went to jail when I went into orbit near a patrolled planet, not realizing those spacers had contraband onboard
– Got a DJ’s new music back from an overzealous fan.
– Saved a planet from trees’ massive vibrations.
– Spared a man’s life after I learned he only stole a certain thing because he was recently fired and had no other choice.
– Found the source of an anomaly and uncovered the mystery of an artifact.
– Stole a tea recipe so a barista could compete with a megacorp (my companion did not like that).

Missions, side quests, and exploration

There is so much to explore on those far-off planets, so much beckoning that you to hurry to them, that inner child screaming with joy to rush to the end to “power up and unlock it all.” Slow down! Starfield has many, many wild layers to uncover and explore, but I often found myself spending hours on a planet, taking it all in, hours on side quests, and talking to those in a town I just discovered. Then you lift off, steal a ship, fight some space pirates, gather resources, build your outpost, and find a new planet with another hour-long side quest. It’s epic and breathtaking.

I will try to avoid spoilers, so skip to the next paragraph if you wish to avoid a very light spoiler. A perfect example of a favorite moment of mine was running into a derelict ship in orbit – which no one can seem to hail as soon as you pull into the orbit of Paradiso (a paradise Resort planet). The wild quest that unfolds for the secrets inside once you finally board the ship were great. Another was finding a miners simple quest that became a 10+ step mission that was extremely engrossing in Cydonia.

You can easily jump from planet to planet- more on that in a bit. Each feels like its own mini Bethesda game. Want to experience the desert? Head to Akila. Want a cyberpunk planet? Head to Neon. Want to experience something akin to Mass Effects massive cities? Head to New Atlantis. Missions here and the people you run into are varied and fully scripted. It’s so hard to write this review without screaming for you to go explore (spoiler) and fight the legendary (spoiler).

Planet jumping is where I found the most dissapointment. Launching away from a planet or onto once is mostly a menu system. The landing and orbit cutscenes are great but the game loses some of its charm and it would have been amazing to be able to manually take off from a planet if I wanted to.

I am over 100 hours in and have barely scratched the surface of shipbuilding, crafting, modding, and building outposts. Companions are varied and wonderful, and there are many paths for romance or companions to bring along that each have their own conversational style to match your preferred journey. I am not bored, ever. I keep wanting to play because there’s always a different loop I can take. Do I want to finish some side quests, gather resources, or explore new planets? I can easily choose any with the best fast-travel system I have seen. Everything is easily fast-traveled to – with slight limitations during quests – but you can hop from place to place in the blink of an eye. The Series S did have some longer loading screens for me so keep that in mind.

I am very saddened at the fact that there are no land vehicles or ways to easily traverse the planet. I am exploring a planet for a quest that needs to me to survey 100% of the planet in order to complete it. I have been stuck at 98% for over 3 hours with no end in sight moving from location to location to find the missing fauna and it did become frustrating – until I realized I could simply open the world and fast travel across the globe to different physical locations…d’oh!
However, I am still stuck at 98% simply because I got sidetracked with so much to do and the lack of interest in returning to find that missing 2%.

Shipbuilding and space flying are a highlight

Shipbuilding in Starfield is a delightful adventure! It takes a little time to dive into, but once you’re there, it becomes an exhilarating activity as you refine designs, add rooms, balance engines, weight, cargo, and ship systems. I have a fondness for massive spacecraft, not for their power, but because I enjoy wandering around all the rooms and exploring the technology that makes them tick. Although I haven’t delved much into outpost building, it is efficiently designed, allowing you to create attractive bases with relative ease. There are still the same power issues from Fallout 4 but some great options to build and even transport from planet to planet. It’s just not my cup of tea, and the game doesn’t hinge on it except for mass resource collection which I have yet to need.

In the endgame, there is a much greater need to worry about this, so I would say when you first start the game, don’t worry so much about your outposts until maybe 50 hours in, when you begin to start getting overwhelmed with companions.

Space battles are simply one of the best systems Bethesda has ever built. I became quickly addicted even though I knew my ship was severely outclassed. There is nothing I have experienced quite like taking on five spacers at once and barely winning because I was able to knock out all their engines. I kept losing this battle coming into orbit on a planet that I gave up and decided to explore elsewhere – only to see a giant ship land in the distance. I quickly ran over, defeated the owners, made it my new home ship, and instantly got an upgraded ship that was more than the spacers could handle. What a rush!

Starfield is ‘near’ perfect, but there are some minor issues

Bethesda has made some curious decisions and even their refined gunplay from the preview trailer still feels a little off. Some of the game feels like the systems and tech in the Fallout series forced change in Starfield. The need to differentiate between the two “futuristic” franchises is obvious. In Starfield, you get a “watch” that severely lacks the character of the classic Pip-Boy, and some of that classic Bethesda RPG danger feels really off unless you are fighting enemies that over leveled from you. I found myself missing V.A.T.S especially since a version of it exists on your spaceship and things like the menus and radio stations in Fallout. The AI feels set on a path and not as dynamic as I would have hoped but gun fights did feel quite responsive.

No one really tries to flank you or outsmart you and they often get stuck being target practice at their default locations while your are exploring. Most quests and other activities felt better, and there is a “fight to the death” area you can find that is particularly challenging even at high levels. It’s a strange feeling of easily dispatched mobs or “difficult to even pop your head up” fights.

As mentioned earlier, often you will fast travel to a mission marker, which launches a Grav Drive into a planet’s orbit. But the planet is suddenly surrounded by 6 pirate ships that severely outclass you, so you end up in a death loop unless you load a previous autosave. Be prepared anywhere you decide to fly off to. There may be missions or ships that hail you for trades. You never know what you might be traveling to.

Still, the gun diversity, some secrets, boost packs, and looting are extremely well done here. The guns feel incredible at times, but some feel unbalanced – dealing massive damage with a shotgun for example made me quite over powered for a long period of time. I tried switching to the P90 “Grendel” model in the game and it barely scratched the enemies I would shoot. Most of this can be fixed with balance passes.

Basic skills like stealth or pickpocketing require unlocking the core ability, meaning you can’t perform these activities at all until you invest a point in the skill tree. You don’t NEED the skills to perform the actions or get sneak attacks but without the core skill unlocked it feels bad to have something like pickpocketing locked off.

I specifically unlocked the ‘stealth’ trait because, without it, stealth felt very bad, and I did not like the lack of visual feedback. While leveling up to progress is understandable, the complete denial of access to core systems like this is strange and the cost to unlock could have maybe been a part of the quest instead. Leveling takes some time as well and there are so many worthy skill trees begging to be unlocked for you to progress that it feels bad when you have to spend that precious point in what was a default unlock for Bethesda RPGs.

Additionally, with crafting, you can only track entire recipes, not individual ingredients, making encumbrance a constant issue. There are so many heavy items in this game – especially ship parts – to weigh you down and keep track of. Thankfully, your companion can hold things for you, and you can sell or craft using the inventory that is on your ship’s cargo, so no need to hold it all at once or jettison the precious cargo.

Despite these minor hiccups, everything functions smoothly and feels stable. Although there are occasional frame rate stutters and minor glitches, nothing catastrophic has occurred for me. I hovered around 60 to 70 FPS stable on 3440×1440 with an RTX 4080. Thank you, Bethesda, for providing wide-screen support at launch.- a easily added feature so many ignore!

Starfield is visually stunning, with intricately detailed cities and diverse landscapes. One memorable moment involved exploring a moon-like planet or first landing in Neon. Your jaw will be on the floor even on the Series S where the graphics are toned down. I suggest immediately opening your menu and turning off the over-tuned film grain, however.

Starfield is one of the best games of this generation

For me, Starfield is Bethesda’s masterpiece, the hit Xbox needed, and possibly the game of the generation for the Series consoles. This is a system seller that is also available on PC via Steam or the Xbox app and included in Game Pass. I suggest you try it, you will be happy you did. Tears of the Kingdom brought me joy and wonder this year, but there was nothing for me quite like exploring all the wild amount of dialogue and fun to be had in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, or walking into New Vegas for the first time. That feeling is hard to capture and explain – you just have to see for yourself what Bethesda can create.

The worlds Bethesda builds feature dense, lively worlds where every direction offers something new. Walking into an Oblivion gate for the first time or traveling to a new planet – this is what makes gaming great.

I remember first beating Oblivion‘s main quest at over 120 hours and immediately starting another run. Starfield is on a whole other level, with much left to see even after completing the main story. It’s simply a joy to play, and I cannot recommend it more to every gamer.

The feeling of uncovering new things and the natural development in Starfield as you journey through it is unmatched, highlighting Bethesda’s quarter-century of experience and their authentic mastery as one of the best to ever do it. You will literally be overflowing with things to do – or not do- in a universe is teeming with new planets to explore. A definitive masterpiece.

Familiar elements and combat awkwardness exist, but Starfield is completely new, and there are months ahead for me to explore and enjoy. I cannot wait to see the mods and community reaction. Have a blast, and don’t rush!
Starfield gets a 10/10 from BTR. Thank you to Bethesda for providing a review copy.

With up to 16 cores and 32 threads, the Ryzen 7000X3D processors are tailored made to be the fastest gaming processors available, with enough horsepower to drive massive performance in today’s most demanding titles and support a range of tasks like video editing and 3D rendering.

If you already have Intel’s top chip then it is a mixed bag at 4k but this is a very promising and incredible entry from AMD.

BTR is looking forward to testing AMD’s new chips but for now here is a review roundup:

Tom’s Hardware
Eurogamer
Anandtech
Hot Hardware

TechPowerUp

Gaming performance compared to Intel’s Core i9-13900K is slightly higher at 1080p, but at 1440p and 4K, the Intel CPU wins, by a small margin. Here again, the 13900K’s higher operating frequency is what makes the difference. Of course, if the game scales well with more cache, like the titles I mentioned before, there’s simply no stopping the 7950X3D. At 4K, where the bottleneck is with the GPU, the differences are fairly small, and just 5% separates a big range of processors, including the 5800X3D, which is still a fantastic solution for gamers, especially if they already have an AM4 platform setup. You will certainly see reviews today where the 7950X3D is considerably faster on average than in our review. If we only tested Far Cry, Elden Ring and Cyberpunk the delta would be +18% vs 13900K, and if we had Age of Empires, Mount and Blade II Bannerlord and Spider-Man only, the difference would be -19% vs 13900K. Test scene selection is also very relevant, AMD’s own reviewer’s guide lists the 13900K as faster than 7950X3D in Cyberpunk 2077, I see the opposite, same in Far Cry 6. Maybe they’re using the integrated benchmark, I use actual gameplay in all tests. At the end of the day what matters to you is the games that you play. I tried to pick popular titles from various genres, and also included “RT on” testing in two titles for this new 2023 test suite, which also uses RTX 4090 and Windows 11 22H2 with latest drivers and software. All 40 (!) comparison CPUs were retested on this setup in January and February.

This review showcases the latest reference Radeon RX 6700 XT’s Adrenalin driver performance with 17 PC games. We benchmark the Optional Adrenalin 22.7.1 driver released a few days ago versus our previously recommended driver 22.6.1. We perform all tests using the same game version and OS build.

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 Optional driver was released on July 26 primarily to introduce new AMD Noise Suppression technology, expanded hardware support for Radeon Super Resolution upscaling technology, OpenGL performance optimization, and other enhancements.

Our testing platform is a recent Windows 11 64-bit Pro Edition installation, an i9-12900K with stock clocks, an ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3600MHz. The games tested, settings, and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard (Intel Z690 chipset, v.1008 BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3600 MHz CL14 XMP), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• 1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• 2 x WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• 1 x TeamGroup MP33 M.2 PCIe 1TB SSD
• Corsair RM850x, 850W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor for testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor for testing games at 1440p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• AMD Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 drivers, and 22.6.1 drivers; default AMD Radeon features and settings; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• AMD SAM/Resizable BAR On
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 11 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H2; High-performance power plan; Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off; Control Flow Guard (CFG) off on a per-game basis; Hypervisor and Virtualization-based security are disabled.
• We do not install GIGABYTE and ASUS tools.
• Latest DirectX
• All 17 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.2.3
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• We use CapFrameX for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• We always perform consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that we can aggregate using CapFrameX and the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and evaluate the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss and set the following thresholds to consider a % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 17 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 5 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• DirectX Raytracing feature test (DXR)
• Fire Strike Extreme (DX11)
• Port Royal (DXR)
• Time Spy (DX12)

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU (Vulkan, OpenGL, DX12)
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark (DXR)
• Gravity Mark: GPU Benchmark (OpenGL) – NEW
• Neon Noir (Benchmark, DX11)
• UNIGINE Superposition (DX11, OpenGL)

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)

DX12 Games

• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Far Cry 6 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

AMD Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin features and settings are default.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.7.1

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 Optional driver was released on July 26 primarily to introduce new AMD Noise Suppression technology, expanded hardware support for Radeon Super Resolution upscaling, and OpenGL performance optimization, and other enhancements.

The download links for the Adrenalin 22.7.1 Optional drivers can be found starting here. The 22.7.1 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v22.7.1 from AMD Radeon’s website:

• • • Swordsman Remake.
    • Radeon Boost using Variable Rate Shading with Elden Ring, Resident Evil Village, and VALORANT.
    • Microsoft Windows 11 version 22H2.
    • Microsoft Agility SDK Release 1.602 including new minor features.
    • Microsoft Agility SDK Release 1.606 including Microsoft Shader Model 6.7.
    • Additional Vulkan extensions. Click here for more information.
    • AMD Noise Suppression
      • Our newest feature: AMD Noise Suppression reduces background audio noise from your surrounding environment using a real-time deep learning algorithm, providing greater clarity and improved concentration whether you are focused on an important meeting or staying locked in on a competitive game. To learn more, check out our blog post HERE!
    • OpenGL Optimizations
      • Up to 79% increase in performance in Minecraft @ 4k Fabulous settings, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 on the Radeon RX 6950XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.6.1.
      • Up to 75% increase in performance in Minecraft @ 4k Fabulous settings, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 on the Radeon RX 6400, versus the previous software driver version 22.6.1.
    • Radeon Super Resolution
      • Expanded support for discrete Radeon RX 5000 and 6000 series GPUs on AMD Ryzen processor notebooks with hybrid graphics.
      • RSR has been improved to provide a more seamless experience in borderless fullscreen mode with a performance/quality slider to personalize your gaming experience.

Fixed Issues

• • • • Lower than expected Folding@home compute performance with OpenCL API on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6800.
      • Auto Undervolt may disable the Zero RPM fan feature.
      • Hitman 3 may freeze when rapidly switching between windows in Fullscreen Exclusive mode.
      • Video upscaling in browsers appears blurry with some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6900 XT Graphics.
      • Enhanced Sync may cause games to lock to 15FPS with video playback on extended monitors.

The Adrenalin 22.7.1 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 17 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 17 games plus 4 hybrid and 5 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 22.6.1 to 22.7.1 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DXR) and Quake 2 RTX (Vulkan Ray Tracing Pipeline) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Ad renalin 22.7.1 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 22.7.1 Driver Performance – 22.7.1 vs. 22.6.1

From the charts, although we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for the hybrid tests, we see notable performance improvements in Basemark GPU (OpenGL), Gravity Mark: GPU Benchmark (OpenGL), and Superposition (OpenGL) non-synthetic tests.

For the game benchmarks, although many games show no significant differences when we upgrade to the 22.7.1 drivers from 22.6.1, we see significant improvements in Cyberpunk 2077 (DXR), Far Cry 6 (DX12 & DXR), Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12), Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DXR), and Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12) in terms of raw performance; Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12 & DXR) and DOOM Eternal (Vulkan Ray Pipeline) in terms of frametime consistency; but also noteworthy performance regressions in Chernobylite (DX11) and DOOM Eternal (Vulkan and Vulkan Ray Pipeline) in terms of raw performance, Days Gone (DX11), Far Cry 6 (DXR), Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DXR), and Watch Dogs Legion (DX12) in terms of frametime stability.

The noticeable regression in terms of frame time consistency in Days Gone (DX11) with 22.7.1 results in micro-stuttering during gameplay, and The Division 2 (DX11) still shows noticeable hitching and random crashes during gameplay. However, the annoying stuttering we saw in DOOM Eternal (Vulkan Ray Pipeline) with driver 22.6.1 is not present using the latest 22.7.1 drivers.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 11 v21H2. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

The performance of the latest AMD Software Adrenalin 22.7.1 driver was like a roller coaster. Based on our previous results and findings, although we saw some significant and notable performance gains using the latest 22.7.1 driver compared to 22.6.1 drivers, we still see significant performance inconsistencies and notable performance regressions that prevent us from recommending 22.7.1 for general or global use for Radeon users. Therefore, our current recommended driver for RDNA 2.0 gamers is still the Adrenalin 22.6.1 Optional driver or WHQL AMD’s Recommended 22.5.1 drivers for the best functional stability.

Since the Adrenalin 22.7.1 driver can bring notable performance gains in OpenGL games and applications, and in certain DX12 or Vulkan games, we recommend doing your own testing to see how the Adrenalin 22.7.1 Optional driver works with your gaming rig and set of favorite games.

Some qualitative reasons may make it advisable to upgrade to version 22.7.1. These reasons include higher-level driver bug fixes, optimized support for Swordsman Remake and Windows 11 22H2, and support for the latest AMD Radeon technologies, such as AMD Noise Suppression.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka “RodroG”) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.

This review tests AMD’s fine wine theory by showcasing the latest reference Radeon RX 6700 XT’s Adrenalin driver performance with 17 PC games. We benchmark the WHQL Optional Adrenalin 22.6.1 driver released a few days ago versus our nine-month-old recommended driver 21.10.2. We perform all tests using the same game version and the same OS build.

This time, our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 11 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-12900K with stock clocks, an ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3600MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• 12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• ASUS PRIME Z690-P D4 motherboard (Intel Z690 chipset, v.1008 BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3600 MHz CL14 XMP), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• 1 x Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• 2 x WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• 1 x TeamGroup MP33 M.2 PCIe 1TB SSD
• Corsair RM850x, 850W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor for testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor for testing games at 1440p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• AMD Software Adrenalin 22.6.1 drivers, and 21.10.2 drivers; default AMD Radeon features and settings; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• AMD SAM/Resizable BAR On
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 11 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H2; High-performance power plan; Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off; Control Flow Guard (CFG) off on a per-game basis; Hypervisor and Virtualization-based security are disabled.
• We do not install GIGABYTE and ASUS tools.
• Latest DirectX
• All 17 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.2.3
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• The corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence is used.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• We use CapFrameX for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• We always perform consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that we can aggregate using CapFrameX and the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and evaluate the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss and set the following thresholds to consider a % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 17 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)

DX12 Games

• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Far Cry 6 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin features and settings are default.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.6.1

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 22.6.2 Optional (WHQL) driver was released on June 29 primarily for the launch of F1 2022.

The download links for the Adrenalin 22.6.1 Optional drivers can be found starting here. The 22.6.1 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v22.6.1 from AMD Radeon’s website:

Support for F1 2022:

• • • • Up to 5% increase in performance in F1 2022 @ 4k Ultra High settings, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.6.1 on the Radeon RX 6950 XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.5.2.
      • Up to 4% increase in performance in F1 2022 @ 4k Ultra High settings, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.6.1 on the Radeon RX 6800 XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.5.2.
      • Up to 6% increase in performance in F1 2022 @ 4k Ultra High settings, using AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 22.6.1 on the Radeon RX 6750 XT, versus the previous software driver version 22.5.2.

Fixed Issues

• • • • Performance drop may be experienced while playing Fortnite with Multithreaded Rendering and DirectX 11 API on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
      • Stuttering may be experienced while playing Overwatch with some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6700 XT.
      • Higher than expected CPU usage when Instant Replay is enabled on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 6900 XT.
      • Fan Tuning option may be missing on some AMD Graphics Products such as the Radeon RX 590.

The Adrenalin 22.6.1 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 17 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 17 games plus 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 21.10.2 to 22.6.1 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DXR) and Quake 2 RTX (Vulkan Ray Tracing Pipeline) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Adrenalin 22.6.1 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 22.6.1 Driver Performance – 22.6.1 vs. 21.10.2 – Fine Wine?

From the charts, although we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for the hybrid tests, we see significant performance improvements in Superposition (DX11) and Neon Noir (DX11) non-synthetic tests.

For the game benchmarks, although many games show no significant differences when we upgrade to the 22.6.1 drivers from 21.10.2, we saw notable performance improvements in most DX11 games such as Borderlands 3 (DX11), Days Gone (DX11), Deus Ex Mankind Divided (DX11), and Far Cry New Dawn (DX11), as well as in Doom Eternal (Vulkan & Vulkan Ray Pipeline) and Quake 2 RTX (Vulkan Ray Query).

The only negative outlier with driver 22.6.1 is The Division 2 (DX11), which showed a noticeable regression in terms of frame time consistency resulting in micro-stuttering during gameplay.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 11 v21H2. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

So, do Radeon cards’ performance get better with age as newer drivers bring more performance? Or asked another way, does the performance comparison of 22.6.1 vs. 21.10.2 drivers act as a good example to support the Fine Wine theory?

Based on our previous results and findings, we answer yes to this question, and we recommend RDNA 2.0 gamers update to the latest Adrenalin 22.6.1 driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall better in most DX11 games and some Vulkan games than with our last recommended driver.

There are relevant qualitative reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 22.6.1. These reasons include a higher level of security and driver bug fixes, optimizations for the latest games, and support for the latest AMD Radeon technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka “RodroG”) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer interested especially in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.

This review showcases Radeon Adrenalin driver performance of the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (RDNA 2.0) with 25 PC games. We use the latest AMD Optional (beta) Adrenalin 21.10.2 driver released a few days ago and compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 21.9.1. We also chart the performance of the 21.8.2 (WHQL) and 21.10.1 (beta) drivers as a reference, and we perform all tests on the same game version and with the same OS build.

For our Adrenalin driver reviews, we use ‘beta’ instead of ‘Optional’ and ‘WHQL’ instead of ‘Recommended’. We don’t use AMD’s Recommended label since we recommend drivers.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3200MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3200 MHz CL14), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p or 1080p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.2 beta drivers, 21.10.1 beta drivers, 21.9.1 beta drivers, and 21.8.2 WHQL drivers; Radeon features ‘Disabled’, texture filtering quality set to ‘High’, and tesselation mode set to ‘Use application settings’; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• Resizable BAR off – Why? Read main reasons here.
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H1, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 25 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 25 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Fire Strike Ultra
• Port Royal
• Time Spy Extreme

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• UNIGINE Superposition

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Far Cry 6 (DX12) – NEW
• Godfall (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Myst (2021, DX12)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin settings are set so that all optimizations are off, Texture filtering is set to ‘High’, and Tessellation uses application settings. These settings are used across all drivers so that the performance of each driver version can be compared accurately.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.2

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.2 beta driver was released on Monday (10/11/21) primarily for the launch of Back 4 Blood and The Riftbreaker.

The download links for the Adrenalin 21.10.2 beta drivers can be found starting here. The 21.10.2 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v21.10.2 from AMD Radeon’s website:

Support For

• • • • Back 4 Blood
      • The Riftbreaker

Fixed Issues

• • • • Driver timeouts or black screens may be experienced while playing Assassin’s Creed Origins on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon RX 580 Graphics.
      • Some users may experience a game freeze when they attempt to launch Dota 2 using OpenGL.
      • Open Broadcaster Software may continue to run in the background after a user ends a recording session and closes the application.

The Adrenalin 21.10.2 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 25 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 25 games plus 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 21.9.1 to 21.10.2 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Days Gone and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12 & DXR) and Watch Dogs: Legion (DXR) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Adrenalin 21.10.2 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 21.10.2 Driver Performance – 21.10.2 (beta) vs. 21.9.1 (beta)

From the charts, we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests using our RX 6700 XT.

For the game benchmarks, although most games show no significant differences when we move to the 21.10.2 beta drivers from the 21.9.1 beta driver version, we see significant performance improvements in Far Cry 6 and Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan API mode) in terms of raw performance, and in Myst (2021) and Ghost Recon Breakpoint (Vulkan API mode) in terms of frametime consistency.

Note that the performance improvement we see in Far Cry 6 using the latest beta driver would be also in line with the following AMD’s statements included in the 21.10.1 driver release notes:

• • • Up to 10% increase in performance in Far Cry 6 @ 1080p Ultra Settings with raytracing enabled, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 on the 12 GB Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver version 21.9.2.
    • Up to 12% increase in performance in Far Cry 6 @ 4K Medium Settings, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 on the 16 GB Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver version 21.9.2.
    • Up to 13% increase in performance in Far Cry 6 @ 1440p Medium Settings with raytracing enabled, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.10.1 on the 8 GB Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver version 21.9.2.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 10 v21H1. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend RDNA 2.0 gamers update to the latest Adrenalin 21.10.2 beta driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our previously recommended driver 21.9.1 using our RX 6700 XT.

There are relevant qualitative reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 21.10.2. These reasons include a higher level of driver bug fixes and support for the latest AMD Radeon technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer especially interested in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.

This review showcases Radeon Adrenalin driver performance of the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (RDNA 2.0) with 24 PC games. We use the latest AMD Optional (beta) Adrenalin 21.9.1 driver released a few days ago and compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 21.8.2. We also chart the performance of the 21.6.1 (WHQL) drivers as a reference, and we perform all tests on the same game version and with the same OS build.

For our Adrenalin driver reviews, we use ‘beta’ instead of ‘Optional’ and ‘WHQL’ instead of ‘Recommended’. We don’t use AMD’s Recommended label since we recommend drivers.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3200MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3200 MHz CL14), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p or 1080p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.9.1 beta drivers, 21.8.2 beta drivers, and 21.6.1 WHQL drivers; Radeon features ‘Disabled’, texture filtering quality set to ‘High’, and tesselation mode set to ‘Use application settings’; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• Resizable BAR off – Why? Read main reasons here.
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H1, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 24 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 24 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Fire Strike Ultra
• Port Royal
• Time Spy Extreme

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• UNIGINE Superposition

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Godfall (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Myst (2021, DX12)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (DX12) – NEW
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (VK) – NEW
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin settings are set so that all optimizations are off, Texture filtering is set to ‘High’, and Tessellation uses application settings. These settings are used across all drivers so that the performance of each driver version can be compared accurately.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.9.1

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.9.1 beta driver was released on Monday (09/13/21) primarily for the launch of Deathloop and Call of Duty Vanguard Open Beta.

This new driver also brings support for AMD Smart Access Memory on Radeon RX 5000 Series Graphics, Microsoft Windows Insider Program for Windows 11, and four more Vulkan API extensions.

The download links for the Adrenalin 21.9.1 beta drivers can be found starting here. The 21.8.2 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v21.9.1 from AMD Radeon’s website:

Support For

• • • • Deathloop
      • Call of Duty Vanguard Open Beta
      • AMD Smart Access Memory on Radeon RX 5000 Series Graphics
      • Microsoft Windows Insider Program for Windows 11

Added Vulkan Support

• • • • VK_KHR_zero_initialize_workgroup_memory
      • VK_KHR_shader_integer_dot_product
      • VK_EXT_shader_atomic_float2
      • VK_EXT_load_store_op_none

Fixed Issues

• • • • Visual artifacts in PAYDAY 2 may be observed during gameplay on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon RX 6800 XT.
      • Connecting two displays with large differences in resolution/refresh rates may cause flickering on Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.
      • On Radeon RX 5500 XT Graphics, higher than expected memory clock speed and power consumption may be experienced when idle and the display’s resolution and refresh rate are set to specific values such as 1080p @ 60Hz.
      • While playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, driver timeouts or black screens may be experienced on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon RX 480 Graphics when the user quickly navigates through the game menus or swiftly looks around an environment with their character.

The Adrenalin 21.9.1 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 24 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 24 games plus 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 21.8.2 to 21.9.1 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Days Gone and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12 & DXR) and Watch Dogs: Legion (DXR) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Adrenalin 21.9.1 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 21.9.1 Driver Performance – 21.9.1 (beta) vs. 21.8.2 (beta)

From the charts, although most hybrid and non-synthetic tests show no significant differences between drivers using our RX 6700 XT, we see a noteworthy improvement in the DirectX Raytracing feature test and a regression in the Basemark GPU (Vulkan) test.

For the game benchmarks, although most games show no significant differences when we move to the 21.9.1 beta drivers from the 21.8.2 beta driver version, we found significant performance improvements in DIRT 5 (DX12 and DXR API modes) and in Myst (2021, DXR API mode) in terms of raw performance.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 10 v21H1. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend RDNA 2.0 gamers update to the latest Adrenalin 21.9.1 beta driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our previously recommended driver 21.8.2 using our RX 6700 XT GPU.

There are relevant qualitative reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 21.9.1. These reasons include the higher level of driver bug fixes, the optimizations for the latest games, and support for the latest AMD Radeon technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer especially interested in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.

This review showcases Radeon Adrenalin driver performance of the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (RDNA 2.0) with 23 PC games, including Myst (2021). We use the latest AMD Optional (beta) Adrenalin 21.8.2 driver released last week and compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 21.8.1. We also chart the performance of the 21.6.1 (WHQL) drivers as a reference, and we perform all tests on the same game version and with the same OS build.

For our Adrenalin driver reviews, we use ‘beta’ instead of ‘Optional’ and ‘WHQL’ instead of ‘Recommended’. We don’t use AMD’s Recommended label since we recommend drivers.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3200MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3200 MHz CL14), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p or 1080p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2 beta drivers, 21.8.1 beta drivers, and 21.6.1 WHQL drivers; Radeon features ‘Disabled’, texture filtering quality set to ‘High’, and tesselation mode set to ‘Use application settings’; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• Resizable BAR off – Why? Read main reasons here.
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H1, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 23 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 23 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Myst (2021, DX12) – NEW
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Godfall (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin settings are set so that all optimizations are off, Texture filtering is set to ‘High’, and Tessellation uses application settings. These settings are used across all drivers so that the performance of each driver version can be compared accurately.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2 beta driver was released on Thursday (08/25/21) primarily for the launch of Myst (2021), Aliens: Fireteam Elite, and Little Nightmares II: Enhanced Edition.

The download links for the Adrenalin 21.8.2 beta drivers can be found starting here. The 21.8.2 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v21.8.2 from AMD Radeon’s website:

Support For

• • • Myst
      • Up to 6% increase in performance in Myst @ 4K Medium settings with Raytracing enabled, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2 on the 16GB Radeon RX 6800XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver edition 21.8.1.
    • Aliens: Fireteam Elite
    • Little Nightmares II: Enhanced Edition

Fixed Issues

• • • Users may experience difficulties ending a recording session on Open Broadcaster Software when recording in H265/HEVC codec on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon RX 6800 XT.
    • While playing F1 2021 in Split Screen mode, image corruption may be observed on one of the players’ screens.
    • Radeon software application may become unresponsive when some users attempt to launch the application.
    • While playing Control using DirectX 12, users may observe corrupt light rays on some AMD Graphics products such as Radeon RX 6600 XT.
    • Upgrading to the latest Radeon graphics driver may cause the auto update feature on Ryzen Master to stop working.

The Myst (2021) Performance Overview using an RX 6700 XT

Myst (2021), by Cyan Worlds Inc, is the latest remake of the iconic 1990s puzzle-adventure Myst game. Cyan reimagined the original Myst and rebuilt it to play in PC VR and flat-screen PC. Powered by Unreal Engine 4, it features updated and advanced graphics, real-time ray-traced reflections, and support for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) technology to boost performance and deliver high-quality visuals.

We compare and chart Myst‘s performance with our Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card and ray-tracing on and off and its performance with ray-tracing and the different FSR 1.0 settings/modes, using the latest 21.8.2 drivers.

The Myst (2021) Summary Performance Charts

Ray Tracing On vs. Off

Our performance results of Myst (2021) ray tracing on vs. off show an overall good optimization. We tested RT on and off without FSR 1.0 at 1440p resolution and Epic video quality settings and we saw an approximate 29% performance loss using RT on versus RT off.

Below you can see our frametime comparisons of Myst (2021) ray tracing on vs. off.

From the charts, we see that Myst (2021) with ray tracing enabled and FSR 1.0 disabled shows worse frametime consistency/variance than with ray tracing disabled. This is also confirmed using our custom stability formula which shows notable regressions on P1 and P0.2 metrics (approximately -10%).

Ray Tracing & AMD FSR 1.0

Our results show a consistent and notable performance boost in ray-traced Myst (2021) due to the use of any AMD FSR 1.0 setting/mode. In fact, we see a performance increase of +31% going from FSR off to FSR Ultra Quality mode and up to +85% with FSR Performance mode, and we also see that Myst’s (2021) performance scales quite well when you move between the different FSR settings.

So, if you want to play Myst (2021) with ray-traced reflections enabled, we highly recommend enabling FSR 1.0 Ultra Quality or Quality mode to compensate for the notable ray tracing performance penalty while getting good image quality.

Next are our summary performance charts for the latest Adrenalin Software 21.8.2 driver, including comparisons of Myst (2021) with ray tracing on and off using both driver 21.8.1 and the latest 21.8.2 drivers.

The Adrenalin 21.8.2 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 23 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 23 games plus 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 21.8.1 to 21.8.2 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Days Gone and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12 & DXR) and Watch Dogs: Legion (DXR) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Adrenalin 21.8.2 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 21.8.2 Driver Performance – 21.8.2 (beta) vs. 21.8.1 (beta)

From the charts, we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests using our RX 6700 XT.

For the game benchmarks, although most games show no significant differences when we move to the 21.8.2 beta drivers from the 21.8.1 beta driver version, we see significant performance improvements in Cyberpunk 2077 (DXR API mode) in terms of frametime consistency, and in Myst (2021, DXR API mode) in terms of raw performance.

Note that the performance improvement we see in Myst (2021, DXR API mode) using the latest beta driver would be also in line with the following AMD’s statement included in the 21.8.2 driver release notes:

Up to 6% increase in performance in Myst @ 4K Medium settings with Raytracing enabled, using Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.2 on the 16GB Radeon RX 6800XT graphics card, versus the previous software driver edition 21.8.1.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 10 v21H1. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend RDNA 2.0 gamers update to the latest Adrenalin 21.8.2 beta driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our previously recommended driver 21.8.1 using our RX 6700 XT GPU.

There are relevant qualitative reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 21.8.2. These reasons include the higher level of driver bug fixes and support for the latest AMD Radeon GPUs and technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer especially interested in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.

This review showcases Radeon Adrenalin driver performance of the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (RDNA 2.0) with 22 PC games. We use the latest AMD Optional (beta) Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver released two weeks ago and compare these drivers versus our previously recommended driver 21.7.2. We also chart the performance of the 21.6.1 (WHQL) drivers as a reference, and we perform all tests on the same game version and with the same OS build.

For our Adrenalin driver reviews, we use ‘beta’ instead of ‘Optional’ and ‘WHQL’ instead of ‘Recommended’. We don’t use AMD’s Recommended label since we recommend drivers.

Our testing platform is a recent install of Windows 10 64-bit Pro Edition, an i9-9900K with stock clocks, a Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard, and 32GB of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE DDR4 3200MHz. The games tested, settings and hardware, are identical except for the drivers we compare.

Benching Methodology

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i9-9900K (Hyper-Threading/Turbo boost on; stock settings)
• Gigabyte Z390 AORUS PRO motherboard (Intel Z390 chipset, v.F12l BIOS)
• T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB WHITE 32GB DDR4 (2×16GB, dual-channel at 3200 MHz CL14), supplied by TeamGroup
• AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (Reference) 12GB, stock clocks, on loan from AMD
• Samsung 500GB SSD 960 EVO NVMe M.2
• WD Blue 1TB SATA SSD
• Corsair RM750x, 750W 80PLUS Gold power supply unit
• ASUS TUF Gaming VG289Q 28? IPS UltraHD (3840×2160) 60Hz 5ms FreeSync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 2160p resolution.
• ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q 27? IPS QuadHD (2560 x 1440) 165Hz 4ms G-Sync Monitor (Fixed Refresh Rate On) when testing games at 1440p or 1080p resolution.

Test Configuration – Software

• Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 beta drivers, 21.7.2 beta drivers, and 21.6.1 WHQL drivers; Radeon features ‘Disabled’, texture filtering quality set to ‘High’, and tesselation mode set to ‘Use application settings’; AMD FreeSync ‘Disabled’ (when applicable).
• Resizable BAR off.
• V-Sync ‘off, unless application specifies’ in the Software Adrenalin control center; V-Sync off in-game.
• AA and AF as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified.
• Windows 10 64-bit Pro edition, latest updates v21H1, High-performance power plan, HAGS off, Game Mode, Game DVR & Game Bar features off.
• GIGABYTE and ASUS tools not installed.
• Latest DirectX
• All 22 games are patched to their latest versions at the time of publication.
• 3DMark’s suite and UNIGINE Superposition benchmark, the latest version
• Basemark GPU benchmark, v.1.1
• UNIGINE Superposition, v.1.1
• CapFrameX (CX), the latest version
• RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the latest version
• Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), the latest version; always uninstall old driver using DDU in safe mode, clean, and restart.

• ISLC (Purge Standby List) before each benchmark.

Radeon Software Adrenalin Suite-related

• The minimal Radeon Adrenalin Software installation is used.
• We install the display driver.
• We enable the ‘Issue detection’ setting.

Hybrid & Non-Synthetic Tests-related

• Single run per test.

Game Benchmarks-related

• We use the corresponding built-in or custom benchmark sequence.

Frametimes Capture & Analysis tool-related

• CapFrameX is used for capturing and analyzing the relevant performance numbers obtained from each recorded built-in or custom benchmark sequence.
• Consecutive runs until detecting 3 valid runs (no outliers) that can be aggregated by CapFrameX using the following method:
  • ‘Aggregate excluding outliers’:
    • Outlier metric: Third, P0.2 (0.2% FPS percentile).
    • Outlier percentage: 3% (the % the FPS of an entry can differ from the median of all entries before counting as an outlier).
• We compare and value the results and aggregated records in terms of percentages of gain/loss, by setting the following thresholds to consider a certain % value as significant (not within the margin of error) for our benchmarking purposes:
  • Score/FPS Avg > 3% when valuing hybrid and non-synthetic benchmarks;
  • FPS Avg > 3% when evaluating raw performance;
  • P1/P0.2 > 3% when evaluating frame time consistency; after applying our custom formula

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

Benchmark Suite: 22 PC Games, 4 Hybrid & 4 Non-Synthetic Tests

Hybrid Tests (3DMark)

• Fire Strike Ultra
• Time Spy Extreme
• DirectX Raytracing feature test
• Port Royal

Non-Synthetic Tests

• Basemark GPU
• UNIGINE Superposition
• Neon Noir (Benchmark)
• Boundary: Raytracing Benchmark

DX11 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX11)
• Chernobylite (DX11)
• Days Gone (DX11)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX11)
• Far Cry New Dawn (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Ghost Recon Breakpoint (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 (DX11)
• Neon Noir (DX11; Loop Mode)

DX12 Games

• Borderlands 3 (DX12)
• Cyberpunk 2077 (DX12)
• F1 2021 (DX12)
• Horizon Zero Dawn (DX12)
• LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12)
• Metro Exodus (DX12)
• Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition (DX12)
• Watch Dogs: Legion (DX12)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)
• Godfall (DX12)
• DIRT 5 (DX12)

Vulkan Games

• DOOM Eternal (VK)
• Strange Brigade (VK)
• Quake 2 RTX (VK; v.1.5.0)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint (VK)
• Wolfenstein Youngblood (VK)

Software Adrenalin Control Center Settings

Here are the global Adrenalin Control Center settings:

All AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin settings are set so that all optimizations are off, Texture filtering is set to ‘High’, and Tessellation uses application settings. These settings are used across all drivers so that the performance of each driver version can be compared accurately.

AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1

This latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 beta driver was released on Tuesday (08/10/21) primarily to bring support for AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT GPUs.

The download links for the Adrenalin 21.8.1 beta drivers can be found starting here. The 21.8.1 release notes can be found here.

Here are the release highlights of Adrenalin v21.8.1 from AMD Radeon’s website:

Support For

• • • AMD Radeon RX 6600 XT Graphics

Fixed Issues

• • • The Medium may crash after launching the game while running FrameView.

The Adrenalin 21.8.1 Driver Performance – Summary Charts with 22 Games

Below you can find the summary charts of our representative selection of 22 games plus 4 hybrid and 4 non-synthetic benchmarks. We chart our games’ driver performance progression from version 21.7.2 to 21.8.1 using the reference AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

You can see the list of graphics settings on the charts, and we run each built-in or custom game benchmark’s sequence at 2560×1440, except for Days Gone and Far Cry New Dawn, tested at 3840×2160 resolution; and LEGO® Builder’s Journey (DX12 & DXR) and Watch Dogs: Legion (DXR) which are tested at 1920×1080 resolution. You may click on each chart to open a pop-up for the best viewing.

Results give average framerates and higher is better. We display the low FPS percentiles (P1 and P0.2) below the corresponding averages. We use CapFrameX to record frametimes over time and to visualize and convert them into their corresponding average FPS and P1 and P0.2 FPS percentiles values.

There are also columns showing percentages of gain/loss in both raw performance (average FPS) and, when applicable, in frametimes consistency or stability between the different driver versions. We applied the following custom formula to calculate the stability gains or losses:

{[(LowPercentileFPS_2 / AvgFPS_2) / (LowPercentileFPS_1 / AvgFPS_1)] – 1} x 100

We mark significant performance changes (higher than 3%) in bold and use purple for the significant improvements or orange font for regressions.

Adrenalin 21.8.1 Driver Performance Charts

Notes on Adrenalin 21.8.1 Driver Performance – 21.8.1 (beta) vs. 21.7.2 (beta)

From the charts, we see no significant differences in graphics performance between drivers for both the hybrid and non-synthetic tests using our RX 6700 XT.

For the game benchmarks, most games show no significant differences when we move to the 21.8.1 beta drivers from the 21.7.2 beta driver version.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that the following results, notes, and the corresponding driver recommendation are valid for similar RDNA 2.0 gaming rigs on Windows 10 v21H1. Its representativeness, applicability, and usefulness on different AMD Radeon micro-architectures, testing benches, and Microsoft Windows versions may vary.

Conclusion

Based on our previous results and findings, we recommend RDNA 2.0 gamers update to the latest Adrenalin 21.8.1 beta driver. Its raw performance and smoothness or frametimes consistency level are overall on par with our previously recommended driver 21.7.2 using our RX 6700 XT GPU.

There are relevant qualitative reasons that also make it advisable to upgrade to version 21.8.1. These reasons include the higher level of driver bug fixes and support for the latest AMD Radeon GPUs and technologies.

Let’s Play!

***

Rodrigo González (aka ‘RodroG’) is an enthusiast gamer and tech reviewer especially interested in shooter games, open-world role-playing games, and software and hardware benchmarking. He is the author of the NVIDIA WHQL Driver Performance Benchmarks Series and founder and moderator of the r/allbenchmarks community on Reddit.

*The featured image is from AMD.