https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/bkgSda6kW8Hm5iMnCWxe3b-1024-80.jpg
(Image credit: AMD)

AMD's latest GPU driver fixes several more lingering black screen issues

by

Black screen issues continue to be a thorn in the side of some Radeon graphics card owners. This has made GPU driver updates even more important than they might otherwise be, because each new one brings about multiple fixes. That is the case again with AMD's new Adrenalin 20.5.1 driver that is now available.

According to the release notes, the latest driver squashes four more specific black screen bugs. They include:

Most of the complaints regarding black screen bugs on AMD hardware have come from owners of Radeon RX 5000 series graphics cards. It's still not clear why exactly this has been a lingering issue—complaints and fixes date back to at least December 2019.

Just this month, AMD put out a request for Radeon owners to submit bug reports to AMD if they are having problems, rather than solely posting to places like Reddit.

"Posting issues on Reddit and other community forums, although helpful, does not necessarily mean we’ll be able to spot your post or get enough information from it, so the best way to get issues resolved quickly would be to submit your report directly to us," AMD stated in a blog post.

It's a tricky situation, because it's difficult to diagnose how many black screen issues are related to AMD's hardware and drivers, versus other parts of a system. These things can also tend to make people paranoid that any issue might be related in some way, though that's not always the case.

For example, some people have found that disabling Microsoft's "performance-boosting" Game Mode in Windows 10 stops their games from stuttering or freezing. This is not just limited to AMD's hardware, but also Nvidia's GPUs.

In addition to the black screen bugs, AMD's latest driver fixes a host of other issues. They include:

Beyond the bug fixes, the 20.5.1 driver package adds support for the Windows 10 May 2020 update that starting going out to PCs this week.

You can download the driver through AMD's Radeon Software utility, or grab it from AMD's website.