AMD finally fixes high idle power, VR performance issues with 23.7.1 Windows WHQL driver

Update: AMD has acknowledged the issue still remains.

While AMD Radeon RX 7900 series GPUs, namely the RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT, offer better value now compared to Nvidia, especially at the prices they are selling for currently (~$700 for 7900 XT and ~$900 for 7900 XTX), a couple of high power draw issues plagued these otherwise excellent video cards.

In instances of video playback and multi-monitor connections, both the 7900 XTX and XT exhibited very high power consumption (via TechPoweUp).

AMD fixed the video playback power issue in December last year with driver version 22.12.2, and today, with the latest driver, Team Red has also fixed the multi-monitor high power draw issue. Alongside the power bug, AMD claims it has also resolved performance issues with virtual reality (VR) games and apps.

The full changelog for Windows WHQL driver version 23.7.1 is given below:

Highlights

Support for additional Vulkan® extensions.

• VK_KHR_cooperative_matrix for Radeon™ RX 7000 series

• VK_KHR_ray_tracing_position_fetch for Radeon™ RX 6000 and newer series

• VK_KHR_video_decode_h264

• VK_KHR_video_decode_h265

• VK_KHR_video_decode_queue

• VK_KHR_video_queue

• VK_EXT_device_address_binding_report

• VK_VALVE_mutable_descriptor_type

• VK_EXT_mutable_descriptor_type

• VK_EXT_dynamic_rendering_unused_attachments

Fixed Issues

• Certain virtual reality games or applications may encounter suboptimal performance or occasional stuttering on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Application crash or driver timeout may be observed during playback of AV1 video content using DaVinci Resolve™ Studio.
• Improvements to high idle power when using select 4k@144Hz FreeSync enabled displays or multimonitor display configurations (such as 4k@144HZ or 4k@120Hz + 1440p@60Hz display) using on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Intermittent corruption may be observed playing WWE 2K23™ on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• Intermittent corruption may be observed after switching windows while playing Nioh 2™ on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6800 XT.

Known Issues

• Application crash may be intermittently observed while playing RuneScape™ on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 5700 XT.
• Intermittent corruption may be observed around some player models while playing Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+™ on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6900 XT.
• Stuttering may be observed while playing Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® II with Radeon™ Anti-Lag enabled. As a temporary solution, users encountering this are recommended to disable the Anti-Lag in the per-game settings.
• Performance Metrics Overlay may report N/A for FPS on various games.
• Display signal may be lost after switching windows on certain Adaptive-Sync enable displays on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 7900 XTX.
• Higher than expected GPU Memory Utilization when using certain Record and Stream settings such as Instant Replay.

To download the driver, head over to AMD's official website. The driver supports Polaris (RX 400/500 series), Vega (something which will soon be in maintenance mode for ROCm), and all RDNA GPUs (RX 5000 series, 6000 series, and 7000 series).