AMD GPU drivers overclock some Ryzen processors without prompting

In September, AMD added support for simple CPU overclocking to its graphics drivers. If you have a Ryzen 5000 series processor and want to take advantage of the extra performance, this automatic overclocking feature can save you the hassle of downloading the more complicated Ryzen Master utility. Overclocking will also be conservative enough not to likely cause system instability or other issues.

The problem for some users is that this automatic overclocking feature has become too automated, meaning it changes the overclocking settings of the system whether users want it or not.

An AMD spokesperson told Tom’s Hardware that “an issue in the AMD software package”caused the feature to begin “tweaking certain AMD processor settings for some users”. Since the CPU overclocking feature actually changes the settings in your system’s BIOS, this means that it can change the overclocking settings that users have changed themselves and apply overclocking where it was not there before. This second point can be particularly problematic, as overclocking processors will usually void AMD’s processor warranty, even if you use AMD-provided tools like Ryzen Master, or use AMD-advertised features like Precision Boost Overdrive (although, oddly enough ,, this policy is not consistent). forcibly).

This bug will not affect computers using AMD GPUs with Intel processors because AMD software does not allow overclocking of Intel processors.

According to testing done by Igor ‘s Lab and users of the AMD subreddit, the error seems to occur when loading a GPU overclock profile created with older versions of the software. These profiles were created before CPU overclocking was added to the software, but the software doesn’t know about it and tries to change the CPU settings anyway.

AMD says it is “investigating”the software issue that caused the issue and that the company will “share more information as soon as we can.”The issue appears to have been introduced in version 22.3.1 of the AMD Adrenalin Driver Pack, so delaying the update or rolling back to a previous driver version may prevent or resolve the issue.