AMD’s new driver can reduce the power consumption of RDNA 2 architecture GPU
A few days ago, AMD released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver. Support for Radeon RX 6600 XT is provided in this driver to welcome the sale of this graphics card. Compared with the previously launched RDNA 2 architecture products, Radeon RX 6600 XT generally has a good performance in terms of power consumption and temperature. Not only in the game, but the Navi 23 core is also better than other AMD graphics cards evaluated at the time of launch in terms of dual-monitor output, high-refresh-rate display, and online video playback.
Since graphics cards with Navi 22 and Navi 21 cores have been launched for some time, ComputerBase uses the new Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver to re-test the entire RDNA 2 architecture product and compare the data when it was first launched.
It turns out that in the new driver, AMD has optimized these graphics cards in individual projects, such as in YouTube 4K@60FPS SDR playback. Radeon RX 6700 XT has been reduced from 30W to 18W, Radeon RX 6900 XT has been reduced from 42W to 30W, but with HDR enabled, there will be no improvement.
Image: computerbase
Another problem with the previous RDNA 2 architecture GPU is that the power consumption of multiple 4K displays is high, generally between 21W and 41W, while the NVIDIA Ampere architecture GPU is only in the range of 19W to 24W.
However, in the Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver, when two 4K@60Hz monitors are connected, the graphics cards with Navi 22 and Navi 21 cores even consume slightly more power. The Radeon RX 6600 XT is currently the only graphics card in the entire RDNA 2 architecture lineup that is less than 33W, at only 21W.
Image: computerbase
In the latest Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver, the 2D optimization of the RDNA 2 architecture GPU is not comprehensive, but at least in some cases, it helps to reduce power consumption. Although the power consumption of Radeon RX 6600 XT is reduced to a large extent because the number of stream processors is relatively small, the performance of Navi 23 in this respect is indeed better than that of Navi 22 and Navi 21.
