AMD Crimson Software Might Cause locked fan RPM at 20% (overheats cards)
Yesterday the news broke that some users have reported that their AMD Radeon graphics cards have died, likely due to the new Crimson Driver software. AMD now acknowledges a software issue and is preparing a hotfix for a potentially serious fan-bug.
A small group of users have been claiming that the new driver locked their fans at low speeds (~20%) in certain conditions (overclocking), and as such during a hefty gaming session if the GPU isn't cooled enough, that can cause significant issues. AMD’s sub-reddit is full of posts from users claiming and reporting this.
It seems that the Crimson Software will lock your fan speed when resetting OverDrive settings. This means that PC gamers will have to turn it back on auto to prevent their graphics card overheating. AMD acknowledged this issue and claimed that it will release a hotfix tomorrow.
Tweet:
We are aware of low fan speed reports on select GPUs with Radeon Software Crimson Edition. We intend to publish a hotfix on Monday.
Modern graphics cards do have a protection mechanism for overheating but a handful of users have already reported that their cards have died. AMD up-to this moment has not confirmed the issue with a specific answer or response other then the tweet we just posted.
For the time being we'd recommend you make a MSI Afterburner custom fan profile system to bypass this issue as a simple solve.
Senior Member
Posts: 9094
Joined: 2010-11-10
Yeah thats im seeing, the steam forum level of user competence.
Senior Member
Posts: 22106
Joined: 2005-12-10
They beta test these drivers out or what? That is a huge freaking bug there. Nvidia had a driver out like that years ago but with me monitoring temperatures all the time risk is minimal. Though I was not affected by that driver.
Moderator
Posts: 10694
Joined: 2008-11-01
To be fair I don't monitor temps anymore. The card has protections anyway, it will lock up once it hits 100C to prevent damage.
Only way I could see any cards dying would be to a bug like this existing for a really long time, which obviously isn't the case here.
Senior Member
Posts: 18495
Joined: 2009-01-06
Surely the cards would throttle to avoid damage?
Either some people have noticed this bug and decided to try and see what they can get out of it, or there is something else in the drivers stopping the card throttling.
Senior Member
Posts: 10108
Joined: 2003-03-25
The majority of people who play games on the PC are far removed from the enthusiasts you find on this forum. They just start up games and play them, they don't do anything even remotely technical, at most they'll update their drivers on a regular basis. Spend five minutes checking random game forums on Steam, you'll see exactly what I mean. I'd actually wager that most don't even know how to monitor temperatures.