AMD Radeon Adrenalin Software Changes Settings on Ryzen CPUs, Causing Instability

The German Igor’s Lab tells us about an anomaly in AMD’s GPU management software, Adrenalin. It seems that the integration of the Ryzen Master software, also from AMD, in version 22.3 manipulates the CPU without your permission.

According to a post on Reddit, the issue only occurs with AMD CPU and GPU combination, Ryzen Master compatible hardware. So if in your PC you have an Intel processor together with a Radeon graphics card or a Ryzen processor together with an Nvidia graphics card, the problem does not occur.

AMD software manipulates the CPU without your permission.

For some reason, AMD’s Adrenalin software will automatically enable the Precision Boost Overdrive or “CPU OC” setting when applying any GPU profile, including the default profile, which is applied automatically.

This situation can be annoying if you have already configured any overclocking or undervolting profiles on the processor through the motherboard BIOS, but luckily the chip has built-in protection mechanisms to prevent any physical damage.. However, the Adrenalin software may overwrite the settings with other settings, which may affect the stability of the processor.

Igor’s Lab, discovered that AMD Adrenalin software can change the power limits and maximum frequency of a Ryzen processor through PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive) settings.

Fortunately, there are several ways to restore settings to their previous or factory state.

One method is to go back to the motherboard BIOS and re-enter all CPU settings (or disable PBO if it’s default). Alternatively, they can also use Radeon Software Slimmer, which can remove Ryzen Master from Adrenalin software, preventing the module from adjusting processor settings. Radeon Software Slimmer is a third party program, so use it at your own risk.

AMD has not shared any information about it, so there is no explanation from the company as to why Adrenalin software can modify BIOS settings without even relying on user authorization…