AMD releases driver Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition

New graphics card drivers from AMD are something we are used to seeing every month, but most of the time it is only about incremental performance optimizations for newly launched games. Additions to functions and other major changes are usually reserved by the company until the end of the year with a more comprehensive software audit. Now it’s time for the 2020 edition to see the light of day.

The new graphics driver goes by the name Radeon Software Adrenaline 2020 Edition and offers first and foremost a completely redesigned user interface – which is the first time since the 2015 Radeon Software Crimson Edition. This applies not least to the installation program, which has been cleaned up and has a proper driver cleaner built-in. According to AMD, the installation of the driver should go up to 34 percent faster than previous versions.

After installation, you are greeted by a new profile system, which activates a series of different functions in the driver depending on which profile is selected.

As can be seen in the table above, the “Gaming” and “E-sports” profiles activate most Radeon-specific functions globally in games, where the common denominators are the sharpening technology Radeon Image Sharpening and the latency-reducing Radeon Anti-Lag. Anyone who wants to use a stripped-down profile without a lot of extra features activated should choose “Standard”, which only switches on variable image synchronization via Freesync if the monitor supports it.

After choosing a profile, you are greeted by the fundamentally rebuilt user interface in the new Radeon Software, which is very different from the previous version of the software. Here, the company has chosen to build the front page into modules to show a quick overview of relevant information without the user having to click through tabs and submenus.

An interesting aspect of the new control panel is that it is now also used as a primary overlay when you are in a game. The shortcut ALT + R activates the panel, which changes appearance depending on whether this is done directly via the desktop or inside a game. In the latter case, some of the panels are replaced to show, for example, frame rate in the game and other hardware-related statistics.