Doom Eternal is one hell of a ride—it left James "anxious and exhausted"—and to get the most out of it, both AMD and Nvidia have new GPU drivers available to download. So whether you own a Radeon or GeForce graphics card, there is an update available.
Starting with AMD, it's begun pushing out the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.3.1 release. It's technically a beta release because it hasn't been WHQL-certified yet, though if you're holding out for one that is, you may have to wait until after Doom Eternal launches tomorrow.
According to AMD, the 20.3.1 driver delivers up to a 5 percent bump in performance in Doom Eternal (Ultra Nightmare settings) at 1080p on a Radeon RX 5700 XT, compared to its previous 20.2.2 driver. That's not a huge jump, but it's better than nothing.
In addition to Doom Eternal, AMD says its latest driver is also optimized for Half-Life: Alyx (a VR-only game, remember) and Ghost Recon: Breakpoint when using the Vulkan API.
There a bunch of fixed issues in this release. They include:
- Frame skipping or choppy audio may be experienced in videos captured using Radeon ReLive.
- Some games may experience stutter while using Instant Replay or third-party applications that stream or perform screen capture.
- Hotkeys may fail to apply to scenes in ReLive scene editor when the scene has a custom name.
- Webcam elements may fail to appear on screen when a custom location is set during ReLive recording.
- AMD A-series/E-series APU processors will reflect older Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition Settings user interface.
- Zero RPM toggle may fail to reset or appear when disabling advanced fan tuning options in Performance Tuning.
- Radeon Software may automatically close when a live stream is started or stopped.
- Desktop cursor may intermittently remain visible after toggling Radeon Software’s overlay in some games.
- Red Dead Redemption 2 may experience a blank screen when launched using the Vulkan API.
- Radeon Software may experience an application crash, or a system TDR may occur, when VRAM reaches 8GB or more with HBCC enabled on Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.
- Doom may experience an intermittent system hang or application crash during gameplay.
- Space Engineers may experience an application or hang during gameplay when Grass Density is turned on.
- A system hang or black screen may occur when exiting SteamVR with multi display system configurations.
- Monster Hunter World: Iceborne may have lower than expected performance in some areas of the game on Radeon RX 5700 series graphics products.
- Video playback may exhibit corruption on Interlaced content in Movies and TV on Ryzen 3000 with Radeon graphics processors.
- PassMark may experience an application hang on some Ryzen with Radeon Graphics Processors.
- On Radeon RX Vega and older discrete GPUs and on APUs, enabling integer display scaling could result in a reduction of frame rate.
- Integer display scaling may not show up as available in Radeon Software on some GCN-based GPUs.
- The default hotkeys for recording and taking a screenshot with Radon ReLive have been updated. Recording is now 'Ctrl + Shift + E' by default and Screenshot is now 'Ctrl + Shift + I' by default.
It appears AMD is still working to resolve some black screen and stuttering issues affecting its Radeon RX 5000 series. You can download the 20.3.1 release either through AMD's Radeon Software utility, or by visiting AMD's driver page.
As for Nvidia, its new 442.74 driver is WHQL-certified and solely focused on Doom Eternal, at least as it pertains to performance tweaks. This is what's known as a "Game Ready" driver release.
"Game Ready drivers provide the best possible gaming experience for all major new releases. Prior to a new title launching, our driver team is working up until the last minute to ensure every performance tweak and bug fix is included for the best gameplay on day-1," Nvidia explains.
The list of fixed issues is comparatively short with this one. In fact, there is just one resolved issue. It applies to Red Dead Redemption 2—this driver stomps out a bug that was causing the game to show a black screen after switching windows using Alt+Tab.
There are few known issues (read: currently unresolved), some of which apply to Doom Eternal. The ones affecting Windows 7 include:
- [Doom Eternal]: Flickering occurs in the ShadowPlay on-screen settings when in-game v-sync is off.
- [Call of Duty - Warzone]: ShadowPlay and Screenshot capture does not work with Windows 7.
- World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth][DirectX 12]: The game crashes when switched from DirectX 11 to DirectX 12 mode.
And here are the known issues affecting Windows 10:
- [SLI][Doom Eternal]: Corruption occurs in the game upon opening the Steam overlay.
- [Doom Eternal]: Error occurs in the game while capturing Super Resolution (AI Upres) Image with Ansel.
- [Doom Eternal]: The game frame rate drops when using the Steam in-game FPS counter. This issue also occurs with non-Nvidia graphics hardware.
- [Doom Eternal][HDR]: The game flickers when OS HDR is set to OFF and in-game HDR is set to On.
- To work around, enable “Play HDR games and apps” from the Windows HD Color Settings menu.
- [Call of Duty: Modern Warfare]: Game may display white flashes when player approaches a wall.
- [Call of Duty - Warzone]: Freestyle does not work.
- [Forza Motorsport 7]: The curb may display a black strip during a race on certain tracks.
You can download Nvidia's latest GPU driver through GeForce Experience, or pluck it manually from Nvidia's driver page.
