AMD Adrenalin 21.8.1 lowers YouTube 4K 60fps power consumption

Posted on Sunday, August 15 2021 @ 18:52 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck

Earlier this week, AMD rolled out the Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver. This is the launch driver of the Radeon RX 6600 XT video card and the changelog was pretty slim. German tech site ComputerBase did discover that the 21.8.1 release has an undocumented change: it significantly lower power consumption when playing back 4K 60fps YouTube clips.

Power draw of AMD's RDNA2-based GPUs drops significantly. ComputerBase compared each Radeon RX 6000 series model's power consumption with the launch driver of the respective card and the Adrenalin 21.8.1 driver. The RX 6700 XT for example sees a drop from 30W to 18W, while the RX 6800 XT drops from 40W to 32W.

Unfortunately, this is not the case for HDR video clips. When playing HDR YouTube clips, power consumption is still the same as before.

AMD power draw when playing YouTube

About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.

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