AMD’s Radeon Graphics Driver is Overclocking Ryzen CPUs without User Consent

AMD’s Radeon graphics driver is strangely affecting the performance of Ryzen processors without user consent. The latest version of Adrenaline software is reportedly enabling Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO), pushing the associated Ryzen processor beyond the marketed power envelope. PBO doesn’t technically overclock the CPU, but it does increase the all-core boost power consumption beyond stock conditions. As you can see in the linked article above, the single-core boost is unaffected but the all-core boost in heavily threaded applications is higher at the cost of increased power draw.

According to Igor’s Lab, this issue occurs when a GPU profile (including the default one) in Adrenaline Software is activated. This is supposedly caused due to the Ryzen Master module which was integrated into Radeon software last September.

Earlier today, AMD confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that there’s a bug in Radeon Adrenaline software that can affect the Ryzen processor settings in the BIOS. In some cases, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) is enabled which unintentionally leads to a soft-overclock without the user’s consent.

In its statement, AMD stated that the cause of the bug is currently being investigated and additional information will be shared soon. Pending a fix, Radeon Software Slimmer 1.6 can be deployed to remove the Ryzen Master portion from the driver. This is a custom tool that is not recommended by AMD, so use it at your own risk.