AMD fixes high power draw bug on Windows systems for new RX 7900 XTX with driver 22.12.2

While AMD's new RX 7900 series GPUs, especially the XT variant have been selling for MSRP levels, reviewers noted that the cards suffered from some sort of high power draw issue. In instances of video playback and multi-monitor connections, both the 7900 XTX and XT exhibit very high power consumption (via TechPoweUp).

If one were to guess, it seems like the entire AMD GPU would be active instead of just the media engine block and the display processing block, when running these tasks. Or perhaps there are some issue with the P-states.

AMD has fixed one of those issues today with its latest WHQL driver version 22.12.2. While video playback has been somewhat fixed, the power bug with the multi-monitor still probably remains. AMD notes issues with high refresh rate monitors as well.

The fixed issues in this release are:

• Corruption may be encountered when using Virtual Super Resolution with multi-display configurations.
• A system crash may be observed when changing display modes with 4 display configurations.
• While loading Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales™ an app crash or driver timeout may occur after enabling ray tracing settings.
• Improvements to power usage during hardware accelerated video playback. Further power efficiency improvements are planned for future releases.

Meanwhile, the known issues are as follows:

• High idle power has situationally been observed when using select high resolution and high refresh rate displays.
• Intermittent app crashes or driver timeout may occur when using Radeon Super
• Resolution with some extended display configurations.
• Video stuttering or performance drop may be observed during gameplay plus video playback with some extended display configurations.
• Stuttering may be observed in UNCHARTED™ 4: A Thief’s End during the opening game sequence.
• While playing Valheim™ an app crash or driver timeout may occur using Vulkan® API. Any users who may be experiencing these issues should select DirectX® API as a temporary workaround.
• Some virtual reality games or apps may experience lower than expected performance.

You can download the new 22.12.2 driver from AMD's website.