Radeon driver keeps writing data to SSDs; AMD promises a fix
Reports say the External Events utility in the Radeon driver writes to the drive even when the PC is idle. AMD is investigating and a fix is in final testing.
The driver for Radeon graphics cards writes lots of data to the computer's drive for no reason. This can use up the drive's life faster. AMD is working on a fix, and until it arrives you can just check your PC.
Hype check
Quieter than it deserves. This one matters more than the coverage suggests.
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Why it matters
Constant writes use up drive life, and the risk is higher for small, low-endurance drives. No need to worry: just check your PC.
Skip: nothing changes for you unless you own a Radeon card.
The details
- The source is AMD's External Events Utility and its process atieclxx.exe, which handles monitor detection, Adrenalin hotkeys and FreeSync.
- Reports mention write rates of 1 to 5 MB/s even when the PC is idle. At a steady 5 MB/s that is about 432 GB a day.
- An AMD representative said on Reddit that the cause is an interaction between the utility and Microsoft's PCIe driver, and that a fix has been submitted for final validation.
- AMD has not announced a date and hopes to include the fix in an upcoming driver release.
- To check: open Task Manager or CrystalDiskInfo and look for sustained writes from atieclxx.exe. Temporary workarounds have a cost: stopping the service may break some Adrenalin hotkeys, and turning off Resizable BAR may lower gaming performance.
Receipts
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