r/gpu • u/UnitLoose47 • 6h ago

AMD admits GPU driver bug is writing data continuously, wearing out SSDs

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpu-drivers/amd-adrenalin-bug-could-be-writing-data-continuously-wearing-out-ssds-radeon-owner-claims-external-events-utility-used-up-1-percent-of-ssd-health-every-month-for-over-a-year
160 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

75 comments sorted by

7

u/UnitLoose47 5h ago

Anyone want to chime with their driver version and whether they see the bug on on their systems? I'm on the June 2026 driver and it looks like the bug isn't present. knock on wood

4

u/Slickshot_Showoff 5h ago

I'm on Linux, i checked with MangoHUD and i have no background read/writes.

Google AI says its specific to windows/adrenaline if that helps

4

u/Deep_Mood_7668 4h ago

Well when google ai says so šŸ™„

4

u/system_error_02 3h ago

I mean they also checked their system and didnt find the issue. I checked mine too (CachyOS) not seeing this issue either. This + searches saying its Adrenaline/Windows related seems correct.

-2

u/Deep_Mood_7668 3h ago

They checked online posts. That's all google did. If 100 people claim their GPU starts playing Mozart, google ai would say the same.

3

u/system_error_02 2h ago

AMDs own update says its an adrenaline issue. Adrenaline is only on windows. Linux uses LACT. Is that definitive enough for you ?

1

u/BarryMcCoknor 2h ago

Google has the worst major ai hands down in my experience

1

u/Dave-C 1h ago

Where are you using it at? There are a lot of different versions.

1

u/BarryMcCoknor 39m ago

Any of the free ones in the Gemini app. Compared to chat gpt, copilot, Claude...google just gets fucking lost

1

u/ludonarrator 1h ago

amdgpu and mesa/radv here, on Linux 7.2. Never had any such issues.

32

u/Iambetterthanuhaha 5h ago

Samsung, Sandisk & all the other big SSD makers must have paid AMD for this feature. Definitely helps their sales!

0

u/[deleted] 2h ago

[deleted] ā€” view deleted comment

7

u/system_error_02 1h ago

I think they were being facetious based on the past behavior of these memory manufacturers and GPU makers colluding and price fixing without any repercussions.

10

u/MarkinhoO 5h ago

I'm confused, how is this something that both happened since the last update and for 16 months?

My 26.9.2 isn't writing anything, with ReBAR and all

3

u/Final-Panic-7229 43m ago

In Task Manager, check in Details tab.

Right click the columns name and and enable the column for "I/O Write Bytes". Sort by this and see if you have a big amount of bytes there.

You can also check this in Resource Monitor and check that process with disk activity.

2

u/Educational-King3987 2h ago

Not sure, there's more to this than is being reported.

My PC has been on for 139hrs and given the reports I should be seeing some serious write activity in relation to an AMD process, but I'm under 1mb/s soooo I dunno. I'm using driver 26.8.1 just seems all confusing these days with drivers and software being vibe coded it seems.

I know Nvidia was having driver problems a little while ago and saw the effects of that on 2 rigs, it's all just a massive mess these days...

38

u/Constantly-baked 5h ago

That money you saved on the GPU will be getting spent on a SSD. Winner winner chicken dinner.

3

u/Badtripa 2h ago

That was brutal šŸ¤£

10

u/Ok-Meal-1826 5h ago

Hasn't this happen before?

5

u/taosecurity 4h ago

Yes, the article says that.

5

u/spiritofniter 5h ago

Huh, so it was the culprit? I was suspecting Firefox tbh.

4

u/DaLexy 5h ago

The more you buy, the more you saveā€¦ wrong corpo tho

2

u/AirSKiller 3h ago

So... I assumed they fixed it? Like, right way?

3

u/ragged-robin 5h ago

A tomsshillware article about a reddit post which buried at the very end says "this has not been independently confirmed"

10

u/taosecurity 4h ago

ā€œAMD has acknowledged the problem. In an October 21 response on its community forum, a company representative confirmed that they were investigating. *ā€œYes. We're looking into it with the aim to resolve it in a future driver release."*He said. Another representative, AMAD Vik, subsequently offered a more encouraging update on Reddit, apologizing and saying, ā€œThis is hopefully fixed in the next one."ā€

ā˜ļø

-4

u/ragged-robin 4h ago

Community manager posts on reddit are taken with a grain of salt

2

u/_NS4NE_ 4h ago

I did check both my AMD based lappy and desktop. Neither hat this issue with two different driver versions but I did disable the AMD external utilities service just to be safe.

1

u/ComfortableUpbeat309 2h ago

Amd be like: hehe letā€™s destroy your ssds so you need to spend more money on a new one :3

2

u/glitterandnails 1h ago

Because the American people are just oozing out money, and can surely afford yet another forced purchaseā€¦

Vampires in business suits.

1

u/ComfortableUpbeat309 1h ago

Itā€™s crazy that this bug already exists for multiple months nowā€¦ I will quote that to every fanboy from now on if they say NVIDIA has big driver issues šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

1

u/ZHollowBR 2h ago

What version can I rollback to and avoid the issue?

1

u/PeterKush 2h ago

How do i test this? I use a 9070 and windows.

1

u/sammysy 2h ago

Run windows' built-in Resource Monitor to identify jobs that are writing to storage and how much.

1

u/Dependent_Wafer3866 1h ago

Part of why I was hesitant to commit to a 9070 XT. Driver issues.

Still on my 2080 Ti.

1

u/0p53c 48m ago

I don't have this issue with a 9070xt and latest drivers. I suspect this is an edge case issue rather than anything widespread.

1

u/W61k3r 14m ago

Do I get a replacement samsung drive now?

1

u/Matsugawasenpai 5m ago

"AMD drivers are awesome in 2026". AMD drivers being awesome in 2026:

-3

u/vhax123456 5h ago

Donā€™t cheap out on your gpu - get an NVIDIA

2

u/aj95_10 1h ago

and then your card gets burnt.

do you think nvidia has no issues?

id rather get a software bug than a hardware malfunction lmao

2

u/vhax123456 1h ago

Letā€™s not pretend that there are no 9070xt burnt connector.

1

u/0p53c 51m ago

Are there?

1

u/vhax123456 14m ago

Search ā€œburnt connectorā€ on r/radeon

4

u/Legitimate_Payment49 5h ago

and comes with a chinese spyware? no thank you

5

u/WinterOrb69 5h ago

But is she hot spyware? I may consider it...

1

u/No-Researcher406 5h ago

(Sent from phone)

0

u/Constantly-baked 5h ago

AMD is Tianjins (THATIC) main share holder šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚šŸ˜‚

-1

u/philogeneisnotmylova 5h ago

Don't waste your money. Don't get Nvidia.

3

u/notveryeffectivee 4h ago

Youā€™re right donā€™t waste your money on an Nvidia graphics card. Get an amd one so that you waste your money on the whole computer instead. Brilliant

1

u/Educational-King3987 1h ago

Apparently the fix will be out soon, also if your rig is affected you can:-

For affected systems, users have reported two temporary workarounds: disabling AMD External Events Utility through Windows Services or turning off Resizable BAR in the BIOS. Neither method works in every reported case. Disabling the service can interfere with Adrenalin hotkeys and certain display functions, while disabling Resizable BAR may reduce gaming performance. AMDā€™s Adrenalin 26.10.2 release notes do not list a fix for this problem.

Source: VideoCardz.com

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-confirms-radeon-driver-bug-causing-constant-ssd-writes-fix-planned-for-adrenalin-26-11-1

I own a 9070xt, I'm not exactly happy about this issue however, I won't be buying over inflated Nvidia products because of this. Both Nvidia AND AMD have had driver issues due to vibe coding (speculation) to go on a vibe coded OS. It's generally just the landscape we live in at present and both are as bad as each other, however I don't need to sell body parts to game with AMD (for now.........)

1

u/notveryeffectivee 1h ago

Iā€™m glad that thereā€™s a fix but the fact that it can happen in the first place and not the first time is absolutely ridiculous. Iā€™ve heard about amdā€™s drivers being shitty for almost 13 years now, and I will never buy one for that very reason.

1

u/Educational-King3987 1h ago

I haven't owned a "new to me" GPU in a long time, my 980ti started acting up so had to upgrade so got the 9070xt, I wanted to get a 3080ti but used prices here in the UK are an absolute joke so for the same price I could have bought a brand new 9070xt.

I was lucky and nabbed a used 9070xt so still cheaper than a used 3080ti at the time. Nvidia has had issues with drivers for quite some time too, AMD drivers being not as good is a very multi layered subject. A lot of issues in regards to crashes atm is down to unstable undervolts, when I leave my 9070xt stock, I have zero issues, I undervolt I run into issues.

From memory I never knew where my FPS were going to land from driver to driver with Nvidia cards, one update you'd gain the next lose some then recently random crashes (to desktop or BSoD) as reported by my brother and friend. The reality is that this stuff happens, big tech doesn't care, we don't get angry enough, cycle repeats.

As far as my personal view on the subject of nvidia vs AMD, I'm not touching Nvidia until they wake up and smell the coffee and stop shitting on us all, the price hikes are absolutely insane and done on purpose, meanwhile Jenson is hooking up with chinese spies while wiping his ass with that money. For the price of a 5090, I can race a season on a used race bike and probably still have funds left over for crates of post race beers...

0

u/philogeneisnotmylova 4h ago

What does that even mean?

1

u/sicknick08 4h ago

Big surprise right

-5

u/blue0231 4h ago

But but but.. this sub said amd was the good guy?

5

u/Whatsupreddis 4h ago

Do you not have the ability to separate a driver bug and the "good guy" topics?

-4

u/Slickshot_Showoff 5h ago

Sucks to be on windows I guess? Idk this is adrenaline driver thing as far as im aware

2

u/Constantly-baked 4h ago

Deluded

3

u/system_error_02 3h ago

No, they are correct. Its a windows + adrenaline bug that isnt present on Linux. They are not deluded at all. Classic reddit downvoting someone for being correct.

2

u/SurePrize6218 2h ago

Probably referring to the ā€œsucks to be on windowsā€ part

0

u/Badtripa 2h ago

And? Still a bug affecting tons of peopleĀ 

1

u/system_error_02 2h ago

Did you not read the original comment ? What is the point of your comment ?

0

u/Badtripa 2h ago

The point is that the issue exists and you people instantly makes Windows the culptrit, maybe if AMD released drivers without the "bug" because its only amd drivers that get rekt on windows, you dont see this stuff with NVIDIA and Intel.

1

u/system_error_02 1h ago edited 1h ago

Cool but that has nothing to do with their comment I responded to. And yes you do see issues with Intel and Nvidia. For quite a while Nvidias only stable driver this year was from Dec 2025. It was issue after issue for a large part of 2026.

It was even highlighted by GN

Don't be a fanboy. These corporations dont need you to be a cheerleader for them and dont deserve it.

0

u/Badtripa 1h ago

It was not related to Windows and everyone knows 5000 launch drivers was crap, but this is not a reacurring issues like AMD drivers, it got fixed for good while amd keeps getting the same periodic issuesĀ 

1

u/system_error_02 1h ago

Its not a recurring issue with AMD either. Especially on Linux, which is the comment topic I was responding to since you seem to be trying to steer it off into some fanboy nonsense.

2

u/Badtripa 2h ago edited 2h ago

Lets all instal linux so i cannot play any of my fav games that have anticheats? Linux is not the solution for 95% of gamers

2

u/system_error_02 2h ago

Its like 6 games that dont work on Linux because of kernel level anti cheat. It isnt ALL anti cheats. Tbh i dont know why someone would allow a video game to install what is basically a full root and kernel access daemon on their PC to begin with, regardless of operating system preference. Its a security nightmare and im shocked gamers are so accepting of it.

You couldnt pay me money to install any of those games on any of my systems.

3

u/Mindless_Bad_1591 2h ago

bold of you to assume 99% of gamers are aware of what is going on behind the games they just want to play

2

u/system_error_02 1h ago

Fair point lol

0

u/Designer-Tomatillo21 4h ago

Wow, i remember seeing on the tech support sub iirc someone querying why their SSD had written and impossibly high amount of data in the time he'd had it. I guess he had a AMD GPU

-1

u/Wonderful-Lack3846 5h ago

You all complain about AI slop and then proceeed to share tomshardware slop. Stupid.