AMD’s latest graphics driver, the Adrenalin version 23.3.1, has come with a cure for a dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) issue that has been causing intermittent driver timeouts, system freezes, or BSODs in select displays. However, the fix is only available for RDNA 3 GPUs, which includes the RX 7900 XTX and 7900 XT. Older GPUs such as the RX 6000 range are still affected by the issue, and it is unclear when the fix will be available for them.
Neowin reports that the problem is believed to be related to the Multi-plane Overlay (MPO), which is part of the Windows Display Driver Module (v1.3). The issue has been present since January 2023, and turning off MPO can resolve the problem. However, this requires a Registry tweak, which can be risky for those who are not familiar with PCs.
While the issue can cause severe crashes, it is relatively rare, with timeouts being more common. Nevertheless, any chance of a hard crash can be a concern for users, and the MPO feature may need a serious overhaul. This feature is designed to reduce the load on the GPU and CPU but has caused several bugs and display-related issues.
Users should be cautious when updating to AMD’s driver version 23.3.1, as a rare but severe problem can arise during installation, which can brick your PC. Overall, the issue with the MPO feature needs attention, and more bugs like the one AMD has partially fixed could manifest themselves down the line.
