AMD’s 18.3.1 Radeon Driver Encapsulates ‘Project ReSX’ eSports Games Optimizations

AMD has just rolled out a big performance update to its Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition driver. It targets a couple of new game releases, but the bulk of the focus is on eSports. I know this because this driver warranted an overarching moniker, Project ReSX (for ‘eSports eXperience’).

This driver doesn’t only focus on eSports titles that could run at 300 FPS to begin with, but also tackles higher-end games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The overall goal is to improve performance, which includes affecting the 99th percentile frame time, and even the click-to-response speeds.

To be clear, this isn’t some minor release that just happens to polish the performance of popular eSports titles. AMD established a special project (hence that in the name) a couple of months ago that had a goal of looking at the driver from many angles, and then optimizing performance in games where speed matters.

On the FPS front, a game like PUBG could see an improvement of up to 11%, while Dota 2 offers a more modest 6% boost. Overwatch earns itself a 3% boost, but as the game is already over 100 FPS on an RX 580 (at 1440p), the gains would be hard to appreciate in the real-world. That’s even the case with the 99th percentile frame times; Overwatch scores a decrease (a good thing) of up to 2%, but PUBG drops 8%, representing a decrease from 21.1ms to 19.2ms.

PowerColor’s Radeon RX 580

In addition to the eSports love, the 18.3.1 driver also optimizes performance for Final Fantasy XV (which is finally available tomorrow), as well as Warhammer: Vermintide 2, due out on Thursday, March 8.

You can peruse the release notes for the driver, as well as download it, right here.