Experiencing performance loss after installing the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 driver? Here's a possible workaround

AMD's updated Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition comes with several new features and performance incentives for the current crop of games. While these features are definitely welcome, some users have reported a drop in performance after installing the new drivers. 

User Sean_Patrick took to Reddit to post a 3DMark Fire Strike score comparison of his Vega 64 GPU before and after installation of the new driver. The initial install seemed to have lowered the Fire Strike score from 19,357 with the previous version to 17,570. Other users in the thread reported that their previous fan curves from Wattman haven't carried over while some have complained of screen freezes while using the new driver on the RX 5700 XT Anniversary Edition. However, most users have reported stable or even better performance compared to the previous Adrenalin version. 

That being said, the OP does note that performing a clean install by first removing all traces of the previous driver installation using the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) utility and then freshly installing the Adrenalin 2020 Edition restores original performance. For best results, it is always a good idea to run DDU in Safe Mode. The OP notes that the performance scores are now as expected although, some issues were still present with the automatic overclock feature. 

It is not uncommon to find issues with major driver updates, and we expect AMD would do some much needed bug fixing in the coming days. Driver issues were rampant during the early days of the RX 5700 XT as well, but things have been pretty stable of late. While Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 addition brings many new features for gamers, AMD has not indicated inclusion of ray tracing support in these drivers as was speculated earlier.

Are you having issues with your Adrenalin 2020 installation? Let us know in the comments below.