Hey all, I updated my video drivers to the latest AMD Adrenalin 2019 edition and now every time I launch NMS and load my save I just get a black screen and the game locks up. Reverting back to the old driver I was using makes the game run again.

I'm posting this as a PSA, but also as a question if anyone else has this problem and if they found a workaround?
I've also sent a bug report to AMD about this issue, as it seems to only affect NMS on my end.

My GPU is a Radeon HD7870 in case the problem is card specific. (I know it's getting a bit old and slow now :P)

Some people are indeed having this issue, I saw some questions on Steam and reddit.
The only answer currently: revert to the previous driver.
But report it to HG as well and maybe send your ticket number for the AMD drivers. I've seen one post of a person that only had it with visions and the latest drivers.

There is definitely something wrong with the Adrenalin 2019 OpenGL drivers and NMS 1.77. While with 18.12.1.1 and earlier, I have no problems, but with all of the 2019 drivers thus far, including the latest 19.1.1 drivers, I get massive texture flickering planet-side! I'm wondering if it's AMD's 4.6 OpenGL driver, which is included in the 2019 Adrenalins. While the game loads fine for me, and I don't get a black screen or lock ups, I do get the intense texture flickering which is so intense I cannot play the game. I also saw a thread on Steam about this issue from people getting the same sort of flickering--and they, too, report that the only cure is to revert to the 18.12.1.1 or earlier drivers--which work fine with 1.77. The problem is that with the 19.1.1 Adrenalins I get so much better response from my *other games.* D3d12 multi-GPU support in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is *much better* in the 2019 Adrenalins (all of them) than in 18.12.1.1 or earlier! I've reported the issue twice to AMD thus far, and am slacking up on NMS until they get this sorted! It's odd, to say the least.

Suggestion for the OP getting the black screen: If you have Freesync turned on--try turning off Freesync and see what happens. I only suggest that because I don't run Freesync at all and while I'm having problems they aren't as bad as the black-screen lockup problem you describe! Just a thought! No matter what, we'll have to wait until AMD gets this sorted.

The problem disappeared for me with 1.78 of NMS...;)

In the Steam forums it has been proposed many times for this problem to install the older driver 18.11.02 which performs better with NMS, especially for AMD cards which are close to minimum specs (also cards with only 2GB VRAM).
Also be sure to update your TLS protocol to TLS 1.1/1.2 which will speed up all loading screens (game start, teleport, warp etc.).

I recently swapped my GTX 1060 6GB for an RX 590 8GB card. Fresh OS install, fresh drivers, whathaveyou. I have noticed awful performance all across the board since the GPU swap. Erratic framerate, stutters, numerous graphical glitches (sky/clouds/atmosphere fx rendering), ... And no, I am not experiencing any such issues in other, more demanding games.
Is anyone else experiencing performance issues with AMD cards of the same caliber as mine?

I play the single player--problem disappeared at 1.78, as I mentioned.

Alrighty then--I just looked again--and they changed it! Believe me there *was* a 1.78 (non MP) and it did indeed fix all of my GPU problems! I didn't want the multiplayer--didn't think I had it--but Galaxy has put me on 1.77 MP--worse still, now 1.78 is gone! I am redownloading 1.77 non MP--I will let you know what happens. That really *ticks me off*! It was indeed the version of the game that fixed the problem. I'll come back here with the results! Absolutely not--indeed--just the opposite...;) My RX-590/480 8GB *Crossfire* systems runs like a top--very fast--especially in DX12 multi-GPU titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider--I get 62 fps all eye-candy on @ 3840x2160 multi-GPU; RX-590 by itself, 33 fps average. Honestly, You couldn't give me a nVidia card these days...;)

OK, good news--I redownloaded single player 1.77 (To replace MP 1.77) and it plays perfectly--no problems with the 19.4.1 Adrenalins and my hardware at all! Smooth sailing. Still don't know what happened with 1.78--glad to see the game is fixed--don't have the flickering texture problems anymore--tesselation ON 3840x2160 games runs great. I was scared there for a moment, but now I see they just futzed around with the game version numbers, I guess.

So *no problems*...;) No harm done.

Just to eliminate any misunderstandings on my behalf: you're getting 33 fps on average at 2160p with a single RX 590?

I just put everything on the lowest possible settings, 1080p, just to see what gives. Same issues for me: erratic framerate, visual glitches (cloud/sky rendering), ...
I have no idea what's going on. My system is definitely capable of running the latest games: i7 4790S, 16GB DDR3-1600, ...

Optimization and Vulkan support are coming and are already available in the Steam Experimental branch. Hopefully this will help a lot of people get better performance, especially you AMD guys.

I reread it and I see I wasn't as clear as I should have been--the 33fps @ 3840x2160 was generated @ 33fps with the in-game ShadowoftTombRaider benchmark running the RX-590 8GB in DX11 mode sans multi-GPU. When I run the SoftTR in-game bench in D3d12 mode with multi-GPU enabled (Crossfire) I get a ~62 fps per second average, with peaks > 100fps. But I'm talking about SoftTR, not NMS--I *assume* that SoftTR is the more demanding game on the GPU--even though I have both games running at 3840x2160. With NMS I can tell you only that I get a smooth, stutter free (mostly) frame rate @ 4k with none of the glitching that you are reporting.

One thing that jumps out at me is your DDR3 Ram--I'm running DDR4 @ 3200MHz; wheras you are running DDR 3 @ 1600MHz...which is quite a difference--my ram is running > than 2x as fast as yours--in both MHz and the the type of system ram you have (DDR4 all things being equal is at least 25% faster than DDR 3, then your ram speed is 1/2 of mine at 1600Mhz. Latencies are higher with DD4 but DDR4 requires less power and runs faster--even including the higher latencies, etc.)

Your cpu is 4/8 cores running at 3.2GHz, with only 8MBs of cache; mine is 6/12 cores with all cores running at 3.8GHz, with 16MBs cache L3, 3MBs L2 cache. Also, I noticed that your cpu comes standard with an Intel® HD Graphics 4600 running at 350Mhz-1.2 GHz.

I will tell you what it sounds like--it sounds like you are running your native Intel GPU *instead* of your add-in RX-590 8GBs. Well, your system is a fair bit slower than mine even without considering the GPU--but if you are running your Intel GPU instead of your 590 that would certainly account for everything you've told me so far. Without a doubt.

Before I bought the RX-590 8GB, I was running my RX-480 8GB by itself @ 3840x2160 and never saw any symptoms like you are describing--so I can can categorically state that your system performance in NMS has *nothing* to do with any RX-590 8GB you have installed...;) So--something else is happening in your system--you have some serious problems, somewhere. But again--what you are describing isn't your RX-590 8GB--unless you have a defective card somehow. But that doesn't seem likely.

Query: do you have your RX-590 connected with the 8-pin PSU adapter properly? If you haven't for some reason plugged the right PSU adapter in or you have too little in the PSU department--that could also cause you problems.

So check out your PSU wattage and amperage, check you PSU connections to your RX-590, and make sure that you aren't running the Integrated Intel GPU in your processor--for starters.
GOG offers the same Experimental branch--which HG is good enough to update at the same time as they update the Steam experimental branch, I'm glad to say. And my AMD performance is nice at the moment--but if they can deliver more--I'm certainly not going to turn it down...;)

EDIT: Downloading the beta Vulkan build through GOG Experimental Beta channel right now--thanks for the tip--looks like it hit three days ago!

Thank you kindly for your extensive reply. Quite certain my hardware isn't the issue, regardless of its age. I'm also certain its not running on integrated graphics, and yes, everything is connected properly; I'm a professional computer technician, rest assured it's the first thing that came to mind.
That being said I am -- well was -- experiencing issues with NMS exclusively. After trying the Vulkan beta I can safely say everything has been resolved. Cheers!