AMD warns of card-cooking Crimson driver bug

AMD has confirmed the existence of a bug in its latest Radeon Software Crimson driver bundle which causes fans to spin too slowly, but not before users have reported complete GPU failures as a result. 

Released last week, Radeon Software Crimson is a major rewrite for AMD. Boasting a brand-new control panel system and boosted performance, AMD also made much of the bundle's new quality assurance programme: compared with the previous Catalyst bundle, the company claimed at launch, the Crimson package features double the number of automated test cases and a further 25 per cent manual test cases, along with a 15 per cent increase in the system configurations on which the drivers are tested before release.

Sadly for AMD, all that extra testing doesn't seem to have stopped a rather serious bug from sneaking through. Reports have been surfacing since the launch of Crimson that using the software causes the fans on a graphics card to spin more slowly, increasing the temperature of the GPU. For some, that has been disastrous: reports of complete GPU failures on higher-end parts, which naturally run hotter than their lower-TDP budget equivalents, are rife on the company's forum and social networking services.

While AMD has promised a hotfix release to address the issue, due to land later today, some customers arecomplaining of dead cards and asking the company whether it plans to replace hardware damaged as a result of the bug. Thus far, AMD has not offered comment on possible compensation for those who are left with damaged hardware following installation of the Crimson bundle.