How to Fix AMD Adrenalin 26.11.1's Known Issues in Gears of War and Cyberpunk 2077

AMD pushed AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.11.1 on November 12, 2026, an optional release that trades new game support for a short list of reliability fixes and a longer list of known issues. According to AMD's own release notes, the update stops excessive writes to the system drive that could occur while a PC sat idle on Radeon RX 7000 series cards and above, and a second write-heavy bug that showed up while moving or resizing application windows. Both are the kind of background wear-and-tear fix that never makes a headline but is worth having if your Radeon system has felt busier than it should at the desktop.

The trade-off is a known issues list that touches several games people are actively playing right now, from a remaster that just arrived on Steam to a decade-old vehicle sim that still gets regular updates. None of these are AMD's fault alone — driver-and-game interactions like this are normal for any GPU vendor's release cycle — but if you have run into a crash, a black screen or a stutter since updating, the fix is usually a one-line setting change rather than a reinstall. Here is what AMD's release notes confirm, and exactly what to do about each one.

What Adrenalin 26.11.1 Actually Changes

This is an "Optional" driver rather than a WHQL-certified one, which AMD typically reserves for smaller, targeted fixes between the bigger monthly releases. The two confirmed fixes are both about disk activity: AMD says excessive writes to the system drive "may be observed while the system is idle on Radeon RX 7000 series graphics products and above," and separately while a user is "moving or resizing application windows." Neither issue came with a specific root cause in the public notes, but both point at a background driver process writing more than it should, which is the kind of thing that can quietly shorten an SSD's lifespan over time.

If your system has felt like it is doing unexplained disk activity at idle, or you have noticed brief hitching while dragging windows around on a Radeon RX 7000-series or newer card, this update is worth installing on its own merits. Just read the known issues below first, since a few of them affect specific games you may be playing.

Fix the Gears of War: Reloaded Black Screen on Ryzen AI Chips

AMD's notes flag a black screen when launching Gears of War: Reloaded on AMD Ryzen AI 9 400 Series processors, which cover the integrated Radeon graphics in several recent gaming laptops and mini PCs rather than discrete desktop GPUs. The workaround AMD recommends is specific and reliable: once the black screen appears, switch the game's in-game display mode from Fullscreen to Windowed, then switch it straight back to Fullscreen. That toggle forces the renderer to reinitialize against your display and clears the black frame without a restart.

It is a two-click fix once you know it exists, but it is not obvious from inside a black screen with no visible UI — Alt+Enter to force windowed mode first, then open display settings and flip it back. If you are on a desktop Radeon RX card rather than a Ryzen AI laptop chip, AMD's notes do not list this as affecting you, so a black screen on launch there likely has a different cause worth checking separately.

Work Around the Cyberpunk 2077 Frame Generation Crash

The driver also documents an intermittent application crash or driver timeout in Cyberpunk 2077 on some Radeon RX 9000 series cards, but only under a specific combination: AMD FSR Upscaling, AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, and in-game frame generation all enabled at once, while video is playing back on a secondary display. That last condition matters — this is not a general Cyberpunk 2077 crash on RX 9000 hardware, it is tied to multi-monitor setups where something is actively decoding video on a second screen while the game runs frame generation on the first.

AMD's recommended fix is to disable in-game frame generation specifically, rather than turning off FSR Upscaling or Anti-Lag. If you regularly stream, watch a browser video, or run a second display with any kind of video decode active while gaming, that is the setting to drop first before troubleshooting anything else. Reflex-only or FSR-only configurations without frame generation are not listed as affected.

Avoid the War Thunder Timeout by Staying on an Older Driver

For War Thunder players on Radeon RX 5000 series cards, AMD's notes list an intermittent driver timeout and recommend a workaround that is unusual for a release note: rolling back to AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition 26.9.1 rather than waiting for a future patch. That is a clear signal the issue sits somewhere in the RX 5000-series driver path specifically introduced after 26.9.1, and AMD has not resolved it as of 26.11.1.

If you own an RX 5000-series card and play War Thunder regularly, it is reasonable to hold off updating until a release after 26.11.1 explicitly says this is fixed, or to use the AMD Cleanup Utility to cleanly roll back to 26.9.1 if you have already installed the newer driver and are hitting the timeout.

Other Known Issues Still on AMD's List

A handful of additional items carried into 26.11.1 are worth knowing about even if they do not affect your exact setup. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered can become unresponsive when you press Alt+Tab during gameplay on Ryzen AI Max PRO 400 Series processors, and the same game can show black corruption on Radeon RX 9000 series cards. An intermittent crash or driver timeout can also occur in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced on Radeon RX 7000 series hardware. None of the three has a workaround in AMD's notes yet beyond avoiding the trigger — holding off on Alt+Tab, or sticking with an older driver if the corruption is disruptive.

Two non-gaming items are worth a mention too: installing the optional AI Bundle components can fail in regions with limited access to HuggingFace and GitHub, and AMD Smart Access Memory can end up disabled after installation on Windows 10 systems, a known issue carried over from earlier Adrenalin releases. If Smart Access Memory looks off after this update, check AMD Software's Performance tab and re-enable it manually rather than assuming it is a hardware problem.

How to Install It Safely

Adrenalin 26.11.1 covers the full current Radeon lineup, from the RX 9070/9060/9050 series down through RX 6000 and RX 5000 series cards, plus the Radeon PRO W-series workstation lines, on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Grab it from AMD's official driver download page rather than a third-party mirror, and if you are downgrading from a newer driver for any of the reasons above, use the AMD Cleanup Utility first — AMD specifically recommends it for a clean downgrade rather than installing over the top of the existing driver.

If you are not sure which package your system needs, AMD's install guide walks through using the Driver Autodetect Tool to match your exact Radeon product and Windows version before you download anything. That is the safest route if you are new to managing Radeon drivers manually, and it avoids installing a package built for the wrong GPU family.