AMD released Adrenalin Edition 26.7.1 on July 28, bringing launch-day driver support for next week’s Gears of War: E‑Day Open Beta and official compatibility for the new Radeon RX 9050 graphics card. The update also ships with a list of bug fixes—and one known issue that Windows 10 users relying on Smart Access Memory cannot afford to ignore. After installing 26.7.1 on a Windows 10 machine, SAM can become disabled without warning, potentially shaving performance off Ryzen+Radeon systems.

What’s actually in the 26.7.1 driver

Adrenalin 26.7.1 is a single package for 64‑bit Windows 10 version 21H2 and newer, as well as Windows 11 version 21H2 and later. The driver store IDs are 32.0.31035.1003 and 32.0.21045.1000. It supports every modern Radeon discrete desktop GPU family: RX 9000, RX 7000, RX 6000, and RX 5000 series.

The headline additions are:

  • Game‑ready profile for Gears of War: E‑Day Open Beta Early Access. Xbox has set early access to begin on August 6, ahead of the full game’s October 6 launch. The PC version supports AMD FSR alongside Unreal Engine TSR and Intel XeSS, so Radeon owners aren’t locked into a single upscaler.
  • FSR 4 support for Out of Control Evolution. The newest iteration of AMD’s upscaling technology arrives in one more title with this release.
  • Official support for the Radeon RX 9050. The $279 card is a new entry‑level RDNA 4 part, initially targeting the Asia‑Pacific, Japan, and Latin American markets.

The fixes arrive with a few headaches

AMD’s release notes list four resolved issues in 26.7.1:

  • Model flickering and rendering failures in Maxon Cinema 4D and Blender
  • A crash inside Blender itself
  • Missing directional‑indicator icons in Fortnite when playing on Radeon RX 7000‑series hardware
  • Intermittent crashes in some games using FSR Upscaling 4.1 on Windows 10

Those are welcome repairs for content creators and competitive players alike. Less welcome are three known issues that affect specific hardware and software configurations:

  • Smart Access Memory can become disabled after installation on Windows 10 systems. The bug does not appear to affect Windows 11, but on Windows 10 the toggle may flip to off after the driver loads.
  • Intermittent crashes or driver timeouts in Battlefield 6 on Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 laptops. This is a mobile‑specific problem, not a desktop one, but it’s enough to make early adopters of AMD’s new AI‑branded mobile processor think twice.
  • Texture corruption or flickering when using Record & Stream in Battlefield 6 on some Radeon hardware (AMD does not yet specify which GPUs are affected).

What it means for you

If you’re a gamer

The Gears of War: E‑Day Open Beta is the immediate reason to grab 26.7.1. Launch‑day drivers rarely deliver night‑and‑day frame‑rate differences, but they can eliminate crashing, stuttering, or visual glitches that appear with an outdated driver. If you plan to jump into the beta on August 6, this is the baseline.

Radeon RX 9050 buyers will need 26.7.1 simply to get the card running—the driver package includes the required display driver and control panel. Gamers elsewhere installing the driver for general‑purpose updates should pay close attention to the SAM issue if they run Windows 10.

Smart Access Memory (AMD’s branding for Resizable BAR) lets the CPU access the GPU’s entire frame buffer at once instead of in 256 MB chunks. In titles that benefit from it, turning off SAM can cost anywhere from a couple of percentage points to double‑digit frame‑rate drops at high resolutions. For a system that has been tuned to take advantage of SAM—a Ryzen processor paired with a Radeon RX 5000 or newer GPU on a compatible motherboard—the driver silently disabling the feature is a regression that might go unnoticed until performance dips.

If you’re an IT administrator or power user

Deploying 26.7.1 across an enterprise fleet or a set of family machines requires a different lens. The Battlefield 6 Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 timeout issue may be irrelevant in an office, but the SAM quirk on Windows 10 is worth flagging. Windows 10 still accounts for a massive share of installed PCs, and many organizations use it on gaming‑grade workstations (CAD, video editing, scientific computing) that pair Ryzen with Radeon. A post‑install script or group policy that toggles SAM back on after driver updates isn’t a heavy lift, but you need to know the toggle might have moved.

The Record & Stream corruption bug in Battlefield 6 is niche, but streamers and content teams should hold off if their primary capture rig runs a Radeon GPU and they intend to stream that specific title.

How we got here

Smart Access Memory arrived as part of AMD’s “Ryzen 5000 + Radeon RX 6000” platform launch in late 2020. It was one of the first consumer implementations of Resizable BAR, and it quickly proved that the feature was more than a marketing gimmick—when games are optimized for it, the performance uplift can be real. Microsoft baked operating‑system support into Windows 10 21H2 and later builds, while AMD added a toggle in the Adrenalin control panel that allows users to enable or disable the feature without touching the UEFI/BIOS.

Since then, SAM has become a standard toggle in AMD’s driver stack. It’s normally sticky across driver updates. The fact that 26.7.1 can disable it on Windows 10 suggests a regression in the installation logic or a configuration file that gets overwritten. AMD has not yet provided a root‑cause explanation, but the advisory serves as the company’s official acknowledgment.

The Radeon RX 9050, meanwhile, continues AMD’s strategy of launching region‑targeted SKUs. At $279, it’s a 1080p‑class RDNA 4 part meant to undercut Nvidia’s entry‑level offerings in price‑sensitive markets. Launching alongside a driver that also preps the machine for a high‑profile Xbox first‑party beta gives the card a day‑one purpose.

What to do now

1. Grab 26.7.1 if you’re playing the E‑Day beta. The open‑beta early access starts August 6. Download the driver from AMD’s site or through the Adrenalin software’s built‑in updater.

2. Check Smart Access Memory immediately after installing on Windows 10.
- Open AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition.
- Navigate to the Performance tab, then the Tuning sub‑tab.
- Look for the Smart Access Memory toggle. If it shows “Disabled,” click it to enable.
- Reboot the PC to ensure the change sticks.

3. Windows 11 users can install with confidence. The SAM disabling bug is listed only for Windows 10, so if you’re on a supported Windows 11 build, this annoyance shouldn’t affect you.

4. Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 laptop owners should weigh the risk. If Battlefield 6 is part of your rotation and you can’t tolerate a crash, hold off until AMD confirms a fix. The driver’s other improvements (FSR 4, the beta profile) may not be worth the interruption.

5. Streamers and content creators should avoid Record & Stream in Battlefield 6 on Radeon hardware for now. Use OBS or an external capture device as a workaround if you need to stream that title.

6. If you’re simply running a stable Windows 10 gaming rig and don’t need the E‑Day profile or RX 9050 support, there’s no urgency. The previous driver (likely 26.6.x) will continue working fine, and you can delay updating until AMD addresses the SAM bug.

What to watch next

AMD typically rolls out a hotfix driver within days when a bug like the SAM toggle affects a large install base. The company’s release‑note acknowledgment is usually the first step toward a fix, so a 26.7.1‑hotfix or a 26.7.2 driver could appear within the next week or two. The Gears of War: E‑Day Open Beta itself will likely reveal a few more driver‑game quirks, and the Battlefield 6 issues are already on AMD’s radar. With the full E‑Day launch on October 6 and the RX 9050 rolling out to retailers, the driver cadence around RDNA 4 is only going to accelerate. For now, the playbook is simple: install 26.7.1 if you need it, but verify SAM on Windows 10 before you leave the settings screen.