How to update AMD graphics drivers on Windows

NVIDIA may have the upper hand with the most powerful GPUs on the market, but AMD is not far behind. In fact, in many instances, you’d get better value from purchasing an AMD GPU at a lower cost without really giving up anything compared to its NVIDIA competition. If you just bought an AMD GPU for yourself, here’s how you can update AMD graphics drivers on Windows.

AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool

Much like how NVIDIA has GeForce Experience, AMD has a similar tool that will automatically detect all AMD components in your computer, assess whether newer versions of drivers and software are available than what you have installed, and download and install them for you. Considering how wide AMD’s breadth is across Radeon GPUs, Ryzen CPUs, and beyond, this is a nifty solution that will keep your drivers up-to-date without any hassle.

Note that the AMD Auto-Detect and Install tool is designed for Windows 11 version 21H2 and later and Windows 10 64-bit version 1809 and later. If you need help, here’s how you can check your Windows version.

To check for AMD Radeon graphics driver updates on your Windows computer, follow these steps:

• Download AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool from AMD’s website.
• Install and run the program.

• The software will automatically scan your computer hardware for identification and locate newer drivers than what you have installed.
• If newer drivers are available, the software will download the components and present you with the opportunity to customize the setup.

• Press Install to install the newer drivers.

And that’s it! Your drivers will be successfully updated by the end of the installation process.

Note that your computer display may go blank during installation as the drivers get updated — so do not panic, as it will return to its functional state automatically. Some installation components may also require restarting your computer, and the app will prompt you for the same.

If you have a recent graphics card, the AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool will also prompt you to install AMD Radeon Software, which is another app that you can use to keep your graphics card driver up to date. However, since you already have AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool installed, there’s no real need to install AMD Radeon Software only for the purposes of drivers. AMD Radeon Software offers more features beyond driver updates, so you can install it for those purposes.

Alternative method: Windows Update

You can also rely on Windows Update to automatically update your graphics driver. However, updates arrive significantly late through this channel. You will be better off using AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool for automatic updates or the manual search on AMD’s official webpage for a manual installation.

How to manually update your AMD graphics drivers

There may be instances when you need to update the drivers of your AMD graphics card manually or when you cannot use the AMD Auto-Detect and Install Tool for some reason. In such situations, you can locate the drivers on AMD’s website and install them yourself.

Locate your product details

You need to figure out what GPU you have in order to install the driver for it.

• You can find product details on the box of your GPU.
• If you don’t have your GPU box, you can look around for any model numbers present on your physical GPU and enter them in a Google Search. This should ideally point you to further details of your GPU.
• You can also invoke Windows Task Manager, and navigate to Performance > GPU to know the model of your GPU.
• If all the above are not helpful, you can search for “dxdiag” in the Windows search bar and run the app/command. This will invoke the DirectX Diagnostic Tool, and you can navigate to the Display tab to know your GPU details.

Downloading and installing the right drivers

Once you have found what exact GPU you have, you can locate and install the correct drivers:

• Go to AMD’s support website.
• Search for your product in the product search dropdown, or find it in the selector box below. GPUs are nested in the “Graphics” field.

• Click Submit when you have located your product in the entries.
• AMD will present a bunch of driver options to you for your chosen product. Choose the one that matches your OS install and needs. Most users will require a Windows 11 or Windows 10 driver. Creators who work with creative apps can choose Pro Edition drivers to get better mileage for their use cases.
• Download the file and install it.
• Don’t panic if your display blanks out during installation, as that is part of the driver update process.

This method is also useful in case you need to roll back to a previous driver version, as most older drivers continue to remain listed and accessible on AMD’s website.

Should you update your AMD drivers?

Yes, you should keep your AMD GPU drivers updated as much as possible.

Generally speaking, newer drivers will include optimizations and bug fixes, allowing your graphics card to deliver the best performance it can. Newer drivers are also recommended if you have purchased a newly launched GPU or are trying to play a newly launched AA or AAA game, as these will likely include key optimizations and recommend game profiles. So a driver update could be the difference between a sub-par gaming experience and a great one. We thus recommend keeping your GPU drivers updated.

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