AMD Investigates Reported Continuous Radeon SSD Writes

By Sophie Lindqvist

AMD confirmed it is investigating reports that its Radeon driver software writes continuously to SSDs, including one user report of about 5 MB/s during idle use.

The suspected writer is AMD's External Events Utility, or EEU, which installs alongside Radeon drivers. AMD's confirmation establishes only that the company is investigating.

What are Radeon users reporting?

On November 8, Reddit user “darklinkpower” highlighted reports of unusual drive activity. One owner said the Radeon driver had consumed 1% of reported SSD health every month for 16 months, a pattern a second user also reported. Another account saw sustained writes of about 5 MB/s while the PC sat idle.

No controlled test has verified either claim. Some users say the writes barely let up, even when their PCs do little. The reports remain anecdotal, and AMD has not tied them to specific hardware.

What has AMD confirmed?

On October 21, an AMD representative confirmed the company was “looking into it with the aim to resolve it in a future driver release.”

Another representative, AMAD Vik, apologized on Reddit and wrote: “This is hopefully fixed in the next one.”

Neither statement identifies the affected drivers across Radeon systems, explains why the utility writes to storage, or provides a firm date for a corrective release. AMD has not published a confirmed release date or a technical diagnosis. The promise remains a target, not a schedule.

How much SSD wear could result?

At the reported 5 MB/s, an SSD receives about 18 GB of host writes per hour, reaching 432 GB in 24 hours and nearly 13 TB over an uninterrupted month.

That arithmetic counts incoming host writes. It does not prove how much reaches NAND flash. SSD controllers use caching, wear-leveling, and other techniques to manage incoming data. The resulting flash wear remains unknown.

No independent test confirms the claimed 1% monthly health loss. Actual flash endurance depends on the controller's treatment of host writes.

Which versions and configurations are implicated?

Reports include systems running Adrenalin 26.19.2 and older releases. No clear pattern connects the behavior to one driver version. AMD's October 30 release notes for Adrenalin 26.20.2 do not mention the issue. The company has not identified responsible driver versions, hardware combinations, or system configurations.

A separate incident last November involved AMD chipset drivers that a Reddit user said repeatedly updated a log file whenever users moved or resized on-screen elements. That case also raised questions about whether stopping the service would affect FreeSync.

The present EEU reports differ. Some users now see writes that barely let up, even when their PCs do nothing. The earlier chipset case did not establish the same sustained storage load.

What can owners do now?

• Check the disk first. Open Windows Resource Monitor with Win + R, enter resmon, and select the Disk tab. Sort by write activity and look for sustained writes from atieclxx.exe or atiesrxx.exe.
• Stop or disable AMD EEU. Open Windows Services with Win + R, enter services.msc, and locate AMD EEU. Stop the service or set its startup type to Disabled. Users report that this appears to stop excessive writes.
• Disable Resizable Bar. One user reported that disabling ReBAR stopped the disk activity without disabling EEU. ReBAR can improve gaming performance by allowing the PC to access GPU memory more efficiently.

Neither workaround is clean, because one disables a driver service and the other changes a graphics feature with a possible gaming-performance benefit that owners may value. Monitoring storage activity is the least disruptive first step. Owners should weigh those tradeoffs before changing services or BIOS settings.

AMD says a fix is in the works, but the release date remains unconfirmed. The next Radeon driver will show whether AMD can eliminate the write load without forcing owners to trade gaming performance against longer SSD service life.