AMD Adrenalin 26.5.1 May Be Causing GPU Fan Issues After Monitor Sleep
AMD GPU owners may want to be a bit careful with the latest driver update, especially if your gaming PC sits in a hot Malaysian room with the aircond off.
According to reports highlighted by Tom's Hardware, AMD's Adrenalin 26.5.1 graphics driver, released on May 6, appears to be causing problems with the Zero RPM fan feature on some Radeon graphics cards. The issue seems to happen after a monitor goes to sleep or gets turned off, then wakes up again later.
The scary part? The GPU fans may stay off even when they should start spinning.
What is Zero RPM, and why does this matter?
Zero RPM is a common GPU feature that keeps the graphics card fans completely off when the card is idle or doing light work. Think browsing Chrome, watching YouTube, Discord calls, or just leaving your PC on while you go makan.
Normally, this is a good thing. It keeps your PC quieter, reduces dust buildup, and gives the fans less wear over time. When the GPU gets hotter during gaming or heavier workloads, the fans should automatically wake up and cool the card.
But based on Reddit reports, Adrenalin 26.5.1 may break that behaviour in a specific but very normal situation: when your monitor sleeps or is switched off.
Reddit user Evelyne-Tourneciel reported that Zero RPM kicks in as expected when the monitor sleeps or powers down. The problem starts after the display wakes again. Zero RPM remains active, meaning the GPU fans do not spin up even when the card starts heating up.
At least four other AMD GPU owners reportedly said they experienced the same issue with the 26.5.1 driver.
Why Malaysian and SEA PC gamers should pay attention
For gamers in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, this kind of bug is extra annoying because our ambient temperatures are already brutal. A GPU running passively in a cool room overseas is one thing. A GPU doing the same inside a warm case in KL, Penang, JB, Bangkok, or Manila is a different story.
If you wake your monitor, jump straight into Battlefield, Valorant, Dota 2, Monster Hunter, or any GPU-heavy game, you might not realise the fans are still sleeping. Temps can climb fast, and that can lead to thermal throttling, lower performance, sudden stutters, or in the worst case, long-term hardware stress.
No need to panic, but definitely don't ignore it if you're on this driver.
What can you do for now?
The simplest temporary fix is restarting your PC after the monitor wakes from sleep or after turning the display back on. Not elegant, bro, but it may reset the fan behaviour.
Another option is disabling Zero RPM manually, if your AMD software or board partner utility allows it. You lose the silent idle benefit, but at least the fans are not stuck off when you start gaming.
Some users have also had success doing a clean offline driver reinstall using Display Driver Uninstaller, better known as DDU. This removes leftover driver files before installing a fresh AMD driver. If you are comfortable doing driver cleanup, that may help.
The more hassle-free route is rolling back to an older driver such as Adrenalin 26.3.1, which reportedly does not show the same Zero RPM problem. The trade-off is that you may miss newer driver optimisations, features, or security fixes from later releases.
Tom's Hardware also notes that AMD's newer Adrenalin 26.5.2 driver does not mention this Zero RPM bug in its release notes. At the time of the report, AMD had not publicly acknowledged the issue or provided an official fix.
If your Radeon GPU suddenly runs hotter than usual after waking your monitor, check the fans immediately. And if you can reproduce the bug, submit a report to AMD so it gets visibility faster.
Source: Tom's Hardware
