Apex Legends crashes confirmed on Radeon RX 9070 XT with Adrenalin 26.8.1
A new graphics driver is supposed to fix problems, not introduce new reasons to revert to the old one. That is exactly what is happening currently for some owners of the AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT. The Apex Legends team confirmed a crash bug on August 26, 2026, affecting players with AMD's RDNA-4 graphics card. As an immediate interim solution, it is explicitly recommended to roll back from Adrenalin 26.8.1 to the previous version 26.7.1. The cause is currently under investigation.
Confirmed Issues and Official Recommendations
The situation involves a specific hardware-software interaction rather than a general driver failure. While AMD released Adrenalin 26.8.1 on August 20, 2026, bringing support for the Radeon RX 9050 4 GB and optimizations for new titles, the release notes did not list Apex Legends under fixed bugs or known issues. Shortly after launch, users reported crashes with the Radeon RX 9070 XT, specifically during startup or shader compilation. Some users also experienced black screens followed by driver errors.
The Apex Legends team officially acknowledged these reports via their ApexLiveComms channel, confirming that crashes on the Radeon RX 9070 XT are being investigated. The official stance is clear: this is a confirmed issue with the RX 9070 XT specifically under driver version 26.8.1. However, it does not automatically imply that all RX-9000 series cards or every single RX 9070 XT unit will crash.
Distinguishing Between Specific and General Issues
This case is somewhat unusual because the game developer has confirmed the error publicly, while AMD's official release notes have not yet updated to reflect it. Interestingly, Adrenalin 26.8.1 already has a confirmed issue with other RX-9000 cards: intermittent crashes in Starfield. AMD lists this as a known issue and also recommends rolling back to Adrenalin 26.7.1 for those affected.
It is important not to conflate these two issues. There are currently no reliable indications that the crash in Apex Legends and the one in Starfield share the same technical cause. The commonality is simply that the previous driver version serves as a workaround for both problems until a fix is found.
Technical Workaround and Installation Advice
The recommended solution for affected systems is to downgrade from Adrenalin 26.8.1 to Adrenalin 26.7.1, which was released on July 28, 2026, and officially supports the RX-9000 series. AMD advises using the AMD Cleanup Utility when performing a downgrade to an older Adrenalin version. This tool removes remnants of the currently installed driver before installing the older package.
This step is crucial for troubleshooting because it ensures that a clean older driver installation is used. Without this cleanup, it can be difficult to determine whether the issue stems from the new driver itself or residual files from the previous version. Users who can play Apex Legends without issues currently have no compelling reason to downgrade solely based on the report, but those experiencing crashes should follow the official rollback recommendation.
Conclusion and Current Status
For owners of the RX 9070 XT, this is frustrating, but there is a relatively straightforward workaround available. Affected users can temporarily revert to Adrenalin 26.7.1 without needing to rely on experimental settings or forum startup parameters. It is notable that Apex Legends is missing from AMD's Known Issues list despite the game team confirming the error publicly.
Until AMD narrows down the cause, users should not interpret more than is currently known. Currently, this is a confirmed crash of the RX 9070 XT with Adrenalin 26.8.1, not a proven defect of the entire RDNA-4 driver base.
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