AMD’s Chipset Mystery: Unraveling the Enigma of SSD Performance Anomalies

It seems that AMD-based PCs might, in some odd circumstances, affect SSD performance. A Reddit user, Takia_Gecko, observed peculiar drive behavior caused by AMD chipset drivers. Discovered was an error in the drivers leading to repetitive creation of a system log file when moving and/or resizing windows. This, put simply, results in unnecessary and senseless SSD load.

To illustrate, the user executed a command logging all changes on the hard drive using ReadDirectoryChangesW. Each new line in the console window represents a file change. As seen, there are a huge number of entries – literally thousands within seconds. It’s found that this recording is managed by the AMD External Events Utility service, and stopping it solves the problem. However, that service also supports FreeSync technology.

Reached out to for comment, Tom’s Hardware has yet to hear back from AMD on details, as the excessive SSD load could prematurely wear out its resources. Nonetheless, it is speculated that for modern SSDs, this data volume poses no harm. One user calculated that filling 1 TB would require moving windows non-stop for almost 12 days.

Latest Developments

Since this discovery, there haven’t been any official statements or fixes issued by AMD addressing this driver-related issue. However, technological evaluations continue to monitor for any updates.

Industry and Consumer Impact

While some concerns have been raised regarding potential wear on consumer SSDs, industry experts suggest that the robustness of current SSD technology mitigates significant risk. The incident has highlighted broader discussions about chipset reliability and its hidden impacts on system components.

Technical Comparisons

No recent information suggests similar problems with Intel chipsets. This peculiar AMD issue remains unique, drawing interest and discussions within tech communities over comparative chipset performance and reliability.