Windows 11 KB5089549 AMD Adrenalin Freeze and RAM Spike Fix

What is the KB5089549 AMD Driver Freeze and RAM Spike?

Within 24 hours of installing KB5089549 (the May 13, 2026 Windows 11 24H2 cumulative — OS Build 26100.4751), users with Radeon RX 6000, 7000, and 9000-series GPUs are reporting full system freezes and a runaway memory leak that pushes idle RAM usage from a normal 4–6 GB to 18–24 GB within 30 minutes of boot. The freeze is hard — mouse cursor stalls, Ctrl+Alt+Del does nothing, and the only recovery is a power button reset.

Microsoft confirmed the issue on May 27, 2026 in the Windows release health dashboard and traced it to a kernel-mode conflict between the new WDDM 3.3 display subsystem shipped in KB5089549 and AMD Adrenalin 25.5.1 (and the 25.4.x branch). The Adrenalin amdkmdag.sys and amdxc64.sys modules allocate non-paged pool memory each time WDDM 3.3 issues a D3DKMT_OUTPUTDUPL_RELEASE call but never free it, producing the RAM spike. When non-paged pool exhausts, the GPU stack hangs and the rest of the OS follows.

When does it occur?

• Immediately after the first reboot following KB5089549 install on AMD systems
• Within 10–45 minutes of idle desktop use, faster under multi-monitor setups
• During screen recording, remote desktop sessions, or any DXGI duplication workflow (OBS, Discord screen share, NDI)
• On wake from sleep or lid open on Ryzen AI 300 / Strix Halo laptops
• When Edge or Chrome hardware acceleration is enabled and a video tab plays in the background
• Reliably reproducible on dual-display setups with mixed refresh rates (e.g., 240 Hz + 60 Hz)

Common causes

• AMD Adrenalin 25.4.x / 25.5.1 leaking non-paged pool memory under WDDM 3.3
• DXGI Output Duplication API regression introduced with the new desktop compositor
• AMD External Events Utility service (AMD External Events Utility) crashing and respawning in a loop
• Conflict between the Microsoft Basic Display driver fallback and the OEM Radeon driver
• Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling (HAGS) re-enabled by the update on systems where it was off
• AMD Variable Refresh Rate (FreeSync) toggling triggering the leak path on mixed-refresh monitors
• Edge/Chrome --enable-features=UseChromeOSDirectVideoDecoder flag interacting with the broken duplication call

Step-by-step fixes

1. Confirm the leak is the Adrenalin conflict, not generic high RAM idle. Open Task Manager -> Performance -> Memory -> Resource Monitor -> Memory tab. Sort by "Non-paged" pool. If amdkmdag.sys or amdxc64.sys shows >800 MB and is climbing, you have this specific bug. Compare with procexp64.exe from Sysinternals -> View -> System Information -> Memory tab — Non-paged pool over 3 GB is the smoking gun.

1. Roll back AMD Adrenalin to 25.3.2 WHQL, the last branch unaffected by the WDDM 3.3 leak. Download whql-amd-software-adrenalin-edition-25.3.2-win11-win10-april2026.exe from amd.com/en/support (use the previous drivers archive). Run AMD Cleanup Utility first (boot into Safe Mode, run amdcleanuputility.exe, reboot), then install 25.3.2. Do NOT let Windows Update push the driver back — see step 4.

1. Install the AMD hotfix driver 25.5.2 Preview if rolling back is not an option. AMD released whql-amd-software-adrenalin-edition-25.5.2-preview-may28-2026.exe on May 28, 2026 specifically targeting the KB5089549 interaction. Use Factory Reset during install (custom -> Factory Reset checkbox).

1. Block Windows Update from re-pushing the broken Radeon driver. Open gpedit.msc -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Update -> Manage updates offered from Windows Update -> "Do not include drivers with Windows Updates" -> Enabled. Home edition users: use Microsoft's wushowhide.diagcab tool to hide the offending Radeon driver update.

1. Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) which the update re-enabled. Settings -> System -> Display -> Graphics -> Default graphics settings -> Change default graphics settings -> turn OFF "Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling". Reboot. This breaks the specific code path that triggers the duplication leak.

1. Stop and disable the AMD External Events Utility loop. Press Win+R, type services.msc, find AMD External Events Utility. If it is restarting every few seconds (visible in Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> System with EventID 7031 referencing atiesrxx), right-click -> Properties -> Startup type -> Disabled. You lose FreeSync hot-toggle UI but not the feature itself.

1. Apply the Microsoft Known Issue Rollback (KIR) for KB5089549-AMD. On Pro/Enterprise: download Windows-KB5089549-250529-KIR-AMD-WDDM.msi from the Microsoft Update Catalog, run it, then gpedit.msc -> Administrative Templates -> Microsoft KIR -> Windows 11 24H2 KB5089549 AMD WDDM Rollback -> Enabled. Reboot. Home users receive the KIR automatically over May 29 to June 3, 2026.

1. As a temporary workaround on multi-monitor setups, set all displays to the same refresh rate. Settings -> Display -> Advanced display -> for each monitor pick a common refresh (60 Hz works universally). The mixed-refresh path is where the duplication leak compounds fastest.

If it still doesn't work

If the freeze persists after rollback + HAGS off + KIR applied, the issue may be the AMD chipset driver rather than the GPU driver — KB5089549 also breaks compatibility with chipset driver versions older than 5.05.16.529 on AM5 platforms. Install the latest chipset package from amd.com/en/support/chipsets and reboot twice. For Ryzen AI / Strix Halo laptops (HP OmniBook, Lenovo Yoga Slim with Ryzen AI Max+ 395), the OEM-customized driver may be the only one that resolves it — check the support pages at hp.com/drivers or support.lenovo.com for a post-May-27 release. As a last-resort recovery, uninstall the cumulative entirely: open an elevated Command Prompt and run wusa /uninstall /kb:5089549 /quiet /norestart, then reboot. Note that KB5089549 contains security fixes, so this should be a stopgap only until the KIR or AMD 25.5.2 reaches you. Report persistent cases on AMD's official issue tracker at community.amd.com/t5/drivers-software/bd-p/drivers-software and in the Microsoft Feedback Hub with the tag "KB5089549 AMD WDDM" so Microsoft can correlate telemetry.