GPU refuses to achieve full speed

[Octopuss]

I've just realized something is wrong with my system. I started playing BF4 again after the patch, and at some point noticed I was getting significantly lower framerates than I was used to. At first I thought something was wrong with 15.8 driver to which I upgraded shortly after the game patch, but then I went back to 15.7.1 and it was still bad. Today I went down to 15.7 and still nothing.
Then I accidentally noticed my GPU was running at 500MHz instead of, I think 1000 or something. I am out of ideas, because it kind of happened all of a sudden and I didn't immediatelly noticed. I didn't make any changes to the system except for the driver, which I rolled back to the version I used before.
Any ideas?

P.S. I don't use CCC and when I did, I didn't even enable Overdrive, so it's not a matter of lowered thermal limit or anything. Also, it's not a case of downclocking because of overheating.

 

[RejZoR]

GPU's switch clocks between games and desktop. You need to use MSI Afterburner or GPU-Z to monitor actual GPU clocks. If they don't change during games, then you have something broken. Otherwise, it's a normal behavior.

 

[Octopuss]

Uh, I was talking about gaming and GPU stuck at half speed. No shit something is broken.

 

[Aquinus]

Uh, I was talking about gaming and GPU stuck at half speed. No shit something is broken.

That's not what he said. You need to calm down, man. Every time you post you're so angry. That can't be good for your health.

1. How are you watching GPU clocks and when?
2. Have you been watching temperature while you've been watching clocks?
3. Did you install the new AMD drivers over the old ones?

I had an issue where my performance dropped because I was somewhere between the 15.7 and 15.7.1 driver. Using DDU resolved the issue.

My 390 downclocks to 300Mhz when nothing is running and is at idle. When I'm playing a game that doesn't fully tax it though, there have been cases where I've seen 40-60% load at 500-800Mhz.

 

[RejZoR]

If you observe clocks AFTER you exit the game, those aren't 3D clocks. That's why I've mentioned GPU-Z and MSI Afterburner which monitor clocks and utilization of GPU's in the long run and you can see the graphs where and how clocks changed. Only that is what counts. I suggest you use that and post a screenshot. Or if you can interpret it yourself.

 

[Bo$$]

can everyone stop pissing him off more by asking him to download monitoring tools, he can clearly read them somehow...

Firstly:
1. Run driver sweeper to remove the AMD drivers installed
2. Reinstall the last set you know worked

Secondly
Try resetting the game's graphics configuration I had that problem with the R9 380 a few days ago

 

[Pill Monster]

I've just realized something is wrong with my system. I started playing BF4 again after the patch, and at some point noticed I was getting significantly lower framerates than I was used to. At first I thought something was wrong with 15.8 driver to which I upgraded shortly after the game patch, but then I went back to 15.7.1 and it was still bad. Today I went down to 15.7 and still nothing.
Then I accidentally noticed my GPU was running at 500MHz instead of, I think 1000 or something. I am out of ideas, because it kind of happened all of a sudden and I didn't immediatelly noticed. I didn't make any changes to the system except for the driver, which I rolled back to the version I used before.
Any ideas?

P.S. I don't use CCC and when I did, I didn't even enable Overdrive, so it's not a matter of lowered thermal limit or anything. Also, it's not a case of downclocking because of overheating.

Thermal limit is in the bios not Windows. It's hard coded.

If it is throttling usually the vrm's are overheating..... ...something to keep in mind.

 

[Octopuss]

Ha, got it. It was caused by Afterburner. I had it set to apply whatever settings (I think it said current settings) at startup from back when I experimented with undervolting. I still don't understand where does the 500MHz clock comes from, but once it happened, AB was setting it as the default one right from the boot. Interestingly, the GPU still downclocked to the basic 300MHz, but it never went above 500 under load.
Damnit. Troubleshooting stuff is sometimes such a guessing game.

 

[Aquinus]

Interestingly, the GPU still downclocked to the basic 300MHz, but it never went above 500 under load.

Interesting. Sounds like it was just underclocked. I wonder how that happened. Glad you squared that away. Easy fixes are the best kind.

 

[Pill Monster]

Ha, got it. It was caused by Afterburner. I had it set to apply whatever settings (I think it said current settings) at startup from back when I experimented with undervolting. I still don't understand where does the 500MHz clock comes from, but once it happened, AB was setting it as the default one right from the boot. Interestingly, the GPU still downclocked to the basic 300MHz, but it never went above 500 under load.
Damnit. Troubleshooting stuff is sometimes such a guessing game.

It's not throttling, those are UVD clocks. You must've been playing a movie or surfing the net. AB only controls 3D clock speeds, anything else requires a bios edit.

 

[Aquinus]

It's not throttling, those are UVD clocks. You must've been playing a movie or surfing the net. AB only controls 3D clock speeds, anything else requires a bios edit.

My 390 will peg to almost full clocks when a video is first starting to get played while it gets buffered. What's interesting is that the 390 (unlike my 6870s,) don't appear to use predefined clock modes like UVD where the 6870s did. It feels a lot more like a CPU with Cool 'n Quiet or Speedstep as opposed to predefined modes. For example, when I play video I see something like this. The only thing on my 390 that behaves that way is the memory clocks. It's either idle or full tilt in that case but the core clock seems to adjust to the load, regardless if that is a 3D load or DXVA load, which one could argue is 3D load.

I just wanted to point that out because these chips seem to have dynamic clock speeds that match the application and that predefined clocks for things like video seem to be a thing of the past.

The first is for 1080p playback from MPC, the second is HTML5 youtube 1440p playback.

 

[RejZoR]

That's probably the new BIOS GPU control logic that separates R9-390X from R9-290X...

 

[Pill Monster]

That's probably the new BIOS GPU control logic that separates R9-390X from R9-290X...

You mean UVD? Nah it's been on AMD cards since idk....well I really don't know but years. Prob since the HD2xxxx at least. UVD is AMD's hardware acceleration. Total PITA because it's buggy as shit.

I'm assuming they're UVD clocks at least as UVD is 500mhz. You had UVD on your Tahiti.

 

[RejZoR]

No, the clock control that isn't in fixed steps. See the GPU clock for R9-390X above on MSI Afterburner screenshot. It behaves similar as clock on my GTX 980. It's not 2D or 3D fixed, but fluctuates depending on load or something.

 

[Aquinus]

No, the clock control that isn't in fixed steps. See the GPU clock for R9-390X above on MSI Afterburner screenshot. It behaves similar as clock on my GTX 980. It's not 2D or 3D fixed, but fluctuates depending on load or something.

No X, just 390. Even in 2D, the memory clock doesn't go up unless you do something substantial, which is big because the machine pulls almost another 50-watts just when the memory clocks up. I feel AMD put a little bit of TLC into dynamic clocks with the BIOS on the 390. I have to say though, it really is pretty slick. A huge leap over the 6870s, for sure.

 

[Megatron]

Do 290/290x behave in the same way when they have a 390/390x bios?

 

[Sinster]

I'm running two 390X in Crossfire. I notice in Fallout 4 and Rainbow Six:Siege Beta. One card is at idle and the other card is goes between 300 MHz to 900 MHz. Battlefield 4 runs them at full 1080Mhz.

I disabled UPLS and PowerPlay Support in MSI AB, but tell you the truth I want my stuff going to idle and what not when I'm not gaming.

 

[PCGamerDR]

My 390 will peg to almost full clocks when a video is first starting to get played while it gets buffered. What's interesting is that the 390 (unlike my 6870s,) don't appear to use predefined clock modes like UVD where the 6870s did. It feels a lot more like a CPU with Cool 'n Quiet or Speedstep as opposed to predefined modes. For example, when I play video I see something like this. The only thing on my 390 that behaves that way is the memory clocks. It's either idle or full tilt in that case but the core clock seems to adjust to the load, regardless if that is a 3D load or DXVA load, which one could argue is 3D load.

I just wanted to point that out because these chips seem to have dynamic clock speeds that match the application and that predefined clocks for things like video seem to be a thing of the past.

The first is for 1080p playback from MPC, the second is HTML5 youtube 1440p playback.

My r9 290 does this and it's more aggresive if you set "ensure smooth internet video playback" in CCC, making the mem clock go up to it's max speed and the core clock oscillating from 300 up to almost full clock if a video at 60fps is being played.

Twitch source quality, 1080p60fps:


Youtube HTML5 1080p60fps:


Adding another case to your point.