Yeah, I've got a R7 360 a few years old that has the same kind of problem since day one. Video playback has some artifacts when the GPU isn't utilized enough to up the clocks but really only noticeable on blacks. Really not worth an RMA. Wish I could adjust the idle clock like you did but no go in performance tuning? Guess I'll try hunting something down my card!! For anyone else out there with artifacts at default idle which can not be adjusted by wattman or performance tune in new AMD software I found this "
https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/clockblocker-download.html" Damn it's awesome to watch shows without artifacts while streaming!! Just posting this here if someone stumble upon the thread in the future as I did.