XFX Radeon R9 390 Huge FPS Drops

[Michael91]

Hey all,

I just purchased a XFX R9 390 near thanksgiving and put it in my system. I've been happy with it so far but recently its had a few blue screens with "Uncorrectable_Hardware_Error". Its got 100-140 frames on max graphics in Diablo 3, great in Dota 2 as well never going below 60fps. After the blue screens on AMD Crimsons current driver, I used DDU to uninstall all prior drivers and I am currently running on the beta driver. It's only been running for about 4-5 hours on this new driver and no blue screen yet. But I can't get it to stop frame dropping in World of Warcraft. Even with all Add-ons disabled, it dips to 20-30 frames, then hops back to ~55. In either case I expected more from this card. Am I mistaken to believe this card will run any WoW setting at 60+ FPS?

Please help, and thank you all in advance.

 

[ne6togadno]

wow is more cpu rather then gpu load so better compare fps with diablo 3 and dota. mmos doenst run well on bulldozer cpus.

 

[Mussels]

post the rest of your system specs, but yes its more likely CPU limited.


GPU is not the only thing that matters for FPS.

 

[ne6togadno]

post the rest of your system specs...

dont be lasy. click that "system specs" button

 

[Michael91]

I was running WoW with 60FPS consistantly with same CPU and my old GPU, Radeon 6870. Plus I'd never suspect that even with this processor I would have to worry bout frames that low in WoW. Any other thoughts?

Thanks for the replies so far guys. Its been an uphill battle with this thing, I'd just really like to get back to gaming haha.

 

[Mussels]

dont be lasy. click that "system specs" button

it wasnt showing when i posted.

I was running WoW with 60FPS consistantly with same CPU and my old GPU, Radeon 6870. Plus I'd never suspect that even with this processor I would have to worry bout frames that low in WoW. Any other thoughts?

Thanks for the replies so far guys. Its been an uphill battle with this thing, I'd just really like to get back to gaming haha.

turning settings up for the new GPU could add to the CPU load. WoW is single threaded, so CPU limits are certainly an issue.

 

[ne6togadno]

I was running WoW with 60FPS consistantly with same CPU and my old GPU, Radeon 6870. Plus I'd never suspect that even with this processor I would have to worry bout frames that low in WoW. Any other thoughts?

Thanks for the replies so far guys. Its been an uphill battle with this thing, I'd just really like to get back to gaming haha.

are you sure you are in the same area and with the same player count as you were before.
in mmos change in player count in the area adds to player cpu load so if you want to compare fps in mmos you have to be very careful with location.
if you still have your 6870 install it and try 10 man raid. blackwing descent will do it cause firs boss is just next to entrance. run gpu-z during fight and set it to make log file.
change your gpu and try again same boss. compare logs between both runs. then you can be sure you have fps drops caused by gpu if you have any. public raids should do it too but scene enviroment will varies more compared to premade raid.

edit: have winter event started already?

 

[Michael91]

I would put old card in but brother gave it to me for last birthday and since I got a new one he is going to take that one and crossfire it. I'm gonna get the PSU tested tomorrow and if the PSU is all good, I'll have to decide if I want to RMA the card. Another question I have is, will higher end cards still have terrible FPS as soon as you start loading a map then even out after loading the environment? Would benchmarking the card tell me if its normal for a stock card to run this way?

Thanks!

 

[Mussels]

I would put old card in but brother gave it to me for last birthday and since I got a new one he is going to take that one and crossfire it. I'm gonna get the PSU tested tomorrow and if the PSU is all good, I'll have to decide if I want to RMA the card. Another question I have is, will higher end cards still have terrible FPS as soon as you start loading a map then even out after loading the environment? Would benchmarking the card tell me if its normal for a stock card to run this way?

Thanks!

if the problems are CPU limits, then no graphics card is going to fix it. You could have the most expensive hardware on the planet and you will still get FPS drops - especially ones on older engines like WoW.

 

[Michael91]

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if the problems are CPU limits, then no graphics card is going to fix it. You could have the most expensive hardware on the planet and you will still get FPS drops - especially ones on older engines like WoW.

Weird thing is, I ran ultra, same settings as now, on that 6870 card and still got solid frames. But I understand where turning up settings could adversely affect the cpus ability to perform. Would it show in task manager under Processor usage if it was struggling to run WoW? It currently never goes over 30%.

Thanks again for your help guys!

 

[Mussels]

that 30% is divided between all your CPU cores.

100/8 = 12.5% per core

that 30% could be scattered over them and your background tasks, or it could be two cores totally maxed out.

 

[Michael91]

that 30% is divided between all your CPU cores.

100/8 = 12.5% per core

that 30% could be scattered over them and your background tasks, or it could be two cores totally maxed out.

Looks like 2, 6 and 7 not doing much. Other cores are nearer to 70 to 80%. good call on that one. I'm going with an i5 or i7 for my next build.. bleh. and an Nvidia card. It was fun to tell people I had an octa-core for a while but now its time to get performance where it matters, on each core. So assuming I don't get another blue screen, no more freezing and crashing, and power supply gets the all clear from the shop I am taking it to, I think I'll keep this card around a while.. Also would you say its important to have higher clock on the card such as with the 960 and 970 than it is to have the memory of the R9 390? Also got this card for $265 with $30 MIR(that I missed out on cuz it arrived as soon as the rebate expired >...>)better than paying for a 970 it would seem.

Edit: Better to have higher clocking card or more graphical memory for an MMO?
2nd Edit: Looks like each core does a little work, then the others do and it takes a break.. Wish I understood CPUs and GPUs better. So much to learn about all of the features and stuff.

 

[Mussels]

the AMD cards work just fine and may well be the performance kings in upcoming DX12 games.

Unfortunately you're dealing with an older game that really only uses two threads - one for the game, one for the graphics.

 

[ne6togadno]

download and run this benchmark and pls report your score and min/aver/max fps (screenshot of scrore screen is fine). test 6870 too and compare results.
your cpu is just fine problem is that games you are using for comparison arnt made to work with it properlly.

I would put old card in but brother gave it to me for last birthday and since I got a new one he is going to take that one and crossfire it.

i am sure he would mind to lend it back to you for few days testing

 

[Michael91]

Sorry about the delay. I had to get to sleep for work, I am going to benchmark it in Unigine Heaven and see if it stays stable and if its scores are similar to other R9 390s. I went and got my power supply tested and they said it was totally good to go and they think I should RMA the card. I want to be sure its not just WoW or a driver issue before I send it in so I'll give it one last chance with the benchmark software. If it has terrible numbers, I'll just have to send it in for RMA.

 

[PCGamerDR]

Try using v-sync and when you open WoW, go into task manager and re-set the cpu affinities to the game, leave it with 1 cpu affinity then put them all back and report. Older games like their CPU affinities re-set after opening (at least most of them). I do that to some game i play today that are pretty old like AoE 2 and Torchlight to name a few and it works like a charm.

 

[Michael91]

Alright so here is my scores. I can't find other results to pair them to. The CPU and GPU are stock clocked and I'm not sure if that's a good score for stock clock. Any reason you guys would believe these are below average?

http://imgur.com/gallery/UuFLH

 

[Michael91]

PCGamerDR, thats really weird. I set it to one CPU and the frames fell, then I went back in and turned em all back on and I haven't dipped below 40 FPS. This card hasn't blue screened since updating drivers to the beta version and it runs all other GPU intensive games really well... Tested Witcher 3 in the city with MAX settings and didn't go below 35 FPS. So I think this card is good. Had my power supply tested and they said it was good. Just wish WoW was optimized better. Thanks a lot PCGamerDR!

 

[PCGamerDR]

PCGamerDR, thats really weird. I set it to one CPU and the frames fell, then I went back in and turned em all back on and I haven't dipped below 40 FPS. This card hasn't blue screened since updating drivers to the beta version and it runs all other GPU intensive games really well... Tested Witcher 3 in the city with MAX settings and didn't go below 35 FPS. So I think this card is good. Had my power supply tested and they said it was good. Just wish WoW was optimized better. Thanks a lot PCGamerDR!

No problem! and tbh that thing works in 90% of those old unoptimized games.

 

[ne6togadno]

PCGamerDR, thats really weird. I set it to one CPU and the frames fell, then I went back in and turned em all back on and I haven't dipped below 40 FPS. This card hasn't blue screened since updating drivers to the beta version and it runs all other GPU intensive games really well... Tested Witcher 3 in the city with MAX settings and didn't go below 35 FPS. So I think this card is good. Had my power supply tested and they said it was good. Just wish WoW was optimized better. Thanks a lot PCGamerDR!

yap your card is just fine. here is score for @Aquinus' 390 and (same driver, same settings different cpu) he has ~1k more then you but he has i7 and i think this difference is normal.
turn off AA settings in wow and if this doesnt help turn off shadows too. this should be enough to fix fps drops.

 

[PCGamerDR]

turn off AA settings in wow and if this doesnt help turn off shadows too.

+1.

 

[Aquinus]

Even with all Add-ons disabled, it dips to 20-30 frames, then hops back to ~55.

Howdy there @Michael91. I'm sorry I didn't get back to your PM. I've had a rather busy week. It almost feels like the behavior you get with vsync on every second v-blank. Are you running WoW with v-sync off?

 

[Michael91]

Howdy there @Michael91. I'm sorry I didn't get back to your PM. I've had a rather busy week. It almost feels like the behavior you get with vsync on every second v-blank. Are you running WoW with v-sync off?

I had to tweak it a bit more to really get it steady. I turned off AA, and turned shadow and liquid details way down. Vsync is on, but when I turn it off it seems sporadic, like my FPS goes volatile. I'll go to 100 FPS and then it will dip to 24 FPS in Lion's Watch, the new area introduced this patch. But with vsync it only dips to 45 fps at the lowest with low liquid and shadow and no AA + Vsync. Was also getting blue screens about clock interval interrupt on secondary processor, which was weird cuz I don't OC. Is it possible for a motherboard to auto overclock your processor and have it become unstable? Because I turned the settings in my BIOS back to normal instead of Asus optimized and it hasn't blue screened again. So much weird stuff going on at this point its really quite frustrating still.

 

[Aquinus]

Was also getting blue screens about clock interval interrupt on secondary processor

That means that your CPU is unstable regardless of the reason. I would make sure your temperatures are okay and I would not use any kind of auto overclocking; set everything back to stock and see how it runs. I would keep an eye on CPU temperature because if it got worse with vsync off, that could be an indicator that it's thermal throttling.

 

[cdawall]

I notice you are running an 8 core CPU on a 970 series motherboard. I to like to live life on the edge.