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R9 270X Usage drops drastically and so do FPS

Tags:
  • 270x
  • drop
  • R9
  • Games
  • low
  • FPS
  • Graphics
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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April 8, 2014 9:16:46 AM

Hello everybody,

as the title says, I'm having a huge problem which occures in every game. My FPS drop every 2 - 3 minutes for 10 seconds, but they drtop to 5 - 10 FPS ! Usually they go from around 50 - 60 (depending on the game) to ~8, every game behaves like that.

I monitored the CCC while testing out where the problem comes from and I found out that the 'Activity' drops for example from 65% to 15%, stays there for a few seconds and goes up again, back to normal. That is exactly at the same time the FPS are dropping.

My GPU is at 50° Celcius max, CPU is under 50 all the time.

I am using a FX8320 and 8GB of RAM. Has anybody an idea what might be causing the problem?

More about : 270x usage drops drastically fps

April 8, 2014 9:22:35 AM

Is your GPU overclocked?
It may be throttling.
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April 8, 2014 9:26:16 AM

No it's not overclocked, I kept all the settings as they were at the start.
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April 8, 2014 10:00:05 AM

Perhaps adjust some of the settings under the power tune.
this sounds very characteristic of throttling.
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April 8, 2014 10:03:08 AM

What can I do to prevent it from throttling?
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April 8, 2014 10:19:35 AM

Is the CPU overclocked?
What are your full system specs?
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April 8, 2014 10:22:44 AM

No, it's not overclocked too.

Specs:
FX 8320
R9 270X
8 GB RAM
Sandisk 128GB SSD
Western Digital Black Edition 1.0TB
600 Watt LC6600 PSU
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April 8, 2014 11:18:13 AM

To properly take care of the problem, it's best to know what's causing it.
There could be a number of things causing it.
If this only occurs during online gaming, it may be that you are experiencing packet loss.
If this occurs all the time, the card may be dirty or something physically defective with the card.
This can also be caused by a virus.

Another thing you can try is to overclock the memory modules on the card.
The reason for this is it may be experiencing some kind of bottleneck on the card.
Check the HDD activity in the resource monitor.
If the HDD activity is high, this may also be causing your issue.
Also, you can try to reinstall CCC.
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April 8, 2014 11:25:49 AM

This doesn't occur on multiplayer games only, I am having a good and a stable 100mbit/s upstream connection just used by this PC and nothing else. Console and Smartphones, Notebook and TV are in a completely other connection which has nothing to do with this one.
This occurs during every game from ArmA 3 till GTA IV and even strategy games which are not that demanding to the GPU..

I will try to overclock it, what is a good value to set there?
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April 8, 2014 11:35:53 AM

-> Overclocking the memory didnt help either..
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April 8, 2014 11:51:19 AM

I've just tested my older graphicscard, the HD6850. Same problem here. Which component causes these problems? :( 
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April 8, 2014 1:14:00 PM

Motherboard, CPU or PSU.
What motherboard do you have installed?
And do you have the latest drivers for all of your hardware?
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April 8, 2014 1:17:36 PM

Asus M5A78L LE is my motherboard.
Have the latest driver for my graphicscard since I bought it few weeks ago and had to update. I flashed my BIOS as I inserted the FX8320 to the newest version.

Which software could else be updated in this matter?
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April 8, 2014 1:46:00 PM

Perform a clean install of the graphics driver, and see what that does.
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April 8, 2014 2:00:25 PM

Is there a way to deinstall the driver before installing it again?
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April 8, 2014 2:19:27 PM

if you are using windows, you can open the control panel, and uninstall CCC and that should do it.
Then redownload the driver from their website, and reinstall a fresh copy.
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April 8, 2014 2:56:56 PM

I removed CCC and did a fresh install, picked the beta driver this time just to take another version. Sadly I still have the same problem.

Tried out with Age of Wonders 3, GTA IV and DayZ. Every game pushes the GPU Usage to 50% - 60%. It stays there, and while it does the games run smooth just as they should with on this hardware.
Then, out of the blue, the usage drops down to 15% and so do the FPS.

I tested things out with FurMark. Most of the time the Usage stayed over 98%, it dropped to 64% one time..
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April 8, 2014 3:02:34 PM

May be a bad card.
Is there a chance you can RMA it?
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April 8, 2014 3:09:22 PM

I tried my HD 6850 earlier today which was suffering the same issue. That's why i think it cant be the card itself. Or am I wrong?
The HD6850 was working fine, then i upgraded my CPU and the GPU along with a new HDD and a monitor..
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Best solution

April 8, 2014 3:18:28 PM

Get a good PSU, the only thing I can find about that PSU you use is from 2009 and even in 2009 it was considered trash, says a lot.

I think that's the biggest problem for you.
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April 8, 2014 11:46:28 PM

Thank you both, I will get a new PSU and then see if it works out well.
How much Watt do I need? Is 500W enough or does it have to be 600W?

Think I'll go for an Corsair then
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April 9, 2014 12:00:02 AM

Tobias Kuess said:
Thank you both, I will get a new PSU and then see if it works out well.
How much Watt do I need? Is 500W enough or does it have to be 600W?

Think I'll go for an Corsair then


No problem!

500 is a bit close for me.
You won't have any problems as long as you don't overclock.
But i am an advocate of headroom when it comes to PSUs.
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April 9, 2014 12:19:16 AM

Ok good, so I will buy a 600W.

Does it matter if I use the adapter from 2x 4-pin to a 6-pin connector which was delivered whith the graphiccard or use one of the 6-pin cables which come out of the PSU directly? Is there any difference?

Cause the R9 270X needs two plugs beside the power that comes from the PCIe. I plugged one of them directly to a 6-pin coming out of the PSU. For the other one I used one of the two adapters which came with the r9. Is it somehow recommended/necessary to use the adapters?
An I am struggling with the tables printed on PSUs, I don't know how to read them or how to compare the informations in these tables just like in these pictures:

http://portal.cdn.erodov.net/reviews/other/costly-psu/3...
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April 9, 2014 10:17:42 AM

Update: I found out that the same is happening to the CPU. The CPU clock drops from 3.751.68 MHz (Standard for this CPU) to 1.405.93MHz at the exact same moment when the GPU Usage drops and the FPS do. Is there a way to make the CPU clock stable at 3.6GHz and preventing it from going down somehow?

Also i tried to load my CPU and pushed it to 100% usage, then I started FurMark, so GPU and CPU were running at the limit without any drop, system was stable too, so I don't think it has something to do with the PSU ?

NEW UPDATE:
The Core Voltage of my CPU is going up and down all the time causing the CPU clock to go up and down too. it jumps between 1.080V and 1.372V - could that be the issue?
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April 9, 2014 11:40:42 AM

Those are some huge voltage fluctuations!
Whether that is causing the issue or not, it definitely isn't good.
Look for a setting in the bios to change the load line calibration.
This setting makes the MOBO work harder on getting minimal voltage fluctuations from load to idle, and vice/versa.
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April 9, 2014 12:22:21 PM

It has been stable for the past hour now, don't know what caused it. At least more stable then before, according to Core Temp it jumps from 1.360V to 1.420V at the same moment when the clockrate drops.
But CPUz is showing a constant voltage..
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April 9, 2014 2:01:32 PM

Sorry, Just to add to the point about power supply earlier.

Corsair's units use poor capacitors nowadays so it's probably more cost effective to get a unit by Seasonic,XFX or Antec. Other brands also worth looking at but depend on the unit.

I'm no expert on voltages but also important to note that the LE version has no heatsinks on the VRMS so your CPU could ALSO be throttling, have you checked CPU temperatures on HW monitor? YOu can see the VRM temp there as well.
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April 9, 2014 3:01:48 PM

All temps are ok according to CPUID HWMonitor, nothing above 50° Celcius. Just tried it under heavy load on the CPU. The only thing which was strange was that the power consumption of the CPU went from 50W up to 56W and back all the time within seconds while it was under load..
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April 9, 2014 3:02:11 PM

a 600W PSU having only 1 PCI-E connector says a lot, hell, it just seals it.
You need to get a new power supply pronto, man.
Get one of the Corsair enthusiast(Their TX or HX line of PSU's) or Seasonic.
Seasonic is the best, it's the OEM of most good PSU's.
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April 9, 2014 11:27:39 PM

Gonna give it a try and try my friends PSU to see if things change. Let's just hope they do, that would be great.

cst1992:
Are you that sure about it? Because if I test the GPU and the CPU with some stresstest-tools, they all run fine at their maximum without any drops, that's when the power consumption is at its highest point.
It's strange that it is just happening in games :( 
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