Low Performance with 8350 and R9 290

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

Full specs in my signaure
I am getting low fps in BF3 and BF4 with my 8350 and r9 290, and don't know what to do.
Things I've already tried:
• Updating Bios to latest
• Updating Chipset and Graphics Drivers
• Unparked Cores
• Reinstalled BF3/BF4
• Reinstalled Windows
Full specs in my signaure
Here is a my video documenting my issue:
http://youtu.be/IaVKMNL-aS4

I displayed overlays so you can sort of see whats going on CPU/GPU side...
How come I'm the only one who seems to have bottlenecking issues with this CPU?
Is this normal? People put up with this in 2011/2012 when the CPU was new in BF3?

MATTFIZZLE · Jun 1, 2014

I'm sorry 46fps is low fps? wow i think i need to upgrade my graphics card. I mean dude i run like 30 fps if im lucky. now idk if that's actually low fps for you but its high fps to me. I'm sure the community will help. Can you over clock your graphics card to squezz i little more juice out of it?

Deus Gladiorum · Jun 1, 2014

Can you say exactly what the minimum and maximum, and perhaps the averages are in that video? It's only available in 360p and because of that it's absolutely impossible to make out anything you've recorded with regards to frame rate.

UPDATE: Nevermind, I didn't see the top right corner. Though still pretty hard to make out, 46 fps does seem kind of low for that setup. I have an FX-6300 @ 4.5 GHz and a GTX 770 and I don't really think I'm ever that low in Battlefield 3. I'm usually pretty perceptive about drops below more than 55 fps, so aside from one time I can't really think of any time I've ever gotten that low. What map are you on while playing and where were you in the map? I'll try to see if I get similar results.

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

MATTFIZZLE :

already tried...
Thing is, my build should be 70-120 fps. my 290 is comparable to the GTX 780 so...

Deus Gladiorum · Jun 1, 2014

Alright, I just finished a lengthy game on Damavand Peak. Settings were maxed out, 4x MSAA, HBAO, V-Sync on, 32 players, and I didn't really dip too much. As it turns out, I dip below 60 fps quite a bit more frequently than I initially thought I did and it's even down to like 46 or so, but when I do it's hardly noticeable because it only occurs for like half a second and even still it's fairly infrequent. In fact, it's so infrequent and so minute that without some kind of frame monitor, I wouldn't notice the fps drops at all -- and this is coming from someone who's absolutely anal about drops to even 50 fps.

However, when I went to the exact same area you were in in Damavand Peak with almost no other units around (but players still fighting in the distance) I didn't drop below 60 at all, and it's with a FX-6300. So I think we can eliminate CPU bottleneck here. My FX-6300 bottlenecks me in a hell of a lot of games, but BF3 isn't one of them.

UPDATE: When my team (Russian Defenders) was finally pushed back to the last two objectives on Damavand and there was fairly heavy fighting going on between 32 players, even then my frame rate stayed at 60 fps most of them. From observations I could see immediately, it was still silky smooth, even though there were some infrequent drops to 57 and 53 fps that I didn't notice. Whenever I died in this last segment, I'd alt-tab to see the graph for MSI Afterburner and for the most part the frame rate graph was a nice horizontal line with a couple, almost unnoticeable dips (and a few very large dips to 30 and even 20 fps but these were just due to the process of alt-tabbing -- they weren't visible in game). So again, no it's probably not your CPU.

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

BF3 and BF4?

I know BF4 is optimized for AMD slightly more (or was at launch supposedly) so it shouldn't give you low FPS. As for BF3, it wasn't. Watching your video, you say Mantle helps you. That's good.

As for BF3, have you tried reinstalling it? You reinstalled Windows (no idea why), but try reinstalling the game. And if your settings are all maxed out, try lowering anti-aliasing of some sort.

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

If you check on my channel there's some more videos there, one of where BF3 fps drops, and I lower it to medium settings across the board... still dips to like 55fps...
Could it be my 290's optimization for BF3? The card has a hell of a lot of power in it though, no reason the game shouldn't take advantage of it.

I reinstalled for the very reason that I thought that the PC was underperfroming, and tried to get a VERY fresh start so there were no lingering drivers or other errors as factors. I did, and I still get the performance you see here...

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

Deus Gladiorum :

Alright, I just finished a lengthy game on Damavand Peak. Settings were maxed out, 4x MSAA, HBAO, V-Sync on, 32 players, and I didn't really dip too much. As it turns out, I dip below 60 fps quite a bit more frequently than I initially thought I did and it's even down to like 46 or so, but when I do it's hardly noticeable because it only occurs for like half a second and even still it's fairly infrequent. In fact, it's so infrequent and so minute that without some kind of frame monitor, I wouldn't notice the fps drops at all -- and this is coming from someone who's absolutely anal about drops to even 50 fps.

However, when I went to the exact same area you were in in Damavand Peak with almost no other units around (but players still fighting in the distance) I didn't drop below 60 at all, and it's with a FX-6300. So I think we can eliminate CPU bottleneck here. My FX-6300 bottlenecks me in a hell of a lot of games, but BF3 isn't one of them.

UPDATE: When my team (Russian Defenders) was finally pushed back to the last two objectives on Damavand and there was fairly heavy fighting going on between 32 players, even then my frame rate stayed at 60 fps most of them. From observations I could see immediately, it was still silky smooth, even though there were some infrequent drops to 57 and 53 fps that I didn't notice. Whenever I died in this last segment, I'd alt-tab to see the graph for MSI Afterburner and for the most part the frame rate graph was a nice horizontal line with a couple, almost unnoticeable dips (and a few very large dips to 30 and even 20 fps but these were just due to the process of alt-tabbing -- they weren't visible in game). So again, no it's probably not your CPU.

so what do you think it could be? All of my specs are in my signature.

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

I just think it was normal at the time. The reason your FX-8350 never goes above 80% on either of the cores is because the FX series aren't great in single-core performance.

I have a Phenom II X4 945 & Sapphire 7870 GHz Edition and get the frames you have with low dips sometimes. Especially when something big happens.

I don't know what to tell you other than to deal with it. BF3 wasn't that greatly optimized, but BF4 is a lot better.

On second thought, is your memory in dual channel?

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

yep, cpu-Z shows dual channel at 933mhz per stick... timed correctly at 9-109-28... I know my PC, and I KNOW it should be faster than this. Its not just this game, its many others... I don't understand, Watch Dogs recommends 8350 for ultra, and the game auto-detects it as ultra, but I run the game 20-70fps, mainly running in the 30-50 range when I'm doing anything...
Again, Gpu is only 50-60% used, and 8350 is only 50% used...

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

jkteddy77 :

It should. It's quite odd.

Watch Dogs is poorly optimized at the moment, especially for AMD cards, as driver support is awful right now. Even for Nvidia. And to play it on Ultra, you need SLI I believe, which is silly because the game isn't THAT great looking.

Here's something I found out that may help(one of them SHOULD help):

1) Unpark your cores. (Just google it for the FX-8350. Should be really easy.)
2) Okay. So this is crucial. IF you updated to the lastest catalyst beta drivers, I believe you have to uninstall the old drivers first. (You said you reinstalled windows, so maybe you didn't have old drivers. Hmm.)

Also to see if it works, if you have an aftermarket cooler, overclock your FX8350. If your FPS increases, you have a CPU bottleneck. (Maybe.)

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

It is should be the CPU causing the problem, a my GPU usage is lowering in games. The only cause of that is CPU bottlenecking as I've been told. I AM overclocked, to 4.4ghz. Turned off ALL Power saving functions, and I'm still getting low fps.... Overclock only helped by like 1 fps, so it didn't exactly alleviate a bottleneck.... If I was truly bottled, it would have solved more...

I am aware that beta drivers need to be configured right.
I used AMD's uninstall tool and DDU to completely wipe old drivers, then installed 14.6 drivers and my necessary mobo drivers... Should be the only drivers on the PC.
Faster than old drivers, but not as fast as the 290 should be. I can't figure this out...

dacquesta1 · Jun 1, 2014

What are you cpu and gpu temps when getting the frame dips?

CooLWoLF · Jun 1, 2014

One thing I always tend to notice when people are having low FPS in these games, and are running Windows 8, is they always have 8gb of RAM. Windows 8 is memory hungry. Drop in another 8gb stick if you can.

Besides that, what resolution are you running at? Do you have game settings to max on everything?

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

CooLWoLF :

Windows 8 is not memory hungry?.... It uses less memory than Windows 7. What are you talking about? You don't need 16GB just to play games.

dacquesta1 · Jun 1, 2014

Haven't had any memory issues here on 8.1 and my RAM usage rarely goes over 5GB even when gaming...

edit: NO one has mentioned anything about OP's CPU and GPU temps at any point so I think we need some info on that.

CooLWoLF · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

Where did I say you needed it to play games soley? Alot of people have multiple programs, multiple monitors, etc. running at once. I know I do. And I have 16gb of memory, with no performance issues when playing BF4 in ultra settings.

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

dacquesta1 :

CooLWoLF :

You didn't. But the OP's problem is low performance in GAMES. Not other applications and he never stated he had more monitors. So why would that matter? Your statement that Windows 8 uses more memory is beyond wrong. It is the complete opposite and has less overhead than Windows 7. Minimal, but less. But even with 8GB, you'd be able to play BF4 on UItra with quite a few programs open. 16GB is really only needed to the point of where you're rendering videos constantly and also doing other things along with something like an i7 4770k.

But yes, we do need to know the GPU and CPU temperatures. This would help us determine if heat is an issue. (Although I'd believe BF4 would make components run hotter than BF3 as it's more intensive, but hey, computers can be sporadic.)

CooLWoLF · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

dacquesta1 :

CooLWoLF :

You didn't. But the OP's problem is low performance in GAMES. Not other applications and he never stated he had more monitors. So why would that matter? Your statement that Windows 8 uses more memory is beyond wrong. It is the complete opposite and has less overhead than Windows 7. Minimal, but less. But even with 8GB, you'd be able to play BF4 on UItra with quite a few programs open. 16GB is really only needed to the point of where you're rendering videos constantly and also doing other things along with something like an i7 4770k.

But yes, we do need to know the GPU and CPU temperatures. This would help us determine if heat is an issue. (Although I'd believe BF4 would make components run hotter than BF3 as it's more intensive, but hey, computers can be sporadic.)

I was making an observation. I didn't say "OP's issue is he only has 8gb of RAM." And you're right, he didn't state that he is running multiple programs, multiple monitors, etc. But just because OP didn't come out and say that, does not eliminate it as a possibility. So I say again, I was making an observation, looking for more information.

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

CooLWoLF :

EpiclyDelicious :

I was making an observation. I didn't say "OP's issue is he only has 8gb of RAM." And you're right, he didn't state that he is running multiple programs, multiple monitors, etc. But just because OP didn't come out and say that, does not eliminate it as a possibility. So I say again, I was making an observation, looking for more information.

You specifically said "Windows 8 is memory hungry" which is wrong. How is that an observation? We should know that memory specifications would not affect his performance. Why? Because he's perfectly fine in BF4, while in BF3 he has more issues. And BF4 uses more resources due to being a bigger game.

As for finding out information, I'd like to see all of his specifications if possible. Along with temperatures if we you can provide them.

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

CooLWoLF :

You specifically said "Windows 8 is memory hungry" which is wrong. How is that an observation? We should know that memory specifications would not affect his performance. Why? Because he's perfectly fine in BF4, while in BF3 he has more issues. And BF4 uses more resources due to being a bigger game.

As for finding out information, I'd like to see all of his specifications if possible. Along with temperatures if we you can provide them.

Alright guys, let me clear this up. I am using a 23" Asus 1080p for gaming, 20" 900p side monitor, and 39" 1080p tv above.

Now, even when I unplug all 3 screens completely, and just run on the 23" Asus... I get he SAME fps issues.

My RAM never goes over 6.5gb, that's the highest it goes, I've never seen it fill. RAM shouldn't be an issue

My CPU socket is always under 54C, and my CPU is always under 52C, and that's at 4.4ghz OC
Stock, both are under 50C all the time, and again, stock and OC'd run the same :/

GPU is never over 75C, Tri-X on 290 keeps it nice and cool. Lowering GPU doesn't sem to help either, card doesn't throttle til 95C anyway...

Just played with someone with a 9590 at 4.7ghz, that's 0.3ghz higher than me, who said he was at 110fps with his 290x... Even at 4.6ghz, I have seen NO fps improvement... what is wrong? I obviously should be running faster???

I OC'd my r9 290 as high as possible, 1135/1450 and I only saw a 6fps increase, and the lag was the same...

I don't really know what to do now, This is so broken. Yet, it benchmarks fine in tests, but I get to games and... ugh.

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

CooLWoLF :

EpiclyDelicious :

dacquesta1 :

CooLWoLF :

You didn't. But the OP's problem is low performance in GAMES. Not other applications and he never stated he had more monitors. So why would that matter? Your statement that Windows 8 uses more memory is beyond wrong. It is the complete opposite and has less overhead than Windows 7. Minimal, but less. But even with 8GB, you'd be able to play BF4 on UItra with quite a few programs open. 16GB is really only needed to the point of where you're rendering videos constantly and also doing other things along with something like an i7 4770k.

But yes, we do need to know the GPU and CPU temperatures. This would help us determine if heat is an issue. (Although I'd believe BF4 would make components run hotter than BF3 as it's more intensive, but hey, computers can be sporadic.)

I was making an observation. I didn't say "OP's issue is he only has 8gb of RAM." And you're right, he didn't state that he is running multiple programs, multiple monitors, etc. But just because OP didn't come out and say that, does not eliminate it as a possibility. So I say again, I was making an observation, looking for more information.

What FPS are you getting in games? you ever have issues?

EpiclyDelicious · Jun 1, 2014

Okay. Simple question. Do you have the latest AMD Catalyst Beta Drivers? (14.4 or something?)

If so, and you updated, I believe with anything beyond 14.1 you have to uninstall the old drivers or you may run into issues.

jkteddy77 · Jun 1, 2014

EpiclyDelicious :

I Used AMD's uninstall tool AND DDU to COMPLETELY ERADICATED all drivers on the PC, then reinstalled Catalyst 14.6 and mobo drivers yes...

I'm pretty sure this PC is as clean driver-side as possible. Thinking of getting a separate HDD, installing windows fresh onto it, and trying agian... but like I said, I've reinstalled before...

CooLWoLF · Jun 1, 2014

jkteddy77 :

CooLWoLF :

EpiclyDelicious :

I was making an observation. I didn't say "OP's issue is he only has 8gb of RAM." And you're right, he didn't state that he is running multiple programs, multiple monitors, etc. But just because OP didn't come out and say that, does not eliminate it as a possibility. So I say again, I was making an observation, looking for more information.

What FPS are you getting in games? you ever have issues?

In BF4, 80+ fps on Ultra at 1080p. Some maps run better than others, but I don't go below 80. I run Mantle. If I run DX11, its less. I will say that I do not run anti-aliasing, which helps significantly with frame rates and keeps my GPU temps lower (I don't notice much of a visual difference anyway, especially since its such a fast-paced game, so it benefits me to keep it off).

My guess at this point, software or driver issues in the background. Your temps are fine, so its not throttling. Do you run Twitch streams or other software while gaming?

Low Performance with 8350 and R9 290

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