Bad Game Performance with Sapphire R9 290 PLEASE HELP

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Dashrendar0226

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Hey Guys,

So I recently got a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X card, thinking it was the shizz and that it could run anything maxed out 60fps at 1080P. It does not, far from that. I've always had issues with my graphics cards even after upgrading several times. I get hardly 60fps on Battlefield 4 campaign, maxed out 1080. Assassin's Creed 4 gets around 40 not maxed out, just MSAA on, while a 770 gets 60.... Isn't the 290 supposed to be a flagship card ? Anyways if you guys have ideas please let me know, here are my specs:


PSU: OCZ ModXstream Pro 700W
CPU: AMD FX 8320
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
MOBO: Asus ROG Crosshair-V Formula Z
RAM: G.Skillz 8GB
GFXCARD: Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X
Sound Card: Creative SoundBlaster Z
Headphones 1: Razer Kraken Forged Edition
Headphones 2: Razer Megalodon
Mice: Razer Naga
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2014
2 Asus LCD screen with 60HZ and 1080P
SSD: OCZ Vertex 3 120gb
HDD: 1TB WD Black
Case: CoolerMaster HAF 922
 
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Definitely do try a clean driver reinstall. Google for Display Driver Uninstaller (should be downloadable from 3DGuru) and follow the given instructions.

As a side note, BF4 will mainly run better thanks to Mantle technology, but AC4 is a whole different story. As for all I know, that game can't be run completely maxed out on any AMD card that isn't either a dual-chip GPU or a crossfire setup. Friend of mine tried it on an Asus 290x, and the result was 60fps only in very simple environments; get in a bit of foliage and thanks to physx it dips down to the lower 40...
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IInuyasha74

IInuyasha74

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Yes the R9 290 is a lot faster than the GTX 770 so you shouldn't be having this issue. Did you uninstall all the Nvidia drivers first? It could be an issue with driver conflict.

My brother switched from a weak Nvidia GT 430 to and AMD Radeon 7850 and was having several issues till I realized he didn't remove the Nvidia drivers and that fixed several problems.
 
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Vynavill

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Definitely do try a clean driver reinstall. Google for Display Driver Uninstaller (should be downloadable from 3DGuru) and follow the given instructions.

As a side note, BF4 will mainly run better thanks to Mantle technology, but AC4 is a whole different story. As for all I know, that game can't be run completely maxed out on any AMD card that isn't either a dual-chip GPU or a crossfire setup. Friend of mine tried it on an Asus 290x, and the result was 60fps only in very simple environments; get in a bit of foliage and thanks to physx it dips down to the lower 40...
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Okay thanks guys, I did a clean Windows 8.1 Pro install so there shouldn't be any drivers left. As for Mantle, actually it resulted in about 3-4 FPS in difference compared to DX11 and created game bugs so I just got rid of it.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Okay. I've overclocked my 8320 to 4.3GHZ, I'm gonna do some testing right now.

EDIT1: So it may be only these games that suffer. I get 40-60 FPS Maxed out in Borderlands 2 so that's pretty good.

Still having really bad performance with Nether and Verdun but they're both early access so I don't expect incredible stability. Still, 20FPS in Nether and 25 at LOW in Verdun os pretty low...

Watch Dogs get around 30-60 on Ultra, pretty alright too I reckon. Call of Duty Ghost is CRAP but hey, it's CoD. Kinetic Void is alright. I'm getting HUGE frame drops in Lego: The Movie - Videogame and that really annoys me.

I'm waiting on the Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light REDUX to test those, can't wait. I guess I'll download Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution and croos-check my results with review benchmark. Kind of a waste considering I've finished both games but I really want to make sure my FPS are normal. I'll download BioShock Infinite too and post my scores.


EDIT2: WEIRD ! Guys look at this. I ran the in-game benchmark for Bioshock Infinite on ULTRA+DDOF at 1080p but my scores are all over the place. And coincidently, look at my GPU usage... http://ge.tt/9kwDqpo1

My GPU usage goes up and down and up and down and so does my FPSs... What does that mean ? I'll see if it does the same on my Hitman Absolution and Tomb Raider benchmark...
 
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Vynavill

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Just the fact that you get 40-60 fps from borderlands 2 makes me scream odd...I hope you have physx enabled, because otherwise you've got yourself something VERY wrong with your card. My Asus 290x can get between 180 and 250 fps on it, and even Ghosts can run maxed out without too much effort (save some particularly heavy moments in SP).

I don't know if it's an hardware issue or a software issue, as w8 isn't exactly the best os to play games on, but there's something we're missing here...
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Well actually PhysX is turned all the way off... I got the same hunch, something is wrong... But what ?

I don't get it, everything was fine 4 years ago, then I upgraded to a GTX 660 and my performance went to crap. I added 4GB of RAM and an SSD, nothing. I thought it was a CPU Bottleneck so I upgraded my CPU, Motherboard and CPU cooler. Still crap. I upgraded to a R9 290 and get what I should have been getting with my GTX 660. BTW I couln't run Borderlands 2 before with my 660.

So what's up ? The only thing I haven't changed is the DVD Drive (unplugged anyway) and my PSU.


EDIT 2: Benchmark Time !

Tomb Raider 1920x1080 ULTRA PRESET
- Supposed to get: Average 129FPS http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-r9-290-tri-x-4gb-graphics-card-review/13/

-What I get: Average 60.4 FPS

NOW THIS IS WHERE IT GETS INTERESTING

Tomb Raider 1920x1080 ULTIMATE PRESET

- What I get: ... Average 60.4 FPS !! Yes, I get the EXACT SAME AVERAGE FPS on both Ultra and Ultimate preset!

Hitman Absolution 1920x1080 ULTIMATE IMAGE PRESET

What I should be getting: Average 99FPS http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/6354/sapphire-radeon-r9-290-4gb-tri-x-oc-video-card-review-with-4k-tests-/index10.html

What I get: Average 44FPS !!! I should never dip under 60FPS.... at 2560 x 1440 !

No doubt nom, something is AWEFULY wrong and has been for a very long time. I would just like to specify that I have done a clean legit Windows 8.1 Pro 64bit install on each hardware upgrade and that those results are using the in-game benchmarks.

EDIT 3: Dumb me forget to monitor GPU usage, doing it again and adding it the bench results.

EDIT 4 : Actually I'm not sure if I should be surprised but here's the GPU usage screenshot http://ge.tt/8WyjK5p1/v/0?c

Again, it clearly dips up and down and up and down. What's happening ? I thinks it's worth mentionning that this is the usage for Tomb Raider ULTRA 1080 measured with MSI Afterburner. To be consistent, I should check the ULTIMATE bench usage but screw this I'm going to bed.

EDIT 5: Maybe also worth mentionning: each time I put my feat near the back of my case both my displays turn off. I'm not THAT dumb, I checked the wires, unplugged them and plugged them back on, seemed to work but it just did it again. Pretty annoying, My main display is connected over DVI and my second is via HDMI.
 
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Vynavill

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Well, since you're on a clean os installation, video drivers are to be ruled out as an issue. Switching back and forth from Nvidia to AMD without a proper cleanup is known to cause driver conflicts, but an os reinstall should take care of that...

It feels like there's a limiter somewhere. I'd point at thermal throttling, but those clock dips without too much decrease in fan speed would rule it out.

Are you completely sure the pc is getting enough power?
Also, you mentioned you're playing at 1080p, so I suppose you're playing on a single monitor, while the other is displaying the desktop, am I correct?
 
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mr91

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These numbers are normal for your card!
 
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mr91

mr91

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Check out the Tomshardware review

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-780-ti-review-benchmarks,3663-5.html

The 290 gets an average fps in the mid 60's with a flagship 6 core 12 thread processor.
Even with the high end processor I'm sure there are some dips below 60 fps...

AC4 is not very well optimized for AMD cards which explains why you're only getting 40 fps.

Technically 40 fps is not bad because I could probably get around 60 fps if I turned off physX on my 780 ti however the 290 is a 400 card and the 780 ti is a 700 dollar card.

Regardless your performance is quite good in both games considering your settings.

If you want to get even better performance you should consider getting another 290.
 
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mr91

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The benchmarks you referenced had Tress fx disabled!

If you disable tress fx your frame rate will improve...

Tress FX is Physics based hair simulation!
 
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Vynavill

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You're comparing gpus basing yourself on price tags? Now I've seen them all...

Nevertheless, a 280x is more than capable of running most refresh-gen games at high/max settings, 1080p@60hz resolution. A 290 is literally a slightly tuned down 290x, so he should be supposed to get something more than 60fps on a maxed out Tomb Raider, considering it's an AMD powered game. As another example, an HD 6870 can run BL2 on high settings, constantly 60+ fps, 1080p@60hz as well, and you're expecting a card featuring a newer chipset and architecture (not to mention an higher rev) to perform the same or lower?

He stated his tests were conducted mostly by using 1080p, while some using 1440p. I can understand 40fps at that latter res from a 290, but not at the former...
Something else must be the matter here, either that or his card.is not behaving like it should.
 
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mr91

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I'm not comparing them based on price only I have hands on experience with the cards and games...
BTW I own a 1440p & 1080p monitor so I've done test on both...

Have you played Tomb Raider and AC4 with your 290x?
 
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Vynavill

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Not myself no, but I know for certain Tomb Raider can run.

AC4 literally has Nvidia written all over, and I've heard rumors of "product code hogging", should they be true or not.
No wonder it runs bad on AMD, that's why I didn't use it as an example above, although I should've stated it would've ran bad. Sorry for that :p

As per Tomb Raider, I sold my old pc to a friend, featuring an i5-2500, 2x2gb 1333mhz g.skill ram and an XFX HD 6870 1gb. He bought the game, and apart from tressfx he reached high settings at 1080p while keeping 50-70fps. Another friend just bought it and had my same Asus 290x dcu ii, maxed out everything at 1080p, although he didn't state fps.

I suppose that's enough to guess a 290 will have a good enough performance...
 
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Dashrendar0226

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You are correct for the monitor. As for power, I am not quite sure how to verify that.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Yeah, we decided not to bother too much with the AC4 frames since the game is crap.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Thanks, I did both TressFX on and Off, frames were the exact same.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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This is exactly the conclusion I came to myself.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Well looking at any trusted online benchmark I could find, it darn well should run it better. BUT one thing to consider is I ALWAYS HAD poor performance issues since I switched from a HD 5770 about a year ago. Since that, no matter the card, CPU, motherboard or RAM, I always hade waaaaaay worse performance that I should. I even still have the unanswered posts of that time here on Tom's Hardware.

Thank you really much guys for lending me a hand !
 
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Vynavill

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Well, a thorough check would require a wattmeter, but that's something expensive to come by, at least where I live and for anything higher than 300-350w. You can however check that rails are delivering the required voltage with a more common and affordable voltmeter. If any are delivering lower or higher voltages by at least 0.75~1v than the ones specified, then it's most definitely your PSU.
Thought you checked these things before, thus I didn't state them :p

If nothing is wrong there, the issue is at the very base of everything. I don't suppose you have a power outlet per each connected device, right? That would be awesome, but kind of mad ;p. You most probably have a single power outlet, and everything is connected by a multiple adapter.

Those have a watt limit as well, and if your pc is connected there with anything else drawing power, it simply won't get enough. Most come with a 1000w limit by now, but some older/smaller ones also got a 500w limit. It should be written on some part of the adapter.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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Yeah I definitely did not check the voltages. As for the power outlets, I got one APC power surge protector with everything (5 cables) connected to it and then plugged into the wall. So... what are my options right now ?

EDIT1: Odd, I seem not to be the only one having problems with the CPU/GPU combo http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2022229/290-bad-performance-games.html
http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/26yxg0/built_my_own_gaming_rig_r9_290fx8350_getting_poor/

I'm going to wipe out the drivers and install 14.1 and monitor the GPU usage.

EDIT 2: So weird, when doing absolutely nothing my GPU usage goes up to almost 30, then down. Then up, then down, exactly like my previous screenshots.... What's causing this ?

EDIT 3: Well I got some good news. I got a huge performance gain in Bioshock Infinite and Tomb Raider but downgrading to drivers 14.1 beta 1.6. So I'm now at average 122FPS in Tomb Raider ULTRA. I'm using MSI Afterburner and Open Hardware Monitor to monitor GPU usage and they don't give me the same numbers... MSI gives the usual usage drop from 100% to 50% then up and down whereas OHM gives a good stable usage. Still, for both softwares, the usage in Hitman Absolution is all over the place.

So that leaves me with a huge improvement on Tomb Raider but still leaves me with less-than-optimal performance on other games and suspicious GPU usage drops... Should I monitor CPU usage, too ?
 
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Vynavill

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Does the power surge protector support your wattage? That could be the issue as well...

Monitoring for cpu usage can be useful up to a certain point, and an fx-8000 should be more than capable of sustaining a 290. It doesn't hurt trying anyway.
 
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Dashrendar0226

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It should and I overclocked it to 4.5GHz. As for the power surge, it really doesn't say. I guess I should try an plug it directly into the wall ? But still I don't understand where the huge Tomb Raider gain came from apart from the drivers downgrade.
 
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Vynavill

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If you haven't tried already, yes, do try plugging the PC directly into the wall/multiple adapter you're using. As per drivers, with AMD betas it's like a lottery. Mostly they'll make everything run well on anything (provided the GPU has enough horsepower of course), but some times newer drivers will work WAY worse than older ones (since they may have had in-development functions which improved the performance for your card/game, but killed it for the others).

As a side note, I completely forgot your CPU was overclocked, or I would've adviced this before o_o
Some motherboards or CPU/GPU combos don't act well together when the CPU is heavily overclocked. If you've got enough patience, could you try gradually lowering that until you get back to stock and see if the situation improves?
 
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