GPU underclocking during video playback?

MilkyPoint

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Sep 22, 2014
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Hey, I have an R9 270 OCed from base core clock 925mhz to 1050 safely, Been at that and performed well for months of play/stress tests.

During games it goes from an idle core clock of 400 to 1050, as expected.
What I didn't expect is when playing a game, it will underclock to 900mhz if I play any kind of video, say youtube facebook or even a local file with a media player.

I've reinstalled the newest drivers and re-did my OC(afterburner) messed around with CCC video options. And yes ofc overdrive is turned off while Im using afterburner.
Nothing changes this. Ofc I can just turn off what ever is playing and get my higher performance back. It's not a big deal but I'd prefer to fix this in general.

Is this an expected occurrence? Because I haven't really seen any threads about this particular problem. If there is a way to fix this, it'd be appreciated if I was enlightened on how.
 


Does your FPS drop or get affected in any way?

And yes it seems a little strange. But then again, it depends on the game, its possible the game + video does not need the full rendering capacity of an R9 270.
 

MilkyPoint

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Sep 22, 2014
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Yes there is an fps drop as expected of the core downclocking below the base.
I've tried it with many games/benchmarks. Most games/benchmarks usually throw the core clock all the way up to the full 1050mhz. So It really is puzzling why video play back at the same time would cause a downclock to 900mhz.

 

MilkyPoint

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Sep 22, 2014
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Nothing crazy but slightly worse than a base clock.
Here's a normal score in heaven with the listed settings:
http://puu.sh/bJ2LA/eef07dd21e.png

Here it is with the strange downclock:
http://puu.sh/bJ2MN/68d6ce11b6.png

In games not limited to lower 30s of fps, the fps difference can be 10+. Like I said, as if slightly lower than stock clock.

I have no problem turning off video playback while gaming but... WHY lol
 
Seems a bit odd.

No CPU maxing, no overheating.
But the GPU definitely is running at high utilization when it downclocks.

Very strange.

Have you tried removing the AMD drivers completely, running a registry sweep and then reinstalling fresh drivers after a restart.
Just to make sure its not some kind of leftover from a previous driver version.

While you do that, let me think a bit.

 

MilkyPoint

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Sep 22, 2014
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So.
I completely removed all the amd drivers with DDU, ran ccleaner for a clean and registry fix and then reinstalled fresh up to date catalyst drivers after a reboot.

Problem still persists...
Really wondering what this is.

Could it possibly be due to my dual monitor set up? I've heard AMD cards acted weird with their clocks when in multiple monitor set ups but I've never had any of those problems.

Guess I'll try a single monitor configuration and see if the problem persists.