Strange Graphics Issues R9 290

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

For a few weeks now I've been getting strange low fps spikes that just occur randomly. I can be gaming for hours without a problem then all of a sudden I drop to 30-40fps from over 100fps normally. I've had this card for a couple of years and have never had this problem before.

First thing I did was a clean install of gfx drivers before anyone asks.

Anyone got any other ideas?

Specs:
CPU: i7 5820k (Unclocked)
GPU: Radeon R9 290
PSU: EVGA 850w
Motherboard: MSI X99 Krait Edition

PC Tailor · Jun 30, 2017

1) Check your CPU and GPU temps idling and whilst under load gaming. Could be heat throttling (more likely CPU). If they are high, try cleaning heat sink and fan and reapplying thermal paste to see if it lowers the temperatures.

2) Run virus / malware scan to ensure you haven't picked anything up - may also be useful to run a big clean up of your system (disk cleanup, defrag etc.)

3) See if the problem coincided with a GPU driver update, if so, roll back to previous drivers and see if the problem still occurs.

4) If none of these help, check what processes are starting up and running in the background, may be something consuming CPU or disk usage during games.

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

Thanks for the ideas.

GPU idle is 32c. 100% usage max
CPU idle is 34c. 52% usage max

Don't see anything unusual there. I was having the problem on previous drivers and still on the most up to date ones so can't imagine it being a driver issue and I do a defrag and cleanup weekly.

Pretty sure I haven't picked up a virus but I'll run a scan just in case.

CPU usage seems fine but haven't checked disk use. Is there a way I can check this while in game?

PC Tailor · Jun 30, 2017

A_Garner :

Yeah it's never a bad thing to check for viruses.
What are the temps of your computer under load whilst playing a game? Maybe 10 minutes in.

Use Resource Monitor. Just search for it in the start menu. See if any unusual processes are hogging component usage.

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

GPU max is 53c, CPU 56c.

Looking in resource monitor CPU hovers around 1-3% but "maximum frequency" is up and down between 70-106% at idle. [strike]Other than that the only other figure that registers is 17% physical memory used.[/strike] Actually that is because I have Chrome open.

PC Tailor · Jun 30, 2017

A_Garner :

Are you sayingthat the CPU hovers at 1-3% during in game lagging? Or is that idle?

Do you use HWInfo at all? It may give a better indication as to your CPU and GPU utilisation.https://www.hwinfo.com/

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

1-3% is idle. I was just checking that nothing was running in the background that I didn't know about, as you said. In game the CPU maxes at 52%.

I use MSI afterburner to measure temps which seems to be backed up by resource monitor as correct.

PC Tailor · Jun 30, 2017

Right understood so it would appear there's no massive resource consumption.

Are you experiencing the FPS drop in ALL games?
Whilst a good GPU should last quite a while, a couple of years and some cards can see signs of deterioration. AMD Warranty only includes 2 years I believe, so it could by all accounts be showing some signs of wear and tear.

A potential good mechanism to try would be to decrease all of the graphic settings for your games and see if you can still maintain high FPS. Then if that works, it would potentially suggest your GPU could be bottlenecking at higher settings.

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

I've only tested MMO games so far but it's happening on them all. I tried lowering graphics to lowest settings and had the same results.

What's strange is I can play quite happily for several hours without a problem then it comes on all of a sudden. Surely if the card was tired it would be all the time? Sometimes I can play for days without incident. Today was the first time in about 3 days it's started to play up.

Also, I've only started having this problem in the last fortnight or so.

elbert · Jun 30, 2017

How is your RAM? Check if your OS is getting the memory usage issue. Also try shutting down services to reduce memory and cpu usage.
http://www.blackviper.com/

PC Tailor · Jun 30, 2017

If it's OK for a period of time then suddenly drops, it sounds like a temperature issue. Equally as elbert says, look at RAM usage. But the degradation over time suggests something else in my personal experience.

What might confirm this is if you can play a game, play until FPS starts dropping, then effectively let the CPU cool down back to idle. Then retrying and see if you can replicate the effect.

If you can do this and replicate the effect, it sounds like a heat problem. I know your previous temps showed it appeared to be in normal range, but it could either be a gradual build of heat that you're getting or a reporting error. Either way, if you're saying you have already tried drivers, first I'd personally reapply thermal paste and clean the computer out, especially the heat sink and CPU fan.

A_Garner · Jun 30, 2017

RAM is 16GB (15.9GB usable). Doesn't seem to be a problem there but I will try the other things just to eliminate them. Tbh I can't see a problem with temps, they're exactly the same as they've always been but might as well just for completeness' sake.

PC Tailor · Jul 1, 2017

A_Garner :

Does the game drop to low fps and then go back up cyclically? or does it drop and then not return?

A_Garner · Jul 1, 2017

PC Tailor :

It's done both tbh.

Today I have re-applied thermal paste and changed fan setting to make sure everything is running cool enough and it's still happening. I alt-tabbed and checked CPUID for CPU and GPU temps and they were 100% normal.

Today the issue is normal FPS then suddenly for between a few seconds to a few minutes FPS drops drastically then suddenly shoots back to normal, then rinse and repeat.

PC Tailor · Jul 1, 2017

Obviously the drop then rise something in particular is happening at that instant, which suggests hardware not being able to compute whatever it's processing quickly enough, which tends to point at bottlenecking / throttling in some way.

Right so my overal thoughts - some of which you have already looked at obviously, I'm just putting all thoughts on paper - (X) is where you say you've checked already:

- (X) Thermal throttling
- (X) Out of date / faulty drivers
- (X) Storage clogged up, requires clean-up / defrag
- (X)Hardware showing signs of age - I understand the thought that it may usually show in the way of constant struggling, but it may be certain moments or over playing time that it begins to feel stress.
- (X) Hardware consumption from background processes running
- (X) Virus / Malware
- Change in-game settings to lower quality and see if problem continues
- Windows power settings may be set in a way which restricts hardware performance
- Nvidia control panel may be set to adaptive power settings
- Some would say clean registry (but this is always touchy ground in my opinion)
- Are you running games from an SSD or HDD? Running from HDD could potentially be a read/write peak at points in the games.
- Hardware being maxed out (CPU, GPU, RAM, HDD) and a bottleneck is appearing somewhere due to in game changes

A_Garner · Jul 1, 2017

Change in-game settings to lower quality and see if problem continues - Tried in one game, made no difference.

Windows power settings may be set in a way which restricts hardware performance - My settings have been set on high performance for years.

Nvidia control panel may be set to adaptive power settings - It's an AMD card

Some would say clean registry (but this is always touchy ground in my opinion) - Yeah, don't really want to touch registry.

Are you running games from an SSD or HDD? - HDD

Hardware being maxed out (CPU, GPU, RAM, HDD) and a bottleneck is appearing somewhere due to in game changes - Only thing I can see that's at max is GPU but I thought that was a good thing.

I just tried a wider selection of games to see if I could replicate the problem but that just confused me even more. Some games had permanent low fps, some went up and down, others didn't seem affected at all!

The fact this has only started happening very recently leads me to think it has to be software related somehow but the only software I've installed is the new drivers. I bought a new USB microphone but I can't imagine that could cause anything, I'll check again with it disconnected just in case but I'm pretty much clutching at straws now.

PC Tailor · Jul 3, 2017

A_Garner :

If your GPU is at 100% it would mean that it physically can't compute anymore, which would lead to FPS drops. Realistically it'd be strange if GPU and CPU were not at 100% yet still getting FPS drops. GPU at 100% would cause FPS drops.

Installing microphones/webcams etc can cause driver conflictions.

And apologies on the NVIDIA part, slip of thought!

Strange Graphics Issues R9 290

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