Drivers & Software

[skylion]

Describe your system:

• AMD Graphics Card Make & Model
• Sapphire Nitro R9 380 4GB
• Desktop or Laptop System
• Desktop
• Operating System
• Windows 10 20H2 64bit
• Driver version installed
• Radeon Software Adrenaline 21.3.2
• Display Make and model and connection/adapter in use, resolution, and refresh rate.
• AOC G2260VWQ6 1920x1080@75Hz connected using DP cable
• PHILIPS 191EL 1366x768@60Hz connected using DVI-to-VGA adapter
• CPU/APU Make and model number
• Ryzen 7 2700X
• Motherboard Make & Model + Bios Revision
• Asus Prime B450M-A
• Power Supply Unit Make & Model + Wattage
• XFX TS 550W
• System Memory Make & Model + Frequency
• I don't remember exactly, I think Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB 3200Mhz

 Describe your issue:

When playing some games with VSync on and exclusive fullscreen, the average fps stay locked to the monitor refresh rate, but frame times are not consistent, causing a lot of stuttering. Here is a screenshot of the frametime plot from AfterBurner:

I couldn't manage to find a pattern among the games that show this behavior but I'm going to make two lists:

Games that do NOT have problems:

Battlefield 4, PayDay 2, Rainbow Six Siege, GTA V, Star Wars Battlefront II, Bloons TD 6, Valheim

Games that HAVE problems:

Human Fall Flat, Super Meat Boy Forever, Dead Cells, UNO, Holodrive. This last one is a free-to-play game on Steam and can be easily be used to test the mentioned behavior. By default VSync is OFF and there is no problem, but if you enable it in the settings, it starts to stutter.

The problem can be circumvented by using windowed or borderless modes, or by reverting the drivers to 20.8.3 (I think I tried all the past driver versions and that is the most recent one which doesn't show this problem).

[skylion]

Update: Today I updated to the lastest driver version, 21.5.1, and the problem is still there. However, I tried to do a clean boot of Windows disabling every program from startup and all non-Microsoft services and the problem was gone.

So, I started trying to disable every single service, one by one, and I found out that the culprit is the AMD External Events Utility: if I disable it, even when the computer is turned on, the stutter disappear, but as soon as I enable it again, the stutter shows up again... I don't know if this information can be useful to better detect the problem.

[leyvin]

In the Windows 10 Settings > Gaming > Game Mode (Disable)

It likely won't fix the issue in all games., I'd instead recommend using the Driver to force V-Sync On (per game) 
This will typically be best for OpenGL Games... also ensure that Triple Buffering is disabled. 

[skylion]

Thanks leyvin for the answer.

I tried to disable Windows Game Mode and also to force VSync on from the drivers (I set "Wait for Vertical Refresh" to "Always On") but all the games mentioned still present the same problem. I also tried to restart the computer after changing the settings, and I tried forcing VSync On in the global settings but the problem is still there.

[skylion · Accepted solution]

For anyone still having this problem, it has been fixed with the Windows update KB5003690.

[TheDarkgg]

I have exactly the same problem as you, I realized it immediately after an upgrade from a GTX 970 to a RX 6750 XT...

I have the problem on the game "Control (DX12)" and "Stray".
Control (DX11) does not have the vsync problem...
I was able to test Rainbow Six Siege (DX11) and I do not have any problem.
I don't know if this is directly related to the Directx api?

I just got the AMD GPU so I couldn't test many games.

I have a good alternative to VSYNC, it's SCANLINE SYNC from RIVATUNER, it works quite well.
Otherwise I'll have to change my screen and get AMD FREESYNC...

configuration:
AMD Ryzen 5700x
AMD RX 6750XT
32 Go RAM
MB Aorus B550 Aorus Elite V2...
PC Monitor 60 Hz

Maybe I should create another topic...