Drivers & Software

[amdmatt]

Any simple game with 3D graphics or downloadable benchmark can be used to test this.

[amdmatt]

Please try what i asked above. Use a third party tool like FRAPS to monitor FPS and test the same scene to see if FPS increases when you switch between Power Saving and High performance in the Radeon Settings games application profile.

[madbendystrawz]

Hi Matt!

Thanks for your help.

Fraps has never worked on this machine for whatever reason. I've read about it online and it seems like it is a common issue but I couldn't find a solution. Works fine on my other Dell work laptop.

Anyway, so I got FPSMonitor demo today, in case the in game FPS counter in Wow wasn't accurate.

There is no difference in FPS or any of the other readings it gives between High performance and Power saving.

Both are around 30-32 standing still in game. Couldn't even tell I was switching it back and forth.

The weird thing... in the techpowerup tool, I could see 100% of the GPU being used and a small amount of the R5. The screenshots are in my last post. In FPS monitor, 99% of the APU is listed as used, spikes in the CPU, and the GPU 0%.

I don't know if you're aware, but when Blizz launched BFA, they made changes to the display. There used to be a full screen option, and now we have only full windowed and windowed. Now, I always used fullscreen windowed prior to this, and am still using the same, but I have a feeling their display changes might have something to do with this.

As for other games, none of the little ones I have around the house will run in high performance, they just revert to power saving, so I downloaded steam and I'll look into downloading some game today.

Thanks again.

[madbendystrawz]

I downloaded a 3D game called Dawn.

Won't even stay on high for this game, it keeps reverting.

The FPS was like 6 in both steam and fpsmonitor.

I see the last time someone brought this issue up that the answer was to buy a different machine. I have a Dell with just the R5 that I use for work. The gaming performance on this machine is similar to my work machine, which is why I bought this one so that I could play and raid in my downtime --- something I don't get a lot of. 

There apparently are a lot of people who have this problem with this and similar systems, and of course Dell puts them out and then doesn't cover this issue with warranty... and my understanding is that if you can talk them into replacing the motherboard and card that it doesn't resolve this issue anyway. So, no, not doing that. I'm not going to use a gaming laptop as a paperweight and invest another grand in something else. I bought this as a gift for myself 6 months ago and I probably shouldn't have dropped the cash on it with a 21 year old in college.

So, since I'm pretty tenacious, I want to figure out what is truly going on. Not just for myself... but for everyone with this ongoing problem.

If anyone has a suggestion for a game that doesn't have a two day download (sorry, I need the internet to work and I can't have it bogged down for days) that I can try without spending the rest of the day searching AND has been known to run in high performance, I'd appreciate it. I'll be glad to try it, but let's focus on what we do know until I can do that.

Let's recap...

We know that adrenaline will let me set wow.exe to high performance. I've been unsuccessful getting it to stay selected on other games.

We know that GPU-Z says Wow is putting a 100% load on the RX560 and a slight load on the R5's dedicated 512MB.

Alternately, We know that FPS Monitor says GPU1 is at 99% and GPU2 is at 0% and that it is spiking CPU usage. This is in contrast to what it says in GPU-Z, but if FPSMonitor uses the display, that could be why. However, task manager doesn't see that kind of CPU draw during wow that FPSMonitor is reporting.

The FPS counter in monitor and in wow are identical, so wow is reporting properly.

We know that I get the same FPS regardless of whether or not I'm on power saving or high performance in adrenaline.

We know that I get the same FPS regardless of whether or not I'm on R5 or Auto detect in wow settings

Now that we know it is headless, that explains the inability to see it in Windows and why it is in the system devices in dxdiag as opposed to display devices.

[kingfish]

I asked before...do you have the laptop (not the graphics card) on "performance"? The default is 'balanced' which will shut down some of the performance settings.

Do you have the laptop power plan set to performance.

[madbendystrawz]

As mentioned in the first post and since, all settings in Windows 10 are set to performance. Thanks.

[pokester]

Windows 10's High Performance settings are not the same as they were in previous Windows versions. WOW is extremely picky about the power states. This is very true and affects Nvidia users and AMD users alike. I can't promise this will fix your issue but it is easy and worth trying.

A couple Windows 10 versions back MS introduced the Ultimate Performance plan and it is in all versions of Windows but not visible outside of enterprise versions but can be enabled. This setting makes it more like the High Performance settings of old. See here how to enable this: Windows 10 Help Forums

Another way to easily accomplish this and it also changes some processor states that the above does not is to use Park Control Free and use their  Bitsum Highest Performance Setting. I have personally used this for years and highly recommend it to anyone not minding spending a few cents more on the power bill. Get it here: ParkControlTweak CPU Core Parking and More – Bitsum

If this doesn't help. I highly suggest you download the last driver from your laptops makers website. Run DDU and reinstall that driver with the INTERNET disconnected. You may have had Windows update interfere with the install of drivers you have already installed and that could be the root of your issues.

Please also note that this issue specifically with WOW has been complained about for years with users from Nvidia as well and many never seem to figure it out.

[thetekheads]

I have the exact same system, and the exact same problem and I have yet to find a solution. Have you found one? All of my games (Far Cry 5, BF1, STBF) game options / graphics settings all identify the R5 vs picking up the dedicated RX 560. Did you ever find a solution? I found this system as new in box eBay for a steal of a price ($365), and I did a quick look up, had I spent more time researching I never would have bought this.