Gaming Discussions

[mengelag]

So I was under the impression that the new May bios update was supposed to fix some of the video/ sound stuttering. Well I'm unhappy to report that after installing the new May 20th bios, the stuttering is still going strong. Nearly impossible to game and I'm super frustrated and have tried everything I could find on forums to fix. Fresh windows installs, minimal drivers, vanilla settings, not overclocked/ overclocked/ custom settings. Only thing I've noticed that sometimes fixes it is about a half dozen restarts. Out of ideas. Running a 5950x, x570 unify, sapphire toxic 6900xt, and optimized trident neo 4000mhz ram, Sabrent m.2 drives. So very standard high end parts. I should not be having these issues. I just wish everything worked on Linux so I could make the switch full-time. Sooo annoyed right now, my console is more reliable these days. 

[BigAl01]

It's times like these when having multiple computers on hand might allow you to swap out the video card for another AMD card, one that can use the drivers.  If the stutter continues then you might be able to rule out the video card, but if it goes away, then you can assume the rest of your system isn't the root cause.

You did a BIOS update on the video card, right?  Or, did you do a BIOS update on the motherboard?

[mengelag]

That's why I love these forums. I have a 5500xt (temporarily) and a 2080ti kicking around I can use to rule out a few things. Realistically that's probably the first thing I should have tried lol. Updated BIOS on the motherboard, haven't done a GPU BIOS before but I'll look into that. How hard could it be. I'll give the Nvidia and the 5500xt a try. That'll narrow it down between GPU and other stuff. Thanks for the suggestions @BigAl01 cheers

[mengelag]

@BigAl01  I've narrowed it down to the card. 5500xt and the 2080ti worked flawlessly with no video or sound stutters. Put the 6900xt back in and the stuttering is back, albeit it's not as bad as it was. As far as updating vBIOS, no official releases. but techpowerup has one, but it's an older version. Might be worth trying the downgrade to see if that improves stability. Other than that I'm wondering if it's hardware-related even though it's not throwing any errors. I do see dips in GPU utilization, clock speed and power consumption that seem to line up with the stutters when I'm running metrics in software adrenalin edition. I dunno... I have disabled most background processes that aren't needed.

[BigAl01]

Ok, you are making progress but I fear it's the video card that is bad.  Make sure you don't do anything to void the warranty on the 6900XT as you try different things.  Changing a vBIOS is something I've only done once and I was very worried about screwing it up.  You would think that underclocking the card would improve things though.  It could be getting too hot.  One way to test that is to blow air on it from an external fan and see if it continues to stutter in video or sound.

Can you RMA the video card?  That 2080 Ti should hold you for a while.

[mengelag]

@BigAl01 That's my fear as well. I've already had to RMA for 2 of the quick connect fans. I haven't taken it apart yet so the warranty should still be good. Temps aren't an issue 70ish degrees on OC, high 60's on default. I did read an article in the forums today about fTPM causing sound stuttering/ video stuttering. I turned it off in BIOS as I don't need TPM in Win 10. I'm hoping the fix is as easy as that. Will report back on the findings. 

If I had to RMA, the 2080ti is still a beast of a card (I put an aio on it and overclocked it) but honestly, I can switch to console for a bit. Not a big deal. The whole thing is just frustrating is all.

[Justifier · Accepted solution]

If you haven't already, check your cables.

They're relatively cheap compared to the rest of the rig, and it's always useful to have a spare around anyways.

(HDMI/DP)

I've heard similar issues from people who got some cables to match a theme only to find out that they weren't actually up to the specs they were advertised to be.

The 6900xt has enough umph that issues might show up on it where they would not on a 2080 or older cards.

Does the problem also persist on Windows 10/Windows 11? * nm I see that it does in your posts.

I don't think TPM would be an issue here. I'd suggest 2 things 

1: the cable swap (with a DANM good cable brand, don't cheap out for some silly Amazon basics, or some weirdly advertised "DP 2.0", but 30 gbps nonsense. DP 2.0 should be 80 gbps) Look up reviews, make an informed purchase. Unfortunately higher end DP cables will cost you. ~$40 area.

2: uninstall all of AMD's software. DDU. install it again using the latest software, and when installing, install the last option on the list (Driver only, no Adrenaline). This will make sure that it's not a software issue. Unfortunately common with Adrenaline.

[mengelag]

@Justifier Thanks for the suggestions man. cables I can do and haven't tried that. Hopefully, it's as simple as that. I've uninstalled and reinstalled all AMD software and windows a few times. I did not know there was a driver-only option so I'll try that. The odd thing is that multiple restarts will sometimes fix it, but I don't know where even to start on troubleshooting that. Cheers man!

[max9r]

Thought I would share my experience with a stutter issue with my rig that took a while to figure out.  

I'm running a 5900X, 32GB of tuned 3200CL14 RAM but with a 3080 TI (after trying for ages to get a 6900XT but they quit showing up on AMD direct in Canada so I went with Nvidia). Last fall I suddenly started getting stutter in virtually everything I played unless it was pegged at 144hz/fps. I noticed as part of my troubleshooting that I was only getting around 60 - 80% GPU utilization at best while gaming but in the menus I'd get full 98-100% usage. Very weird and not something I had experienced before. I tried everything I could think of, bios update, etc... changing settings down to low in games and the res to 720p, even swapped in my older 3900X, but nothing would help. Changing the graphics settings etc.. only served to further lower the GPU utilization. I was starting to think the card might be faulty too because putting in my 5700XT would "fix" it.

Anyway, I finally I broke down and did a fresh reinstall of Win10. Once that was done, all I did was update my drivers for everything, installed steam, and  reinstalled Deathloop which is what I was playing at the time. Success! Smooth as silk and full 98-100% GPU utilization. Fixed it I thought... but unfortunately the next night when I went in to play after work, I was back to the 60 - 80% GPU utilization and stuttering like crazy.  Back to square one... and not happy I kept digging. Long story short, eventually I stumbled across a setting in Windows called Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling. It was enabled, which is fine for AMD cards because it's fully supported (& would explain why my 5700XT worked perfectly), but a performance killer for Nvidia since they don't support it yet. Once I turned that off, my problem was resolved.  It's interesting because it seems windows turns this on by itself, after my rebuild it was clearly off, but I did installed some Windows updates when I shutdown for the night. Clearly those updates or something else caused Windows to decide to enable that setting again. Very annoying. 

Last week I did a fresh build of Windows 11 to try it out, Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling was enabled by default. Anyway, all that to say, it might not be your hardware, it could be some random setting in in Windows causing it. Who knows, maybe you need to enable Hardware-accelerated GPU Scheduling... you can check it in your Graphic Settings.  Anyway good luck, I hope you figure it out.

Cheers

[mengelag]

All Hail @Justifier !! because I think it might be fixed. I've had a few flawless hrs of gaming with no stutters in either video or sound. It was that bloody Adrenalin Edition Software. I did a driver-only install and BAM it's working flawlessly. Cant use Ryzen master for the Processor OC, but that s fine, I can do it in BIOS (I'm just lazy). If it's still going strong in a few days I'll officially call it solved! Isn't this always the case, hrs and hrs and hrs of frustration and it's a simple fix haha

@Amber_AMD 
@BigAl01 
@max9r 

[mengelag]

Thank you everybody for all of your suggestions and input. With your help, I was able to troubleshoot my way to a fix. Gonna say this again. "What a great community this is" Cheers All!!

[BigAl01]

Nice you didn't end up throwing a bunch of money at the problem too.  Of course, wasted time and energy can be turned into 'lessons learned' for the next person with a similar problem.  Congratulations on solving the problem.

[Amber_AMD]

@Justifier those are amazing tips, thank you so much for sharing your perspective. 

@mengelag let us know if you do decide to get new cables and if it helps resolve the issues you're experiencing! 

[Lou_Stules]

Since several restarts will "fix" it, that would suggest a software problem; not a hardware problem

You wouldn't by any chance be using "Sapphire TRIXX" would you? It doesn't play nice with the Adrenalin software.

TRIXX Boost & Toxic Boost  conflict with Adrenalin settings, and also, Fan Health Check has given me false negatives.

Almost sent my 6900XT Toxic W/C back because of it. Only thing that wasn't buggy is the Nitro Glow RGB controller.

Ditching the Sapphire software was the cure for me. I hope for you as well. Good Luck!

[mengelag]

@Lou_Stules I wasn't using Trixx. I figured they wouldn't play nice with adrenalin. I had also uninstalled MSI control center.  The problem with the fans was actual default. Each blade on the fan is connected by a thin piece of plastic. 2 of the 3 fans had that piece of plastic broken. It would throw the balance off when they spun up and made a god-awful loud noise. RMA's them and all is good now.