Graphics Cards

[aponusky]

SPECS:

Monitor: LG 34UM60-P 34" Ultrawide Freesync

GPU: ASRock Phantom Gaming X Vega 64 - 8GB

CPU: Ryzen 5 2600X

MOBO: ASROCK AB350 Pro 4 SLI

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 16GB DDR4 2933Mhz

PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 750Watt 80 Plus Gold

SSD: SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 1TB SATA III

OS: Windows 10

I've been trying to figure out the cause of my VEGA 64 performance issues since I bought it in October of last year, and I've almost given up...I can't seem to figure out why I'm unable to maximize the usage of my GPU while in any games (sits around 60-85%), as my CPU seems to be idle for the most part. For example:

Game: Apex Legends

Game Settings: Maximum In-Game Video Settings

Resolution: 2560x1080

CPU Usage: 30-50% 

CPU Temps: 33-65 Celsius

FPS: Unlocked and varies from 63-140fps

GPU Utilization: 60-85%

GPU Temperature: 40-76 Celsius

As you can see, there are some huge performance issues, as the FPS should not vary that much in a game that is supposed to run as smooth as Apex Legends. Without a FPS cap, I still cannot get the GPU to reach 100% usage, and since the CPU is hardly being utilized, it's hard to imagine that it could possibly be causing a bottleneck. The Vega 64 seems to constantly be underclocking itself during performance-heavy parts of the game, which causes some serious stuttering when parts of a map suddenly change. The weirdest part is that when I lower all of the graphics settings to their minimum values in the game, there only seems to be about a 10-20% performance boost....something just really seems off, and I'm thinking it's the drivers. Before anyone asks; the GPU has two separate 12-volt rails attached, and wattage and voltage seem to be nominal while playing.

Any suggestions? Or has anyone found a setting in the drivers that seems to be limiting the cards' potential?

[coreytv]

make sure power usage is set to performance mode, the "how to make windows 10 faster" videos usually show that. If that isn't the problem go into your radeon settings and be sure power efficiency is turned off, i have experienced exactly what you're experiencing with that, my rx 480 clock speed was sitting around 512 when i was in games. I turned it off and it jumped up to 1300 like it is supposed to be. I hope this helps, if you need any help we can continue the thread or we can hop in a discord call and i can try to help you out.

[aponusky]

Coreytv,

I made your recommended changes, and it appears to be a little more stable with the clock speeds when under load, but I'm still experiencing dips (from 1650Mhz to 1250mhz). One thing I did notice though, is that the down-throttling seems to correspond to when the temperature reaches 72+ celsius. I've cranked the fan to compensate, and it seems to be smoothing out the game-play significantly over the last day or so, but at 3,400 RPM, it's quite noisy. 72 celsius would be considered normal-to-low under load for most cards, so I'm wondering if my bios settings are off for this one, and perhaps I can modify it to down-throttle at a higher temp. 

[coreytv]

It is possible for it to be a bios thing, but in my opinion i would doubt that. I would try watching a video on "the best radeon settings" to make sure you dont have any setting messed up at all. I dont know what your refresh rate is on your monitor, but i would lock your fps to whatever that is so your card isnt having to do a bunch of extra work causing heat and thermal throttling. Wattman does have a temperature limit if you want to raise it to 90 max and like 75 target. Good luck with your system!