OpenGL & Vulkan

[hitbm47]

Hi everyone, current config:

-Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, build 18362 or version 1903

-Radeon RX 480 8G

-GTX 1060 3GB

-MSI B450 Tomahawk

-Ryzen 5 1600

-2x 8GB DDR 4 2666Mhz RAM

Please note, this has existed before I installed any nVidia drivers or GPUs into my system, but it does not happen with the GTX 1060 itself. It also does not happen due to 3rd party programs, since uninstalling MSI Afterburner made no difference. Furthermore, I did a clean install of the latest drivers.

What happens with the RX 480 driver, is it constantly drops from ~55FPS to ~48FPS every second in certain locations of the map, including clock rate fluctuations, similar to what happens in other games like Crysis 3, Hitman 2 (2018) and theHunter: Call of the Wild. This causes a constant hitching effect.

This does not happen with my GTX 1060, even if framerate starts to come down, it doesn't hitch constantly, it keeps a consistent clock-rate and a steady framerate, improving playability over the RX 480, even though the RX 480 can achieve higher framerates, but much worse minimum framerates, which I suspect is due to driver quality.

I will try to attach a video capture of the RX 480 to try and illustrate the unplayable performance issues experienced on Radeon drivers.

The hitching/stuttering in theHunter: Call of the Wild has become much worse with the last few driver releases.

Please dipak‌, can the DirectX driver team have a look at these instability issues, also present in Crysis 3 for the last 3 years.

Additional note, I have tested this on the latest Adrenaline 19.8.2 driver as well, but fortunately it does not happen in Windows itself.

Jacques

[hitbm47]

nbaliver100‌ made a similar post on the hitching just more than 2 years ago here, https://community.amd.com/thread/214076 

[hitbm47]

I decided to reinstall RivaTuner, so that I can provide an example for both the RX 480 and GTX 1060 in an AMD partnership game,

Here is the hitching in Tomb Raider (2013) on my RX 480:

Please note the clockspeed fluctuations and lag spikes in FPS with my Radeon.

Here is a video capture of consistent clockspeed, utilization and framerate with my GTX 1060:

What changes to the Radeon drivers are causing these performance issues, and has any causes or relative solutions been found since the Cryisis 3 post yet?

Kind regards

Jacques

[hitbm47]

Hopefully the videos will be visible later, they do not seem to be loading yet, although they were uploaded successfully.

[dipak]

Hi Jacques,

I've reported the issue to the DX team. If I get any feedback about it, I'll share with you.

Thanks.

[hitbm47]

Thank you dipak‌

I appreciate it, and I just re-uploaded the video captures which seems like it might be visible this time.

Kind regards

Jacques

[hitbm47 · Accepted solution]

Hi dipak‌

I owe you guys an apology for this post, since I was able to resolve a lot of this hitching by cleaning the thermal paste off of my GPU and by gently applying new thermal compound.

My temperatures were looking absolutely fine before I did this, but the clock-speeds were all over the place and the fans would ramp up to full speed with the screen losing signal and my computer hard-locking.

I did a lot of online-reading and in the end came upon this post, https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/898055-black-screen-gpu-fans-at-full-speed-crash-fixed/ , with a lot of other RX 480 user's experiencing this as well, and a lot of them were able to resolve it by re-applying thermal compound onto the GPU.

Thereafter, I tried it myself since I figured my warranty has probably expired already after purchasing this MSI RX 480 in 2016, and to my relief it made a huge difference; for example, Far Cry 3 is also now able to maintain 64FPS in the area of the first video capture I had attached in this post with 90% of the hitching gone. Almost plays as smooth as the GTX 1060 in Far Cry 3 now.

I must note, a lot of performance drops in games such as Unreal Tournament 3 and Crysis 3 still has not been fixed and still experiences GPU under-utilization, whereas it does not nearly as bad with the GTX 1060.

Furthermore, I am uncertain as to whether quick rise in temperatures with Radeon Chill can cause the thermal compound to wear out in a shorter duration, but I like using it in games such as CS:GO.

I can definitely recommend renewing the thermal paste for anyone experiencing similar issues, since it brought me a lot of relief with an expensive card such as this MSI Radeon RX 480 Gaming X 8G.

Kind regards

Jacques

[dipak]

Hi Jacques,

Thank you for sharing the update. It was a good finding and I really appreciate your effort to resolve this issue. I've informed the DX team about this update.

Thanks.