PC Drivers & Software

[moman2000]

Hi, this is my first post on the AMD forums, so if you see I am doing something wrong, let me know on what to improve

As most PC enthusiasts I also like to reinstall my OS every 6 or so months, to keep things clean and fast.

The install goes smooth as it should and so does set-up. But, as soon as I install driver version 17.12.2 and also install MSI Afterburner, I restart and notice a huge system wide slowdown of my PC. Everything from opening File Explorer and the Start Menu takes very long, longer than it should.

This issue will occur no matter how many times I reinstall Windows 10, the combination of the two software causes issues. After testing for a while, uninstalling Afterburner gets rid of the issues, but, then I cannot overclock the way I want to. Reinstalling Afterburner brings back the issue.

I have found that driver version 17.12.2 is most likely the cause of the issue since when I uninstalled it just 10 minutes ago, leaving Afterburner installed the issue went away. Therefore, I downgraded to 17.12.1 and no issues arise when Afterburner is installed, the OS runs as it should.

This is very annoying since I like to have the latest drivers to keep my system up-to-date and as optimised as possible. Having said that, using the latest drivers seems to be causing issues that I feel shouldn't be occurring in the first place.

Is it possible for the AMD software engineers to have a look into this issue?

My system specifications:

MOBO: ASUS P8Z68-V LX

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500k

GPU: MSI AMD HD7870 2GB

RAM: 6GB HyperX DDR3

O/S: Windows 10 build 1709

See attached screenshots for more information about my system.

Thank you!

Regards,

Mo

[elstaci]

AMD Forum mentions that all 3rd party software similar to MSI Afterburner causes problems with AMD Wattman and should be uninstalled or disabled. Some people in the past here in the Forum have mentioned that it works fine on their computer system but AMD still recommends not to use any type of 3rd party GPU controlling software due to the issues it causes with AMD Wattman.

Kingfish can help you setup Wattman to control your GPU card correctly.

[moman2000]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and insight on the issue. I am having trouble understanding what you are saying since, even just installing Afterburner (no configuration, just install) it will cause the aforementioned issue.

My GPU does not seem to support WattMan since in Radeon Settings in the menu where it should be, the option is not available. I have read that WattMan is only supported on the RX series.

Also, if WattMan was to be supported by my GPU, the setting would have been turned off by default since you must agree to a disclaimer in order to enable WattMan. Therefore, WattMan is not and couldn't have been the issue.

After further testing the issue is only present when the computer is booted from a restart, e.g If I restart the issue will arise. When I shutdown my PC and then boot it back up the issue never manifests itself.

From now on, I have to shutdown and switch on my computer in order to "restart".

Regards,

Mo

[kingfish]

Scroll the page down:

or

Re-install AMD drivers using clean install.Clean Install AMD Graphics Drivers  Uninstall Afterburner.,

Set Temperature to manual

Raise the Power Limit to the max + value (read Power Limit > AMD graphics performance ) Set your Wattman exactly as above. Do not touch any other setting...leave all at default 'automatic'. Click 'apply'.

Your fans will become engaged when the temp hits 45c and will GRADUALLY increase to keep the temp at/under the 'Max" setting you have chosen.

[elstaci · Accepted solution]

From AMD Support concerning AMD Wattman Requirements:

Radeon WattMan Requirements

Radeon WattMan is supported on AMD Radeon R7 260 Graphics Series products and higher. It is recommended to always use the latest compatible driver for your GPU when configuring Radeon Wattman on a Windows® based system.

Windows compatibility is dependent on the GPU. Please check the Product Resources Center for specifications and compatibility information.

Note!

1. Radeon WattMan is not supported on APU Graphics or the AMD Radeon™ R7 370 Graphics Series.
2. For APU Graphics, AMD Radeon R7 370 Graphics and products older than Radeon™ R7 260, performance tuning is available via AMD Overdrive.
3. The availability of specific Radeon WattMan features will depend on the GPU being used.

HD 7xxx series GPU cards and above have been rebranded to the R7 and R9 series cards. If for some reason Wattman is not supported by your GPU card you can always use Wattman predecessor OVERDRIVE which is able to do similar functions as Wattman but on older GPU cards.

By the Way, Even if you don't use or install Wattman, the files are still active when you install the AMD driver set. Thus MSI Afterburner will still cause issues even though Wattman is not active.

[moman2000]

Thank you for the clear up. It makes a bit more sense why the issue manifested itself. I used to use Overdrive back in the day, and have not used it for long time, hence why I forgot about it.I will try that later today.

Regards,

Mohamed