PC Drivers & Software

[bluesadam]

Hi,

Looking through the reddit post for the new WHQL 24.2.1 GPU drivers I read someone stating there is a bug that the GPU driver sets excessive boost clock which causes instability. In order to check for this, I went to the driver's tuning tab and there Max clock is set to 2830 mhz. I went to the webpage of my GPU's manufacturer to check the official specs and indeed, boost clock is stated to be 2755 mhz.

Does this mean the driver is even further overclocking my GPU core clock, potentially causing instability? Should I manually lower the Max Frequency slider to match the official specifications or is it safe to use it like this. I had occasional driver resets, albeit very rare, both while gaming and on desktop use. Could this be why?

I would like to hear your opinions and thanks for any reply in advance!

Have a wonderful day.

EDIT: Just updated from Helldivers non-whql version to yesterday's WHQL 24.2.1 version and the max clock is increased another 30mhz up to 2880mhz by default. That's a whole 125 mhz overclock by default over what is already a very aggressive factory overclock. Set it manually down to 2755mhz for now and I advise everyone to check it for themselves for stability and ease of mind.

[toxicengel]

This happened on my PowerColor Fighter 6600XT after updating to 24.1.1 on Windows 11 23H2. The max clock set @ 100% was about 100MHz higher than it should have been. I personally did not experience any instability.

Using RESET in the Performance->Tuning tab and then rebooting fixed this for me. If you adjusted any CPU settings in BIOS (PBO and/or CO) I recommend going into BIOS and saving your settings as a profile/make a backup before using reset in the AMD Software. Then, if the reset fixes the issue, go back into BIOS and ensure your settings are correct.

I would've used the AMD Cleanup Utility and reinstalled/factory reset if the issue persisted. Hope this helps.

[bluesadam]

Resetting in the tuning tab does not fix the issue. It still remains at a higher value than should be. I also always use DDU to make a clean installation. I would use Cleanup Utility but it causes black screen issue while installing driver so it is not stable for me.

I will just keep manually setting max clock to correct value and hope for a driver level fix I guess and thank you for the advice, much appreciated!

[ReViolent]

I wish my Powercolor 7900xtx Hellhound only boosted 100Mhz over official specs.
Powercolor says 2525MHz max. 
Adrenaline sets it to 2915MHz. 
Result? 100-110c temps at odd times and card crashing. 
When set to 2525 it runs at 70-85c.
Oh, and I also have to set the max fan speed to 100% every crash. It resets to 40%.

[bluesadam]

Hi,

I have read around on the internet and found out the value presented in the Driver is not erroneous, instead is as intended. It is determined based on several parameters (that I don't know what) and is dynamically set. You can see that it slightly changes every time you reboot your computer it will vary by around 25-30 mhz, at least that's what happens for me.

So there is no bug or anything, I just saw a reply on reddit and jumped on to a conclusion. So now trying to clear the confusion I might have created. Please continue using your GPU driver with default values, no need to manually set anything!

Sorry for the misinformation and thanks for your understanding.

[tudorut]

Hey!

Does this look ok to you? I use a Radeon RX 7900 XT. I changed it after you mentioned this. It was set to 2800+. Do I only change that value?

Thanks!

[bluesadam]

You need to know the exact make and model of your GPU, go to the manufacturer's website and check the max boost clock value there. There is no way I can know that myself as there are numerous versions of 7900xt. If you check your GPU's box or install GPU-Z that should tell you the make and model of your GPU. I hope I could help!

EDIT---

Just to make it clearer for you, I downloaded GPU-Z myself. When you launch GPU-Z, you should see a "Lookup" button on top-right corner of the software as can be seen in the photo I have provided.

If you press that "Lookup" button, it should take you to a GPU database website where it shows the exact make and model of your GPU. Or you could click on the "Advanced" tab on the top of that screen and it should give you three information, each being:

• Base clock
• Game clock
• Boost clock

Here, "Boost clock" is the maximum clock speed your GPU should have. For example, for my GPU it shows the following results:

As you can see, for my GPU the boost clock is "2754 mhz", which checks with the official manufacturer spec which states 2755 mhz. Yes, there is a 1mhz difference but that is negligable so don't worry about it if yours shows 1mhz lower of higher, that's not really important. So now that you know your boost clock, go to AMD driver's tuning tab and change the "Max Frequency" slider to that value and you should be good to go.

I hope this helps.

[ReViolent]

I'd also turn on advanced fan tuning and make sure it's able to go up to 100% fan speed (options on the right side)

[bluesadam]

Hi,

Hi,

I have read around on the internet and found out the value presented in the Driver is not erroneous, instead is as intended. It is determined based on several parameters (that I don't know what) and is dynamically set. You can see that it slightly changes every time you reboot your computer it will vary by around 25-30 mhz, at least that's what happens for me. Your GPU is basically boosting clocks within safe values and the value stated by the manufacturer is a soft value that doesn't really mean much.

So there is no bug or anything, I just saw a reply on reddit and jumped on to a conclusion. So now trying to clear the confusion I might have created. Please continue using your GPU driver with default values, no need to manually set anything!

Sorry for the misinformation and thanks for your understanding.

[Qoojo]

Is this only when enabling the tuning stuff or is it by default and happens to everyone?

[bluesadam]

It happens to pretty much every one, yes. Enabling tuning stuff only shows you the current values, does not alter them automatically unless you change them yourself. So whatever value you see there, is the default value your GPU is running at.

[Qoojo]

So i have a 7900 xtx sapphire pulse, and i just tried a game out. It did not appear to boost as high as you say with afterburner monitoring. GPUz reported a boost to slightly over 3000. Going to update gpuz because that cannot be right.

[bluesadam]

Hi,

I have read around on the internet and found out the value presented in the Driver is not erroneous, instead is as intended. It is determined based on several parameters (that I don't know what) and is dynamically set. You can see that it slightly changes every time you reboot your computer it will vary by around 25-30 mhz, at least that's what happens for me. Your GPU is basically boosting clocks within safe values and the value stated by the manufacturer is a soft value that doesn't really mean much.

So there is no bug or anything, I just saw a reply on reddit and jumped on to a conclusion. So now trying to clear the confusion I might have created. Please continue using your GPU driver with default values, no need to manually set anything!

Sorry for the misinformation and thanks for your understanding.

[RPX100]

@bluesadam hello there.

I just wanted to say (and let you know), that this is nothing new at all.
Just look at this post I made a while back: RX 5700 XT daily crashes (and reasons)

I have the RX 5700 XT and any driver since 2020 has been trying to set the boost clock
far too high (2000 - 2100 MHz with 1200 mV, which leads to overheating).

If you read through that post and my other posts within that topic,
you will see that AMD has always tried to compete with nvidia by overclocking their GPUs via driver.

While this might work well on some GPUs, it might also lead to a lot of crashes and blackscreens
for many GPUs that can only run the manufacturers specs, and not go above that. 

--
my own GPU can handle up to 2040 MHz in some games.
But most Unreal Engine Games will crash with "d3d device lost" when it goes above 1840 MHz.

I have also confirmed that a lot of driver/software features can lead to crashes.
This is why I am using "driver only" install for my GPU and use MorePowerTool (MPT) for fine tuning.

TL;DR: AMD is overclocking all AMD GPUs by default via driver settings (even after fresh install).
Everyone should check their own GPUs manufacturer specs and change those settings via "underclocking".

cheers

[bluesadam]

I should have probably stated this issue has been going on for a while. I have been using AMD GPUs and CPUs as far back as I can remember and the only reason I got aware of this issue is because some random person wrote about it in the 24.2.1 driver update thread on AMD subreddit. Otherwise I wouldn't have known. This problem is not recognized in driver notes, I never heard anything about this from tech reviewers or AMD but it is honestly a very big issue in my book.

I always cut AMD the slack for any sort of software related bug, problematic features etc. because I like their products. However this issue really left a very big and bad impression on me. If this is not fixed very soon my next GPU is probably not going to be of color red.

I will test the Avatar game again soon because that game is very sensitive to overclock/undervolt and crashes with driver resets quite frequently if any undervolt is applied. I will try to see if this workaround fixes that problem and if it does I will be quite cross with AMD.

What is happening here is not okay.

[bluesadam]

Hi,

Hi,

I have read around on the internet and found out the value presented in the Driver is not erroneous, instead is as intended. It is determined based on several parameters (that I don't know what) and is dynamically set. You can see that it slightly changes every time you reboot your computer it will vary by around 25-30 mhz, at least that's what happens for me. Your GPU is basically boosting clocks within safe values and the value stated by the manufacturer is a soft value that doesn't really mean much.

So there is no bug or anything, I just saw a reply on reddit and jumped on to a conclusion. So now trying to clear the confusion I might have created. Please continue using your GPU driver with default values, no need to manually set anything!

Sorry for the misinformation and thanks for your understanding.

[bluesadam · Accepted solution]

It's me again (OP). Turns out I was gravely wrong about this. The reported boost clock behavior is totally normal and should not cause any problems. I basically took the report in that reddit post as the truth without making any research myself. I don't want to cause any misinformation. I have already reported this post to the moderators for deletion (since I cannot delete it myself).

I have added the aforementioned reddit post as well. You can see it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/1b0tpgo/comment/ksbh1sa/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm...

The user explicitly claims if your GPU hits any core clock above what the manufacturer states, you should manually lower it. It was upvoted, so I thought he was right, but he wasn't. I basically feel for a misinformation trap.

Sorry for the misinformation and confusion. I will try to do better in the future and thanks for your understanding.

[RPX100]

What a weird post ... *scratching my head*

So you are saying that you were wrong about something,
then you say you do not want to spread misinformation,
and then you also want to delete the entire topic?

Would be better to actually say what info you have gathered
and maybe even provide some sources to what you think
might be the correct info in this scenario. 

---
I understand that you might have been too quick with your initial reaction
to some reddit post you have found (where you also did not provide a link to).

So I guess it is good, that you did some further research for this topic.
Now, please... go ahead and provide that info + source for everyone else.

cheers!

[bluesadam]

There is nothing else to say. What I claimed, that boost clocks are erroneously set, is wrong. What stated in the GPU driver is the value that is intended. I would indeed correct my initial post, if I had a chance to edit it, but the forum doesn't give me an option to do so. That is why I want to delete the entire topic. Because in the future someone will come across this topic, read the main body and won't bother checking my "I was wrong" reply and fall for it just like I did for a random reddit post. Thank you for this reply though, it made me realize I can mark my updated reply as the solution so anyone who sees this post can see it as an answer and can clearly see I was wrong. I am feeling really bad about this so want to fix this issue as soon as possible before it causes even more misinformation.

I am not trying to save face or anything, under current circumstances where I cannot actually edit the post, deleting it seemed to be the best choice. Thank you for your understanding. I have replied to everyone who replied to this post, explaining the situation as well. So I hope this clears things.

[ReViolent]

Care to share why you think the initial post was wrong?

Because the symptoms and solution fit the problem, in my eyes.

Are you saying that Adrenaline setting my 2525MHz cards boost clock to 2900MHz is perfectly normal?

The 110degree C result is intended from AMD?

The problem is still valid and this post is still missing a proper answer which could help others with the same challenge in the future, imo.