PC Drivers & Software

[lustrum]

*FIXED*: opened my card , replaced the thermal paste . All the problems are gone now. My gpu was overheating , 60c was false temp readings by the system.

System:

Ryzen 1700

Msi Rx480 gaming x 8gb

Flarex 16gigs 3200mhz ram

Gigabyte b350 gaming 3 motherboard

Seasonic 520w psu

Hello,

Been using this graphics card for a year now. Never had any major problems until now. I recently got a new hdd so i installed a fresh copy of windows and chucked my old hdd. Installed all the required drivers etc but the problem is my gpu clock speed keeps going up and down while gaming. It never stays stable at its 1303mhz anymore.I have tried fixing it by raising the power limit+50, increasing voltage but to no avail. it keeps going down to as low as 900mhz. i clean installed using both ddu and amdclean install. Clean installed the following drivers:18.3.3 , 18.3.1, 18.2.1, 18.2.2, 17.7.2 but the problem still persists. Gpu temperatures are usually around 60-65 degrees celcius. Never had this problem on my previous installation of windows. It used to stay locked at 1303 mhz under load. But now since it keeps changing i get major stuttering, fluctuating fps, micro freezes.

How do i fix my problem.

Update:

It fluctuates when gpu power draw exceeds 130watts or so was the case yestarday, now it fluctuates at 90 watts . Checked on old hdd, same problem on it too now.

Update#2 :

Gpu seems to be trying its best to target 60c. Whenever it goes over 58c gpu starts to downlclock. Plus i tried to overclock and the higher i increase the voltage the wider the power fluctuations get like from 150 watts to 60 watts. Got a new power supply, same issue persists. So yestarday i installed msi gaming app and used the oc mode, it forced my clock to stay at 1303mhz and the fps dropped to an abmyssal 20 fps from 120fps in pubg. Now today i started my computer very irritated and removed the hdmi wire from gpu while the computer was on and banged the reset button some times and behold! my gpu now stays locked at 1303mhz and wattage is completely stable too like around 140-160 watts depending on the load. Fps seems to be good too. Gpu still seems to targeting 60c, fans going into overdrive when it crosses 60c. Dont know what i did but the problem seems be somewhat fixed. Will test further with heavy overclocking.

Update#3:

Looks like it running stable was temporary. One thing i have noticed is that the higher the temperature the bigger the clock drops eg: at 62c it fluctuates at 1100-1303mhz range and at 65c its at 800-1303mhz.

[kingfish]

Do you have Afterburner, Trixx, or Asus graphics controllers installed on your computer? They will conflict with AMD/Wattman settings and cause this type of issue. Delete it, disabling is not enough, reinstall the latest drivers using a clean install > Clean Install AMD Graphics Drivers

[lustrum]

it fluctuates and stutters without afterburner installed and i have cleaned installed multiple driver versions many times

[pokester]

To add to what Kingfish said.

With the introduction of Wattman last year came the dynamic changing of clock speed and power. This is normal for the drivers, they auto adjust based on load.

Like Kingfish said many of the 3rd party GPU utilities don't play nice with Wattman.

To some extent Wattman doesn't play nice with itself. This is why the following 4 things usually help a lot. Maxing the power limit +50 for you, making sure you are on High Performance power settings, disable hibernation/hybrid sleep and lastly disable  Fast Startup (Windows 10 Only).  Most of the time this combination make everything work pretty well again.

[plumboby]

to add to it disable any link state options in you motherboard bios to. Another thing with 10 over looked is disable anything on power balance plan settings in windows can cause havoc to. Run at high preformance settings & make sure your hard drive doesn't go into sleep mode which can cause them to fluctuate. Another thing on what pokester has said with wattman your frequencys will adjust when gaming or under certain loads, my card does it to but its part of wattman & drivers job so you not maxing out taxing the card. Disable any power efficientcy power savings settings in bios & windows 10 is the best advise I do it with all my builds havnt run into throttling or issues actually my cards & CPU runs a lot cooler that way as its not struggling to pull the power it needs.

[kingfish]

Please read..Power Limit AMD graphics performance

[lustrum]

the problems are still there with +0 power limit or +50

[locodicegr]

Disable XBOX Game DVR on windows 10.

[lustrum]

that is always disabled

[clemmy]

HEY! I have the exact same problem! I also have the same card and your description fits perfectly! I was so frustrated already. Can you tell me how to open the card and how to avoid breaking my stuff? Never heard about changing the thermal paste on GPU.

[lustrum]

You should watch a video on YouTube about it, it cannot be taught with words. It needs visual guidance. If you cannot find a thermal replacement video for your card watch the video for any other gaming x cards i.e 1080 gaming x, 1060 gaming x etc,the cooler fitting and layout is basically the same. As for thermal paste I used noctua h1.

[lustrum · Accepted solution]

*FIXED*: opened my card , replaced the thermal paste . All the problems are gone now. My gpu was overheating , 60c was false temp readings by the system.