PC Drivers & Software

[Anonymous]

AMD why did you remove the 'Power Efficiency' feature from the new VII and XT range?

The core MHz is fluctuating from 150mhz to 1700mhz causing framerate issues, it simply cannot keep a stable 60FPS.

Its the exact same bloody issue with the FuryX back in 2015, here is my own thread describing the issue.

https://community.amd.com/thread/193069

A program was created called Clockblocker which half worked at the time, now a new program called MorePowerTools is available which hacks the driver, why are we again having to use hack programs for your bloody driver.

The thread describes the exact same issue, until AMD fixed this with a new feature called ''Power Efficiency'' which prevented the core from downclocking in 3D applications, it was brilliant from 2016-2019

We need that option back ASAP!

We spent nearly a year howling you to add this feature and you just remove it?

 ''Power Efficiency Toggle: A new feature introduced in the Radeon™ Settings Gaming tab for select AMD Radeon™ 300 series and AMD Radeon™ Fury X available under "Global Options". This allows the user to disable some power efficiency optimizations.''

This would 100% fix the VII and XT.

Here is a RAW video showcasing the issue, what a complete mess.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ivo4iqjbjogge8j/Powerplay%20Issue.rar?dl=0

The FuryX was SOLID60FPS.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

120FPS on a 60hz panel? I guess you render the games in windowed mode?

Do you have the original Dawn of War with all DLC? Try and play in 4K 60FPS vsync and monitor the core.

On the VII it downclocks to 300mhz and lags out constantly.

Great site by the way, you should review The Settlers 1 to 4, the best RTS games.

I have about 650 games in Steam alone, more in Origin, Uplay etc.

I have Dawn of War GOTY, it does not do 4K as the game is old. Game crashes on me, not sure if it is Windows or the driver.

I have Vermintide which is a more modern game and it works fine.

[Anonymous]

Dawn of War, start the DLC Soulstorm and you will have 4K resolution.

Which version do you have DVD or Steam version?

The Steam version is updated with multiplayer and other fixes.

[hardcoregames_]

I have the Steam version but evidently a lot of DLC did not make it to the GOTY version

[Anonymous]

All the DLC for Dawn of War are on Steam, here is what you need, master collection.

https://store.steampowered.com/sub/30560/?snr=1_5_9__403

[hardcoregames_]

I have those parts already. All I know is that Dawn of War is old so it does not do 4K for my setup,

[kingfish]

Will this ever end? What was the question?

[hardcoregames_]

kingfish wrote:

Will this ever end? What was the question?

this is a continuation of 2-3 earlier conversations 

both of us are skilled and literate

at the end of the day we both are looking at games v amd bugs and how to get around them

[Anonymous]

What was the question? It's literally in the title Kingfish.

The Power Efficiency option is already baked into the driver but only works for the FuryX and R9 series, we need to somehow bootleg the option back for the VII.

Maybe you can help us Kingfish? 

[kingfish]

Do you have GPU scaling enabled?

I am not convinced the drivers 20.1.3 are the issue. I am using them with no problems at all...but I am using only the drivers....not any of that control panel mess.

The two drivers 20.1.1 and 20.1.2 did not work well for me at all.

[Anonymous]

I don't have GPU scaling enabled but I have tested both values, makes no difference, I don't know why GPU scaling would effect the powerplay downclocking but ok?

Every driver has the missing feature regardless.

[kingfish]

If you can't see the edge of your display...GPU scaling offers more options.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh2-019 

[Anonymous]

This thread is regarding 'Power Efficiency' not HDMI Scaling.

I have already tried GPU Scaling.

Infact the AMD team have replicated the issue with HDMI Scaling locking to 30hz, they replied to me through email.

Please help us bootleg the 'Power Efficiency' option for the VII.

''Power Efficiency Toggle: A new feature introduced in the Radeon™ Settings Gaming tab for select AMD Radeon™ 300 series and AMD Radeon™ Fury X available under "Global Options". This allows the user to disable some power efficiency optimizations.''

[kingfish]

What was the last driver that had that option? Have you tried using that and importing the 12.1.3 graphics drivers?

[Anonymous]

No its the GPU that activates the option, you need either a FuryX or R9.

Its already baked into the driver, that's what we need, to activate the option for the VII.

Fury X - 19.12.1 driver - ''Power Efficiency'' works and is there on the Global options.

VII - 19.12.1 driver - ''Power Efficiency'' missing from the Global options.

I used the same driver version for each GPU.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

No its the GPU that activates the option, you need either a FuryX or R9.

Its already baked into the driver, that's what we need, to activate the option for the VII.

Fury X - 19.12.1 driver - ''Power Efficiency'' works and is there on the Global options.

VII - 19.12.1 driver - ''Power Efficiency'' missing from the Global options.

I used the same driver version for each GPU.

I never had a Fury so I was unaware of the differences compared to the Polaris class cards I have.

[Anonymous]

New driver out with no real fixes what so ever.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

New driver out with no real fixes what so ever.

My RX 480 has been through all hell on the X570 but now that I am on the X470 board there is a new game in town

I have noticed when I use DDU and factory reset with the driver it even goes as far as to reset my power settings.

[Anonymous]

Glad you got your motherboard issues sorted at least.

DDU removes the powerplay tables from the registry so yes all power settings will reset.

I might try these 20.1.4 drivers. Will have to bootleg it again.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

Glad you got your motherboard issues sorted at least.

DDU removes the powerplay tables from the registry so yes all power settings will reset.

I might try these 20.1.4 drivers. Will have to bootleg it again.

The reason for the extreme measure was to be sure the drivers were clean and ready for action.

I noticed my power savings settings were also set to always on, so no EPA energy star for AMD. I had to fix my custom profile.

I could not get my Intel AX200 working so I have tossed it and went back to a wired internet connection and a USB bluetooth radio. Not sure what happened but I have a dead 9260 which also has stopped working. That is 2 cards the X570 has killed.

I do not understand why there are not more USB 2.0 headers. I have to use small USB hubs to provide more headers.

20.1.4 is the 4th driver this year, which suggests at least some progress is being made.

[hardcoregames_]

kingfish wrote:

Do you have GPU scaling enabled?

I am not convinced the drivers 20.1.3 are the issue. I am using them with no problems at all...but I am using only the drivers....not any of that control panel mess.

The two drivers 20.1.1 and 20.1.2 did not work well for me at all.

I have tried the scaling and it does not work right

[hardtecnica]

Not only for VII cards, but also for the opposite reason for most RX ones. My rx480 card is not Power Efficiency embedded and if its not enabled, any 3D app raise the GPU clock to 1276Mhz without any for good sake need to it.

Raising this discussion because AMD need to fix his broken Adrenalin 2020.

[hardcoregames_]

hardtecnica wrote:

Not only for VII cards, but also for the opposite reason for most RX ones. My rx480 card is not Power Efficiency embedded and if its not enabled, any 3D app raise the GPU clock to 1276Mhz without any for good sake need to it.

Raising this discussion because AMD need to fix his broken Adrenalin 2020.

I am using a custom power profile, check the power settings in the control panel

[hardtecnica]

Windows power settings is not the issue, the problem is regarding a feature that was present until 19.12.1 versions and got removed on 19.12.2 (2020 edition) without any reason to. Since power efficiency is not a concern for most users, they just want to see high fps even if their monitor don't follow it, AMD seems to not care for that feature anymore, so they removed it. Power Efficiency see the amount of processing needed and downclock and downvoltage on the fly, very useful for fixed fps, low demanding games, low demanding areas, non game usage and idle, web browsing for example, lets the GPU at 300mhz with 0.8v, with it disabled or using the broken 2020 version, it varies until 1276mhz, generating heat and watts usage for nothing. Gaming example, playing DOOM 2016 at 60 fps I got less than 70W of average usage, and an average clock of 600mhz, reducing drastically heat and consumption. As you can see the GPU clock fluctuating. Without it enable GPU stays fixed at 1276Mhz without need to it.

Playing The Witcher 3 with it enable on 2019 version at 30 fps, GPUz speaks for itself, Power Efficiency is a must have feature. Average consumption of 35W and average of clock around 400mhz, almost "idling".

[Anonymous]

I agree.

In this situation, you want to save power with high framerates, in my situation, I have high resolution but standard 60FPS so powerplay kicks in which I don't want.

All the emulators play like crap, downclocking to 150mhz, the FuryX smashed 1100mhz, it was awesome.

Still waiting for a reply from AMD, the driver updates are too slow, its going to take years to fix this mess.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

I agree.

In this situation, you want to save power with high framerates, in my situation, I have high resolution but standard 60FPS so powerplay kicks in which I don't want.

All the emulators play like crap, downclocking to 150mhz, the FuryX smashed 1100mhz, it was awesome.

Still waiting for a reply from AMD, the driver updates are too slow, its going to take years to fix this mess.

My RX 480 when playing a demanding game at 4K is pushed to the turbo max and it can sometimes eat more than 200W of power.

At idle my RX 480 is 300 MHz and the memory is the same.

AFAIK my card is working as expected. Now if only I can fix the bluetooth audio bugs.

[hardtecnica]

2019 edition drivers don't worked for you?

[hardcoregames_]

My RX 480 is far more dynamic with power. With a clean install of Windows 10 it seems to be fine with 20.2.1 which is a big improvement of the BSOD problem for the last few drivers.

[hardtecnica]

If I need to use all his processing power, I can, just letting stock and leaving Power Efficiency disabled as by default. There's still some rudimentary CPU alike dynamic clock at idle, but nothing compares to PE function which keeps most of the time at 300mhz. RX480 got driver fixed by 2016 after Tec Lab (Brazilian Youtube Channel) exposed the power issue with proof, I believe that problem with the RX480 (drawing much more than 75W from PCI-e) was the birth of the Power Efficiency feature (my concern is more about heat, I already lost a card for +70° usage). That's why I care to much for that feature. Shame AMD abandoned it.

[hardcoregames_]

hardtecnica wrote:

If I need to use all his processing power, I can, just letting stock and leaving Power Efficiency disabled as by default. There's still some rudimentary CPU alike dynamic clock at idle, but nothing compares to PE function which keeps most of the time at 300mhz. RX480 got driver fixed by 2016 after Tec Lab (Brazilian Youtube Channel) exposed the power issue with proof, I believe that problem with the RX480 (drawing much more than 75W from PCI-e) was the birth of the Power Efficiency feature (my concern is more about heat, I already lost a card for +70° usage). That's why I care to much for that feature. Shame AMD abandoned it.

Sapphire fixed the problem with their cards and the late models have a 8-pin power connector which affords over 200W of power so the PCIe slot can be untouched.

Not sure if there are any versions with 6-pin PCIe power.

[Anonymous]

I'm so gutter right now.

Last night we updated the driver to 20.2.1, upon loading the GUI I could see the games wattman profiles were still active, but the Global Settings had reset.

So I loaded up an old profile from the previous driver version and the fans started ramping up, upon checking the values I saw the core was locked at 1732mhz.

After realizing the core was locked, we tested some games, it was absolutely awesome! Solid FPS and no black screen for 8hours of testing. After a month of downclocking crap I finally saw the true potential.

Now today after booting up, the core is not locked anymore? Even loading back up the old wattman profile makes no difference.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

I'm so gutter right now.

Last night we updated the driver to 20.2.1, upon loading the GUI I could see the games wattman profiles were still active, but the Global Settings had reset.

So I loaded up an old profile from the previous driver version and the fans started ramping up, upon checking the values I saw the core was locked at 1732mhz.

After realizing the core was locked, we tested some games, it was absolutely awesome! Solid FPS and no black screen for 8hours of testing. After a month of downclocking crap I finally saw the true potential.

Now today after booting up, the core is not locked anymore? Even loading back up the old wattman profile makes no difference.

I reset windows to get around BSOD problems, I realize you have done this already a few times.

This suggests that AMD needs to get more more bodies on the drivers.

[Anonymous]

Sorry I'm not talking about a standard BSOD, its regarding the black screen with audio running, which we suffered from within a few hour.

With the core locked to 1732mhz, no black screen what so ever 8 hour of testing, no smeering FPS, no micro stuttering, its was solid FPS.

ARMA was so epic, never seen such glorious FPS before, just amazing.

I have proved the Black screen issue is 100% tied to powerplay downclocking the core/voltage.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

Sorry I'm not talking about a standard BSOD, its regarding the black screen with audio running, which we suffered from within a few hour.

With the core locked to 1732mhz, no black screen what so ever 8 hour of testing, no smeering FPS, no micro stuttering, its was solid FPS.

ARMA was so epic, never seen such glorious FPS before, just amazing.

I have proved the Black screen issue is 100% tied to powerplay downclocking the core/voltage.

Nice that you were able to get ARMA working.

That PowerPlay and a few other switches are probably best left off. Given all the gripes it seems obvious there are a lot of incomplete features.

[Anonymous]

Yes but the problem is I cant lock the core anymore, so ARMA is running like crap again.

I don't know how I bugged the driver out and locked the core at 1732mhz?

''PowerPlay and a few other switches are probably best left off'' what are you talking about here?

[hardcoregames_]

Check the Radeon Software and get into settings and system

Try a factory reset and see if that corrects any problems

[Anonymous]

Are you on the right thread here?

You do know the settings ie power efficiency is missing from the GUI, there are no settings to disable powerplay, how many times do I have to say this?

Also stop blaming my system, when its AMD at fault.

[hardcoregames_]

john007 wrote:

Are you on the right thread here?

You do know the settings ie power efficiency is missing from the GUI, there are no settings to disable powerplay, how many times do I have to say this?

Also stop blaming my system, when its AMD at fault.

I spent some times pouring over the AMD crud to see if I could spot all the fault settings I have seen on the forum lately. 

It seems that some items have been pulled from the 2020 series

I noticed it uses an integrated brower instead of a box for the various streaming platforms. I could suggest that AMD use their website for that instead of using a dodgy application.

[edmondvonersung]

That's not Power Efficiency that is causing this.

Also you do not provide any proof of your theory whatsoever, end of story.

[Anonymous]

If you own a FuryX go and prove it your self.

I already have the answers to the issues.

If you enable the Power Efficiency on the FuryX you will see constant spikes of stuttering because of the downclocking.

End of story. 

[edmondvonersung]

Yet you fail to provide any proof.

You're the one making theories, you're the one that is supposed to provide proofs, yet you ask us to provide proofs of your own theories ? What.

No one is going to take you seriously, perhaps you are not actually serious.