PC Graphics

[guseppiguliano]

Hi!
So it's been like 3 months since I've purchased my new gaming rig and to be fairly honest, there hasn't passed a single day, I could have told my self... "my system is 100% fine..., hell, not even 50%"...

My specs are as follows:
Ryzen 1700 | 3.8GHz @ 1.35V | Stock Cooler | Driver: 18.3.4

MSI X370 SLI PLUS | Latest BIOS | Latest Chipset Drivers

Sapphire Radeon RX Vega 64 (Limited Edition)

Corsair Vengeance LED (3000 MHz - 2 x 8GB) | 3000 MHz @ 1.35V

Crucial MX300 SSD (Boot Drive)
Seagate 4TB (Game Drive)

Antec HCP Platinum 1000W

LG 29UM60 UltraWide FreeSync monitor | DP -> 2560 x 1080 @ 75Hz

NOTE: A purely fresh Windows 10 Genuine Install with all the latest updates and only the core drivers (Chipset, Radeon). Also tried a simple 1080p monitor.. same results...

My problems are as follows:

1. GTA V and a few other titles wouldn't run above 40 FPS, yeah!!! 40.... on ULTRA at the above mentioned resolution.
2. When I activate the ReLive Overlay (Ctrl + Shift + O), it first crashes the Radeon Settings, then I have to relaunch it and then the Overlay works (intermittently)

I went further before reporting here, and replaced my motherboard (temporarily) with an ASUS B350 Prime Plus to make sure it wasn't motherboard related and yes it showed the same behaviour on either boards. I'm so frustrated for the last 3 months or so by these crashes and 40 FPS, that I'm on the brink of selling off my PC. I'd be highly obliged if anyone would be kind enough to help me in solving my issue...

Please find attached all the screenshots that I think may be of use...

Thanks,

Abdullah

[ajlueke]

Also, you mentioned you also see the issue with Farcry 5?  What frame rate are you getting with your setup in that games internal benchmark?  I also have Farcry 5, and I can run through the benchmark and see how our results compare.  If you could take a screen shot of the final result that would be great, I'll do the same when I get home this evening.  You can do that both before and after resetting your shader cache.

[guseppiguliano]

Please have a look at the above screenshots

[ajlueke]

Hello guseppiguliano

Thanks for the data!  Just so I am replicating this correctly, you ran both in balance and turbo mode with the shader cache set to "on" correct?  Or did you leave it as "AMD Optimized"? 

Your data doesn't look too bad, an average of 73fps is solid with a monitor that maxes out at 75Hz.  And a minimum of 56 fps is good, as I think your monitor's freesync range bottoms out at 48 Hz.  Doesn't look like it is hitting 40fps at all.

The turbo profile performing identically to the balanced profile is expected with Vega 64 using the stock cooler.  The extra +20% power doesn't help the GPU as it thermally throttles before it can use that extra wattage.  You could probably get a little bit extra out of it by undervolting though.  I'll post my results once I get back home is afternoon.

[ajlueke]

Hello guseppiguliano​,

If you'd like to try and squeeze a bit more performance out of your Vega 64, you can undervolt a bit.  In your AMD settings as opposed to selecting the balanced or turbo profile you can select custom.  You can change the voltage for the State 6 and State 7 power states by setting voltage control to manual under the graph.  You will see the power state 6 voltage as 1150 and state 7 as 1200.  Try changing these to 1125 and 1175.  Make sure to push your power limit slider up to +50% as well.  Apply the settings and repeat your benchmark.

You can try it again using 1100 and 1150 as well.  Going below 1100 on a power state won't accomplish anything without also adjusting the voltage for your memory.

Once you have that dialed in, you can play with the fan settings.  Raise the target and min to the maximum levels you can tolerate from a noise perspective.  Also, make sure to post your gains back here.  I'm interested to see how things go!

[guseppiguliano]

!

!hi ajlueke​
I tried what you suggested... both the 1125, 1175 and 1100, 1150. I also cranked up the Power Limit to +50% and the fan speed to 3500 RPM and guess what, both of your advised tweaks yielded exact same results..... Oh, and dstmnd89x​, my HDD is absolutely fine. I checked, it's not an I/O error... Same results on SSD.

have a look...

[ajlueke]

Hello guseppiguliano​

Did you reapply your CPU and RAM overclocks?  If not, I would give that a try.

[guseppiguliano]

Yes! I'm currently running my CPU at 3.65 GHz @ 1.2 V and DRAM at 2933 MHz. Yielded same results...

[ajlueke]

Hmmm, this is really interesting data.  First, I do think your GPU is performing well.  At least in the Farcry benchmark your not seeing sub 40 fps you mentioned in your original post.  What is a little strange however, is that you didn't see any gains at all by undervolting and raising the fan curve.  That implies that some other component is bottlenecking the system as opposed to just the GPU.

[guseppiguliano]

Hmm! So, any further ideas? :/

[ajlueke]

The only thing I can see that is different, is that I am still running the last "Summit Ridge" AGESA UEFI on my motherboard.  You mentioned you are running the latest BIOS, which would include "pinnacle ridge" support (aka, 2700X, 2700 etc.)

Since you aren't running a pinnacle ridge CPU, there is no reason to update to the latest UEFI, try running the last "Summit Ridge" update for your board.  Looks like that is 7A33v36.

[ajlueke]

Here is my run.  My minimum and average fps are a bit higher than yours despite the higher resolution, but that is due to the fact that my Vega 64 is under a water block in a custom loop as opposed to air cooled.  To me, it looks like your Farcry results at least seem to be in line with what I would expect.

[dstmnd89x]

There most-likely wont be a magic fix issued by AMD... especially if we are unable to replicate the issues you are having.

You keep mentioning that you've reinstalled Windows onto your SSD but what sort of shape is the "game drive" in, the 4TB HDD? The reason I ask is because "intermittent" performance sort of sounds like a disk access or I/O problem and not the graphics card. With GPU's the performance is usually either good or bad, depending on the drivers, and doesn't typically rise and drop in regular intervals. The hits are more likely to occur in certain areas of a game world or when there are a lot of actors or special effects.

If you have some extra space on the SSD, try temporarily installing a game on that and see what happens... just curious.

[ajlueke]

That was my thought when I brought up the shader cache.  If it isn't working properly somehow, his CPU would need to process the shaders from the game drive (standard HDD) each time they are called, which would could really slow things down.

[imicheal]

Out of curiosity, did you ever get this issue resolved by the new psu? I recently picked up a Vega 64 and it crashes to a strange pixelated rgb looking screen every time I try other put load on it, I'm wondering if it is because I am using a daisy chain power cord for it. Let me know thanks