Drivers & Software

[mstfbsrn980]

I've been using RX 480 and Viewsonic XG2401 (TN panel on DP with 29-144 hertz FreeSync range) for two years. Previously, with old drivers (18.6.1 and before), I never had stuttering or tearing or flickering problems. Even if FPS fell below 60, I had a very smooth gaming experience. But now when I try new drivers, some of games have under 60 FPS, stuttering or tearing problems occur according to the game V-Sync or fullscreen-borderless settings.

This problems does not occur when I change FreeSync range to 66-144 hertz. All games run smoothly under 60 FPS. But when I use 66-144 hertz FreeSync range, this time 65-70 FPS range is causing the same problems. FreeSync is not working correctly because new drivers can not give same required hertz value for low FPS values. In addition, the "AMD External Events Utility" service is running in the background. This service runs FreeSync in borderless games. But, this service causes stuttering in some of the fullscreen games.

Games:

Mafia III (with ultra details), Kingdom Come Deliverance (with ultra details), No Man's Sky (with high details)

My Specs:
ASUS ROG STRIX RX 480 8GB GPU

Intel Core i5 8600k 4500 Mhz CPU
2x8GB (dual) 3000 Mhz DDR4

ASUS TUF-Z370PLUS Mobo with Latest BIOS

750W PSU with Gold Cert
2x250GB Samsun Evo 850 with RAID

[pokester]

I have run into this randomly when installing the AMD driver updates. Not saying there can't be a driver issue in your case but I have had the same issues you complain of when I do and express upgrade. If you did not already, I would suggest you run DDU from wagnardsoft_com and follow the instructions that come with it. That will give you a clean slate to load the driver back in. Disable the internet when you install that driver too as it keeps Windows update from interfering with the driver install.

If that doesn't help I would return to an older driver and do the clean install method above to do that and report your issue with the current driver to AMD: 

Online Service Request | AMD 

[bobbesan]

Same issue Radeon VII and Cf791. rolling back fixes this. Have not updated driver for months, due to this.

[mstfbsrn980 · Accepted solution]

Today I tried "19.6.3" driver and "48-144 hertz" (actual range of my monitor) FreeSync range and "AMD Enhanced Sync" feature. In the past, when I did driver update with 48-144 hertz FreeSync range, there was excessive tearing and stuttering in 40-50 FPS range. Now these problems seem to have gone away with driver update.