Graphics Cards

[Houdini]

After months of suffering I need to address these topcis, although the VR issues already have been discussed somewhere else.

I really wanted to love my AMD RX 7900 XTX. I waited a long time to actually get one. And then my first to versions had this vapor chamber issue. But still wanted to be loyal to AMD, and support a competitor of Nvidia.
I loved a lot of things, like e.g. the USB port, so I can use just a single cable to connect to the monitor.

Now I don't want to wait much longer. If there are no decent drivers within the next few weeks I'll throw that card out of the window, switch do a Nvidia RXT 4080 and will never buy an AMD card again.

I'm running my card in a PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with 32GB RAM. Before I got my RX 7900 XTX I had a Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti in this system, and none of the problems whatsoever. The old card now is in my sons PC, and everthing is running smooth there.

After the very poor VR performance of the RX 7900 XTX and a very long thread in this forum, AMD released some drivers, which should fix the issues. While the drivers 23.7.1 and 23.10.2 made it a little bit better, there still were some problems. And subsequent drivers made it worse again.

In VR games there are still compression artefacts (I'm playing on a PICO 4 and streaming via WiFi). And when playing longer, there is more and more stuttering.

And if there's just a very short interruption of the connection (e.g. if you take of the headset for a few seconds or step out of the playing zone) the problems get even worse, basically making any game unplayable. Also, ending one game and then starting a different one detroys the performance.
Then you need to log off your Windows account and back in. Or sometimes even reboot your PC.

Newer drivers were a complete mess, and I lost track of all the problems they caused. So I switched back to 23.10.2.

But another major recent problem is, that the temperature sensors can't be detected by FanControl anymore. I'm using this software to control my CPU and case fans depending on the temperatures of the PC components. Now wihtout being able to read the GPU temperatures, the case fan doesn't spin up anymore to exhaust the hot air, thus causing my system to throttle and stutter even more.

In my sons PC with the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti there is no problem with the temperature sensors and FanControl.

As I said, I'm tired of constantly trying to find workarounds for all the problems.

[Qoojo]

I have found software that does stuff like FanControl is notoriously buggy and can interfere. These days motherboards are loaded with extra fan headers/connections and generally it is better to utilize the motherboard BIOS for what you want to do.

I am not sure if AMD will ever figure out VR. Does your son's pc have an intel CPU?  The 4080 is closer to 7900 xtx. I think NVidia is simply better for VR. I won't touch AMD CPUs on my main desktop simply because of my past experiences with their drivers and not wanting an entire system of AMD drivers. Although, my AMD based laptops work fine.

The artifacts might be more about you adjusting some values to find the sweet spot of resolution/fps/bitrate.

Verify that your wifi is not congested as it might be part of the streaming/artifact problem. Download an app for phone to find cleanest channels.

[elstaci]

Sounds more like a motherboard hardware issue, if by uninstalling FanControl, the case fans still doesn't work or possibly a PSU issue.

Personally I use Desktop Gadgets to keep track of my GPU and CPU temperatures 24/7:

For the CPU temperatures you need to install CoreTEMP software.

As to controlling my Case Fans I use my Motherboard's BIOS Settings for that. I set a minimum rotation amount. My Asus Motherboard automatically controls the speed of the Case fans depending on the PC temperature and my PSU Fan only turns on when under certain loads (similar to Zero RPM feature on GPUs).

Found the website to download FanControl and it does seem to be a very good program. It does mention you can use 3rd party monitoring software to be used by FanControl if its temperature sensors are not compatible.

[Houdini]

Thanks for your replies. However, I found that the mainboard BIOS fan settings are not granular enough. I'm using FanControl on many PCs, even in my company. There it works absolutely fine. 

I also read, that there is this issue with AMD GPU sensors in FanControl. But I don't care about using another 3rd party software again. 

Also on my PC there was no issue until recently. And it's definitively the AMD drivers. If I delete the AMD Adrenalin stuff, and just use the drivers that come with Windows FanControl works fine again. For now VR runs mediocre with those. But not much worse than with the Adrenalin drivers.

Also, I tried to tweak the setting for a better performance in the past. Also, my WiFi is working perfectly. I have a Ubiqity Unify network, and again, with Nvidia I had no performance issue with exactly the same setup.

I tried so many things over and over again, but I just want it to work. That's why I lost hope in the end, that AMD is going to fix this.

My son's PC also has an AMD CPU. And in both these PCs the Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti has no issues whatsoever. And with their CPUs I'm absolutely happy. Especially since I like building and running Mini-ITX PCs, and intel CPUs have efficiency and thermal issues, especiall in these small cases.

[elstaci]

I would open two tickets:

One to AMD SUPPORT to let them know about your issues with VR and Adrenaline drivers: https://www.amd.com/en/forms/contact-us/support.html  (Most likely you have done this already)

The other ticket I would open with FanControl Developers at GITHUB: https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases

Or open a discussion at the same GITHUB site: https://github.com/Rem0o/FanControl.Releases/discussions

[Houdini]

Ok, I finally gave up. I ordered a 4080, plugged it in, didn't even manually install any drivers or change any settings, and all my problems vanished into thin air.

No more stuttering, lagging, compression artefacts or performance issues. I now can take off my VR headset or interrupt a game, and it continues afterwards without any problems. I can also end a game and launch another one without having to reboot.

And the 4080 even produces much less heat, which is especially important in my Mini-ITX case. Where the RX 7900 XTX most of the time reached 90°C, sometimes the hotspot even had nearly 100°, the 4080 maxes out at 80°C.

Also, the sensors are detected by FanControl immediately.

AMD seems not to be able to produce decent drivers, although they stated in another thread (which has been closed then) in July 2023 that the VR issues should have been solved with the 23.7.1 drivers.

I really wanted to fight the Nvidia "establishment" with supporting AMD. But after nearly a year I must admit, that AMD GPUs are not alternative, at least not in VR

Unfortunately this was an expensive experiment. I can NOT recommend AMD GPUs anymore.

[elstaci]

My personal opinion is that AMD should make personalized drivers for certain family of GPUs and IGPUs.

Trying to make one Generic type Driver that will work for all the AMD models is too complicated because AMD fixes one issue for a specific GPU card but then causes issues with other GPU models, as an example only.

AMD should have personalized drivers for all 7000 series GPU cards, same for the 6000 series and so forth. Unless they have the same features and specs but since each series has it own unique features that other series may not have or isn't as advanced.