RX 480 low fps problem

[Rhoghar]

Hi all. I've just bought an MSI RX 480 4GB graphics card a couple of days ago. Big upgrade from my old 7770.
I was really glad that I could finally play AAA games with all the bells and whistles.
So I installed dragon age inquisition and set everything on ultra. As soon as I got out of Haven I started noticing the slow downs, especially in populated areas where my fps would get as low as 20.
I also tried out total war warhammer on DX12 which I should have absolutely no problem playing with ultra settings. Just started the game and on the first introductionary mission (Vampire Counts siege battle) my fps would drop to 15-20. Also tested in custom battles. Same results when lots of units are present.

Here are my specs:
GPU: MSI RX 480 Gaming X 4GB
CPU: Intel Core i5 3470 3.2 Ghz
PSU :Seasonic S12II-520 Bronze 520W
HDD: Seagate Surveillance HDD 1TB
RAM: 4 GB DDR3 1333 mhz
Also note I'm gaming on a 1366x768 res. (for now)
I really have no idea what could be causing these problems.
Best regards.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

First, I would double check all connections,, especially power.

I believe there may be a 'hangover' from earlier drivers.

In your shoes, I might try 'cleaning':
https://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMD-Clean-Uninstall-Utility.aspx

And then installing the latest:
https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows+10+-+64

However, I haven't done this and am not at all certain it is the answer... but you might find help here:
https://community.amd.com/community/support-forums

Let us know how it works out.

 

[EndlessWaves]

Which component is at 100% usage?

I'm wondering if it might be your memory. I don't know how much those games need on Ultra but 4GB if on the low side for some things these days.

 

[Rhoghar]

Hi all!
Thanks for your replies. I thought about earlier drivers too. The first thing I did when my graphics card arrived was download amd cleanup utility and wipe the old drivers. I actually did that two times just to make sure.
I even reinstalled windows, maybe I screwed something up and couldn't figure out what.
But that didn't really fix the issue. If I remember correctly, I actually checked task manager for component usage when I first got in Redcliffe village and noticed the massive lag. CPU was at almost 100% usage but I don't quite remember memory usage or hard disk. I will check again and post them here.
I read somewhere that low ram can cause hard disk usage in games. Maybe that's the issue?
It's weird because I tried some other games like Witcher 3 and Doom with maxed out settings and never had this problem.
Thanks again!
Regards.

 

[Rhoghar]

Okay, so here's what I got for Warhammer.

 

[Rhoghar]

And this:

 

[Rhoghar]

While checking GPU usage I also noticed a very strange thing. The gpu usage would rise up to 100% then back to 0% and so on and so forth.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

The dumbo in the back row has his hand up...

Utilization: CPU #0, CPU #2, CPU #4, CPU #6? Why is it numbered this way...this CPU does not support Hyperthreading.

 

[Rhoghar]

Honestly, I have no idea. I have also tried other games. Witcher 3, DOOM and AC Syndicate and they work great on ultra settings. Seems this only happens with Warhammer and to some extent Inquisition.
So much for Warhammer being AMD optimized, lol.
I actually ran 3DMark FireStrike just to make sure and the results were spot on.

 

[EndlessWaves]

Something's not quite right there, but I can't see what it is. The only thing noticably wrong in your screenshots is the GPU temp, and temperature reading errors are common.

What about memory bandwidth. Do you have 1x4GB or 2x2GB?

Are you running the latest drivers for everything (chipset etc.) and the latest BIOS version for your motherboard?

When the GPU usage drops to 0% does anything else change on the GPU? Fan speed, clock/memory speed, temperature? MSI Afterburner will give you graphs if HWMonitor doesn't.

 

[RhogharII]

Hello again. Thanks for your reply. I am posting from this account because the other one won't log in with google.
I have 1 X 4GB. I am running all the latest drivers except for the BIOS. I never updated a BIOS.
From what I read it is better not to unless it can solve a problem.

 

[RhogharII]

Fan speed , clock and memory speed are all stable. It is only the gpu usage that is spiking randomly. The fps is quite bad considering my system. 30 fps in London AC Syndicate. Same thing for Far Cry 4 in more intensive scenes.

 

[RhogharII]

It sems the gpu usage spiking was caused by vsync. Once I turned it off the gpu usage was between 75% to 100% most of the time. Yet I am still getting 30 fps guys. I seriously have no idea what is wrong . My monitor is pretty old and only has a vga port.
So what I did was buy a hdmi to vga adapter to connect my desktop to the gpu. Do you think that could be the problem?

 

[EndlessWaves]

It sems the gpu usage spiking was caused by vsync.

What else have you got turned on? There are some stupidly demanding settings available these days so if you're running something like Virtual Super Resolution then 30fps on a 1366x768 monitor could be perfectly normal.

It's well worth setting everything to application preference (or off if that isn't offered) in the radeon control settings and setting the game to high and see what result you get.

My monitor is pretty old and only has a vga port.
So what I did was buy a hdmi to vga adapter to connect my desktop to the gpu. Do you think that could be the problem?

Nope. If other games run fine it's not going to be the connection to the monitor. It would be unlikely even if they didn't as games should produce high frame rates even when they can't show them.

 

[RhogharII]

From what I read Virtual Super resolution on a 1366x768 means it should perform like 1920x1080 res.
Do you think adding another 4 GB of ram might help with this issue? Most of the games ask for 8 gb as a minimum.

 

[EndlessWaves]

From what I read Virtual Super resolution on a 1366x768 means it should perform like 1920x1080 res.

1600x900 or 1920x1080 depending on which setting you choose yeah, either way it's a substantial performance reduction and 30-40fps is quite plausible at 1920x1080 with all the AA and AF turned on with a demanding game like AC Syndicate.

With only 75-80% usage you're unlikely to be being held up by memory capacity. With only single channel DDR-1333 I do wonder if a few frames may be help up by memory bandwidth though, it is starting to show up in a few situations at more normal resolutions.

 

[Cycloid Torus]

Virtual Super resolution - sounds like it was invented to bring a system to its knees.. is it really an improvement?

 

[EndlessWaves]

Virtual Super resolution - sounds like it was invented to bring a system to its knees.. is it really an improvement?

It's very similar to supersample anti-aliasing. How big a difference it makes depends on what other technologies the game employs and the (apparent) pixel size of the monitor it's being viewed on.

It's undoubtedly a brute force method that has a huge performance impact for it's improvement though.

 

[RhogharII]

Hello again guys!
Thank you very much for your replies and help. I reinstalled to Windows 7 from Windows 10 and now the problem is gone.
No idea how but I'm glad it works. I can actually play Warhammer total war with absolutely no lag in huge battles. And that's on directx 11.
Thanks again!

 

[kmo911]

No 2 years into the future you may upgrade to a better cpu . Sandy b (I) are good cpus but you are maybe running in pcie 2.0 mode on some motherboards. have you tryed gta 5 far cry 5 into the future ? and many new benchmarks from www.unigine.com and www.futuremark.com . 4gb are still good running many older games on fullhd ultra. unreal engine 4 games needs more then 4gb . so upgrading to 6gb 8 gb and 11-12 gb would be better with new i9 z370 and z390 intel motherboards. and o.c amd treadripper razor 2 am4 support. try to see how mutch bandwidth youre motherboard can run in since most of newer gpu cards are now in pcie 3.0 scale. just wait for new games and pcie 4.0 new monitors tv with f synk g synk and 1440 htz screen. the 3000 series have ended long time ago so lag comes and goes when the cpu can not run that bandwith from a 4gb needed. you only geys 16 gb when you should get 32 gb ingames.

now with those rtx 20xx series you could upgrade to prime z370 or z 390 with new wifi support. ill stick to z370 and maybe go to z390 when its needed.
stay cool play games at low-ultra and get those big game scores in high fps gpus in the future.

get a ssd 240gb and so on m2 drive. then you need a better motherboard.
youre 1tb needs partion and a lot of defraging. use it as bacup. and make all youre files on it as a exe files to protect agains future ranzomware. that makes it run faster.
ren all files to exe and make bacup. then defrag all exe files that not are exe files. make folders and rename all files inside folders to protect againt ranzom ware or just make the ending like dll. (important or not) if you use tpb medtod the r1.exe must never be clicked on in youre main folders. burn everyting to bd xl and reuse all space to make all partons. you may have a glitch in youre system. and the powersupply may soon be gone. change it out with a new one every 3 rd year less more.
if you go over youre drive with wd smart tool does it have some bad sectors on it and do you have it close to a hot motherboard /gpu. you must keep it cool. put a fan on it or over it. get a better cabinet that takes out the heat. windows 10 does support youre motherboard but not long into the future.
the drivers would just show up as old 2006 versions. when it should be atleast 20xx-2018. run drivermax upgrade to pro version.

you dont say what motherboard you have so im guessing you got a pcie 2.0 2.1 and maybe 3.0 now try running games in 4k-8k. thats heavy stuff.
what connection are you using pcie x.x vga dvi hdmo DP ?

now that 1k-k screens monitors tv are out you better go 4k to 8k gaming. you gonna need a hll of pc to run latest 3dmark uningine tests.