# Low GPU Usage R9 390 Sapphire Nitro



## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

So i have the Sapphire R9 390 with the default core clock 1040MHz.
When i play ACS on max settings everything works fine , the core is stable at 1040MHz, but i have only 30fps.
So i turn down the settings to high shadows, SSAO ambient occlusion and FXAA anti-aliasing. I saw this settings are the best for R9 390.
At this settings my core clock reaches maximum 930MHz and stays at 820-860MHz, this gives me low fps compared to other R9 390 users with those settings.

My temperatures in-game:
GPU: 55*°*C fans 47%
CPU: 60*°*C
The average CPU usage in-game is 90%.
My driver is Radeon Software Crimson Edition version 15.30.1025.1001

System specs:
Operating system: Windows 7 64-bit SP1
GPU: R9 390 Sapphire Nitro
CPU: i5-4460
Motherboard: ASUS B85M-K
RAM: 8GB DDR3 Zeppelin 1333MHz
PSU: 600W 80 Plus Bronze (82% efficiency)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200RPM 500GB

I know GCN 1.1 uses PowerTune or ZeroCore Power to change the core speed when the demand on the gpu is low.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

Bump


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

question would be what monitor are you using, res and type of connection DP, hdmi?  to be honest it looks like a cpu intensive game so the video card does little, how is it on other games?


Edit  try to limit your bumps to once every 24 hours, mods tend to get cranky when that rule is not followed.


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## cdawall (Dec 28, 2015)

What are the low FPS, what is GPU load when it down clocks?

If vsync is enabled and you are hitting 60FPS the GPU will downclock since its not having to work. Welcome to the GPU equal of cool and quiet.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> question would be what monitor are you using, res and type of connection DP, hdmi?  to be honest it looks like a cpu intensive game so the video card does little, how is it on other games?
> 
> 
> Edit  try to limit your bumps to once every 24 hours, mods tend to get cranky when that rule is not followed.



My monitor is : Samsung Syncmaster T220
1680x1050 resolution
DVI connection

In DayZ for example CPU usage is only 50% and the core clock is still low.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

cdawall said:


> What are the low FPS, what is GPU load when it down clocks?
> 
> If vsync is enabled and you are hitting 60FPS the GPU will downclock since its not having to work. Welcome to the GPU equal of cool and quiet.



GPU load when it down clocks is spiking, 100% , 0% , 50%.
Vsync is not enabled and i am not hitting 60fps.


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> this gives me low fps compared to other R9 390 users with those settings.


what monitor and res are the other people using?  You have a monitor that maxes out at 1680x1050  vs other peoples are probably 1920x1080 or higher.  A 390 for that monitor is just overkill, you are not going to see what it can do until you upgrade to a 1440 or 4k monitor. Which is where it really shines. You will probably have to sit down and go thru every setting under your game settings and try combos until you are happy with it. Try setting it on the highest settings and then turn off AA and so forth. the gpu will definitely scale its clocks according to load. How is it with other games? Is your cpu OC'ed any?


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> what monitor and res are the other people using?  You have a monitor that maxes out at 1680x1050  vs other peoples are probably 1920x1080 or higher.  A 390 for that monitor is just overkill, you are not going to see what it can do until you upgrade to a 1440 or 4k monitor. Which is where it really shines. You will probably have to sit down and go thru every setting under your game settings and try combos until you are happy with it. Try setting it on the highest settings and then turn off AA and so forth. the gpu will definitely scale its clocks according to load. How is it with other games? Is your cpu OC'ed any?



I just discovered if i look at something not gpu intensive like the sky my core clock goes to 1040MHz but if i look at something gpu intensive my core clock goes to 800-850MHz.
My CPU is not overclocked.
Other people are indeed using 1980x1080.
On ultra settings in ACS core stays at 1040MHz but i want to lower the settings to get more fps, but the clock lowers and the fps stays the same, this is the problem.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

I uninstalled the Crimson drivers and installed the latest Catalyst drivers and the core clock improved to 920-1000MHz.
In any benchmark the core clock is 1040MHz stable.


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## xvi (Dec 28, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I uninstalled the Crimson drivers and installed the latest Catalyst drivers and the core clock improved to 920-1000MHz.
> In any benchmark the core clock is 1040MHz stable.


Fixed by old drivers? That seems odd, but not entirely surprising.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

xvi said:


> Fixed by old drivers? That seems odd, but not entirely surprising.


Its not fixed, but improved.
I think its something wrong with PowerTune downclocking the gpu.
At high settings the core clock increases.
At low settings the core clock decreases.
So i can't get high frames per second in games.


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## xvi (Dec 28, 2015)

Just to make sure, are you running the games in fullscreen?


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

I will edit this post and upload heaven bench marks from my machine in my specs I am running heaven in 1600x900.  Looks odd on a 4k monitor, this cute tiny window.....   it may help or may not     download heaven and benchmark it from there


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

xvi said:


> Just to make sure, are you running the games in fullscreen?


Yes.
For example Tomb Raider:
Ultimate preset i have 85 fps core clock 1040MHz.
Low preset i have 108 fps core clock 900MHz.
So in Assassins Creed Syndicate i can't achieve 60 fps because if i lower the graphics settings my core clock lowers as well.
Ultra graphics = 30 fps core clock 1040MHz.
I turn graphics down (to what i saw on the internet worked the best for other R9 390 users) 40 fps core clock 900MHz.

I want my core clock to run at 1040MHz no matter what graphical settings i have.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> View attachment 70463 I will edit this post and upload heaven bench marks from my machine in my specs I am running heaven in 1600x900.  Looks odd on a 4k monitor, this cute tiny window.....   it may help or may not     download heaven and benchmark it from there



Do the extreme preset.
It should be 1600x900.
I will do benchmark with your settings.


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

you will have to go under custom and set it up from there.
The R9 300 series cards are designed to downclock or upclock depending on load. It is supposed to help with power consumption that almost everyone complains about.   So as far as the clock speeds go, everything looks normal. As for your fps issue, crank everything up to ultra then turn off aa or try different combo's of settings quality and textures.....


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> you will have to go under custom and set it up from there.
> The R9 300 series cards are designed to downclock or upclock depending on load. It is supposed to help with power consumption that almost everyone complains about.   So as far as the clock speeds go, everything looks normal. As for your fps issue, crank everything up to ultra then turn off aa or try different combo's of settings quality and textures.....





We have the same operating system.
What version of R9 390 do you have ?


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## xvi (Dec 28, 2015)

Maybe pop in to GPU-z and see what the perfcap reason is.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

xvi said:


> Maybe pop in to GPU-z and see what the perfcap reason is.



Isn't perfcap a NVIDIA only feature ?


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

I have the xfx 1000mhz.   I have noticed that with cpu intensive games my fps takes a hit. But since I am not running the same game as you I can not speak for the hit in fps you have. My current games are Star Wars Battlefront, Path of Exile, World of Tanks are the main games I am into right now.  Your benchmark looks good.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> I have the xfx 1000mhz.   I have noticed that with cpu intensive games my fps takes a hit. But since I am not running the same game as you I can not speak for the hit in fps you have. My current games are Star Wars Battlefront, Path of Exile, World of Tanks are the main games I am into right now.  Your benchmark looks good.



Are you playing those games at max settings ?


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## flmatter (Dec 28, 2015)

Yes


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

flmatter said:


> Yes



Can you lower the graphics and see if the core clock will stay at 1000MHz ?


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## MorpHeer (Dec 28, 2015)

xvi said:


> Maybe pop in to GPU-z and see what the perfcap reason is.



Perfcap is indeed only for NVIDIA.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

The 390 clock scales to GPU load. If you have v-sync on or you're running a frame rate capped game (or are using frame rate target control or you're hitting a bottleneck that isn't your GPU,) the 390 will clock up enough to give you full performance but not higher than it needs to in order to achieve it.

This is an example of a game that is limited by v-sync in the case of 60FPS but is CPU bound when you zoom in, which is why this instance never actually hits my full 1040Mhz; because 1040Mhz worth of GPU power wasn't demanded out of the GPU.


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## xvi (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Perfcap is indeed only for NVIDIA.


Oops. Must have run out of coffee. 

I'd be curious to see the sensors after running a game/benchmark.


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## flmatter (Dec 29, 2015)

Sorry too big. Turned my star wars battle front res to 1600x900  closet I could to your max res. pulled up crimson and screen shot of it.   Card pretty much ramps and down depending on load.  In game it was about 980mhz and as you see 961 with it running tabbed out. I also run trixx in background for a custom fan profile to my liking.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> The 390 clock scales to GPU load. If you have v-sync on or you're running a frame rate capped game (or are using frame rate target control or you're hitting a bottleneck that isn't your GPU,) the 390 will clock up enough to give you full performance but not higher than it needs to in order to achieve it.
> 
> This is an example of a game that is limited by v-sync in the case of 60FPS but is CPU bound when you zoom in, which is why this instance never actually hits my full 1040Mhz; because 1040Mhz worth of GPU power wasn't demanded out of the GPU.
> 
> View attachment 70466



I don't have v-sync on.
I haven't played frame rate  capped games.
Frame rate target control is disabled.
The CPU isn't bottlenecking.

I know the GPU does not run at full power in low gpu demanding games like CS:GO, LOL, HOTS and this is not a problem, but for me even if the game is gpu demanding the core clock its not raising if i play at low graphics settings to achieve high fps.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

flmatter said:


> Sorry too big. Turned my star wars battle front res to 1600x900  closet I could to your max res. pulled up crimson and screen shot of it.   Card pretty much ramps and down depending on load.  In game it was about 980mhz and as you see 961 with it running tabbed out. I also run trixx in background for a custom fan profile to my liking.View attachment 70470



Was the game running at low settings ?
What is the resolution you usually play at ?


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Was the game running at low settings ?
> What is the resolution you usually play at ?


Cities: Skylines. Full graphics, AA cranked up to 8xEQ for this game. I usually play at 1080p unless it's a game that runs surround well.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Cities: Skylines. Full graphics, AA cranked up to 8xEQ for this game. I usually play at 1080p unless it's a game that runs surround well.



In Garry's Mod the GPU stays at 0% a lot.


 
The core clock is 450MHz
This gives me 22 fps


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

It's the power limit! AMD has perfcaps... since GCN1. Raise up the wattage for the card and see.... your freqs will jump up where they belong.

You can tamper around this tool http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=404465

or play with Afterburner OC additional settings to force your preferred likeness.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> It's the power limit! AMD has perfcaps... since GCN1. Raise up the wattage for the card and see.... your freqs will jump up where they belong.
> 
> You can tamper around this tool http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=404465
> 
> or play with Afterburner OC additional settings to force your preferred likeness.



ClockBlocker works fine, it makes my core clock stay at 1040MHz but the gpu usage is very low.
Raising the power limit or voltage in MSI Afterburner doesen't help.
In Garry's Mod for example GPU usage stay at 0% 5 seconds then 5% 1 second, i have 22 fps.
If i look directly at the ground the gpu usage its 45-50%.


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## rtwjunkie (Dec 29, 2015)

Look, I'm not running AMD, but the same principle applies to this game for both camps, and I have spent many hours on AC:S.  It's a beautiful game that runs on a slightly downgraded engine from AC: Unity.

Maxed out it is VRAM intensive, averaging about 3.6GB, but I rarely ever see the GPU load even hit 80%.  If a game does not require full GPU load to present itself at 60fps, the GPU will not use it.  There is no reason for it.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> Look, I'm not running AMD, but the same principle applies to this game for both camps, and I have spent many hours on AC:S.  It's a beautiful game that runs on a slightly downgraded engine from AC: Unity.
> 
> Maxed out it is VRAM intensive, averaging about 3.6GB, but I rarely ever see the GPU load even hit 80%.  If a game does not require full GPU load to present itself at 60fps, the GPU will not use it.  There is no reason for it.



But even if the game requires GPU load to work, the GPU won't use it.
I have 22 fps in Garry's Mod and the GPU will not increase the load more than 5%


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> In Garry's Mod the GPU stays at 0% a lot.
> View attachment 70482
> The core clock is 450MHz
> This gives me 22 fps


Depending on what you're doing, physics might be making it CPU bound. This is the same reason why Cities: Skylines bottlenecks on CPU; simulation takes more and more time the more there is to do. So bigger cities = lower frame rate even if GPU isn't fully utilized. You say that you don't have a CPU bottleneck but in simulation games, I would argue that a CPU bottleneck is very realistic. That i5 of yours is much more likely to be a bottleneck than my 3820 just because your using 1333Mhz memory and it's clocked lower but, even I encounter CPU bottlenecks for most simulation based games.

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen Garry's Mod slow down to a crawl because of physics run a muck either.

Once again, *low clocks means something other than your GPU is the bottleneck*. The only exception to that rule is if it's thermal or power limit throttling, which it doesn't appear to be doing.


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## EarthDog (Dec 29, 2015)

+1 Aquinas! 

Oy, the double posting tho'........................


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Depending on what you're doing, physics might be making it CPU bound. This is the same reason why Cities: Skylines bottlenecks on CPU; simulation takes more and more time the more there is to do. So bigger cities = lower frame rate even if GPU isn't fully utilized. You say that you don't have a CPU bottleneck but in simulation games, I would argue that a CPU bottleneck is very realistic. That i5 of yours is much more likely to be a bottleneck than my 3820 just because your using 1333Mhz memory and it's clocked lower but, even I encounter CPU bottlenecks for most simulation based games.
> 
> It wouldn't be the first time I've seen Garry's Mod slow down to a crawl because of physics run a muck either.



In Garry's Mod the CPU usage never surpassed 35% so its 100% not a CPU bottleneck.


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## rtwjunkie (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Once again, *low clocks means something other than your GPU is the bottleneck*. The only exception to that rule is if it's thermal or power limit throttling, which it doesn't appear to be doing.



Except CPU load is not THAT high either.  On mine I don't think it goes above 50%.  I can certainly check again tonight though.

EDIT: I notice the OP is running 1333 RAM, and has 8GB.  My system reports 7.9 to 8.5GB RAM usage in AC:S, fluctuating a little while playing.  Could this be part of it for him?


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> In Garry's Mod the CPU usage never surpassed 35% so its 100% not a CPU bottleneck.


You assume that Garry's Mod is capable of scaling perfectly to 4 cores in every situation. I argue that's not a realistic expectation. Cities: Skylines might bottleneck on the CPU but, it doesn't need to utilize 8 full threads in order to do that because of the nature of how the game was written (and what's realistically feasible for a "realtime" application.) There are limits to how much an application can scale to the number of cores given time constraints and latency requirements. Simply put, you can have a CPU bottleneck without utilizing every core.


rtwjunkie said:


> EDIT: I notice the OP is running 1333 RAM, and has 8GB. My system reports 7.9 to 8.5GB RAM usage in AC:S, fluctuating a little while playing. Could this be part of it for him?


Doesn't explain Garry's Mod, which I would argue still boils down to the CPU. The game should run fine so long as no more swapping happens after the game is fully loaded.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

rtwjunkie said:


> Except CPU load is not THAT high either.  On mine I don't think it goes above 50%.  I can certainly check again tonight though.
> 
> EDIT: I notice the OP is running 1333 RAM, and has 8GB.  My system reports 7.9 to 8.5GB RAM usage in AC:S, fluctuating a little while playing.  Could this be part of it for him?



This is not a problem about ACS anymore.
The core clocks were low in less demanding games making them unplayable.
Now that i stopped the downclocking the core clock is 1040MHz in any game but the GPU usage is very low making the games still unplayable.




GPU usage in Gmod 0% most of the time.


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## rtwjunkie (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> This is not a problem about ACS anymore.



Oh, you probably should edit your thread title then..  Reading it still didn't seem you had a solution.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

xvi said:


> Oops. Must have run out of coffee.
> 
> I'd be curious to see the sensors after running a game/benchmark.



During a benchmark everything is perfect.
1040MHz core clock , 100% GPU usage


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

Haven't you put a FPS limiter somewhere actually? Your registry is a mess probably.

Try using DDU to get rid of the catalyst/crimson mess. They conflict. Before that uninstall afterburner and delete traces of settings. Afterburner settings mess up each new driver due to different registry/xml values.

If the power limit ain't the reason. And his CPU is healthy, no throttling... zero ram errors.

Reinstall. Clear cmos, to ensure the thing boots uefi mode and adresses right memory space... and yes... no darn raptr software... plain driver and control center.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Haven't you put a FPS limiter somewhere actually? Your registry is a mess probably.
> 
> Try using DDU to get rid of the catalyst/crimson mess. They conflict. Before that uninstall afterburner and delete traces of settings. Afterburner settings mess up each new driver due to different registry/xml values.
> 
> ...



There is not FPS limiter anywhere.
I used DDU to get rid of crimson drivers before i installed catalyst drivers.
I uninstalled MSI Afterburner and used TRIXX from Sapphire for some time but there was no difference.
I never installed the raptr gaming evolved app.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

I have an idea...

For garrys mod get gedosato.

Or use VSR... crank up the resolution to 4K an see the load... report the results.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> I have an idea...
> 
> For garrys mod get gedosato.
> 
> Or use VSR... crank up the resolution to 4K an see the load... report the results.



I used VSR to crank up the resolution in Garry's Mod to 2560x1600, max settings, 8x MSAA and this are the results:





The GPU usage is very unstable: 100% 81% 0% 50% 95% 75% 35%
I get 70-100 fps.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I used VSR to crank up the resolution in Garry's Mod to 2560x1600, max settings, 8x MSAA and this are the results:
> 
> View attachment 70489
> 
> ...


That's normal with dynamic clocks. See my screenshot again.


Aquinus said:


>


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I used VSR to crank up the resolution in Garry's Mod to 2560x1600, max settings, 8x MSAA and this are the results:
> 
> View attachment 70489
> 
> ...



The card is a dud I suppose. Something (probably VRM) tells her to quit working as long it starts rolling current. BTW... are your voltages fine? The main rails? This some sort of voodoo stuff going on... a nuke is probably needed.

Okay then the board... B85M-K BIOS 1010? Is that department OKAY? The changle log says dramatic magical term increase performance... it means the board had a serious derp un bios once... The CPU itself on those freqs is not enough for the GPU actually... but not is such a drastic behavior manner.

So upgrade BIOS. Reseat everything, GPU in PCIE slot and RAM... (actually I don't like the sucker, it slow and alone, the board starves from ram speed, not only from the lack of CPU horsepower).

As a last resort... try OCCT... the GPU section, see if it doesn't count artifacts already there, mark the memory test also (2000 is max). If you wish you can test the CPU/RAM domain too. GPU problems reveal itself very fast, usually 10-15mins and an error shows up.



Aquinus said:


> That's normal with dynamic clocks. See my screenshot again.



Could you put up a bigger pic please? I don't remember such behaviour on mine 7970, it usually steamed off to the max... but yeah... I did mod the bios and set the power limit so high, that it didn't dare to throttle.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Could you put up a bigger pic please? I don't remember such behaviour on mine 7970, it usually steamed off to the max... but yeah... I did mod the bios and set the power limit so high, that it didn't dare to throttle.


I updated the post with the full sized version but here we are again:


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I updated the post with the full sized version but here we are again:



Aquinus... you did use vsync judging by the FPS graph.... so obviously... he doesn't use that...


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Aquinus... you did use vsync judging by the FPS graph.... so obviously... he doesn't use that...


Look carefully at the parts of the graph where framerate is < 60FPS and GPU clocks are under 1040Mhz. GPU clocks scale to load, v-sync forces a cap, a CPU bottleneck will give similar kind of behavior.

Here is Diablo 3 with v-sync off. No CPU bottleneck, which means GPU runs at full tilt. I bet you can tell on the graph where I turned v-sync off.


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## EarthDog (Dec 29, 2015)

You guys should play more graphically demanding video games.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> You guys should play more graphically demanding video games.


I got my fill of TW3. I only recently re-installed D3 and Cities: Skylines is just an awesome game. I would be playing Elite: Dangerous in surround but, I'm still waiting for AMD/FD to fix the supercruise bug...

More GPU load doesn't always mean it's a better game. Plus, for certain games that means better IQ settings.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Look carefully at the parts of the graph where framerate is < 60FPS and GPU clocks are under 1040Mhz. GPU clocks scale to load, v-sync forces a cap, a CPU bottleneck will give similar kind of behavior.
> 
> Here is Diablo 3 with v-sync off. No CPU bottleneck, which means GPU runs at full tilt. I bet you can tell on the graph where I turned v-sync off.



Gosh you still play Diablo 3? But... actually you have some funny usage spikes... but they do not appear on the FPS and frametime graph... I am starting to think the usage % reading is broken a bit...



EarthDog said:


> You guys should play more graphically demanding video games.



Yeah putting up Star Citizen makes me cry on the stutter fest.


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## EarthDog (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> I got my fill of TW3. I only recently re-installed D3 and Cities: Skylines is just an awesome game. I would be playing Elite: Dangerous in surround but, I'm still waiting for AMD/FD to fix the supercruise bug...
> 
> More GPU load doesn't always mean it's a better game. Plus, for certain games that means better IQ settings.


What is funny.. on the 380x I have, I did not see this behavior with Vsync... so while it may be normal, it doesn't happen all the time. Just be careful.


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> What is funny.. on the 380x I have, I did not see this behavior with Vsync... so while it may be normal, it doesn't happen all the time. Just be careful.



Tahiti acts a bit different than Hawaii... maybe that is why... too much mojo to keep the card cool.

And speaking of stress testing... 

I haven't seen the sunrise in years actually... let's see how it runs.... 

http://store.steampowered.com/app/17300/


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> That's normal with dynamic clocks. See my screenshot again.



I don't think is normal, it affects the fps.

Assassins Creed Syndicate at ultra GPU usage:



 

Assassins Creed Syndicate with high shadows, SSAO and FXAA GPU usage:


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I don't think is normal, it affects the fps.



With limited FPS it is, as long it holds the FPS. You both are using different scenarios.


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Assassins Creed Syndicate with high shadows, *SSAO and FXAA* GPU usage


Try MSAA instead. Shadows contribute to CPU load as well.

...and stop showing only a tiny bit of the monitor window. Show everything, including framerate, GPU core clock, and *C*PU usage. GPU usage looks like that when the GPU isn't fully loaded. How many times do I have to repeat myself?


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> The card is a dud I suppose. Something (probably VRM) tells her to quit working as long it starts rolling current. BTW... are your voltages fine? The main rails? This some sort of voodoo stuff going on... a nuke is probably needed.
> 
> Okay then the board... B85M-K BIOS 1010? Is that department OKAY? The changle log says dramatic magical term increase performance... it means the board had a serious derp un bios once... The CPU itself on those freqs is not enough for the GPU actually... but not is such a drastic behavior manner.
> 
> ...



I did MemTest for RAM and it has no problems, 0 errors.

How can i tell if the VRAM is broken ?
Is there a test for it ?
I played ACS for some minutes to see VRAM temperatures:





The voltage on the 12V rails is 11.88V


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## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I did MemTest for RAM and it has no problems, 0 errors.]



I did tell you... OCCT.

Did you update the BIOS and reseat everything... it could be most probably issue too...?


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## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> How can i tell if the VRAM is broken?


You would either visually see artifacts or the GPU would fail to start if VRAM was defective.

Is it really that hard to accept that this is normal behavior for the GPU? It's not like I'm pulling this out of nowhere either. I'm speaking from experience with my own 390. You would think that would mean something. 

Edit: I'm not saying there isn't a problem, I'm saying it's not your GPU at fault. How your GPU is responding to load is normal.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> You would either visually see artifacts or the GPU would fail to start if VRAM was defective.



What temperatures are normal for the VRAM ?
Using MSAA doesen't help.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> I did tell you... OCCT.



I did OCCT GPU error check with 2000MB memory used, shader complexity 7, no errors.

This are the reading during the test:


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> What temperatures are normal for the VRAM ?
> Using MSAA doesen't help.


I wouldn't know. My 390 doesn't have a readout for DRAM temperature.

Once again:


Aquinus said:


> ...and stop showing only a tiny bit of the monitor window. Show everything, including framerate, GPU core clock, and *C*PU usage. GPU usage looks like that when the GPU isn't fully loaded. How many times do I have to repeat myself?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I did OCCT GPU error check with 2000MB memory used, shader complexity 7, no errors.



I guess... it leaves only one option... CPU/RAM department really is not enough. I was living with dual opteron mobo driving GTX280 SLI... I know the pain...

Let's bomb the thread with ultra large res nostagic feeling...


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> I guess... it leaves only one option... CPU/RAM department really is not enough. I was living with dual opteron mobo driving GTX280 SLI... I know the pain...
> 
> Let's bomb the thread with ultra large res nostagic feeling...
> 
> View attachment 70494



Maybe the CPU is not enough for the latest games but what about the old, not demanding games ?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Maybe the CPU is not enough for the latest games but what about the old, not demanding games ?



The same. The GPU needs data for processing. It just gets in a wall. Call it poor drivers. And seconds support for old games gets only worse. Btw you have a R9 3xx so you cannot use older original catslysts dll's too, as they don't know your card.

Did you mend you board bios btw?


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Maybe the CPU is not enough for the latest games but what about the old, not demanding games ?


Once again, I've explained this already:


Aquinus said:


> You assume that Garry's Mod is capable of scaling perfectly to 4 cores in every situation. I argue that's not a realistic expectation. Cities: Skylines might bottleneck on the CPU but, it doesn't need to utilize 8 full threads in order to do that because of the nature of how the game was written (and what's realistically feasible for a "realtime" application.) There are limits to how much an application can scale to the number of cores given time constraints and latency requirements. Simply put, you can have a CPU bottleneck without utilizing every core.


Old games don't tend to scale well to cores and have their own self-limiting issues as game complexity increases. Garry's mod is notoriously bad because of how physics is handled. Try a game that isn't a sim as sims are known to bottleneck on the CPU because they require a lot more compute than most games.

How does games other than Garry's Mod work out because that has been the only example you've given us so far AFAICT.


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

gmod runs like shit no matter what hard hardware you give it is the source engine is trash and gmod is a cluster-fk of patches and hacks and forcing the ancient  source engine to do things it was never made todo
nothing to see here move along ....


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Once again, I've explained this already:
> 
> Old games don't tend to scale well to cores and have their own self-limiting issues as game complexity increases. Garry's mod is notoriously bad because of how physics is handled. Try a game that isn't a sim as sims are known to bottleneck on the CPU because they require a lot more compute than most games.
> 
> How does games other than Garry's Mod work out because that has been the only example you've given us so far AFAICT.



I tested 3 games, here are the results:

DayZ: 50% CPU usage, very unstable GPU usage, low core clock = 30 fps


 

COD Modern Warfare 2: Around 900MHz core clock,  low CPU usage, unstable GPU usage = stable 90fps (i have stable 90 fps in COD Ghosts also)




Euro Truck Simulator seems to be special, works perfectly (how evey game should work): Stable GPU usage (v-sync off), stable 1040MHz core clock = 180fps ; 80 fps with 400% resolution scale




So it would be awesome if all the games would run like Euro Truck Simulator.
DayZ is unplayable.


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

op needs to find a better selection of games
lol every game hes tested is either old or horribly broken when it comes to performance


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> gmod runs like shit no matter what hard hardware you give it is the source engine is trash and gmod is a cluster-fk of patches and hacks and forcing the ancient  source engine to do things it was never made todo
> nothing to see here move along ....





OneMoar said:


> op needs to find a better selection of games
> lol every game hes tested is either old or horribly broken when it comes to performance



I intentionally test old games that are not gpu demanding because i can't run those because of low GPU usage and low core clock.
I don't question gmod is shit but this is not my problem.
If i crank up the resolution to 2560x1600 with VSR the GPU usage and core clock rises.


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I don't question gmod is shit but this is not my problem.
> If i crank up the resolution to 2560x1600 with VSR the GPU usage and core clock rises.


the games you are playing aren't putting enough load on the gpu for the scaler to decide to throttle the gpu up AMD's power save scheme does not play nice with older titles
you can try raising the power limit to +20 see if that makes it scale more aggressively
else just install msi-afterburner and configure a two-step 2d/3d clock profile


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> the games you are playing aren't putting enough load on the gpu for the scaler to decide to throttle the gpu up AMD's power save scheme does not play nice with older titles
> you can try raising the power limit to +20 see if that makes it scale more aggressively
> else just install msi-afterburner and configure a two-step 2d/3d clock profile



Raising the power limit or voltage doesen't help.
Using software to make the core clock max in games makes the GPU usage very low.
I have MSI Afterburner, how do i configure a two-step 2d/3d clock profile ?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

Day z looks ok. It looks to vsync target also.

Dunno about the per core perfomance. I guess one is always enslaved to max. You have to have very powerful one thread to hitler around your card for older games. They just don't work as they do not know how to use cpu resources, their code is so dumb it accepts only high frequency brute force. And AMD has much larger greed for CPU power...


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

basically those options
then configure a set of profiles make sure the that 'global` application detection level in RTSS is set to OFF (you will need to manually add all your games to RTSS and set the application detection level for low/medium)
as for the clock settings start with these
low speed: 
core 500Mhz 0.925v
memory 800mhz/auto v
high speed 
core:1040mhz
mem 1500mhz /auto 
that should get you ballpark


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Raising the power limit or voltage doesen't help.
> Using software to make the core clock max in games makes the GPU usage very low.
> I have MSI Afterburner, how do i configure a two-step 2d/3d clock profile ?



Why do you want to mess with 2D states?

Did you update your board bios or not btw?


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Why do you want to mess with 2D states?
> 
> Did you update your board bios or not btw?


the objective is too turn power-play completely off and let run at two fixed speeds one for idle and one for load ....
in the entire history of amd cards I have owned I have never had a card where power-play worked properly 100% of the time best just to turn it off


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Why do you want to mess with 2D states?
> 
> Did you update your board bios or not btw?



I don't want to mess with anything.
I haven't updated my motherboard's bios.


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I don't want to mess with anything.
> I haven't updated my motherboard's bios.


hes talking about the cards bios and that may be worth trying as its probly the culprit ...


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> the objective is too turn power-play completely off and let run at two fixed speeds one for idle and one for load ....
> in the entire history of amd cards I have owned I have never had a card where power-play worked properly 100% of the time best just to turn it off



I have disabled ULPS and enabled unofficial overclocking without powerplay support before and it forced my core clock to be max in games but this results in low GPU usage.


----------



## OneMoar (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I have disabled ULPS and enabled unofficial overclocking without powerplay support before and it forced my core clock to be max in games but this results in low GPU usage.


did the clocks actually set ?
if you don't add the game to RTSS when using unofficial mode it won't throttle up at all


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> did the clocks actually set ?
> if you don't add the game to RTSS when using unofficial mode it won't throttle up at all



When using unofficial mode i overclock the core clock 1MHz, this makes the core clock to throttle to max.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> the objective is too turn power-play completely off and let run at two fixed speeds one for idle and one for load ....
> in the entire history of amd cards I have owned I have never had a card where power-play worked properly 100% of the time best just to turn it off



It actually works fine for him... My 7970 worked nice btw. He even says that using clock block the freqs stick at max and load gets even more less... so everything is as it should be. Using VSR the load rises... also...

I suspect a crappy board bios btw. The change log at asus site is shady. And the memory is starving speed, the CPU simply can't burst numbers through also, latency... it all sums up. It could be a dud in PCI-E root also limiting the card some compatibily speeds.

But yes, he needs a proper game... that's for sure. I even tested crysis 1. With textures... DSR@5K no AA with 28FPS ... well... on max it still runs around 80FPS on very high AA8@2560*1440... so you are complaining not hitting past 100FPS in old games? They are just a steaming pile of inneficient code that does not scale... it is normal...


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> It actually works fine for him... My 7970 worked nice btw. He even says that using clock block the freqs stick at max and load gets even more less... so everything is as it should be. Using VSR the load rises... also...
> 
> I suspect a crappy board bios btw. The change log at asus site is shady. And the memory is starving speed, the CPU simply can't burst numbers through also, latency... it all sums up. It could be a dud in PCI-E root also limiting the card some compatibily speeds.
> 
> But yes, he needs a proper game... that's for sure. I even tested crysis 1. With textures... DSR@5K no AA with 28FPS ... well... on max it still runs around 80FPS on very high AA8@2560*1440... so you are complaining not hitting past 100FPS in old games? The are just a steaming pile of inneficient code that does not scale... it is normal...



In the TechPowerUp video bios collection there are only 2 bios for R9 390 Sapphire, and those are not for my card, i have the backplate version 1040/1500.

I am also kinda scared to change my bios.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> In the TechPowerUp video bios collection there are only 2 bios for R9 390 Sapphire, and those are not for my card, i have the backplate version 1040/1500.
> 
> I am also kinda scared to change my bios.
> 
> View attachment 70502



Don't touch the GPU bios, but the motherboard one... what is the current bios version. There is mei update needed if it is very old... the last version bumps up by 4 digits... that are undocumented. I hate makers for that. They do not have balls to tell the truth. Update is simple... you have a special section in bios for that. Just put it in usb flash and show the tool. After bios flash... clear "cmos".

https://www.asus.com/in/Motherboards/B85MK/HelpDesk_Download/


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Don't touch the GPU bios, but the motherboard one... what is the current bios version. There is mei update needed if it is very old... the last version bumps up by 4 digits... that are undocumented. I hate makers for that. They do not have balls to tell the truth. Update is simple... you have a special section in bios for that. Just put it in usb flash and show the tool. After bios flash... clear "cmos".
> 
> https://www.asus.com/in/Motherboards/B85MK/HelpDesk_Download/



I will try to updated my bios.
I have a option to do this in the bios, i don't need to download from they're website.


----------



## EarthDog (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> If i crank up the resolution to 2560x1600 with VSR the GPU usage and core clock rises.


ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


----------



## DarthBaggins (Dec 29, 2015)

Personally I would double check w/ the manufacturer's online list of newer BIOS versions before updated via inside the BIOS just as a fail safe


----------



## Aquinus (Dec 29, 2015)

Personally, I would close this thread because there isn't a problem. I think I'm going to unsubscribe now.


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## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Aquinus said:


> Personally, I would close this thread because there isn't a problem. I think I'm going to unsubscribe now.



I almost come to the conclusion that there is no problem with the video card and its all a issue with the drivers and software.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

DarthBaggins said:


> Personally I would double check w/ the manufacturer's online list of newer BIOS versions before updated via inside the BIOS just as a fail safe



Do i need to install every version of bios that was released or i can get the last one and it has all of the old ones included ?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> Do i need to install every version of bios that was released or i can get the last one and it has all of the old ones included ?



Just the last one. For exception if the current one is very old, and prior to it you need intel update. Read the change log. If you have version past it, just flash the latest, it is a fresh december release... showing us, that actually a bad keyboard could prevent us booting up a PC lol.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Just the last one. For exception if the current one is very old, and prior to it you need intel update. Read the change log. If you have version past it, just flash the latest, it is a fresh december release... showing us, that actually a bad keyboard could prevent us booting up a PC lol.



My bios version is 1006.
There is just 1 bios after this, version 1010 and it just enhances compatibility with some keyboard.
I don't think a update is worth it.


----------



## flmatter (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> no problem with the video card and its all a issue with the drivers and software.



*sigh..... it is not a problem with drivers and software. They are designed to ramp up and down gpu clock depending on load. Software and drivers are working properly. You can go to AMD's site and read up on Crimson and the 300 series.  If the cpu is doing all the work then the gpu load will not go up.  As for your low fps, as stated before by @Aquinus looks to be a bottleneck with cpu and ram. Honestly I would add 8gb more to the system and see if that fixes the issue.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> My bios version is 1006.
> There is just 1 bios after this, version 1010 and it just enhances compatibility with some keyboard.
> I don't think a update is worth it.



Just do it. It takes 5mins. And reload bios recommended defaults. Resetup settings. Disable unwanted stuff... double check that RAM is working to their SPD written speeds.

If it is all set... just get a piggy bank and start thinking of upgrading RAM and CPU.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> Just do it. It takes 5mins. And reload bios recommended defaults. Resetup settings. Disable unwanted stuff... double check that RAM is working to their SPD written speeds.
> 
> If it is all set... just get a piggy bank and start thinking of upgrading RAM and CPU.



I bought my motherboard, psu, cpu and gpu 2 weeks ago so no upgrading soon 
I will buy 16GB of RAM next year.
What frequency do you recommend and what CL ?


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

flmatter said:


> *sigh..... it is not a problem with drivers and software. They are designed to ramp up and down gpu clock depending on load. Software and drivers are working properly. You can go to AMD's site and read up on Crimson and the 300 series.  If the cpu is doing all the work then the gpu load will not go up.  As for your low fps, as stated before by @Aquinus looks to be a bottleneck with cpu and ram. Honestly I would add 8gb more to the system and see if that fixes the issue.



A lot of users have issues with the drivers.
Downclocking is one of issues, along with artifacts and game specific bugs and glitches.
I know PowerPlay is useful but it has issues.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I bought my motherboard, psu, cpu and gpu 2 weeks ago so no upgrading soon
> I will buy 16GB of RAM next year.
> What frequency do you recommend and what CL ?



The one that is written in the SPD. View it in bios or aida64 engineer.

If you plan to OC it... well... just read around. Start somewhere learning the basics. Start with shitty CL 11-11-11-34 and 1866 or 2000 @ 1.55V. Do OCCT test for cpu. It will show errors if it is really unstable. If it is stable, make the CL more tight by one step. Very time consuming. But... it is a cheap RAM... I don't know it, looks like a tomato brand. It won't OC a bit I guess. It even won't post at 1600MHz... well... it is a playground... you have to learn bit by bit it by yourself.

Well I would still chose the anniversary pentium over this one... Two ~ 4.6GHz horses move a powerful GPU much better than 4 low 3.3GHz clocked ones, tested on a R9 290 combo... no problems. Monkey coders, blame them.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 29, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> The one that is written in the SPD. View it in bios or aida64 engineer.
> 
> If you plan to OC it... well... just read around. Start somewhere learning the basics. Start with shitty CL 11-11-11-34 and 1866 or 2000 @ 1.55V. Do OCCT test for cpu. It will show errors if it is really unstable. If it is stable, make the CL more tight by one step. Very time consuming. But... it is a cheap RAM... I don't know it, looks like a tomato brand. It won't OC a bit I guess. It even won't post at 1600MHz... well... it is a playground... you have to learn bit by bit it by yourself.
> 
> Well I would still chose the anniversary pentium over this one... Two ~ 4.6GHz horses move a powerful GPU much better than 4 low 3.3GHz clocked ones, tested on a R9 290 combo... no problems. Monkey coders, blame them.



What brand of RAM do you recommend ?
I am thinking about Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3 1600MHz CL9 Dual Channel Kit, its Intel XMP Ready and the cheapest i can get.
My CPU and motherboard can support max 1600MHz frequency so i can't go 1866.
CAS 9 is also nice.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 29, 2015)

MorpHeer said:


> I am thinking about Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB DDR3 1600MHz



If using @stock... any of them. The sport ones ain't the best ones for OC. I actually prefer VLP ram size due to the fact I can use behemoth sized coolers. There are 2400MHz Kingston Savages cheap, they will work fine on lower freqs too.


----------



## MorpHeer (Dec 30, 2015)

Ferrum Master said:


> If using @stock... any of them. The sport ones ain't the best ones for OC. I actually prefer VLP ram size due to the fact I can use behemoth sized coolers. There are 2400MHz Kingston Savages cheap, they will work fine on lower freqs too.



I will be using at stock because of the 1600MHz limit that i have on my CPU and motherboard.


----------



## EarthDog (Dec 30, 2015)

Then you should get 1600MHz ram. there isn't a point to buying more expensive ram if you can't touch it. Just get the lowest timings you can.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 30, 2015)

Well yeah... but afterwards it will be harder to sell them if they are such low ones... you know... the noob will see just the plain number 1600 vs 2400... and the price difference is around 5-10Euros for each stick actually... those are not Dominators he seeks for lol. If you dig you can even find cheaper. Real low DDR3 CL7 ram is extinct also.


----------



## EarthDog (Dec 30, 2015)

If resale value is important, sure. But I wouldn't put any more out just for the POTENTIAL for a partial return on the back end. That makes no sense to me... 

You are essentially saying to buy a Nissan Skyline but only drive it in school zones because when you are done with it, you can sell it for more. Now, that is being a bit dramatic, but, that is the underlying point there. You will never make up for the outgoing on the back end... especially with DDR3 being lame duck already.


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 30, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> If resale value is important, sure. But I wouldn't put any more out just for the POTENTIAL for a partial return on the back end. That makes no sense to me...
> 
> You are essentially saying to buy a Nissan Skyline but only drive it in school zones because when you are done with it, you can sell it for more. Now, that is being a bit dramatic, but, that is the underlying point there. You will never make up for the outgoing on the back end... especially with DDR3 being lame duck already.



Skyline is the Dominator... if we are choosing in between ballistix sport and savage... it is like more like charger vs camaro...


----------



## EarthDog (Dec 30, 2015)

MEH... Honda Civic and Honda Accord (Charger and Camullet are in the same class). The point being you don't get the money back on resale so why pay more out of the gate?


----------



## Ferrum Master (Dec 30, 2015)

EarthDog said:


> MEH... Honda Civic and Honda Accord (Charger and Camullet are in the same class). The point being you don't get the money back on resale so why pay more out of the gate?



I didn't wan't to use Prius as it would be gay  Actually the thing is he currently has. They just have different engines that's the thing... one is 1.6GHz one is 2.4GHz


----------



## Thentilian (Jan 4, 2016)

OP: I'm having similar issues with my XFX R9 390... the behavior being 'normal' is broken in my opinion. I understand what games I have that are CPU bound, so I expect no FPS improvement even on lower settings. But, when I'm getting 34 FPS sitting on a spot in Witcher 2, and the GPU load is going bonkers, zero to full, and anywhere in between, and the core speeds do the same, and my CPU is NOT bound, something is amiss. I'm pretty sure after looking at your PC specs, it could be the same thing I suspect, the PSU. Mine is a 700 watt, but it's 6 years old now, and it wasn't very high quality to begin with. So, I know it's not putting out very good power at this point of it's life.

I have an EVGA 850 G2 coming in the mail, so I'll be able to test this theory out and see if the GPU behavior changes any.  Then I'll update here and on my thread as well.


----------



## EarthDog (Jan 4, 2016)

Its not the PSU...  and 850W is massive overkill.. wow.


----------



## OneMoar (Jan 4, 2016)




----------



## TechHands (Jan 4, 2016)

I have the exact issue and I'm using a brand new RM850 (PSU).  Three of us so far has this issue, I've also spoken to a person on reddit and sapphire forums also.  I've also tried garry's mod and my fps was like 22fps or something I don't know what to expect though.  I'm playing just cause 3 so I can't comment to much on other games.  Check this link out http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2833268/weird-gpu-usage-spikes-390x.html it's a person that's had the same issue but solved it.  I think one of us should try and message this person.  I've also seen another person saying his gpu usage was normal for almost  day and then started to do the dropping down to 0% thing.  I assume that any time my fps goes below 60fps now it's my cpu's fault so the gpu keeps doing about the same thing but if it was an intel cpu during those exact moments the gpu load maybe wouldn't actually drop to 0% (as much).  The thing is for me the core clock not being max didn't bother me as much as the gpu load not being consistent.  One more thing you can check "use unified gpu usage" in afterburner and it will make your gpu load look normal but I don't know what it all means and I don't trust it in that kind of way.  I see no reason to overclock this gpu sense with most games it seems the core clock will not max.


----------



## Thentilian (Jan 5, 2016)

EarthDog said:


> Its not the PSU...  and 850W is massive overkill.. wow.



If I decide to SLI/crossfire it won't be overkill. Not to mention, capacity of PSU's fall off as capacitors age. I don't plan on upgrading again for 4 or 5 years to a whole new platform.


----------



## EarthDog (Jan 5, 2016)

If you use multiple GPUs, correct. The rest..... not so much (at least, people worry way too much about capacitor aging). The unit has a 7/10 year warranty for a reason.


----------



## Dzamastagic Damir (Jul 1, 2016)

HII TO ALL WHO ARE HAVING THIS TWO PROBLEMS
I HAVE GOT THE SOLUTIONS FOR BOTH OF IT

As you might have noticed lot of people with the R9 390 are complaining to this problems
The first and easy one is with the MSI Afterburner
It shows that the gpu load is down and up or we call it the card has spikes going form 100% to down 0% and so on
This problem is solved by going to the MSI Afterburner settings 
and check the box for ENABLE UNIFIED GPU USAGE MONITORING
NOW YOU WILL SEE THE REAL GPU LOAD

THE NEXT THING WHAT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU OR DONT HAVE TO BE 
IS THAT YOU WILL NOW SEE THAT YOU HAVE GPU LOAD AT LIKE 55% 
DEPANDING ON THE GAME YOU ARE MAYBE A BIT MORE A BIT LESS

THIS IS NOT A CPU BOTTLENECK
I HAVE THE i3 4130 and the R9 390 GIGABYTE AND HAD THIS PROBLEM 
THAT ALL BENCHMARKS ARE GIVING ME 100% IF GPU LOAD
AND THE BENCHMARKS ARE GIVING ME THE RESULT AS IT SHOULD BE FOR
THE R9 390 IN HEAVEN OR VALLEY

BUT GAMES ARE JUST LIKE 50% GPU LOAD

THIS IS NOT AN DRIVER ISSUE OR A BAD GPU OR LIKE I SAID A BOTTLENECK BY THE CPU
YOU JUST GO TO THE SETTINGS OF THE NEW CRIMSON DRIVER
OR EVAN AN OLD CATALYST CONTROL CENTER
AND FIND THE SETTING OF ANTI ALIASING METHOD AND SET IT TO ADAPTIVE

THATS IT...NOW YOU WILL SEE YOUR GPU WILL BE FULLY USED..
IF YOU SET THE METHOD TO SUPERSAMPLING THE GPU WILL ALWAYS BE USED TO 100%
BUT YOU WILL LOSE ON THE FPS..

BUT IF YOU JUST SET IT TO ADAPTIVE...YOU WILL GET THE GPU LIKE IN BETWEEN 80 AND UP TO 100% USED
BUT WILL NOT BE LOOSING ON THE FRAMES
AND OF COURSE THE SETTINGS IN THE GAME YOU PLAY ITSELF DEPENDS IF IT NOW WILL BE LIKE ALL TIME 100%
OR IF YOU WILL GET MORE FPS BUT HAVE IT GOING FROM 80% TO 100%

TRY IT
IT WILL WORK
NO BAD GPU
NO BOTTLENECK
JUST SOME GPU SETTINGS 
NOTHING MORE

GOOD GAMING AND GOOD LUCK


----------



## Machinematrix (Jul 2, 2016)

Dzamastagic Damir said:


> HII TO ALL WHO ARE HAVING THIS TWO PROBLEMS
> I HAVE GOT THE SOLUTIONS FOR BOTH OF IT
> 
> As you might have noticed lot of people with the R9 390 are complaining to this problems
> ...



Proper bench scores for that particular card, but 50% usage in games? looks like a bottleneck to me. Antialiasing only puts load on the gpu, so the gpu usage will go up regardless of what cpu you have, it's like increasing the resolution, the usage will go up but the bottleneck is still there.


----------



## dorsetknob (Jul 2, 2016)

*Dzamastagic Damir*
Your capslock Stuck on your keyboard
that should be the 1st thing you might want to  sort out


----------



## chuck216 (Jul 3, 2016)

Hate to add to a necro of an old thread but the Issue described here was fixed long ago when they added the "Power Efficiency" toggle to Crimson and suggested the R9 390 and Fury series owners disable Power saving mode.

I was having the exact same limited clock speeds in some games, but turning the toggle off once they put it in the panel fixed that issue.


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## TechHands (Jul 12, 2016)

I submitted a ticket to AMD describing the issue, I told them locking the clock speed helped smooth out the major stuttering and actually made my games more playable or how they "should be" given the resolution and such that I was using (1920X1200).  They quickly added that power efficiently toggle to their gpu driver package which was needed.  I felt like they listened and quickly made a change which in return made me a more happier customer.


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## chuck216 (Jul 16, 2016)

TechHands said:


> I submitted a ticket to AMD describing the issue, I told them locking the clock speed helped smooth out the major stuttering and actually made my games more playable or how they "should be" given the resolution and such that I was using (1920X1200).  They quickly added that power efficiently toggle to their gpu driver package which was needed.  I felt like they listened and quickly made a change which in return made me a more happier customer.



I did the same thing on their forums


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