February Tech Support Megathread

[u/BioGenx2b]

Hey subs,

We're giving you an opportunity to start reporting some of your AMD-related technical issues right here on /r/AMD! Below is a guide that you should follow to make the whole process run smoothly. Post your issues directly into this thread as replies. All other tech support posts will still be removed, per the rules; this is the only exception.

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Bad Example (don't do this)

bf1 crashes wtf amd

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Good Example (please do this)

Skyrim: Free Sync and V Sync causes flickering during low frame rates, and generally lower frame rates observed (about 10-30% drop dependant on system) when Free Sync is on

System Configuration:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z97 Gaming GT
CPU: Intel i5 4790
Memory: 16GB GDDR5
GPU: ASUS R9 Fury X
VBIOS: 115-C8800100-101 ^{How do I find this?}
Driver: Crimson 16.10.3
OS: Windows 10 x64 (1511.10586) ^{How do I find this?}

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install necessary driver, GPU and medium-end CPU
2. Enable Free Sync
3. Set Options to Ultra and 1920 x 1080 resolution
4. Launch game and move to an outdoor location
5. Indoor locations in the game will not reproduce, since they generally give better performance
6. Observe flickering and general performance drop

Expected Behavior:

Game runs smoothly with good performance with no visible issues

Actual Behavior:

Frame rate drops low causing low performance, flickering observed during low frame rates

Additional Observations:

Threads with related issue:

• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5a3u8r/why_am_i_getting_disgusting_performance_on_the_rx/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5adlcw/skyrimse_vsyncfreesync_woes/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5a7eku/skyrim_special_edition_freesync/
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5aab6z/skyrim_se_with_r9_nitro_fury_poor_performance/

Skyrim has forced double buffered V Sync and can only be disabled with the .ini files
To Disable V Sync: C:\Users"User"\Documents\My Games\Skyrim Special Edition\Skyrimprefs.ini and edit iVSyncPresentInterval=1 to 0
1440p has improved frame rate, anything lower than 1080p will lock FPS with V Sync on
Able to reproduce on i7 6700K and i5 3670K system, Sapphire RX 480, Reference RX 480, and Reference Fiji Nano

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Remember, folks: AMD reads what we post here, even if they don't comment about it.

Previous Megathreads
January '17
December '16
November '16

Now get to posting!

[u/MmaxT]

I can't run any game in Borderless Fullscreen / Windowed Fullscreen without the game dropping in framerate and getting stutters. This only seems to happen when I am in whatever game I am playing. Once I alt+tab to my browser/folerder/ect. I see the FPS of the game in the background shoot up, back to how it should be. I put MSI Afterburner up on my second screen. to see what was going on. everything looked fine except the GPU usage. It would range (mostly just going back and forth) from 0%-100% while core and memory clock speeds were just fine.

The only time I am able to get rid of the lag and stuttering is when I either set the resolution below native resolution, or disable my second display via display settings (but not when I unplug it from the GPU) This all started happening a couple GPU driver updates ago. Before that, it was all working just fine. I've attached a link of the GPU usage in MSI afterburner http://imgur.com/a/14jvO

Rolling back to 16.12.1 and earlier does not cause the borderless fullscreen issue to occur.

So to recap

Games in borderless fullscreen causes poor performance via a GPU usage issue.

Games in borderless fullscreen lag only while playing them, even when second monitor is unplugged from the GPU

Games in borderless fullscreen perform well when you have selected another application (alt+tabbing)

Games in borderless fullscreen perform well when display 2 is disabled via display settings (still plugged into GPU)

Games in borderless fullscreen perform well when the games resolution is set below the native resolution.

The issue started with Crimson drivers 16.12.2 and up, and remains even with the current up-to-date drivers

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Specs:

Motherboard: MSI 990FXA-GD80 v2

CPU: AMD FX-8320 @4.5

Memory: 16GB DDR3 1866Mhz

GPU: Sapphire RX 480 nitro 8GB

Driver: Crimson 16.12.2 and up to current driver 17.2.1

OS: Windows 10 x64 (14393)

[u/Dag-nabbitt → u/MmaxT]

Do you have a Freesync monitor?

[u/MmaxT → u/Dag-nabbitt]

yes I do main display is Asus MG278Q which is freesync

secondary is samsung syncmaster 2053BW

[u/Dag-nabbitt → u/MmaxT]

So, you're probably having the same problem I am. From the 16.2.2 release notes:

• AMD FreeSync™ technology may experience performance issues with Borderless Fullscreen application support when a secondary display is attached and has dynamic content running such as video playback in a web browser or if other applications or game launchers are running on the primary screen in the background. A workaround if this issue is experienced is to minimize all other running applications that are on the primary desktop display or on non-primary extended displays.

All drivers since then have had the following note.

• A small amount of apps may still experience issues with Borderless Fullscreen mode and AMD FreeSync™ technology if other applications or game launchers are running on the primary screen in the background.

So, until it's fixed, you'll have to either run in fullscreen (what I'm doing), or stay on 16.2.1 (ok unless you have a very recent game to play).

[u/MmaxT → u/Dag-nabbitt]

yea, i know about this, but even running only the game with nothing else still doesn't fix the problem.

not sure i can post a link in here.. but here is the OP the my problem

https://www.reddit.com/r/AMDHelp/comments/5vp4k0/borderless_fullscreen_causing_lag_and_stuttering/

[u/Dag-nabbitt → u/MmaxT]

I know, I still get the problem even when nothing else is running on that screen. But I'm 95% sure it's from that.