RX 470 Constant stuttering/frame drops

[Liam990]

Hi guys, my first post here so please excuse the noob. 

I've been experiencing a problem with my RX470 lately. I noticed this issue a while back while playing SOTTR, there was constant frame drops making it unplayable so I thought perhaps it was just that game, uninstalled and moved on. 

I've been playing a lot of COD MW recently and every now and then I'll load up into multiplayer and it would stutter. Relaunching the game normally fixed this. 

Now it's constant, I'm not sure if a Windows update caused this or what. I've done multiple driver updates/reinstalled using DDU in safe mode etc. I can't seem to fix this issue, I don't know if it's hardware or software related at this point.  

The GPU usage is constantly fluctuating, as well as clock speed, temperature and fan speed. I have attached some screenshots from msi afterburner

All games stutter now, there's constant frame drops every half a second and it stays like this. 

One thing I did try was running COD MW at half the resolution and all settings on low, it ran perfectly fine at constant 75FPS(my freesync monitor refresh rate) 

What else can I do to try fix this? Please help, it's super annoying. If there's any other programs I can use to give you guys more info, please comment. 

Specs:

20GB DDR4 @ 2133mhz 

i5 6500

Radeon RX 470 gaming X 8gb

512gb SSD (OS) 

1tb HDD

If I missed any other important info please let me know

[ClosetHeretic]

Rx 470 with 70W Power draw? O.O

I am having the same issue with my Gigabyte Rx 570 8gb (MI) version that I bought, well the pack doesn't say the word MI anywhere to begin with so didn't know to avoid it like Plague. I realized it had a mining bios installed on it [from Factory], since my power draw also hovers around 70-80 W. That is the best way to tell I guess, and the screen flickers ingames as the power gets hammered everything it reaches 75ish.

Gigabyte like the typical dodgy hobos they are, happen to have all kind of BIOS versions for their respective cards in their site, infact their rx 570 8G gaming MI edition has 7 different. However, the simple rx 570 8g gaming (virtually the same card in the same box) has no corresponding bios to it for downloading. If you have a different branded card I guess look for the respective bios. 

Additionally if someone have any solution for this kindly share. 

[CrazyLadd]

I am having similar problem with my Rx 570 4gb. Although for me its not every game i play its quite random, for example fortnite stutters like hell but pubg runs fine and gta is sometimes a little bit stuttery and i dont wanna buy a new graphics card lol

[Liam990]

At least I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. Could you guys run msi Kombustor and see if it does the same? Here's a nice video showing exactly what I'm experiencing. While gaming it does the same:

https://gyazo.com/e302fac2cf2a9e90cb75eef9f70e0c11

I've attached a more accurate reading of the power draw using HWinfo64  @ClosetHeretic I'll have a look for a different bios, I know it's definitely not a mining bios as its been working fine up until a couple days ago, besides I bought it brand new. I'm hesitant to change the bios as I messed up a card trying this before lol

I really don't want to buy a new card either. I fear for the worse though as I just cant understand how it was perfectly fine a few days ago with no stuttering..

Really hope someone has a solution for this

*Update* I've tried two different bios updates, still the same issue.
 

[Liam990]

Okay guys I've managed to find the problem. It was thermal throttling all along. Turns out the original paste on the card was all dry and cracked. 

I bought and tried this stuff using several different application methods, all causing the pc to shut down during the Furmark stress test, it shot straight up to 90 degrees making the stuttering much worse, then crashing. DON'T USE THIS GARBAGE! https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/thermal-grease/high-performance-thermal-paste/
 

I ended up "recycling" some other paste from an old laptop for temporary testing

This is good stuff! https://www.coolermaster.com/catalog/coolers/thermal-grease/mastergel-maker/

I have attached screenshots of the results, nice stable heat curve like it was out of the box. Not a single stutter either. It's safe to say its fixed! 

Anyone else having similar issues should definitely change the stock paste especially if its a couple years old like mine. Hope this helps someone!