Help with lackluster performance in games with R9 380

[Inquisitor956]

Hello.

 

I am a very frustrated man right now. I recently upgraded from the IGPU on my A10 5800k to a MSI R9 380 4gb GE. I did quite a lot of research on this card and saw a lot of youtube videos and benchmarks of people playing games at 60fps 1080p maxed out.

 

I installed the GPU when it arrived and I was so happy, being able to play The Phantom Pain maxed out at a silky smooth 60 fps and Fallout 4 at mostly Ultra between 45-60fps(don't laugh at me, after years playing games between 25-30 fps at low settings in windowed mode, I almost cried). Next, I decided to install my all-time favorite PC games: Oblivion, Skyrim and Mount & Blade: Warband. This is where I get very frustrated.

 

It doesn't matter what settings I use, I never get a smooth 60fps. I used to get better performance on my IGPU in M&B:W! (I'm neither joking or exaggerating here.)

 

My specs are:

CPU: AMD A10 5800k OC to 4.0GHz (Managed to get 4.3GHz but since I'm using a stock cooler, temps were too high)

GPU: MSI R9 380 4gb GE Stock: Core-980MHz, Memory-1425MHz (OC: Core-1100MHz, Memory-1600MHz STABLE)

RAM: Kingston HyperX Black 4GB

Motherboard: MSI FM2-A75MA-E35

PSU: Silverstone ST60F 600w Fully Modular

Monitor: Compaq WF 1907 1440x900

 

There are quite a few people on YouTube showing their Skyrim gameplay with the 380 (both 2gb and 4gb versions) and getting rock-solid 60fps at 1080p with high-res textures and ENBs. I play at 1440x900, no high-res textures(not even the official one), and I almost never go above 45fps. In Oblivion, unless I'm looking at the sky or water, I don't get over 30fps and In M&B, unless I'm doing 10v10 battles, I never go above 40fps. I am new to the GPU world as I've always been using integrated graphics, so I never had to deal with overclocking a GPU or anything of the sort. I just had to turn down settings until the games were playable.

 

Here you can see Pure GPU playing Oblivion smoothly. I use the same settings as he does (everything but the resolution, I don't use VSR, and AA) It is a R9 285, but the 380 is just a re-brand of that card, so my performance SHOULD be similar to that.

 

And over here I created a playlist of my performance in both Skyrim and Oblivion. I apologize for the quality of the videos. You may have to zoom in a bit on the Afterburner OSD.

 

I tried going back to stock settings on both CPU and GPU, reinstalling drivers, removing mods, installing performance mods...

I have included screen captures of both MSI Afterburner and Radeon Crimson settings, GPU-Z and CPU-Z so maybe some of you can spot something(I have heard about Crimson having some issues, but this has all happened before it. I just updated to Crimson today). Also, I disabled ULPS and enabled Force Constant Voltage in Afterburner as was recommended to me and that improved my performance in Oblivion slightly.

 

As I said, I can play TPP at 60fps, maxed out, Fallout 4 between 45-60fps with mostly ultra settings, Attila: Total War at mostly 60fps on High.

 

I am guessing it is one of these scenarios that are giving me these issues:

1- My CPU is not being utilized correctly. (It is also possible that single-core performance is causing it, since AMD's performance is not as good as Intel's, especially when my CPU is outdated, but as I have had no issues with modern games with it, I'm not planning to upgrade anytime soon unless absolutely necessary.)

2- My GPU is thermal throttling (even if it never gets above 70c with load, and the only game that pushes both my CPU and GPU is Fallout 4, and it is a very smooth experience in that game for me)

3- My GPU down-clocking is causing these issues.(I believe this to be the culprit, since even though I OCd it to 1100MHz the core never reaches 900MHz in the game as seen in the images below. I have no idea if this is normal, as I stated above, I'm new to GPUs)

 

Also, I apologize if I posted in the wrong section.

[mosin40]

Maybe CPU is bottlenecking your GPU

[App4that]

Old games and new GPUs don't always mix. I can't play Blood Dragon on my 390. Try adjusting the settings in each game using Crimson in the gaming options menu. Turn everything off for those games.

[Inquisitor956]

Maybe CPU is bottlenecking your GPU

Perhaps, but not by much. I was told that this card is the best one I could get that would not be bottlenecked by my CPU. When playing Fallout 4, my CPU usage is at 90% and GPU is 95-100%, on TPP my CPU usage is between 75-80% and GPU usage is 100%.

 

Old games and new GPUs don't always mix. I can't play Blood Dragon on my 390. Try adjusting the settings in each game using Crimson in the gaming options menu. Turn everything off for those games.

That also seems like a very good possibility. But I've seen people play these games at much higher FPS with nearly the same specs as me, so I believe these games to be able to perform better, even if they don't play nice with my hardware.

Compatibility is the thing I hate the most about PC gaming.

[App4that]

Perhaps, but not by much. I was told that this card is the best one I could get that would not be bottlenecked by my CPU. When playing Fallout 4, my CPU usage is at 90% and GPU is 95-100%, on TPP my CPU usage is between 75-80% and GPU usage is 100%.

 

That also seems like a very good possibility. But I've seen people play these games at much higher FPS with nearly the same specs as me, so I believe these games to be able to perform better, even if they don't play nice with my hardware.

Compatibility is the thing I hate the most about PC gaming.

Don't chase the rabbit and lose track of confounding variables. Ram speed plays a big part in some games, settings play a major part in all games. Operating system, the driver used, even the choice in cable will impact your ability to gain the fps you see others getting using what you see as similar specs.

 

Don't get too frustrated. Make sure to take notes so you know what you've tried and enjoy the problem solving.

[Inquisitor956]

Don't chase the rabbit and lose track of confounding variables. Ram speed plays a big part in some games, settings play a major part in all games. Operating system, the driver used, even the choice in cable will impact your ability to gain the fps you see others getting using what you see as similar specs.

 

Don't get too frustrated. Make sure to take notes so you know what you've tried and enjoy the problem solving.

My issues could be due to anything. My frustration comes from the fact that I spent months researching a lot of GPUs, specifically this one, asking all over forums for people with similar systems to mine and their experience, and nearly everyone who had one told me I shouldn't think twice and get the card since it was doing wonders for them.

 

I've tried reinstalling drivers, the games, installing performance mods, decreasing settings (which doesn't help at all, in Skyrim I only got about 5fps difference between Ultra and Medium, as seen in my videos), re-seating memory, cleaning my entire PC, trying lower and higher resolutions... Modern games are fine, but like you said, its these older games that give me problems. I can run BF3 perfectly fine maxed out at over 60fps, but Skyrim came out around the same time as that game and its giving me issues. It is very frustrating.

 

I just wanted to play these games like so many other people were doing. I was playing Skyrim in windowed mode at low and barely getting 30 fps, and whenever I saw videos of it with ENBs using 7850s or 7970s and getting smooth performance I was so jealous. Now I have a card that is arguably better than those and my performance is not nearly the same as those people nearly 3 years ago. I am very disappointed thanks to this, considering most modern games don't interest me, its these kinds of older games that I enjoy. I cannot afford to spend any more on my PC. I spent $350 on this upgrade and I was beating myself up because I could have saved that money for an emergency or for something useful. I felt that after so much work and effort I've put into college and work, that I deserved something nice for myself.

 

As I said before, Mount & Blade Warband runs so much better on my 7660D (IGPU) than it does on my 380, at the EXACT SAME settings! It is both frustrating and hilarious.

 

Now it seems that my best bet is just to upgrade memory, cpu and motherboard. What's worse is that I know that if I do get the money to do that, then I will run into the same issues. Newer hardware not playing nice with my favorite, older games.

[App4that]

You shouldn't have to upgrade anything, just figure out where the problem lies. I run just about every mod on the Nexus and my FPS meter is pegged at 60 playing Skyrim. In fact if you haven't already make sure you have the unofficial patches on the Nexus for the games you play, they make a huge difference.

[Inquisitor956]

You shouldn't have to upgrade anything, just figure out where the problem lies. I run just about every mod on the Nexus and my FPS meter is pegged at 60 playing Skyrim. In fact if you haven't already make sure you have the unofficial patches on the Nexus for the games you play, they make a huge difference.

I do have the unofficial patches. Whether they are installed or not, it makes no difference. I have tried Project Optimization, stutter remover and used that tweak that allows the game to use more memory (even though it wont make a difference, I only have 4gb of system RAM). I just tried playing the game on low. There is most definitely something wrong. While I do get to 55fps now, I get massive frame drops to the low 20s. I noticed it happens when my GPU core clock drops from about 600MHz to 300MHz. Fallout 4 makes it run over 800MHz so it is making me think that it is indeed the GPU down-clocking itself. Is there a way to force the GPU to at least stay at the stock 980MHz?

 

I also tried checking my hard drives to see if by any chance they were fragmented or had bad sectors. All 4 of them turned out fine, the highest fragmented drive is only 8% and it is the one I store my music and photos in.

 

I included a F4 screenshot with Afterburner OSD. I just now realized how dark it is, but the OSD shows the important stuff.

 

[App4that]

4 gigs of ram won't cut it anymore, you need at least 8. Sorry I missed that. You also want the fastest ram you can get your hands on ether through purchasing or overclocking the ram you have.

[Inquisitor956]

4 gigs of ram won't cut it anymore, you need at least 8. Sorry I missed that. You also want the fastest ram you can get your hands on ether through purchasing or overclocking the ram you have.

I agree. It is the only thing I consider I need to upgrade. I was scared at first, seeing how Fallout 4 "requires" 8gb minimum to run, and I thought I wasn't going to be able to run it. I've been playing fine so far, so I think I just got lucky. The game hasn't crashed or anything yet. But for these older games, I don't think it is much of an issue.

 

My current module is by default 1333Mhz, but I managed a stable overclock to 1600MHz. I will purchase another module soon, since it is only $25, which I can afford without much trouble to adjust to my expenses.

[App4that]

Don't get too caught up in performance. I was pretty upset that I had purchased a 390 for the computer I purpose built to play Fallout 4, and then Bethesda went and made a deal with Nvidia. And at first my fears were confirmed when the 970 walked all over the 390 in Fallout 4, but now we have Crimson and the 390 walks all over the 970. You know performance changes with each driver, don't let it get you down.

 

But do spend some time with the difference options in the gaming menu of Crimson, a few of them seriously fuck with game, MechWarrior runs like shit if I have a few of them enabled. You can try them for yourself, or research each option online.

[Inquisitor956]

Don't get too caught up in performance. I was pretty upset that I had purchased a 390 for the computer I purpose built to play Fallout 4, and then Bethesda went and made a deal with Nvidia. And at first my fears were confirmed when the 970 walked all over the 390 in Fallout 4, but now we have Crimson and the 390 walks all over the 970. You know performance changes with each driver, don't let it get you down.

 

But do spend some time with the difference options in the gaming menu of Crimson, a few of them seriously fuck with game, MechWarrior runs like shit if I have a few of them enabled. You can try them for yourself, or research each option online.

Well, after tinkering with Crimson, reinstalling the last Catalyst drivers, and not seeing any improvement, I found a post in some forum recommending a program called RadeonPro. I installed that and it enabled me to force the GPU to run at the highest performance I assign it (much like Crimson overdrive and Afterburner, but the profiles are specifically for games or apps, so I had to create a profile for every game that I have) and I can successfully say I managed to get my GPU core clocks to never go under 900MHz. Sadly, Oblivion or M&B:W had no improvements, but at least now I'm able to play Skyrim at 60fps when I am in the plains around Whiterun. If I enter a town or a village, the fps plummets to 30, but at least it doesn't go below that anymore.

[App4that]

Hmmm, I don't think the difference between the 390 and 380 would be large enough to explain the issue. After you try the ram it might be time to look at the CPU. I literally idle most of the time playing Skyrim with my 390. But I don't think it would be wise to look at the CPU before the ram is sorted.

[Inquisitor956]

Hmmm, I don't think the difference between the 390 and 380 would be large enough to explain the issue. After you try the ram it might be time to look at the CPU. I literally idle most of the time playing Skyrim with my 390. But I don't think it would be wise to look at the CPU before the ram is sorted.

I'm starting to think it is CPU. The reason why TPP and Fallout 4 run so well for me could be because both games came out this year and can use more than two cores, so my quad-core CPU is being used to its full capacity, while those other games may use only 2 cores, maximum. Considering how weak single-core performance is on AMD cpus, it is a possibility. In any case, I will still purchase another memory module as well as another Hard Drive since I'm running out of storage. I may even squeeze in an SSD if I can go a few days without buying lunch. lol

Perhaps I will upgrade to an i5 some time next year if I get a stable job. Thank goodness I finish my studies next month, because the college life has me mentally exhausted!

[App4that]

I'm starting to think it is CPU. The reason why TPP and Fallout 4 run so well for me could be because both games came out this year and can use more than two cores, so my quad-core CPU is being used to its full capacity, while those other games may use only 2 cores, maximum. Considering how weak single-core performance is on AMD cpus, it is a possibility. In any case, I will still purchase another memory module as well as another Hard Drive since I'm running out of storage. I may even squeeze in an SSD if I can go a few days without buying lunch. lol

Perhaps I will upgrade to an i5 some time next year if I get a stable job. Thank goodness I finish my studies next month, because the college life has me mentally exhausted!

I feel ya, studying for the finals myself. Hope it all works out!

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Just to let ya know, skyrim is an old game that is heavily dependant on single core performance. When the game came out, many peeps have had bottlenecking issues with many amd cpus.

Trying modding your skyrim to see if you can get your gpu usage up.

[Inquisitor956]

I feel ya, studying for the finals myself. Hope it all works out!

Thank you! And good luck in your finals.

 

Just to let ya know, skyrim is an old game that is heavily dependant on single core performance. When the game came out, many peeps have had bottlenecking issues with many amd cpus.

Trying modding your skyrim to see if you can get your gpu usage up.

I attempted to use a SKSE plugin that supposedly makes the game run better by modifying some code to force the GPU into rendering shadows and particles, but it seems it doesn't work with Windows 10.

 

I gave up on trying to play those games until I upgrade. I'll just stick to the games I have running well for now.

 

Thank you both!