RX 480 frame time spikes

[DragonTamer1]

I don't know if this is something common to AMD graphics cards or not since this is really my first high end AMD card. I noticed it with MSI afterburner and while the frame rate doesn't go down, the frame time does. It is not noticeable in certain games but is very noticeable in other games to the point where they become unplayable. It also goes way up when using ReLive or Plays.tv to record. I am under the assumption that it is because my 2500K is not powerful enough to keep the card fed at 4.2GHz but I can't overclock it further because the motherboard doesn't have stable power delivery (it got worse after the BIOS update).

 

I have a screen shot showing the frame time spikes. MSI afterburner is polling ever 0.1 seconds. This was showing the spike during World of Warships but it spikes harder in a game like World of Tanks. DCS world and Warships is not very noticeable unless recording and in GTA it's almost not even noticeable at all.

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

CPU usage isn't even close to 100% so the CPU isn't bottlenecking the GPU. But it doesn't look like the GPU is fully loaded either, so it's neither of those two things.

 

Can you pull graphs for the other games you play?

[nothereanymore]

47 minutes ago, DragonTamer1 said:

I don't know if this is something common to AMD graphics cards or not since this is really my first high end AMD card. I noticed it with MSI afterburner and while the frame rate doesn't go down, the frame time does. It is not noticeable in certain games but is very noticeable in other games to the point where they become unplayable. It also goes way up when using ReLive or Plays.tv to record. I am under the assumption that it is because my 2500K is not powerful enough to keep the card fed at 4.2GHz but I can't overclock it further because the motherboard doesn't have stable power delivery (it got worse after the BIOS update).

 

I have a screen shot showing the frame time spikes. MSI afterburner is polling ever 0.1 seconds. This was showing the spike during World of Warships but it spikes harder in a game like World of Tanks. DCS world and Warships is not very noticeable unless recording and in GTA it's almost not even noticeable at all.

 

 

Do you play with VSYNC on?

[DragonTamer1]

2 hours ago, Noirgheos said:

Do you play with VSYNC on?

Yes.

 

The pooling time for Afterburner is 0.1 sec but the stutter happens about once every second.

 

Here are some images from in WoT and GTA (Vinewood, Zancudo, Paleto and recording) in order of appearance. In tanks I was just in the garage, in GTA I wandered around. The last screen shot I turned on ReLive and you can see how much higher the frame time is.

[nothereanymore]

Just now, DragonTamer1 said:

Yes.

 

Here are some images from in WoT and GTA. In tanks I was just in the garage, in GTA I wandered around. The last screen shot I turned on ReLive and you can see how much higher the frame time is.

Stuttering and frametime spikes are normal with VSYNC. Its the cost of no screen tearing. 

 

Even on my 1080, I get stutters once in a while in games like Witcher 3, AC3, etc. It happens because VSYNC makes the GPU lower its clocks, and if the scene suddenly changes or updates (like entering a new area, or objectives updating), it may not be able to ramp the clocks up in time, resulting in less than a frame drop most of the time. Just these frame drops of 0.1 to 0.9FPS can feel like stutters. GSYNC solves this, so does Freesync. It is much less noticeable at framerates like 30, so this is why not many notice it on consoles. I do, it just not as jarring as it is with 60FPS on PC.

 

For now, use Rivatuner (it should have come with MSI AB), and cap your FPS in global to 60. This helped keep frametimes in check, reducing stutter as much as possible, meaning once in a while there were a few. Getting this GSYNC monitor has been a game changer. Everything feels so smooth.

[Starelementpoke]

3 minutes ago, Noirgheos said:

Stuttering and frametime spikes are normal with VSYNC. Its the cost of no screen tearing. 

 

Even on my 1080, I get stutters once in a while in games like Witcher 3, AC3, etc. It happens because VSYNC makes the GPU lower its clocks, and if the scene suddenly changes or updates (like entering a new area, or objectives updating), it may not be able to ramp the clocks up in time, resulting in less than a frame drop most of the time. Just these frame drops of 0.1 to 0.9FPS can feel like stutters. GSYNC solves this, so does Freesync. It is much less noticeable at framerates like 30, so this is why not many notice it on consoles. I do, it just not as jarring as it is with 60FPS on PC.

 

For now, use Rivatuner (it should have come with MSI AB), and cap your FPS in global to 60. This helped keep frametimes in check, reducing stutter as much as possible, meaning once in a while there were a few. Getting this GSYNC monitor has been a game changer. Everything feels so smooth.

Except he has a 480, so he'd need a Freesync monitor. Which is going to be cheaper.

[nothereanymore]

Just now, Starelementpoke said:

Except he has a 480, so he'd need a Freesync monitor. Which is going to be cheaper.

Never said it wouldn't. 

[DragonTamer1]

Disabling Vsync worked in WoT, but made no difference in any other games. The spikes came back after I started ReLive but didn't have a performance when using Plays.Tv.