R9 290X Idle Core Clock At 100%

[fishingcat]

For some reason my R9 290X has recently started to idle at 1030MHz core clock (maximum value at stock clocks), or around 1050MHz when overclocked to 1125MHz.

The memory is successfully downclocking to 150MHz and ramping up to 1250MHz when needed, but the core remains entirely unchanged after startup (when it is possible to see it ramping up from a start value of 300MHz up to 1030MHz in a series of jumps). Obviously such a high core clock isnt' necessary at idle and just leads to higher temps and power consumption.

I've removed any overclocks and overclocking software, reinstalled the latest beta drivers and rest to factory default settings in CCC.

Any ideas? Thanks.

EDIT: Here's an image from GPU-Z showing my clocks over time, with the mem clock spiking up and down while the core clock remains at 1030MHz.

 

[f1sherman]

Check your running programs. Try killing every unessential exe and see if it helps.
Check for viruses/rootkits.
Remove all unnecessary programs from auto startup. Same with scheduled jobs/apps.

Backup your settings before proceeding with above

The usual reason for such GPU behavior would be rogue app.

 

[Fastx]

Same thing has happen to me (but both on core & memory) about a week ago on my Windows 7 hard drive with my GTX 770. I tried everything I could but no luck fixing this problem so far.

Things I tried:
Full N 360 scan.
Uninstalled all new programs installed and even further back than 3 weeks and also any program I didn't recognize I removed.
Uninstalled all overclock programs/utilities.
Uninstalled & reinstalled VC drivers
Applied defaults settings to Explorer.
Disabled all add on's and accelerators/extensions.
Msconfig - disabled all start ups.
I couldn't try system restore because I had it disabled due to hard drive space I needed on that drive.

For the record no problem with Windows 8.1 hard drive with the card just Windows 7 recently so solely been using 8.1 until I figure this out or do a fresh install.

 

[blackened23]

Same thing has happen to me (but both on core & memory) about a week ago on my Windows 7 hard drive with my GTX 770. I tried everything I could but no luck fixing this problem so far.

Things I tried:
Full N 360 scan.
Uninstalled all new programs installed and even further back than 3 weeks and also any program I didn't recognize I removed.
Uninstalled all overclock programs/utilities.
Uninstalled & reinstalled VC drivers
Applied defaults settings to Explorer.
Disabled all add on's and accelerators/extensions.
Msconfig - disabled all start ups.
I couldn't try system restore because I had it disabled due to hard drive space I needed on that drive.

For the record no problem with Windows 8.1 hard drive with the card just Windows 7 recently so solely been using 8.1 until I figure this out or do a fresh install.

It's probably maximum power management in your gpu control panel. You can usually fix this with adaptive power management in the control panel. What usually happens is, logitech and razer have apps that sit in the system tray of windows 7 and they force 3d clocks for whatever reason. I'm not sure if that applies to you but I found there was a bug with logitech's mouse software (logitech gaming software, whatever it's called) that calls for 3d clocks. You can fix this by making profiles for these type of programs using adaptive power management, or you can use the default adaptive power management as the global settings. Usually I just make profiles for all browsers, system tray apps for mice, etc on my win7 box for adaptive power management and use maximum for the global setting.

TL'DR: there are various programs, and they may not be malicious programs, that will cause 3d clocks to kick in. 99% of the time, this will be the issue. You can either close all offending programs (like I said, the offenders aren't always obvious or malicious) or you can use GPU power management via your GPU control panel. As fast said, go in MSCONFIG and disable all non necessary startup stuff. On the NV side you can usually fix this issue by using adaptive power management or a program profile for such. I personally use maximum power management as global and use adaptive power management profiles for all of my background programs and browsers, and I get idle speeds properly. Not sure what AMD has in their CP for this, I haven't used CCC in recent months. But i'd assume there's a power management setting there somewhere, or a program profile type of thing.

Or , it could be a malicious program. I'd suggest the above steps first, though. If that doesn't fix it, it could be some type of malicious program running in the background. And of course you'd have to run whatever anti virus software you have for that.

Also: i'm assuming you've tried different driver versions? latest WHQL, etc?

 

[lavaheadache]

I've had this happen a couple times before. My creative audio software was triggering once. Another time it was a different seemingly unrelated program. My advice, check your task manager to see what is running and try shutting down random services.

 

[Fastx]

It's probably maximum power management in your gpu control panel. You can usually fix this with adaptive power management in the control panel. What usually happens is, logitech and razer have apps that sit in the system tray of windows 7 and they force 3d clocks for whatever reason. I'm not sure if that applies to you but I found there was a bug with logitech's mouse software (logitech gaming software, whatever it's called) that calls for 3d clocks. You can fix this by making profiles for these type of programs using adaptive power management, or you can use the default adaptive power management as the global settings. Usually I just make profiles for all browsers, system tray apps for mice, etc on my win7 box for adaptive power management and use maximum for the global setting.

TL'DR: there are various programs, and they may not be malicious programs, that will cause 3d clocks to kick in. 99% of the time, this will be the issue. You can either close all offending programs (like I said, the offenders aren't always obvious or malicious) or you can use GPU power management via your GPU control panel. As fast said, go in MSCONFIG and disable all non necessary startup stuff. On the NV side you can usually fix this issue by using adaptive power management or a program profile for such. I personally use maximum power management as global and use adaptive power management profiles for all of my background programs and browsers, and I get idle speeds properly. Not sure what AMD has in their CP for this, I haven't used CCC in recent months. But i'd assume there's a power management setting there somewhere, or a program profile type of thing.

Or , it could be a malicious program. I'd suggest the above steps first, though. If that doesn't fix it, it could be some type of malicious program running in the background. And of course you'd have to run whatever anti virus software you have for that.

Also: i'm assuming you've tried different driver versions? latest WHQL, etc?

Thanks Black for the tips, but not the Logitech software in this case, I uninstalled all Logitech software even used a standard MS mouse just to rule this out. Also keep in mind never had this problem in the past with all the same Logitech gear/software I have now per sig with my GTX 460/570 and no problem in W 8.1 with the 770 or with the 770 before since I owned the 770 in W7 till about last week. For all the time I spent trying to nail this problem I could have reformatted the drive a couple times or more already. I just going to go ahead and reformat that drive, but thanks for your suggestions/tips to try.