[What the hell] Weird GPU stutter lag, sudden framedrops in certain games.

[Mondozei]

So I got a 290 Tri-X, i5 Haswell and 8 gigabyte of RAM. The rest of the PC is pretty new (under one year old).

I did notice that I got weird FPS drops in some games like Natural Selection 2. I got a 144 Hz monitor and on high I get dips to 70 or so. That game isn't very demanding. Still, even if it dips, I don't get stutter lag on that game. But on CoD AW, I do. A guy told me he has a 7950 and he has 91 fps stable with everything on high except supersampling. I got not only supersampling off but even shadows off, no HBAO, and only FXAA. Still get dips down to 40s on CoD AW and insane stutter lag.

I have also noticed this pattern in other games if they are slightly more demanding. Now, I only got 2 fans, as I want a quiet PC. Nevertheless, when I checked out my temps with HWMonitor, I never got above 75 C for my 290 Tri-X. Is it underclocking to get certain temperatures? Or is it something else? What could cause this lower-than-expected FPS in some titles like Natural Selection and outright stutter lag in CoD AW, which other PC players tell me is pretty optimized for less expensive GPUs.

 

[Ketchup]

What drivers have you tried? Has your current Windows install been upgraded from another card? Your temps look great. AT was getting in the 90's with their initial review of the card (AMD sample card).

 

[meeshu]

Correct drivers being used for the R9 290X and the operating system?

Uninstalled any old drivers thoroughly first (by using third party graphics driver uninstallation software as required)?

 

[Mondozei]

What drivers have you tried? Has your current Windows install been upgraded from another card? Your temps look great. AT was getting in the 90's with their initial review of the card (AMD sample card).

I have tried the newest beta drivers that are out specifically for CoD AW. And nope, this version of Windows was installed on this GPU.

Uninstalled any old drivers thoroughly first (by using third party graphics driver uninstallation software as required)?

I installed AMD's newest drivers which are replacing and deleting the old ones in the installation, at leas that's what it said. I'm assuming that's the correct way?

 

[meeshu]

In theory, the old drivers should be totally removed when upgrading. However, in practice, some old files may be left behind before new files are written. This combination of old and new files may cause conflict and graphics performance will most likely be effected.

To properly remove ALL graphics drivers will probably require the use of software such as this.

The procedure for changing (upgrading) graphics drivers would then be -

Install driver uninstallation utility.

Uninstall current drivers using Windows control panel or graphics control panel etc.

Boot computer into safe mode.

Run driver uninstallation utility program (and select to remove all ATI/AMD graphics drivers and associated folders in your case).

Then reboot into normal mode.

Install required graphics drivers (and reboot if required).

Done!