What's up with my 290x? Throttling?

[ThackerSS]

Hey guys.

I've been loving my Sapphire 290x but today I've noticed a problem.

I have a 1100/1400 overclock with a custom fan profile. Temps never get about 75c..but I noticed today after playing battlefield 4 for extended times my core MHZ in afterburner was bouncing around between 950 and 1050 and gpu usage would bounce around as well even going from 100% to 0% over and over and over despite temps staying under 75c.

When running 3dmark or something else the card performs fine... locks at 1100 mhz and stays there for the entire benchmark.

Any ideas whats causing this? Is it power throttling or something else going on?

 

[Shmee]

my guess would be power throttling or MB driver/boost issues? Not sure, what are your OC settings?

 

[blackened23]

Hey guys.

I've been loving my Sapphire 290x but today I've noticed a problem.

I have a 1100/1400 overclock with a custom fan profile. Temps never get about 75c..but I noticed today after playing battlefield 4 for extended times my core MHZ in afterburner was bouncing around between 950 and 1050 and gpu usage would bounce around as well even going from 100% to 0% over and over and over despite temps staying under 75c.

When running 3dmark or something else the card performs fine... locks at 1100 mhz and stays there for the entire benchmark.

Any ideas whats causing this? Is it power throttling or something else going on?

You should use a higher temperature limit and not use a custom fan profile. If you maximum performance, presumably you'll want a set manual fan from 47-55%. A custom fan and low temp limit will inhibit performance somewhat.

What I would do is set the temperature limit to 95C in CCC (this is safe) and use 47-55% manual fan. That will fix your problem.

 

[ThackerSS]

I just figured it out. It's vertical sync. When Vsync is enabled it actually throttles the Mhz between 850-1075. However with Vsync disabled it hits 1100 and stays there.

Why would Vsync cause the mhz to fluctuate? Is it a case of it only using "what it needs"?

 

[blackened23]

I just figured it out. It's vertical sync. When Vsync is enabled it actually throttles the Mhz between 850-1075. However with Vsync disabled it hits 1100 and stays there.

Why would Vsync cause the mhz to fluctuate? Is it a case of it only using "what it needs"?

Ah, yes. The GPU won't use more power than it requires, that's your answer. If vsync is on and it is maintaining 60 fps I presume that it will dynamically lower clockspeeds to maintain 60 fps. Kepler does this same thing, I didn't realize that Hawaii had the same functionality.

 

[Gikaseixas]

NM

see that you found the issue.

 

[OCGuy]

Yes, it is.

 

[Tempered81]

Yes, it is.

haha, he found the solution boss





















probably still throttling tho

 

[OCGuy]

probably still throttling tho

haha, he found the solution boss

Any card that is set to run based on temperature and fan speed, instead of a clock speed, is going to throttle under inadequate air.

I have a feeling these will be the only 2 cards in history to ignore guaranteed base clocks, so I am not losing too much sleep over it.

 

[Shmee]

The air is adequate, if you turn the fan speed up a bit. Then it is noisy, but not inadequate.

 

[ThackerSS]

I did some more testing. It's definietely Vsync related. Also happens if I set an engine to max the FPS without like dota 2 max_fps or Battlefield 4 gametime.maxvariablefps etc


I just looped some benchmarks without vsync for an hour while I was grabbing a bite to eat and when I came back it never throttled once. Held 1100/1400.

Can't wait for voltage unlocks.

 

[ThackerSS]

The air is adequate, if you turn the fan speed up a bit. Then it is noisy, but not inadequate.

Yea I'm really not understanding the noise hate. I wear headphones and even without them I never hear it even in Uber mode. I do have a fractal r4 case though.

My overclock profile gets pretty loud but it's at 65% fan and it keeps it under 75c even overclocked.

 

[AdamK47]

I just figured it out. It's vertical sync. When Vsync is enabled it actually throttles the Mhz between 850-1075. However with Vsync disabled it hits 1100 and stays there.

Why would Vsync cause the mhz to fluctuate? Is it a case of it only using "what it needs"?

That's actually a good thing. Put vsync back on and enjoy not having to have the card at full power usage all the time.

 

[Shmee]

Hmm, sounds like you could get consistent 60 FPS in bf4 then, either turn up the settings/eye candy or put vsync on as mentioned. What monitor/resolution is used?

 

[blackened23]

I have a feeling these will be the only 2 cards in history to ignore guaranteed base clocks, so I am not losing too much sleep over it.

Okay, let's explain what's happening here:

Do you have a Kepler GPU? I don't think you understand what's happening here. Kepler does the same thing. For non-demanding games that can maintain 60 frames per second with vsync on, the GPU will dynamically lower clockspeeds as to use just enough GPU power to maintain 60 fps. Reading what the OP states, that's the issue at hand here. Again, Kepler does the same behaviour. If you play something like Dead Space 1 or Darksiders with vsync on, the clockspeeds will be very low on any Kepler GPU. Because the full power of the GPU isn't needed to maintain 60 fps.

I didn't realize Hawaii did the same thing. Of course there's the issue with over temp and over TDP throttling as well, but that isn't happening to the OP; that's a different issue entirely and isn't the issue in question here. (not to say it isn't a valid concern, but with that issue you basically up the fan speed to prevent it). Basically, like the Kepler, it seems that Hawaii uses just enough power to maintain 60 fps when vsync is turned on. If it doesn't require full 3d clock speeds to maintain 60 frames with vsync on, it will lower clockspeeds accordingly - Kepler does the same. It doesn't use 100% 3d clockspeeds when the GPU is only being 10% utilized to maintain 60 fps with vsync on.

Like AdamK said, this is a good thing and apparently both Hawaii and Kepler do this. If you're playing a 2008 game like Dead Space which uses 10-15% GPU at load @ 2560x1600 resolution, then the GPU lowers power use accordingly.

 

[ThackerSS]

Hmm, sounds like you could get consistent 60 FPS in bf4 then, either turn up the settings/eye candy or put vsync on as mentioned. What monitor/resolution is used?

Qnix 27" 2560x1440

I'm on all Ultra aside from effects and post processing. No MSAA with High FXAA

It's Vsynced and locked on all maps now aside from Seige of Shanghai which will experience some drops.


I'm also running render.triplebuffering 1 and gametime.maxvariablefps 60 in the console which has brought my CPU usage down to half of what it was before. Game is running like a dream now and my card bounces around from 850-1050 mhz all while maintaining lock. I can also overclock this monitor to 75 and 96 hz but I can't get it to vsync that high on all the maps only a few. It does look great overclocked though, very smooth. This monitor is very sensitive to anything above and below the refresh rate. Even 5 FPS lower and it looks like a slideshow to me as I am hyper sensitive to the image and ofcourse anything over produces tearing which is also bad.

 

[Shmee]

very nice, sounds like it is very well optimized for that card so far. Are you using the newest drivers?

 

[ThackerSS]

very nice, sounds like it is very well optimized for that card so far. Are you using the newest drivers?

Yea, 13.11 v8

I can almost Vsync 96hz @ 1080p on all the maps aside from one or two. It's amazing how much more power it takes to run 1440p compared to 1080p.

 

[Teizo]

That's actually a good thing. Put vsync back on and enjoy not having to have the card at full power usage all the time.

^This.

 

[Bateluer]

OP, did you find a manual fan speed option in the Catalyst Suite? I'm on the latest 13.11B8s and I don't see an Enable Manual Fan Control option under AMD Overdrive like previous CCCs had.

This XFX 290X defaults the fan speed to 20% and idles at almost 70C. I'd like to play around with the minimum fan speed to see whats tolerable.

 

[Attic]

Interesting find, and a good thing if ya consider what its doing. It will still give ya your FPS lock to 60 and avoid tearing and if it can achieve this while using a bit less power it automatically does. Personally i'd keep the Vsync on and with a few other suggestions here (temp limit/fan profile) tweak the the card some more.

 

[ThackerSS]

OP, did you find a manual fan speed option in the Catalyst Suite? I'm on the latest 13.11B8s and I don't see an Enable Manual Fan Control option under AMD Overdrive like previous CCCs had.

This XFX 290X defaults the fan speed to 20% and idles at almost 70C. I'd like to play around with the minimum fan speed to see whats tolerable.

I'm using the latest afterburner beta to set up a manual fan profile and monitor temps / usage.

 

[GoatHornz]

I hope it's not the same as 5000 and 6000 series with they would throttle back the clocks to prevent overheating!

 

[Techhog]

I hope it's not the same as 5000 and 6000 series with they would throttle back the clocks to prevent overheating!

First of all, if a CPU or GPU doesn't throttle to prevent overheating, it's a very poorly designed chip that nobody should buy.

Second, why bump a solved thread?

 

[blastingcap]

Edit: never mind, didn't realize this was a solved thread.