Question Frametime spikes and stuttering on an AMD setup ?

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
It might be best to backup everything you want to keep, and do a fresh format of Windows, using the latest version available from Microsoft's media creation tool.
really? why do you think its worse now?

can you point me to a guide on how to do that? i want to be sure i do it properly.

Thank you
 
I forgot to ask something important. What is the make/model of your power supply?
Did you use DDU to remove your graphics and chipset drivers before installing latest versions?

If windows reinstall is the last route we have to take, then here is a guide.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfA89wv_14


You will need to backup anything you want to keep to another drive be it an internal or external one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PauloSilva93
I see the problem, the game is not demanding for your GPU. So now the GPU clock speed drops on certain scenes. Try manually clocking your GPU to stay above 1800mhz. I had the same problem with my 7900xtx on certain games.

On Nvidia GPU's you set power management mode in the manage 3d settings to "Prefer Maximum Performance" to maintain full clock speed at the expense of idle electricity.

For Radeon gpu's you have to set a range. I would try to keep the clock speed between 1800 to 2250mhz on your 6800xt.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PauloSilva93
I forgot to ask something important. What is the make/model of your power supply?
Did you use DDU to remove your graphics and chipset drivers before installing latest versions?

If windows reinstall is the last route we have to take, then here is a guide.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhfA89wv_14


You will need to backup anything you want to keep to another drive be it an internal or external one.
no i didn´t use DDU, i simply updated them;

my psu is a corsair RM850x
 
I see the problem, the game is not demanding for your GPU. So now the GPU clock speed drops on certain scenes. Try manually clocking your GPU to stay above 1800mhz. I had the same problem with my 7900xtx on certain games.

On Nvidia GPU's you set power management mode in the manage 3d settings to "Prefer Maximum Performance" to maintain full clock speed at the expense of idle electricity.

For Radeon gpu's you have to set a range. I would try to keep the clock speed between 1800 to 2250mhz on your 6800xt.
how do i do that? what should i do first? the windows reinstall or your thing?

thanks
 
Try this first, Disable ULPS and see if that helps:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJgsVeBZqM


For the clock speed, this is exactly how I did it before on my 7900xtx. Ignore the VRAM tuning, just leave that default for now.
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/f0Nv06BNA0s


I no longer have my 7900xtx specifically for this reason where on some games, including minecraft, star citizen, counter strike and other cpu bottlenecked games, I had to run this manual clocking. I've since sold it and bought a 4080 super which is easier to just set "prefer max performance" which keeps the clock speed boost on all the time.

Keep in mind though that this will use more wattage at idle. So if you're worried about electricity prices, I wouldn't keep my computer turned on all the time needlessly.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PauloSilva93
Yes I enabled xmp profile 1.

Is this to be expected? I mean should I be worried I ruined my PC?
No, if anything, not running XMP is better for your computer since XMP is an Intel profile, but can still be compatible with AMD. EXPO is AMD's profile, but your ram may not have that. Running at RAM base speeds without XMP or EXPO is the most stable for your system, but at lower speeds so it won't have the fastest performance.

However, as far as stuttering, I'm doubtful that RAM speeds and slower timings would be the problem. Yes, you'll have slightly lower fps, but it shouldn't cause stuttering.
 
No, if anything, not running XMP is better for your computer since XMP is an Intel profile, but can still be compatible with AMD. EXPO is AMD's profile, but your ram may not have that. Running at RAM base speeds without XMP or EXPO is the most stable for your system, but at lower speeds so it won't have the fastest performance.

However, as far as stuttering, I'm doubtful that RAM speeds and slower timings would be the problem. Yes, you'll have slightly lower fps, but it shouldn't cause stuttering.
So? What should I do then? Also should I be worried I ruined my PC? Sorry I think you didn't answer that question.

Thank you
 
I no longer have my 7900xtx specifically for this reason where on some games, including minecraft, star citizen, counter strike and other cpu bottlenecked games, I had to run this manual clocking. I've since sold it and bought a 4080 super which is easier to just set "prefer max performance" which keeps the clock speed boost on all the time.
and is that a big deal? are you happy with your change in gpu?
 
I lost a few frames on Call of Duty, but for every other games the 4080 works better when set to prefer max performance. Framerate wise, they're very similar. I took a financial loss having to sell my 7900xtx for the 4080 super. But overall, it worked out better in the end.
i disabled ulps on msi afterburner and i still have those big spikes, stutters.

About manually clocking the gpu, which values should i go for? i already had an undervolted gpu, but you guys said to put it in stock values. Thank you
 
min and max frequency? should i undervolt and raise power limit?

No, undervolt could cause issues and you should need to raise the power limit for stock boost clocks. Leave those default. We're just trying to prevent it from dropping down to 1000mhz, which causes stuttering. You want the GPU to maintain a clock speed above 1800mhz, we're not targeting maximum performance here, just targeting stability. Once your system is stable, then you can tweak those items for more performance.

The problem is with poorly optimized games, that cpu bottleneck on 1-2 cores, the GPU usage is too low which causes it to declock itself down because it thinks it wants to save power. But in reality you don't, you want it to keep a high clock for performance.

You cpu and gpu clocks keep dropping, all the time, undervolting is not a magic bullet, it can also cause stability issues if you don't know what you're doing. Make sure your system is stable, make sure it maintains high clocks first.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PauloSilva93
Anyway I set min freq. And max. Frequency to the values seen in the image above, and the stuttering stopped at least in that one game, so thank you. I will try other games and report back, also, with these settings am I leaving performance on the table?

Edit: I tried a new stage and the stuttering was back... With ulps disabled and the min clock speed at 1900Mhz... Yeah. Any clue?

Edit1: Don´t know if its relevant or not, but this was after a windows update, so maybe that is why ... anyway please get back to me when you can.

Thank you
 
Last edited: