[SOLVED] Games stuttering after (accidental) large overclock, even after video card replacement

potato112

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Nov 1, 2019
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Hi - I had an RX550 which I decided to overclock by +90 mhz, but accidentally dragged the slider in MSI Afterburner up, pressed the check and left it as is. After trying some GTA 4, it immediately defaulted to 480p, fully low settings and was a stuttery mess. Basically, I thought I had killed that video card, but it was alright since it was aging, and a GTX 1060 6GB Mini was on the way. Fast forward to now - I put in the new GPU, installed all the latest drivers but no, much to my disappointment, upon launching GTA 4, though it defaulted to 1080p, it was still very stuttery. I tried playing GTA V, and though it was playable, it was still stuttery (though not nearly as much as GTA 4) and ran at 40-60 fps, though with a 1060 these figures should be starting from 100 fps at 1080p high I believe. Can someone help? What should I do?

Additional information:
Processor: Ryzen 3 2200G
Computer: An HP tower unfortunately, I made the grave mistake of buying a prebuilt
More context: GTA 4 ran fine on the RX550 at 1080p prior to the overclock
 
Solution
We need to get some kind of visual sample.
Post the URL to your results.

Download and run Gpu-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Click on Sensors, leave the app running, and then play your games. After at least 10mins of play time - so some stutter activity will be caught, post a screenshot. There's the little camera icon on the app.
Hi - so apparently, reinstalling windows fixed it and it's fine now. Maybe it was because doing that gave the system drive a thorough format and removed anything that may have been causing the stuttering.
1)Some people make the mistake of enabling Afterburner to automatically apply their last settings/profile upon logging into Windows. Did you do this?
Some also have the app enabled to open upon logging in too. That's not necessary, and should be turned off.

2)Did you use Display Driver Uninstaller to remove the old driver first, and then installed the new one?
 
I have MSI ab to " auto start " when winfowd starts up .

I also have MSI apply " profile 5 " when MSI ab starts .

If MSI ab is set to "not start" with windows my 1080ti does not get it's custom fan curve and no on screen display .

What does auto start MSI ab with windows cause stuttering ?, .

If MSI does not run I get no fan curve and my 1080ti throttles @ 84 c
 
1)Some people make the mistake of enabling Afterburner to automatically apply their last settings/profile upon logging into Windows. Did you do this?
Some also have the app enabled to open upon logging in too. That's not necessary, and should be turned off.

2)Did you use Display Driver Uninstaller to remove the old driver first, and then installed the new one?
I did use DDU and I didn't leave set MSI AB to launch at start-up, though I'm suspecting at this point that this could be because my power supply may be too weak (310w), making the system automatically limit the GTX 1060's performance
 
What does auto start MSI ab with windows cause stuttering ?, .

If MSI does not run I get no fan curve and my 1080ti throttles @ 84 c
No, but if a recently applied and saved overclock isn't truly stable and is left to automatically startup with Windows, then it definitely can cause problems.

I only apply my saved profile when I need it. When I'm not playing a game, the gpu is running it's default fan curve: fans are off and it's idling at 45-50C, which isn't a problem for it at all.
 
I did use DDU and I didn't leave set MSI AB to launch at start-up, though I'm suspecting at this point that this could be because my power supply may be too weak (310w), making the system automatically limit the GTX 1060's performance
Yeah, that would be a problem. The psus in prebuilts are only really intended for the original hardware.
The accidental overclock probably made the psu flip out, after which it did one over on the gpu. Without replacing something, for starters, you'll be stuck.

These gpus are hard to kill with software, but other hardware can do them in.
 
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Yeah, that would be a problem. The psus in prebuilts are only really intended for the original hardware.
The accidental overclock probably made the psu flip out, after which it did one over on the gpu. Without replacing something, for starters, you'll be stuck.

These gpus are hard to kill with software, but other hardware can do them in.
Alright, so I used the "separate psu" method to power the video card, but for some reason it's still stuttery. Even though I got the card used I'm 100% sure it's not bc of that, because the eBay seller said it was used lightly for a year. Could this be bc the power supply that originally came in the machine is so damaged by now that even though the video card is connected separately, the motherboard and the rest of the connected components are suffering bc of it? Would getting another OEM psu with higher wattage help? (I'd get a name brand one but the one in my machine has some special connectors that the normal ones don't, forcing me to buy it from HP)
 
We need to get some kind of visual sample.
Post the URL to your results.

Download and run Gpu-Z: https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
Click on Sensors, leave the app running, and then play your games. After at least 10mins of play time - so some stutter activity will be caught, post a screenshot. There's the little camera icon on the app.
Hi - so apparently, reinstalling windows fixed it and it's fine now. Maybe it was because doing that gave the system drive a thorough format and removed anything that may have been causing the stuttering.
 
Solution
I see...
Did you do that after you first upgraded the prebuilt?
Yes, at some point I put an M.2 in and had to format the original 1TB hard drive, and installed Windows on the M.2. That was sometime in November or maybe a bit earlier iirc, but I had no issues then as everything was working properly prior to the M.2 installation (and after it).