GPU refuses to return to idle

[iridium117]

So a short while back I had decided to try using three screens. To do so I had to force the onboard graphics to run so I could connect my third screen. I'll put a link to that post for details below. Shortly thereafter I noticed my graphics card just didn't like the idea, plus I soon found out three screens a bit overkill, so I returned back to two.

Well since then I've been plagued by an issue where whenever I run a game, a video on YouTube, anything involving the slightest bit of GPU, afterwards the GPU stays between 85 to 89% usage. More noticeably whenever I begin to run a game, at first it runs smooth and beautiful. Then anywhere within 5 min to 30 min the graphics begin to slow down significantly. Even when I drop the settings to minimum possible, which on my machine is easy. Unfortunately when doing so, my frame rate stays right around 10-15 FPS. ON one game I play called The Crew, in a cut scene my car just started...flying downwards/forwards. Hard to explain, but yeah, it did a front flip too, in cutscene.

I did try to uninstall all of the drivers before, due to the fact that both the onboard and card are AMD and for some reason one installer took care of both drivers. My guess was that the two drivers interfered with each other or something, I don't know. But I reinstalled the latest driver and nothing seems to change. The only option I have left is I'm gonna reset the motherboard BIOS to factory settings and see what happens, I'll make an edit to see if it works.

If anyone knows what the hell is going on, please tell me. I'm about to throw my computer out my 4 story window.

Three screen post: http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2802781/display-detected-windows-screen-left-standby-mode.html

Technical Specifications:
Windows 7 Ultimate
AMD A8-3870 APU with Radeon HD, 3.0GHz Quad-core
ASUS F1A55-M LE R2.0 Motherboard
AMD Radeon R7 250

 

[Mysticking32]

Try this. Install ddu and select amd. Then select clean and shutdown (for new graphics card). Take the gpu's out of the pci slots and make sure it's clean. Place it back in and boot the pc. Go to amd's website and make sure you download a fresh set of the latest drivers available. Then install. Should be working now.

 

[iridium117]

So I did exactly as you said Mysticking32, even put new thermal paste on, and made sure Windows Update was turned off....to no avail. This is becoming increasingly frustrating. After typing the update below I thought about trying to update the driver for my APU, see if that makes a difference. Doubt it will, but still.

UPDATE: So a few things:

One, I am able to run games after said issue has occurred, it's just a tiny bit laggy due to running at 100%.

Two, I've ran three different virus software tools on full scan and found nothing.

And three, and this is the important one, I discovered that when I go to shut down or restart, one of the first things that happens is my gpu returns to idle. I know this due to having a gadget from addgadgets.com. Which would indicate that one of many programs being shut down is causing this issue. I also discovered that if I manage cancel the shutdown process when then "windows is waiting for background programs to close" thing pops up, the issue I'm having goes away....until I restart. I went for about 2 and a half days without the above issue by doing this, but since then my computer miraculously decided to shut down faster :/

 

[Mysticking32]

So I looked up this issue. It seems that when you have multiple monitors the gpu ups its clocks to prevent lag. So apparently it never fully idles. Memory is usually maxed out along with a higher core clock. (Not sure if this becomes maxed or near maxed)

Apparently it's normal.

 

[iridium117]

So I looked up this issue. It seems that when you have multiple monitors the gpu ups its clocks to prevent lag. So apparently it never fully idles. Memory is usually maxed out along with a higher core clock. (Not sure if this becomes maxed or near maxed)

Apparently it's normal.

But the thing is, I took away the third screen and disabled the feature off of the mother board. Plus that doesn't explain why for the first 15 min it stays at idle and then does this, and that's with doing absolutely nothing! On top of the update I posted.

 

[Mysticking32]

According to the posts I've seen it happens with more than 1 monitor. Not just 3. If you try it with 1 monitor I'm sure the clocks would be normal.

 

[iridium117]

According to the posts I've seen it happens with more than 1 monitor. Not just 3. If you try it with 1 monitor I'm sure the clocks would be normal.

Not to be stubborn and all, but I find that hard to believe seeing as I went for the past year with the two screens with absolutely no problem, then got the third and this happened. Oh well, my computer hasn't had a reinstall for a year and half, maybe it's time for one. Thanks for your help, you turned up more research than I did, so thank you