MSI Rx 480 Fluctuating core clockspeed while gaming

[mobious33]

Hello,

Lately, my RX 480 has started acting up. I only noticed this when playing demanding games like Witcher 3 and GTA V.

On witcher 3 and overwatch, I experience severe (or rather, often) microstuttering (every second).
I monitored the performance of my GPU and I found out that the clockspeed was fluctuating (between 800 mhz to 1300 mhz).

Before, it used to run at 1380 mhz overclock stable without going down. (Base clock is 1303 mhz)
I tried returning it to base clock, underclocking, undervolting, etc. but the problem persisted.

Here are some pictures from both Wattman and MSI Afterburner.

https://imgur.com/7RvAi8v

https://imgur.com/AjZX0Iq

https://imgur.com/e61diWr

https://imgur.com/htlypic
(I apologize for the second pic, the 2nd graph from the left is the core clock speed)

For my system's specs:
i5 6600k OC'd to 4.4Ghz
MSI RX480 8 gb
16gb (2x8) Gskill RAM
Corsair CS750m 750 w gold
MSI Z170A gaming 5 mother board
Seagate 2 tb
Samsung 256 gb evo

Software:
Windows 10 64 bit
Radeon Adrenalin (17.12.1)

I only recently started playing these demanding games, this early december. The last time I played a demanding game (a heavily modded skyrim) was last november. There were no issues back then.

I also tried reverting back to a stable and tested driver, it removed the stuttering but the core clockspeed still does not maintain a stable clockspeed. (at least not as erratic as the current one)

I hope this issue can be resolved.

 

[mobious33]

I found the solution to this problem.
Apparently, the 6+2 power pin was touching the glass panel of my case.

While I was at it, I tried cleaning the fans again. This fixed my issue. At first I thought it was a software problem.
The thing is, that wire had always been touching that glass panel and it never became a problem until now. I also noticed that the contacted surface on the glass panel melted a little bit. (Now that surprised me)

It's finally stable now again. I hope this helps others.