Performance degrading throughout the course of a game? Strange GPU problems

[WillJackman]

I've got an XFX r9 380 GPU (About a year old if that has any effect) and when playing games I see some weird performance drop over time. Eg, in Smite I'll start the game at 60fps (Capped) and it'll stay smooth for maybe the first 10-15 minutes. Then after that if starts just slowly getting worse and worse. If the game goes longer than say 30 minutes I end up on around 30fps. But oddly it never seems to go lower than 30 no matter how long I have the game open. Re-launching fixes it though.

Now from that you're probably thinking 'Oh, his card is overheating and throttling'. I thought the same but it's not. It hovers around 60-65 degrees in the case of Smite. CPU is at around 40-45 so it's not that either. I'm really confused as to what's causing this since changing graphical settings in game doesn't change the effect at all. (Maybe by like 3-5 fps sometimes, but doesn't fix it at all really) and it makes gaming sessions longer than about 25 minutes pretty much unplayable. It *could* be drivers but I've already DDU'd my drivers and got the latest ones (And some beta and older versions tried too) from AMDs website. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs:
CPU: Intel Core i5 6500 3.2Ghz Quad-Core
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon r9 380 (Stock)
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4 2133Mhz (2x4gb)
Storage: WD Blue 1tb and Samsung 850 Evo 250gb
PSU: Aerocool Intergrator 700W Bronze
Mobo: MSI Gaming M3 H170

 

[TechyInAZ]

Your not using a custom GPU overclock right?

Have you tried reinstalling smite?

 

[geofelt]

Can you try a different graphics card? Even integrated graphics?

I see a 24% of newegg users of this card with issues(0 or1 egg)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150730

My inclination would be to Buy a different card.
Perhaps an upgrade to a GTX1060.
RMA the R9-380 (it has a 2 year warranty)
When you get it back, sell it unopened.

 

[Neur0nauT]

This sounds more like a memory leak in the game.

Check out this reddit post about FPS drops and stuttering.

 

[WillJackman]

Your not using a custom GPU overclock right?

Have you tried reinstalling smite?

No, it's stock clocked. And yes I've tried reinstalling. It happens on other games. It's just mainly noticable on smite

 

[WillJackman]

Can you try a different graphics card? Even integrated graphics?

I see a 24% of newegg users of this card with issues(0 or1 egg)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150730

My inclination would be to Buy a different card.
Perhaps an upgrade to a GTX1060.
RMA the R9-380 (it has a 2 year warranty)
When you get it back, sell it unopened.

Don't have another card available. Though I was looking at getting a new card soon, maybe a 1070 or RX480. Depending on how much I've got to drop on it. Also, not familiar with RMA, I'm assuming I need some kind of proof of ownership or something?

 

[geofelt]

Can you try a different graphics card? Even integrated graphics?

I see a 24% of newegg users of this card with issues(0 or1 egg)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150730

My inclination would be to Buy a different card.
Perhaps an upgrade to a GTX1060.
RMA the R9-380 (it has a 2 year warranty)
When you get it back, sell it unopened.

Don't have another card available. Though I was looking at getting a new card soon, maybe a 1070 or RX480. Depending on how much I've got to drop on it. Also, not familiar with RMA, I'm assuming I need some kind of proof of ownership or something?

If you have something defective, you want to ask for a Return Merchandise Authorization.
In effect you want to return it for repair or replace under warranty.
Even without bill of sale documentation, the vendor can tell when it was manufactured.