Question R9 290 GPU usage 0-50-100%, low fps and stutter on Cities: Skylines

[B-Tec]

Hello!
After buying this cheap second hand GPU with intent to buy another, I have had a time consuming bad experience in attempt to battle the energy saving feature of this card. The core clock is now locked with "RadenPro" Software when playing the game, but I could not solve the following madness and Im pleeding for help:

As seen in the middle, I changed clocks to half of the original and it got a bit better in frametimes also. Power tune was +50% all the time. Polling rate on that picture is the fastest 200ms.

Facts:
1. I only play two games and on the second game (Crossout) the GPU is very normal. Full GPU usage with Vsync off and no need to lock the clock from throttling. Cities: Skylines is known to be running in a borderless window mode by default, but forcing it succesfully to fullscreen didnt help.

2. All temps are ok and even better with full fan speed. Got a massive custom cooler with 2x 120mm fans. GPU around 60C and VRMs 81C at most. Also all the other components and the PSU is cooled very well.

3. PSU is feeding it with two 35A rails (2x420W) with two cables. Tested also with a single rail and its the same.

4. Tried different drivers, Adrenalin, CCC and their settings.

5. None of the CPU cores are nearing 100% on average, but some occasionally spike to 100%. Anyway it does not resemble this.

6. ULPS disabled.

7. HD 7870 was normal and produced even similar FPS.

8. My other hardware is as it was with the well functioning HD 7870: FX-8350 4.4Ghz, 2133Mhz CL11 ganged 4-stick RAM, Sabertooth 990fx, Xonar DX, SSD, HD, 1kW 6-rail PSU.

Any ideas or was that it with for me?

Thank you

PS. Will fix my sig later. Was presumed to be a spammer now.

 

[cdrkf]

Hello!
After buying this cheap second hand GPU with intent to buy another, I have had a time consuming bad experience in attempt to battle the energy saving feature of this card. The core clock is now locked with "RadenPro" Software when playing the game, but I could not solve the following madness and Im pleeding for help:

As seen in the middle, I changed clocks to half of the original and it got a bit better in frametimes also. Power tune was +50% all the time. Polling rate on that picture is the fastest 200ms.

Facts:
1. I only play two games and on the second game (Crossout) the GPU is very normal. Full GPU usage with Vsync off and no need to lock the clock from throttling. Cities: Skylines is known to be running in a borderless window mode by default, but forcing it succesfully to fullscreen didnt help.

2. All temps are ok and even better with full fan speed. Got a massive custom cooler with 2x 120mm fans. GPU around 60C and VRMs 81C at most. Also all the other components and the PSU is cooled very well.

3. PSU is feeding it with two 35A rails (2x420W) with two cables. Tested also with a single rail and its the same.

4. Tried different drivers, Adrenalin, CCC and their settings.

5. None of the CPU cores are nearing 100% on average, but some occasionally spike to 100%. Anyway it does not resemble this.

6. ULPS disabled.

7. HD 7870 was normal and produced even similar FPS.

8. My other hardware is as it was with the well functioning HD 7870: FX-8350 4.4Ghz, 2133Mhz CL11 ganged 4-stick RAM, Sabertooth 990fx, Xonar DX, SSD, HD, 1kW 6-rail PSU.

Any ideas or was that it with for me?

Thank you

PS. Will fix my sig later. Was presumed to be a spammer now.

I'm 90% certain you are suffering a CPU bottleneck here. Cities Skylines is a notoriously CPU limited game- the fact you are getting similar performance from the HD7870 says everything.

The FX cpu's are pretty bad gaming cpu's, I used to have an FX8320 and switched to a first gen ryzen 5 1600 the performance difference was huge (even with my old R9 280 gpu).

 

[B-Tec]

Yes, it is true about the CPU and the game being demanding. The problem is however the GPU usage/strange behaviour. It should have a normal usage line. Like the 7870, but lower. Not jumping rapidly 0-100% and back. Not going to ON-OFF states. Is there a way to fix this? I even downloaded "RadeonMod" - a proggram to modify GPU driver, but have no idea what it is there that is causing that behaviour.