R9 290 slowing down?

[lifetaken]

Hey guys,

Just picked up an R9 290 off a friend at work for 200 bucks. When I first plugged it in (two days ago) and downloaded the updated drivers for it, it seemed to run like it should. Today though, it seems to be slower than before. For example in PCars when I first put it in, I got 60FPS+ with my current settings. Today, with the same settings, it was struggling to keep in the 40s. I had taken my GPU out between two days ago and today to clean up the wiring, could I have screwed something up then?

It's a Sapphire R9 290 Tri-X so it doesn't get hotter than mid 70s while playing PCars, which is pretty graphics intensive.

I'm going to try to fully uninstall and re-install my drivers, but is there anything else I should try?

Specs:
i5 4690k
Sapphire R9 290 Tri-x
8GB DDR3
850 EVO SSD

Thanks

 

[gilbadon]

Make sure you use DDU for uninstalling the drivers ("Device driver uninstaller" if memory serves me). You probably have not screwed up the hardware as it would not work much without it properly connected. That being said it never hurts to clear up cables to promote better airflow.

 

[lifetaken]

Make sure you use DDU for uninstalling the drivers ("Device driver uninstaller" if memory serves me). You probably have not screwed up the hardware as it would not work much without it properly connected. That being said it never hurts to clear up cables to promote better airflow.

Yup, I picked up DDU and I'm going to use that in SafeMode and then reinstall my drivers. I'm hoping that fixes it. I see people getting >90FPS in ultra settings on BF4 with my exact setup, and I know if this card is capable of 90+ in that game, then PCars should be at least at 60.

 

[jakegroves]

WOuld reccomend getting another 8GB worth of ram for future reference, reccomended requirements for that game is 8GB.
Download MSI afterburner and on the settings enable OSD for GPU usage and watch if the GPU is being fully utilised, do the same with the CPU usage. Check if your underclocking, or stock clock etc.