R9 380 4GB Low FPS! Help!

[InfernalSurge]

Hi, so I've recently completed my build with a MSI R9 380 4GB and FX-8320 at stock clocks. Here are my full specs: http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/X2j7bv

The problem is that I'm experiencing unusually low fps in all my games. Let's take Dirt Rally for example; I have everything maxed out at 1080p I'm only getting an average of 30 fps in the game's benchmark tool, and around 20-40 fps when I'm playing. This is very unusual, people running the same setup with a R9 280 or 285 are getting much higher fps, all 60+ fps.

Now here is where stuff gets WEIRD. MSI Afterburner shows my GPU usage is constantly at 95-100%, which I assume is a good thing, but my CPU usage is stuck at ~10% and rarely hits ~20%+ fps. My CPU temps are ~50 degrees Celsius when gaming, and my GPU temps are at 60.

Now here is the big issue . Since my GPU seems to be running at mostly full load, I'm guessing the CPU is the problem here. I've read online that the FX series have thermal throttling issues; in HWMonitor, the 8320's clock speed keeps jumping from 3700MHz+ to 1400MHz, and I suspect this is causing the massive fps drops. For example, in X-Plane 10 (a flight sim that's heavily CPU dependant), my fps is at around 15 and barely changes no matter what graphical settings I use.

To make matters worse, the CPU usage per core is usually at 10%, and rarely hits 20%. I know some games don't utilize all 8 cores, but shouldn't the first few cores have much higher usage, like 50%+? This is happening in all games, including Dirt Rally, X-Plane 10, and EVEN Unigine Heaven. In Unigine, I'm only getting 25-30 fps with everything on Ultra at 1080p, although people with GTX 960 and FX-6300 are scoring 40+ fps. I've heard that disabling AMD's APM, C1E, and Turbo Core. Will this help with anything? Here's the source: http://www.overclock.net/t/1202751/amd-fx-cpu-throttling-fixes-please-sticky

I can't try it right now because I don't have my PC with me, but I'd really like to get this issue out of my head. One last thing, my motherboard has a 8+2 power phase I believe, so it should be adequate for the CPU, but does it have a heatsink on the VRM?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

[geofelt]

Your symptoms suggest your games are single threaded and cpu limited.
When you see all 8 cores used, but only 10-20% utilized, that is windows spreading out the single thread load among all available cores.
You can verify this by taking some number of cores out of play and checking if your fps is impacted much.
You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

The best you can do with what you have is to undertake to overclock your cpu.

 

[datguy20]

That motherboard should be good for the CPU, and yes it has a VRM heatsink. With a good cooler you'd be able to overclock on it.

What CPU cooler do you have? Are you sure the CPU is really only hitting 50C, because it shouldn't be throttling at that temp.

 

[InfernalSurge]

Your symptoms suggest your games are single threaded and cpu limited.
When you see all 8 cores used, but only 10-20% utilized, that is windows spreading out the single thread load among all available cores.
You can verify this by taking some number of cores out of play and checking if your fps is impacted much.
You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

The best you can do with what you have is to undertake to overclock your cpu.

Thanks for the reply. Does the FX-8320 really suck that much at gaming with the stock clock speed? 🙁 How much of an fps improvement will I see if I overclock it to 4 or 4.2 GHz (with a Hyper 212 Evo)? Other users with the same CPU and a worse GPU like the R9 270x are getting 60+ fps in Dirt Rally, so do you think CPU throttling could still be contributing to my low fps?

One more question, the combined/overall CPU usage of ALL the cores in Dirt Rally is still very low, somewhere from 20%-30%, if I remember correctly. Is this normal?

Lastly, is it normal for the CPU to jump from 3700Mhz down to 1400Mhz, and the Vcore fluctuating from 1.4 to 0.9? Here is my Passmark 8 score, if it helps with anything:

CPU mark: 8003
Integer math: 20442
Floating point math: 6801
Prime numbers: 24.4
Extended instructions (SSE) 29.9
Compression: 11250
Encryption: 1528
Physics: 554
Sorting: 7082
Single Threaded: 1395

Most of these scores are higher than a FX-8150's, but some aren't for some reason. I've heard GTA V can utilize 8 cores, perhaps I should purchase it to see if the low fps and low CPU usage still persists? I'm sorry for asking so many noob questions.

 

[InfernalSurge]

That motherboard should be good for the CPU, and yes it has a VRM heatsink. With a good cooler you'd be able to overclock on it.

What CPU cooler do you have? Are you sure the CPU is really only hitting 50C, because it shouldn't be throttling at that temp.

I'm using the stock AMD cooler and the temps are in the mid 50s when gaming, according to HWMonitor. Maybe the temps are hitting 60 though, I'd have to check again when I can access my PC. I know the stock cooler is garbage (sounds like a jet), although I'll have to save up for a Hyper 212 or a water cooler.

 

[madmatt30]

The 8320 is fine at stock.
Drop in bios ,change high performance computing mode (hpc) to enabled - disable c1e states.

Should sort it for you .

 

[datguy20]

Have you ever fiddled with your BIOS settings at all? If it's really not overheating (50C is fine), then I'm wondering if there's some BIOS setting that's not letting it deliver enough voltage to run full-speed. Just a thought.

If you plan on overclocking, I don't recommend the 212 Evo for those 8-cores. It doesn't get it past 4Ghz without burning up, which is easy to hit with the FX-83xx CPU's. A better air cooler (or an AIO) is recommend for them when overclocking.

 

[madmatt30]

^ hpc will do that - it's a pita setting & is disabled by default.
I disagree on the 212 - while there are better coolers available I've hit 4.5ghz comfortably on my 8320 with a thermal margin of 20c+ under prime.
Settled on 4.3ghz simply because it does it on stock voltage.

 

[datguy20]

^ hpc will do that - it's a pita setting & is disabled by default.
I disagree on the 212 - while there are better coolers available I've hit 4.5ghz comfortably on my 8320 with a thermal margin of 20c+ under prime.
Settled on 4.3ghz simply because it does it on stock voltage.

Oh, I must have been unlucky with the 8350 I dealt with then. Couldn't get much past 4.3-4.5 without giving it a good bit of voltage (I think it was at 1.385V?). If I had an 212 Evo on that it would've melted, so I was basing what I said on that.

 

[InfernalSurge]

That motherboard should be good for the CPU, and yes it has a VRM heatsink. With a good cooler you'd be able to overclock on it.

What CPU cooler do you have? Are you sure the CPU is really only hitting 50C, because it shouldn't be throttling at that temp.

The 8320 is fine at stock.
Drop in bios ,change high performance computing mode (hpc) to enabled - disable c1e states.

Should sort it for you .

I will try that. Can I enable hpc and disable e1c in the standard Gigabyte bios?

 

[madmatt30]

Yes - under MIT tab
C1e - disabled
Hpc mode - enabled.

 

[InfernalSurge]

Yes - under MIT tab
C1e - disabled
Hpc mode - enabled.

Thanks, will give it a try when I can and update on the situation.

 

[InfernalSurge]

Have you ever fiddled with your BIOS settings at all? If it's really not overheating (50C is fine), then I'm wondering if there's some BIOS setting that's not letting it deliver enough voltage to run full-speed. Just a thought.

If you plan on overclocking, I don't recommend the 212 Evo for those 8-cores. It doesn't get it past 4Ghz without burning up, which is easy to hit with the FX-83xx CPU's. A better air cooler (or an AIO) is recommend for them when overclocking.

Ok so there is something that is concerning me. During my build, my PSU had a 4+4 pin CPU power cable that was hard to insert into the motherboard's 8-pin connector. I think I've used a bit too much force and chipped/dented one of the eight "black plastic pins" on the motherboard CPU power connector. Would this result in the CPU not getting enough voltage to run full-speed? I did not mess with anything in the BIOS, apart from turning on a few warnings, like "warn when CPU hits certain temperature" and "warn when a fan fails." Oh and I forgot to mention, Windows 8.1 sometimes locks up for 10-20 seconds at random, but everything resumes after and my PC doesn't restart. Could this be a symptom of insufficient voltage delivery to the CPU?

 

[madmatt30]

While it sounds a not ideal thing to have done its unlikely to be the problem.

The pins & the socket are double insulated.
The CPU 4+4 pin connector pins are all isolated as are the sockets on the mb.
You would have to post a picture to be more certain.
I can tell you honestly the ud3p is tip-top ,were talking 9.5 out of 10 on the quality front.

Try the suggestions I gave you when you get home.

Id also be interested to see your thermal margin in amd overdrive while running a prime blend test.

There's a reason I don't use the stock amd coolers, if you have substandard or mundane case airflow the stock coolers can do a very poor job under heavy load.

Looking at your build Id like to see a grab of cpu-z memory & SPD tabs - its unlike your rambis running at its rated speed/timings by default.

 

[InfernalSurge]

While it sounds a not ideal thing to have done its unlikely to be the problem.

The pins & the socket are double insulated.
The CPU 4+4 pin connector pins are all isolated as are the sockets on the mb.
You would have to post a picture to be more certain.
I can tell you honestly the ud3p is tip-top ,were talking 9.5 out of 10 on the quality front.

Try the suggestions I gave you when you get home.

Id also be interested to see your thermal margin in amd overdrive while running a prime blend test.

There's a reason I don't use the stock amd coolers, if you have substandard or mundane case airflow the stock coolers can do a very poor job under heavy load.

Looking at your build Id like to see a grab of cpu-z memory & SPD tabs - its unlike your rambis running at its rated speed/timings by default.

That is good to hear. I'll do so and keep you updated. For case airflow, I only have the 2 default fans that came with the HAF 912. I think the stock CPU cooler is dumping all the heat on my GPU as it is rather hot 2when idle.

 

[InfernalSurge]

While it sounds a not ideal thing to have done its unlikely to be the problem.

The pins & the socket are double insulated.
The CPU 4+4 pin connector pins are all isolated as are the sockets on the mb.
You would have to post a picture to be more certain.
I can tell you honestly the ud3p is tip-top ,were talking 9.5 out of 10 on the quality front.

Try the suggestions I gave you when you get home.

Id also be interested to see your thermal margin in amd overdrive while running a prime blend test.

There's a reason I don't use the stock amd coolers, if you have substandard or mundane case airflow the stock coolers can do a very poor job under heavy load.

Looking at your build Id like to see a grab of cpu-z memory & SPD tabs - its unlike your rambis running at its rated speed/timings by default.

Unfortunately, enabling HPC and disabling C1E didn't help. However, I think I might have located where the real problem is. In GPU-Z's bus interface, it says PCI-E 3.0x16@x2 2.0. Why is it saying this?! My motherboard says it has two PCI-E x16 slots, one running at x16 and the other at x4 but I'm pretty sure I've plugged my graphics card in the correct slot... http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5194#sp

 

[madmatt30]

While it sounds a not ideal thing to have done its unlikely to be the problem.

The pins & the socket are double insulated.
The CPU 4+4 pin connector pins are all isolated as are the sockets on the mb.
You would have to post a picture to be more certain.
I can tell you honestly the ud3p is tip-top ,were talking 9.5 out of 10 on the quality front.

Try the suggestions I gave you when you get home.

Id also be interested to see your thermal margin in amd overdrive while running a prime blend test.

There's a reason I don't use the stock amd coolers, if you have substandard or mundane case airflow the stock coolers can do a very poor job under heavy load.

Looking at your build Id like to see a grab of cpu-z memory & SPD tabs - its unlike your rambis running at its rated speed/timings by default.

Unfortunately, enabling HPC and disabling C1E didn't help. However, I think I might have located where the real problem is. In GPU-Z's bus interface, it says PCI-E 3.0x16@x2 2.0. Why is it saying this?! My motherboard says it has two PCI-E x16 slots, one running at x16 and the other at x4 but I'm pretty sure I've plugged my graphics card in the correct slot... http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5194#sp

the gpu-z readout is normal mate - that info is absolutely correct

honstly run a prime blend test with amd overdrive cpu status tab running - its the most relaible way of seeing whats happening while the cpu is under load.

 

[InfernalSurge]

While it sounds a not ideal thing to have done its unlikely to be the problem.

The pins & the socket are double insulated.
The CPU 4+4 pin connector pins are all isolated as are the sockets on the mb.
You would have to post a picture to be more certain.
I can tell you honestly the ud3p is tip-top ,were talking 9.5 out of 10 on the quality front.

Try the suggestions I gave you when you get home.

Id also be interested to see your thermal margin in amd overdrive while running a prime blend test.

There's a reason I don't use the stock amd coolers, if you have substandard or mundane case airflow the stock coolers can do a very poor job under heavy load.

Looking at your build Id like to see a grab of cpu-z memory & SPD tabs - its unlike your rambis running at its rated speed/timings by default.

Unfortunately, enabling HPC and disabling C1E didn't help. However, I think I might have located where the real problem is. In GPU-Z's bus interface, it says PCI-E 3.0x16@x2 2.0. Why is it saying this?! My motherboard says it has two PCI-E x16 slots, one running at x16 and the other at x4 but I'm pretty sure I've plugged my graphics card in the correct slot... http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5194#sp

the gpu-z readout is normal mate - that info is absolutely correct

honstly run a prime blend test with amd overdrive cpu status tab running - its the most relaible way of seeing whats happening while the cpu is under load.

Alright, I've ran the Prime95 blend test and Overdrive says all my cores are at 100%. In Overdrive, the frequency ranges from 3500MHz to 3700Mhz, the multiplier is at 17.50x, the VID is at 1.3v, and the thermal margin is around 14 degrees C. However, my frequency sometimes drops to 2900MHz on a random core, and the multiplier drops to 14.50 along with it. Is this normal?

*Edit: This is interesting, I've disabled APM in the bios and now my multiplier is always at 17.50x in AMD Overdrive when running Prime95 blend test. Miraculously, GPU-Z also indicates that my graphics card is running at x16 2.0, instead of x2. My CPU thermal margin is a bit higher than previous in Overdrive and my frequency seems to be stuck at ~3500MHz (no more random boosting to ~3700MHz). I guess this solves my problem?

 

[madmatt30]

The clock jumps you were seeing in prime were normal.
The turbo function ,while boosting 2 or 3 cores also drops clicks on the remaining cores to keep within the chips 125w tdp.

Disabling turbo would have been my next suggestion & seeing as disabling APM also serves the same purpose (disabling either APM or turbo automatically disables the other)

I would now honestly look at getting a decent aftermarket cooler & sitting the CPU at a 20x multiplier (4000mhz) minimum.
The fact you're still getting double figures under a blend test with the stock cooler & the voltage you've mentioned of 1.3 would indicate you have a good chip there.

I've mentioned before - I never use stock coolers & always disable turbo ,then set the base clock to a minimum of the chips rated turbo clock.

99% of amd chips will do this on stock voltage - yours should be no exception
Will be interesting to see if this does increase your cpu usage in game now ?
On dirt rally benchmark my 8320 pulls 75% on core 0,50% on core 1 & the rest of the cores around 20% - so really as a total 35-40% cpu usage is fairly normal.

 

[InfernalSurge]

The clock jumps you were seeing in prime were normal.
The turbo function ,while boosting 2 or 3 cores also drops clicks on the remaining cores to keep within the chips 125w tdp.

Disabling turbo would have been my next suggestion & seeing as disabling APM also serves the same purpose (disabling either APM or turbo automatically disables the other)

I would now honestly look at getting a decent aftermarket cooler & sitting the CPU at a 20x multiplier (4000mhz) minimum.
The fact you're still getting double figures under a blend test with the stock cooler & the voltage you've mentioned of 1.3 would indicate you have a good chip there.

I've mentioned before - I never use stock coolers & always disable turbo ,then set the base clock to a minimum of the chips rated turbo clock.

99% of amd chips will do this on stock voltage - yours should be no exception
Will be interesting to see if this does increase your cpu usage in game now ?
On dirt rally benchmark my 8320 pulls 75% on core 0,50% on core 1 & the rest of the cores around 20% - so really as a total 35-40% cpu usage is fairly normal.

Good to know my chip's working properly. I will look into an aftermarket cooler asap (Hyper 212 enough?). I totally forgot to check Dirt Rally after disabling APM, although I think I saw a slightly higher and more stable CPU usage in GTA V but the GPU usage keeps jumping around and causes some nasty fps drops (at 90%-100% GPU usage, my fps is 50-60 but when it randomly jumps below 50/60%, my fps dips into the low 40s). I suppose overclocking my CPU like you said will help increase my fps?

One last question, since I can't overclock until I get a new heatsink, should I leave APM/Turbo off? I've heard that enabling them gives better single thread performance?: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/132797-overclock-with-turbo-and-resolve-amd-fx-throttle-issues/

 

[madmatt30]

The clock jumps you were seeing in prime were normal.
The turbo function ,while boosting 2 or 3 cores also drops clocks on the remaining cores to keep within the chips 125w tdp.

Disabling turbo would have been my next suggestion & seeing as disabling APM also serves the same purpose (disabling either APM or turbo automatically disables the other)

I would now honestly look at getting a decent aftermarket cooler & sitting the CPU at a 20x multiplier (4000mhz) minimum.
The fact you're still getting double figures under a blend test with the stock cooler & the voltage you've mentioned of 1.3 would indicate you have a good chip there.

I've mentioned before - I never use stock coolers & always disable turbo ,then set the base clock to a minimum of the chips rated turbo clock.

99% of amd chips will do this on stock voltage - yours should be no exception
Will be interesting to see if this does increase your cpu usage in game now ?
On dirt rally benchmark my 8320 pulls 75% on core 0,50% on core 1 & the rest of the cores around 20% - so really as a total 35-40% cpu usage is fairly normal.

Good to know my chip's working properly. I will look into an aftermarket cooler asap (Hyper 212 enough?). I totally forgot to check Dirt Rally after disabling APM, although I think I saw a slightly higher and more stable CPU usage in GTA V but the GPU usage keeps jumping around and causes some nasty fps drops (at 90%-100% GPU usage, my fps is 50-60 but when it randomly jumps below 50/60%, my fps dips into the low 40s). I suppose overclocking my CPU like you said will help increase my fps?

One last question, since I can't overclock until I get a new heatsink, should I leave APM/Turbo off? I've heard that enabling them gives better single thread performance?: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/132797-overclock-with-turbo-and-resolve-amd-fx-throttle-issues/

itll boost anything upto 4 of the cores,but will drop clocks on the remaining cores to compensate,if a title is multithreaded this can inadvertantly cause fps drops & stutters.
Id leave it off mate in all honesty.

 

[InfernalSurge]

The clock jumps you were seeing in prime were normal.
The turbo function ,while boosting 2 or 3 cores also drops clocks on the remaining cores to keep within the chips 125w tdp.

Disabling turbo would have been my next suggestion & seeing as disabling APM also serves the same purpose (disabling either APM or turbo automatically disables the other)

I would now honestly look at getting a decent aftermarket cooler & sitting the CPU at a 20x multiplier (4000mhz) minimum.
The fact you're still getting double figures under a blend test with the stock cooler & the voltage you've mentioned of 1.3 would indicate you have a good chip there.

I've mentioned before - I never use stock coolers & always disable turbo ,then set the base clock to a minimum of the chips rated turbo clock.

99% of amd chips will do this on stock voltage - yours should be no exception
Will be interesting to see if this does increase your cpu usage in game now ?
On dirt rally benchmark my 8320 pulls 75% on core 0,50% on core 1 & the rest of the cores around 20% - so really as a total 35-40% cpu usage is fairly normal.

Good to know my chip's working properly. I will look into an aftermarket cooler asap (Hyper 212 enough?). I totally forgot to check Dirt Rally after disabling APM, although I think I saw a slightly higher and more stable CPU usage in GTA V but the GPU usage keeps jumping around and causes some nasty fps drops (at 90%-100% GPU usage, my fps is 50-60 but when it randomly jumps below 50/60%, my fps dips into the low 40s). I suppose overclocking my CPU like you said will help increase my fps?

One last question, since I can't overclock until I get a new heatsink, should I leave APM/Turbo off? I've heard that enabling them gives better single thread performance?: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/132797-overclock-with-turbo-and-resolve-amd-fx-throttle-issues/

itll boost anything upto 4 of the cores,but will drop clocks on the remaining cores to compensate,if a title is multithreaded this can inadvertantly cause fps drops & stutters.
Id leave it off mate in all honesty.

Thank you for the help, I'd give you 10 best answers if I could