RX 550 Underclocked?

[renzloX08]

Good day. I have a 6mon old rx 550 2gb on my system. Upon checking on global wattman, I noticed that the engine and memory clock is lower than it should be. The default engine clock is maxed out at 1069mhz and memory clock to 1500mhz/96 gbytes memory bandwidth which is lower than the one advertised on the website and the one I've been reading on the net.

http://pulse.sapphiretech.com/en/550-2.html#specifications

Is this normal or is there something wrong in the card? BTW I cant return this anymore since this is a replacement for the old card that i returned (rx 460).

Should I just overclock it on wattman to match the one on the site? Whenever I increase the memory clock my PC sometimes restarts while gaming (Even light gaming).

Also one more thing. Im planning on upgrading my CPU (A8-5600k) to match the performance of the GPU. Its bottlenecking alot of games especially on MHW. What CPU do you think is a good match for this GPU? Dont need future proof CPU just need one for this GPU. (Been reading g4560 is a good match)

Thanks in advance.

 

[iyzik]

Have you reinstalled/upgraded the graphics drivers and confirmed all of the aux power to the card is plugged in? Also, have you checked the temperatures on the card? If it is overheating, it may block the power state that would allow it to boost to 1200MHz core.

EDIT: As for the CPU, what motherboard do you have, and do you plan on upgrading it as well? Your current socket is FM2, which is old and doesn't have much room to expand beyond the CPU that you have. You could maybe get an A10 but they are still old and relatively weak. Otherwise you will need a new motherboard and possibly RAM as well.

 

[renzloX08]

Yes all cables are properly connected, drivers reinstalled/updated, OS reinstalled still same issue. There is no heating problem. around 40 degrees while idle then 60-70 degrees while gaming.

Yes I'll replace the mobo too. Just need a good match CPU for this GPU without bottlenecking each other.

 

[iyzik]

If you are going to be gaming primarily, you'd be better off with an i3-8100 or a Ryzen 5 1500X. They are both quad cores and would perform better for a similar price point. The Ryzen is a little pricier but has 4 cores / 8 threads against the Intel's 4 cores / 4 threads.
And of course a new motherboard and preferably some DDR4 RAM for either option.

As for the GPU, have you tried increasing only the engine clock, and not touching the memory clock? Overclocking GPU memory can be touchy.

 

[renzloX08]

If you are going to be gaming primarily, you'd be better off with an i3-8100 or a Ryzen 5 1500X. They are both quad cores and would perform better for a similar price point. The Ryzen is a little pricier but has 4 cores / 8 threads against the Intel's 4 cores / 4 threads.
And of course a new motherboard and preferably some DDR4 RAM for either option.

As for the GPU, have you tried increasing only the engine clock, and not touching the memory clock? Overclocking GPU memory can be touchy.

Wouldnt those CPU's be bottlenecked by my GPU? I'll try increasing only the engine clock. Do I need to increase the power limit also? Im new to this overclock thing.

 

[huhityrocker]

Just get a second hand 6th gen i5. Will be able to run with no problems. I presume you have DDR3 ram.
You would need a new motherboard as well, but those are easier to find.
It all depends on whether you want to save money and have budget options, or get something new.
You could even get a 7th gen if you wanted to.
AMD Cpu's are another option, with the Ryzen 5 2200 being a good pick for mid level PC's. Only problem being that you would have to replace your ram, which would add on another $130, if you're lucky. Otherwise around $160.
Then it would be a matter of whether the gpu isn't good enough when you've spent all the money on mobo, cpu, ram etc.

 

[renzloX08]

Just get a second hand 6th gen i5. Will be able to run with no problems. I presume you have DDR3 ram.
You would need a new motherboard as well, but those are easier to find.
It all depends on whether you want to save money and have budget options, or get something new.
You could even get a 7th gen if you wanted to.
AMD Cpu's are another option, with the Ryzen 5 2200 being a good pick for mid level PC's. Only problem being that you would have to replace your ram, which would add on another $130, if you're lucky. Otherwise around $160.
Then it would be a matter of whether the gpu isn't good enough when you've spent all the money on mobo, cpu, ram etc.

I dont think I want to upgrade to ddr4 just yet. I am thinking of getting the g4560. I think its the cheapest bnew one I can get. I just hope there are no more bottlenecks.

As for my underclocked GPU any ideas? Is it possible for a manufacturer to release an underclocked unit? Even the specs on their website are different.

 

[huhityrocker]

Just get a second hand 6th gen i5. Will be able to run with no problems. I presume you have DDR3 ram.
You would need a new motherboard as well, but those are easier to find.
It all depends on whether you want to save money and have budget options, or get something new.
You could even get a 7th gen if you wanted to.
AMD Cpu's are another option, with the Ryzen 5 2200 being a good pick for mid level PC's. Only problem being that you would have to replace your ram, which would add on another $130, if you're lucky. Otherwise around $160.
Then it would be a matter of whether the gpu isn't good enough when you've spent all the money on mobo, cpu, ram etc.

I dont think I want to upgrade to ddr4 just yet. I am thinking of getting the g4560. I think its the cheapest bnew one I can get. I just hope there are no more bottlenecks.

As for my underclocked GPU any ideas? Is it possible for a manufacturer to release an underclocked unit? Even the specs on their website are different.

I dont think so.
Maybe you fiddled with the settings, or set something to 'auto' which reduced the clock.
As for the g4560, it wont bottlneck. Although, it is a pretty mediocre cpu compared to previous gen ones. You could even look at a 3570k which turbos up to 3.8 ghz. That would also mean you need a better cpu cooler.
I honestly dont know whether the current gen (6,7,8th) accept ddr3, or whether theyre ddr4 only.

 

[huhityrocker]

UPDATE: make sure you dont get the pentium g4560. It is only dual-core and will be very slow, especially with ddr3 ram and a hard drive. Go with something that has 4 cores. As i said before, look at something like an i5-4460 or an i7-3570k which may only be available second hand, but are still very good cpus.

 

[iyzik]

All CPU/GPU combinations will "bottleneck" each other in one way or another. Trying to get an exactly equally powered CPU and GPU is a useless endeavor. One will bottleneck the other in one game, and then the next game will be the other way around. "Bottlenecking" can be a bit of a paradox. The only time I would consider it to be a problem is when the CPU is consistently bottlenecking the GPU to a significant degree, in every game.

And like the above post says, I do not recommend you get a Pentium. It is a dual core and you can get a similarly priced quad core that will be far more powerful. Yes, your GPU may "bottleneck" it in some games, but so what? That just means you are using your GPU to its full capacity, that is not a bad thing. Why would you buy the weaker dual core when you get a much more powerful quad core for almost the same exact price?

 

[renzloX08]

Its hard to get past gens parts in my country. Most are 2nd hands that have been used in offices/gaming cafes which I dont want to buy. Thanks for the answers. Maybe I'll save a little more money and buy atleast a ryzen 3 1200.