[SOLVED] RX 5700XT Sapphire Pulse downclocks while in-game Valorant.

Sep 16, 2021
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0
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GPU: AMD RX 5700-XT Sapphire Pulse
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (AS500 Plus cooler)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X570-P
BIOS Version: 4021
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3400 C16 2x8GB
PSU: RM Series™ RM850 — 850 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified
Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO 20H2
GPU Drivers: Adrenalin Driver Version: 21.9.1

Description:
The GPU is reaching ~2K Mhz clock speeds without any issues in the lobby/ agent select phase. GPU's power consumption stays 90W-130W.
While the card is receiving anything above ~70 watts, the clock speeds stay more or less stable. All of this changes once I actually join the server, the clock speeds start to dip to 300-400Mhz, I've noticed that this happens at the same time when there is a dip in watts. Usually if it dips below ~70W the GPU downclocks and my FPS and clock speed drop.
Messing around with the power limit in Adrenaline did not help. I've tried to set it to -50;+50;-20;+20% power consumption etc.
I've tried multiple Voltage /Frequency settings - this would increase the clock speeds, but the Mhz/W dips would still persist.
Just upgraded to a new cooler thinking that my CPU was thermal throttling and thus bottlenecking my GPU, but alas the temps are stable and the issue is still there.
I've ruled out a faulty PSU only due to the fact that the power consumption is fine while in the lobby/agent select. (might be wrong). Even tried to switch from AUTO to PCIE 3& PCIE 4 manually via bios - nothing. Tried rolling back to previous versions, and DDU'd my GPU.
This only happens in Valorant. For some reason it feels like the GPU just goes to sleep for a couple of seconds.
Here's the video example of the issue (had to use windowed mode in order to record AMD's Overlay metrics, in full screen the clock speeds are +2000 and dips down to 300-400Mhz).

Maybe there is a way to limit the minimum wattage that goes into the GPU at all times?
Hopefully you guys can help and give some proper advice on this.

Thanks!
 
Solution
GPU: AMD RX 5700-XT Sapphire Pulse
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (AS500 Plus cooler)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X570-P
BIOS Version: 4021
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3400 C16 2x8GB
PSU: RM Series™ RM850 — 850 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified
Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO 20H2
GPU Drivers: Adrenalin Driver Version: 21.9.1

Description:
The GPU is reaching ~2K Mhz clock speeds without any issues in the lobby/ agent select phase. GPU's power consumption stays 90W-130W.
While the card is receiving anything above ~70 watts, the clock speeds stay more or less stable. All of this changes once I actually join the server, the clock speeds start to dip to 300-400Mhz, I've noticed...
GPU: AMD RX 5700-XT Sapphire Pulse
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 (AS500 Plus cooler)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME X570-P
BIOS Version: 4021
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws V DDR4 3400 C16 2x8GB
PSU: RM Series™ RM850 — 850 Watt 80 PLUS® Gold Certified
Operating System & Version: WINDOWS 10 PRO 20H2
GPU Drivers: Adrenalin Driver Version: 21.9.1

Description:
The GPU is reaching ~2K Mhz clock speeds without any issues in the lobby/ agent select phase. GPU's power consumption stays 90W-130W.
While the card is receiving anything above ~70 watts, the clock speeds stay more or less stable. All of this changes once I actually join the server, the clock speeds start to dip to 300-400Mhz, I've noticed that this happens at the same time when there is a dip in watts. Usually if it dips below ~70W the GPU downclocks and my FPS and clock speed drop.
Messing around with the power limit in Adrenaline did not help. I've tried to set it to -50;+50;-20;+20% power consumption etc.
I've tried multiple Voltage /Frequency settings - this would increase the clock speeds, but the Mhz/W dips would still persist.
Just upgraded to a new cooler thinking that my CPU was thermal throttling and thus bottlenecking my GPU, but alas the temps are stable and the issue is still there.
I've ruled out a faulty PSU only due to the fact that the power consumption is fine while in the lobby/agent select. (might be wrong). Even tried to switch from AUTO to PCIE 3& PCIE 4 manually via bios - nothing. Tried rolling back to previous versions, and DDU'd my GPU.
This only happens in Valorant. For some reason it feels like the GPU just goes to sleep for a couple of seconds.
Here's the video example of the issue (had to use windowed mode in order to record AMD's Overlay metrics, in full screen the clock speeds are +2000 and dips down to 300-400Mhz).

Maybe there is a way to limit the minimum wattage that goes into the GPU at all times?
Hopefully you guys can help and give some proper advice on this.

Thanks!

To me at least, it doesn't sound like the issue is that your GPU is 'choosing' to draw less power and thus you need a power draw floor; it sounds like there is another component in your system that temporarily limits your GPU's ability to process frames, resulting in a power draw drop.

It doesn't seem to be your PSU, that's a really good unit.

I'm assuming that you have XMP enabled in your BIOS to ensure your RAM is running the fastest it can?

It could be an issue with weak single-core performance, something that Ryzen 3000 series CPUs suffer from. I'm guessing that when you join a server there tends to be a large amount of objects drawn in on your screen; this is a lot of work for your CPU, and if one of it's threads get maxed out, it can prevent it from sending frames to your GPU consistently, causing your GPU to be underutilized which in turn lowers it's power draw and your fps.
 
Solution
Sep 16, 2021
3
0
10
To me at least, it doesn't sound like the issue is that your GPU is 'choosing' to draw less power and thus you need a power draw floor; it sounds like there is another component in your system that temporarily limits your GPU's ability to process frames, resulting in a power draw drop.

It doesn't seem to be your PSU, that's a really good unit.

I'm assuming that you have XMP enabled in your BIOS to ensure your RAM is running the fastest it can?

It could be an issue with weak single-core performance, something that Ryzen 3000 series CPUs suffer from. I'm guessing that when you join a server there tends to be a large amount of objects drawn in on your screen; this is a lot of work for your CPU, and if one of it's threads get maxed out, it can prevent it from sending frames to your GPU consistently, causing your GPU to be underutilized which in turn lowers it's power draw and your fps.

XMP (D.O.C.P.) is enabled.

Cinebench R23 tests are on the lower side, scoring:
8010 on Multi core test;
1104 on Single core test.

Should I try to overclock the CPU before opting for a new chip ?
At this point everything goes.
Thank you!
 
@F1rstwave
Below the OS version, it has your run history. The very first run has your system running as it's supposed to. All of the rest have the CPU base clock and turbo clock at 3.95Ghz which I guess does not help. Did you do that change? Also you need to free some space in your SSD as most ssds tend to run slower when they have less than 30% free space.
 
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