[SOLVED] RX 580 performing terribly.

[theultimante]

Hi there everyone! About six months ago, I bought my PC. This was my first windows PC, after playing on a mac for many years. I bought a RX 580 Sapphire Nitro+ 8GB, with a Ryzen 5 2400g, and 16gigs of DDR4 3200mhz ram.

I always thought my frames were kind of lackluster, running games like overwatch at what I thought was ok, at about 100-120 on my 144hz monitor on low settings. It was only when I saw my friend, with a 1050ti, on medium settings, get 140 frames that I realised something was wrong with my PC.

Since then, I've tried many things. DDU reinstall of all drivers, overclocking my CPU to 3.9ghz, lowering all settings to a point where it hurts to look at, etc. The breaking point was today when I saw a video of someone with my exact specs get a consistent 144 frames on Ultra settings.

What can I do? I'm happy to provide any info at all. Should also probably mention that Display cable is in gpu, not motherboard.

Thanks in advance!

 

[ZippyDoodah]

Maybe it's not your GPU, perhaps your RAM may be faulty or your temps may be too high that its being throttled. Check your temps for all the components you can and see if they are all as they should be.

If that is ok, i suggest you download memtest86 and use that to test your ram sticks. If you have 2 ram sticks and you get an error, then remove 1 stick and test again, if there is no error then put the other ram stick in and test. This one should have the problem with it.

Also you could check your utilization of your RAM, CPU and GPU and see if one is constantly maxed out or is too high.

Can you provide a full specification list please. Thanks!

 

[theultimante]

Maybe it's not your GPU, perhaps your RAM may be faulty or your temps may be too high that its being throttled. Check your temps for all the components you can and see if they are all as they should be.

If that is ok, i suggest you download memtest86 and use that to test your ram sticks. If you have 2 ram sticks and you get an error, then remove 1 stick and test again, if there is no error then put the other ram stick in and test. This one should have the problem with it.

Also you could check your utilization of your RAM, CPU and GPU and see if one is constantly maxed out or is too high.

Can you provide a full specification list please. Thanks!

I'll give it a try. Thanks!

 

[ZippyDoodah]

I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Cool!

Also have you enabled XMP? Open task manager and go to the performance tab, under memory see if the speed is at 3200. If it isn’t please enable xmp in the bios settings and try overwatch again.

 

[theultimante]

Cool!

Also have you enabled XMP? Open task manager and go to the performance tab, under memory see if the speed is at 3200. If it isn’t please enable xmp in the bios settings and try overwatch again.

I haven't. You are a great person, thanks for the help!

 

[ZippyDoodah]

I haven't. You are a great person, thanks for the help!

Of course!!

Let me know how it goes!

 

[ZippyDoodah]

I haven't. You are a great person, thanks for the help!

Did u try it?

 

[tennis2]

+1 to getting XMP enabled right away!

Also, the lower your settings and the lower your resolution, the more the stress shifts from your GPU to your CPU.

As a gross over-generalization, a CPU can only process so many FPS. As you lower the amount of work the GPU has to do (by lowering detail or resolution settings) the GPU cranks out more FPS than the CPU can handle and you essentially hit an FPS wall.
Your CPU isn't bad, but it's not the fastest thing out there, so I could believe that it may be hitting its limits. Try stepping up the detail settings. I bet you get to...High before you see FPS start to decrease below your current 120FPS.

What CPU does your friend have? Your graphics card is >50% faster than his when there's no CPU limitation.

You can also download a program called "GPUz" to monitor your GPU frequency while gaming to make sure it's running at the expected rates. RX580s are pretty notorious for power throttling themselves when voltage is left on Auto.

 

[theultimante]

Hey everyone. Thank you all for your extremely detailed replies.

Basically, my first thanks to tennis2, for helping me to realize how framerates work.

Also, massive, humongous thanks to ZippyDoodah for recommending XMP, and getting me to test my ram sticks, which had no problem thankfully. Havent found how to turn it on XMP yet, but that's exactly what i'm doing after writing this.

To put it simply, as well, is that my GPU was undervolting itself. A quick change of the voltage controls in Wattman fixed that.

Thank you all for your help, you are all amazing people! Have a great day!

 

[ZippyDoodah]

Hey everyone. Thank you all for your extremely detailed replies.

Basically, my first thanks to tennis2, for helping me to realize how framerates work.

Also, massive, humongous thanks to ZippyDoodah for recommending XMP, and getting me to test my ram sticks, which had no problem thankfully. Havent found how to turn it on XMP yet, but that's exactly what i'm doing after writing this.

To put it simply, as well, is that my GPU was undervolting itself. A quick change of the voltage controls in Wattman fixed that.

Thank you all for your help, you are all amazing people! Have a great day!

Great to hear your troubleshooting is going well! As the saying goes, it’s better to teach a man how to fish than to give a man a fish. Best of luck as you finish and hopefully resolve your problems, let us know how it goes

 

[digitalgriffin]

Undervolting shouldnt really affect your performance. In some cases it may enhance it.

Gpu boost rate is often tied to die temp. The cooler the die the higher the clock. Well heat is directly tied to voltage. V*v/R = Power. Most of that power gets disappated as heat.

So undervolting it might work to your advantage. Next allow up to 50% power boost. But personally i never go above 20%. Then crank the fans to 100% and keep them there. More power means less component life.

All gpus come with a higher voltage so a higher percentage of silicon is considered good for use. A card that is considered unstable at 1.0 volts is more likely to be stable at 1.1volts (and so on up to a point.). But most of us should be able to operate with a slightly lower voltage.

Btw: xmp is set in the bios.

 

[tennis2]

Auto voltage always demands more power than a card needs to be stable. Unfortunately, when you get cards like the RX570/RX580 which are simply overclocked RX470/RX480, you run into temperature limits (as mentioned above) OR power limits (which is less obvious since temps can be fine in this case). "Power" = voltage.

If you take the time to test what voltage your card actually needs (referred to as undervolting), it opens up "power" budget for higher frequencies. In the case of RX570/RX580 cards, those "higher frequencies" may also include the manufacturer advertised speed of the card (since auto voltage sometimes asks for so much voltage, you hit power limits before you reach the advertised speed).

Conversely, increasing the "power limit %" allows voltages to drift even higher. It can/will allow the card to get/ stay at higher frequencies, but it also results in more power draw, heat, and noise.

Here's an undervolting guide I can provide voltages for you if you give me the 7 frequencies in WattMan for your card.