Question Stuttering with an RX 6700 XT ?

Apr 30, 2024
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Sorry for the weird formatting, this is a copy & paste cos no one helped on reddit

A quick bit of info, I got a used Rx 6700 XT (likely used for mining as i can see dust and corrosion), theyre a very reputable seller very responsive and open to helping. They tested the card before sending it out and it got 9600 on 4k using the superposition benchmark (I got around 9300 with an undervolt).

When I got the card i plugged it into my PC, booted up DDU in safe mode got rid of old drivers both NVIDIA (I was running a GTX 970 before this) and AMD just in case. Downloaded the latest WHQL drivers from AMD and i booted up valorant, stuttery mess... The FPS wasnt too bad tho not nearly the upgrade I hoped from the GTX 970s 320ish FPS up to 360 on the 6700. Occasionally it would even fall down to the 200s and at times 100s when a lot was going on and freezes for a few seconds sometimes.

Because of this I thought that maybe the card was faulty due to being mined on but i tested further and found a lot of ppl had the same problem to varying degrees with the 6700 XT. So I tried some fixes and after going through A TON of fixes I managed to get very stable FPS (after updating chipset drivers) and got up to 600 FPS in game in val. At this point I was running the 23.11.1 drivers. I woke up the next day to find that after booting up my PC had somehow updated the drivers on its own and that Adrenalin would no longer open as it was not compatible with the driver version.

So now I know that the GPU isnt the problem but smth with the drivers. I also know it isnt the seating of the GPU nor the PSU cables, nor is it the CPU either cause I hadnt touched it prior to stutter issue coming back.

Games with the Stutter:
- Valorant (Big freezes with certain util, terrible constant micro stutter, & Low FPS) Doesnt stutter in regular DM or modes with no Util
- Marvel Rivals (major drops in FPS but for the most part running at 120ish FPS native)
- Apex (Rare big drops/freezing for a few seconds most of the time very minor microstutter)
- Risk of Rain (very occasional frame drop when loading new stage)

PC Specs:
- R5 5600
- 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz CL18
- RX 6700 XT Pulse
- B350m PRO-VDH
- Corsair CX750

TL;DR
Got a used RX 6700 XT, it's having stuttering issues, using a ton of different fixes I managed to get it super smooth and high FPS after updating chipset drivers, auto update caused it to break again and rolling back didn't help.
Happens mostly in valorant team death match, does not happen in regular DM or gamemodes with no util
I think i should also mention I boot using CSM not UEFI so I cant activate SAM (I dont think this is related but just a detail that might mean smth), Ive been using CSM for a few years and I managed to get the GPU to run smooth at some point in CSM so i dont think its related but just in case

The card is never really drawing more than 170w on any game and on val its constantly sitting around 40% usage and is very cool at 60 degrees. CPU also seems to be fine sitting at around 50-70% in Val so it isnt temps or throttling from what I can tell. If anything to me it seems like the GPU is being under utilized in Val

A few of the fixes I tried:
- Changing to performance mode
- Reinstallig Drivers
- Reinstalling the chipset drivers a second time
- Setting all AMD settings to off
- Installing GPU drivers without Adrenaline
- Turning off TPM
- Turning off PBO or any CPU undervolt/overclock
- Rolling back drivers to known stable ones such as 23.11.1 and 22.5.1
- Setting minimum frequency 100Mhz below Max frequency (seems to reduce stutter A BIT)

I havent yet Factory Reset but im getting a new SSD soon and so I plan on testing that out if all else fails
 
Last edited:
Sorry for the weird formatting, this is a copy paste cause no one helped on reddit

A quick bit of info, I got a used Rx 6700 XT (likely used for mining as i can see dust and corrosion), theyre a very reputable seller very responsive and open to helping. They tested the card before sending it out and it got 9600 on 4k using the superposition benchmark (I got around 9300 with an undervolt).

When I got the card i plugged it into my PC, booted up DDU in safe mode got rid of old drivers both NVIDIA (I was running a GTX 970 before this) and AMD just in case. Downloaded the latest WHQL drivers from AMD and i booted up valorant, stuttery mess... The FPS wasnt too bad tho not nearly the upgrade I hoped from the GTX 970s 320ish FPS up to 360 on the 6700. Occasionally it would even fall down to the 200s and at times 100s when a lot was going on and freezes for a few seconds sometimes.

Because of this I thought that maybe the card was faulty due to being mined on but i tested further and found a lot of ppl had the same problem to varying degrees with the 6700 XT. So I tried some fixes and after going through A TON of fixes I managed to get very stable FPS (after updating chipset drivers) and got up to 600 FPS in game in val. At this point I was running the 23.11.1 drivers. I woke up the next day to find that after booting up my PC had somehow updated the drivers on its own and that Adrenalin would no longer open as it was not compatible with the driver version.

So now I know that the GPU isnt the problem but smth with the drivers. I also know it isnt the seating of the GPU nor the PSU cables, nor is it the CPU either cause I hadnt touched it prior to stutter issue coming back.

Games with the Stutter:
- Valorant (Big freezes with certain util, terrible constant micro stutter, & Low FPS) Doesnt stutter in regular DM or modes with no Util
- Marvel Rivals (major drops in FPS but for the most part running at 120ish FPS native)
- Apex (Rare big drops/freezing for a few seconds most of the time very minor microstutter)
- Risk of Rain (very occasional frame drop when loading new stage)

PC Specs:
- R5 5600
- 16GB DDR4 3200Mhz CL18
- RX 6700 XT Pulse
- B350m PRO-VDH
- Corsair CX750

TL;DR
Got a used RX 6700 XT, it's having stuttering issues, using a ton of different fixes I managed to get it super smooth and high FPS after updating chipset drivers, auto update caused it to break again and rolling back didn't help.
Happens mostly in valorant team death match, does not happen in regular DM or gamemodes with no util
I think i should also mention I boot using CSM not UEFI so I cant activate SAM (I dont think this is related but just a detail that might mean smth), Ive been using CSM for a few years and I managed to get the GPU to run smooth at some point in CSM so i dont think its related but just in case

The card is never really drawing more than 170w on any game and on val its constantly sitting around 40% usage and is very cool at 60 degrees. CPU also seems to be fine sitting at around 50-70% in Val so it isnt temps or throttling from what I can tell. If anything to me it seems like the GPU is being under utilized in Val

A few of the fixes I tried:
- Changing to performance mode
- Reinstallig Drivers
- Reinstalling the chipset drivers a second time
- Setting all AMD settings to off
- Installing GPU drivers without Adrenaline
- Turning off TPM
- Turning off PBO or any CPU undervolt/overclock
- Rolling back drivers to known stable ones such as 23.11.1 and 22.5.1
- Setting minimum frequency 100Mhz below Max frequency (seems to reduce stutter A BIT)

I havent yet Factory Reset but im getting a new SSD soon and so I plan on testing that out if all else fails
Check GPU BIOS version, they are usually flashed by special version that limits power and voltage.
as for forced driver updates.
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/...ndows-updates-from-downloading-and-installing
 
The fact that both the vendor and you benchmarked the card and (apparently?) had no concerns with the values suggests it's not a hardware issue.

I've got a 6700XT Pulse and don't have any issues with stuttering in any games, but I don't play any of those you've listed.

Looking on r/ValorantTechSupport there are huge numbers of people complaining about stuttering. A lot of claims that the game isn't optimised for AMD when it comes to shader building, although also loads of people with RTX 30/40/50 cards with stuttering issues. Suggestions of making sure the game is on an SSD, lowering mouse polling, turning off, Vanguard this, Discord hardware acceleration that, and so on. No easy fixes that work for everyone.

You said it doesn't happen in regular deathmatch or game modes, but in team deathmatch. It's pointing towards it being something on the Valorant side so you're probably better off concentrating your efforts there. I don't know if Vanguard would be more active in team than regular.
 
The fact that both the vendor and you benchmarked the card and (apparently?) had no concerns with the values suggests it's not a hardware issue.

I've got a 6700XT Pulse and don't have any issues with stuttering in any games, but I don't play any of those you've listed.

Looking on r/ValorantTechSupport there are huge numbers of people complaining about stuttering. A lot of claims that the game isn't optimised for AMD when it comes to shader building, although also loads of people with RTX 30/40/50 cards with stuttering issues. Suggestions of making sure the game is on an SSD, lowering mouse polling, turning off, Vanguard this, Discord hardware acceleration that, and so on. No easy fixes that work for everyone.

You said it doesn't happen in regular deathmatch or game modes, but in team deathmatch. It's pointing towards it being something on the Valorant side so you're probably better off concentrating your efforts there. I don't know if Vanguard would be more active in team than regular.
well yea for the most part it is in valorant but it seems like smth on the driver side from AMD that has caused an issue and that whatever I did to fix it caused considerable FPS improvement in both 1% lows, averages, and spanned across multiple games as well.
I will be getting a new SSD soon and ill be factory resetting my PC so hopefully thatll be enough