[SOLVED] Why is my 6900xt underperforming ?

[bigsmithyrogers]

Ok so I have recently upgraded from a 1660 super to a 6900xt. I have a:

MSI MAG X570S Tomahawk MOBO,
a ryzen 7 3700x,
6900xt
a 850w Corsair psu.
Most recent version of bios.
Vsync off.

I am trying to play apex legends at 1440p at 165hz, but my fps is not stable or anywhere near what I’ve seen other gamers with similar specs have. I can’t seem to hold 165 stable even on low settings and high settings I get 100-120 fps and it even drops under 100 sometimes. Keep this in mind that everything’s on the lowest settings and my friend said his 2080 super performs better than mine in 1440p. I guess I just expected my card to smash apex legends in 1440p with stable fps at least on low settings considering the 6900xt is supposed to be the top shelf card in the amd market. My thermals and everything are normal all drivers recently updated. Did a windows reset and reinstalled everything so I’m not sure what else to try.

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

AMD Radeon™ RX 6900 XT Drivers & Support | AMD

Ok i've done it, do i install chipset drivers for my mobo?
https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/x570
theres like 3 other drivers underneath chipset not sure whether i need them or not

 

[kurdtnz]

Ok i've done it, do i install chipset drivers for my mobo?
https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/x570
theres like 3 other drivers underneath chipset not sure whether i need them or not

I would just do the chipset

 

[kurdtnz]

Let us know how if your system has improved after you've downloaded everything and played a few games etc. good luck!

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

I've done the DDU and re-installed the drivers unfortunately there's been no change in the performance still getting very low fps on the lowest settings in 1440p (low 100' fps to 140-150)

 

[kurdtnz]

I've done the DDU and re-installed the drivers unfortunately there's been no change in the performance still getting very low fps on the lowest settings in 1440p (low 100' fps to 140-150)

damn, sorry i couldnt help any further but im sure someone here will.

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

damn, sorry i couldnt help any further but im sure someone here will.

Thanks for trying

 

[RodroX]

Thanks for trying

If you want, you could try to go into the BIOS and look for some setting like "pcie1 x16 mode: xxxxxx", options should be "Auto, Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3, Gen 4", see if using "Gen 4" helps. Or if its already in "Gen 4", try "Auto".


If that doesn't help either, then perhaps its about time to make a clean install of Windows. You can download a Windows 10 Creation Tool from Microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

All you need is an empty 8GB or higher usb drive.

Remember to Backup all your important data, files, pics, etc. before you re-partition and/or format your current Windows drive.

When you start installing drivers I would go with:

1. Chipset
2. GPU
3. Everything else

And even if its not necessary if a driver prompt you to restart, its usually better to do it, even if it said you can do it later.

 

[Elezondo]

Apex legends at low settings, even at 1440p, is going to be CPU bound most likely. Can you rerun user benchmark after restarting your computer and letting it sit idle for a couple minutes? Your first benchmark has 10% background CPU usage.

 

[5900x]

Apex legends at low settings, even at 1440p, is going to be CPU bound most likely. Can you rerun user benchmark after restarting your computer and letting it sit idle for a couple minutes? Your first benchmark has 10% background CPU usage.

Adding to this, another possibility could be the 6900xt is an extreme card and your cpu might be bottlenecking it right off the bat.

 

[alceryes]

I also suggest a full Windows wipe and reinstall. Going through a 'reset' can just lead to more problems.
After the Windows reinstall and AMD drivers (chipset and GPU) please run through a few 3DMark Timespy runs and post a link to your results as well.

 

[Sleepyyyy21]

So you stopped using amds software? Is oc’ing fairly straight forward? I’ve never done anything like that as I’m quite a pc novice

Yes it feels like the software was causing mine to act weird

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

I also suggest a full Windows wipe and reinstall. Going through a 'reset' can just lead to more problems.
After the Windows reinstall and AMD drivers (chipset and GPU) please run through a few 3DMark Timespy runs and post a link to your results as well.

Whats the easiest way to do this?

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

Adding to this, another possibility could be the 6900xt is an extreme card and your cpu might be bottlenecking it right off the bat.

I've seen a few people say this, then a few people disagree so I really don't know what one is true.
I've considered upgrading to a 5900x but I'm worried it will not solve the problem and it will be money down the drain.

 

[alceryes]

I've seen a few people say this, then a few people disagree so I really don't know what one is true.
I've considered upgrading to a 5900x but I'm worried it will not solve the problem and it will be money down the drain.

Bottlenecking is a thing but it is regularly blown out of proportion. First you need to verify what the actual issue is, otherwise, you're just shooting in the dark (and hitting your wallet).

Backup all your data, wipe your OS drive, and reinstall Windows. Then install your chipset and GPU drivers, and any other drivers for hardware not recognized in device manager, then start testing. Note that you will also have to reinstall all your games and apps. Give us some 3DMark Timespy tests and new Userbenchmark tests, for starters.

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

Bottlenecking is a thing but it is regularly blown out of proportion. First you need to verify what the actual issue is, otherwise, you're just shooting in the dark (and hitting your wallet).

Backup all your data, wipe your OS drive, and reinstall Windows. Then install your chipset and GPU drivers, and any other drivers for hardware not recognized in device manager, then start testing. Note that you will also have to reinstall all your games and apps. Give us some 3DMark Timespy tests and new Userbenchmark tests, for starters.

How do I reinstall windows, save the windows 10 download on a usb then where do I go from there? Is there a good website tutorial I can follow?

 

[alceryes]

Ahhh, If you're not sure you definitely should watch and read several tutorials.
YouTube has a few dozen - just search for 'reinstalling Windows 10 from USB' or something along those lines. You'll want to download and run the 'Windows 10 media creation tool' to create your Windows 10 install USB.

Just make sure you have all your data backed up and all your software installation media (files/programs) and license keys ready to go. Once you delete all the partitions on your OS drive there's no going back.

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

Ahhh, If you're not sure you definitely should watch and read several tutorials.
YouTube has a few dozen - just search for 'reinstalling Windows 10 from USB' or something along those lines. You'll want to download and run the 'Windows 10 media creation tool' to create your Windows 10 install USB.

Just make sure you have all your data backed up and all your software installation media (files/programs) and license keys ready to go. Once you delete all the partitions on your OS drive there's no going back.

What's the difference between resetting/reinstalling windows? I reset it the other day as per directed by a local IT company, and i reinstalled everything on my system, games, drivers, programs. And had no improvement. What would be the difference with completely reinstalling it?

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

Here are some recent benchmarks I've ran
https://prnt.sc/21gzvlc

https://prnt.sc/21gwn8h

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/48389539

 

[5900x]

Between both of your user benchmarks your RAM went from underperforming to good performance and your gpu gained 6%. What did you do? So maybe the setup is limiting the 6900xt after all to stretch it's legs straight.

Personally I'm against all the re-install Windows theories for the lack of a few frames, I would just stick with what I have considering it's 100+fps big deal, which is like not a problem really, people with 60fps would know but again they won't have 6900xt. I still believe cards of the caliber of 6700/6800/6900/3070/3080/3090 can only perform beastifully with a Ryzen 5000 series compared to your cpu.

 

[bigsmithyrogers]

Between both of your user benchmarks your RAM went from underperfoming to good perfomance and your gpu gained 6%. What did you do? So maybe the setup is limiting the 6900xt after all to stretch it's legs straight.

Personally I'm against all the re-install windows theories for the lack of a few frames, I would just stick with what I have considering it's 100+fps big deal, which is like not a problem really, people with 60fps would know but again they won't have 6900xt. I still believe cards of the caliber of 6700/6800/6900/3070/3080/3090 can only perform beastifully with a Ryzen 5000 series compared to your cpu.

I downloaded smart game booster on steam, it turns out running my gpu on low settings was doing worse for it than high settings as it wasnt pushing my gpu enough. I hold 165 fps now in game but obviously when i leave the jumpship on apex legends and move around certain areas of the map it will dip down to about 120 fps and under but for the most part its a lot more stable. I think I will unlock my cards full potential if i upgrade my cpu and maybe some more ram.

 

[alceryes]

...it turns out running my gpu on low settings was doing worse for it than high settings as it wasnt pushing my gpu enough...

That's now how it works.

I downloaded smart game booster on steam...

Be careful with these 'performance booster' programs. Some of them will install viruses/adware/spyware and gather mountains of personal info to sell to 3rd parties. If you really want to see if the game booster is doing anything you'll need to do some actual testing like a minimum of 10 tests both with and without it running, dropping the high and low, and averaging the rest. If the result is still within 1-2% then it's inconclusive - test again.

I hold 165 fps now in game but obviously when i leave the jumpship on apex legends and move around certain areas of the map it will dip down to about 120 fps and under but for the most part its a lot more stable....

I don't think the game booster did anything.
Remember that, the relative score of Userbenchmark (the one in each component's description) is a measure of you vs. all others with that particular component. An actual bench score (the score to the right) increase of just 1% can propel your relative score up substantially because most results are crowded around 2-3 percentile numbers. You only gained 1.2% performance on CPU and 2.7% performance on memory between the two Userbenchmark tests. This change is easily within testing variance. I also noticed that your background tasks are a bit high. That should be under 5% for a true test.

...when i leave the jumpship on apex legends and move around certain areas of the map it will dip down to about 120 fps and under but for the most part its a lot more stable...

Apex is an online game. Are you getting hitches/micro stutters? Also, what monitor model are you using?

I think I will unlock my cards full potential if i upgrade my cpu and maybe some more ram.

More RAM will do nothing to increase performance in this instance. I doubt upgrading your CPU would either.

 

[alceryes]

Personally I'm against all the re-install Windows theories for the lack of a few frames...

I don't recommend a full Windows wipe and reload to gain FPS (although that may be a side effect). Depending on what you select during a 'reset' you could keep things like configuration files around - files that may be corrupted or have incorrect/bad information.
Whenever I recommend a full wipe and reinstall it's to try and be (reasonably) sure that the OS isn't the cause of any issues you may be having.

 

[alceryes]

What's the difference between resetting/reinstalling windows? I reset it the other day as per directed by a local IT company, and i reinstalled everything on my system, games, drivers, programs. And had no improvement. What would be the difference with completely reinstalling it?

If during the 'reset' you told it not to keep anything then it's probably okay. Depending on the mfg., resetting can also install mfg. OEM software - which is sometimes not wanted when diagnosing issues. If none of your stuff was there and you had to reinstall all your data, apps, programs, and drivers, then you're good.