Weird clock speeds on 290

[a3venom]

Hi, I have a ref 290 hair dryer edition, I can't help but notice strange patterns in my gpu clock speeds while playing games.

for eg -
Witcher 3 will use 100% gpu on msi afterburner and run it at 999 mhz constant playing for hours, fan will work as intented i have a profile set up, and temp will be locked at 88 - 91 depending.

GTA V will keep going in between 900 - 999 for some reason if when temps are in early 80s

Dota will go between 800 - 999 ( not that performance matters there, but why? )

etc etc, varies for different games, but temps never reach 94 in any of them because my fan speed is pretty high in afterburner

the games run perfect I just wanna know if they can be even better if it doesnt throttle?

 

[pendragon1]

sounds like throttling. try reapplying the thermal paste with something good. see if that helps.

 

[Nenu]

Have you set the power limit to max?

 

[pendragon1]

Have you set the power limit to max?

good point. crank it up!
but cleaning is still a good idea with any card.

 

[a3venom]

Have you set the power limit to max?

No. Because 500w PSU so i thought that would blow shit up.

But does it make sense for it to not throttle in witcher 3 but throttle in dota 2 with vsync??

 

[Quix]

No. Because 500w PSU so i thought that would blow shit up.

But does it make sense for it to not throttle in witcher 3 but throttle in dota 2 with vsync??

You'd have to ask AMD's hardware engineers, they're the only ones who could answer that.

 

[Nenu]

No. Because 500w PSU so i thought that would blow shit up.

But does it make sense for it to not throttle in witcher 3 but throttle in dota 2 with vsync??

The drivers will react to games they are coded for.
Special branches are used to help some games perform better.
So the results from game to game can differ.
Different BIOS versions can react differently as well.

But expect throttling if you dont allow it to use max power. It controls the power use by reducing clocks.
Expect some throttling even when this is set to max and you have high end cooling with some games!
...unless you have a BIOS designed to prevent throttling.

I had a 290x with a AC Xtreme III cooler fitted, it didnt ever reach 60C yet would still throttle with some games.
It didnt really matter though tbh.

 

[a3venom]

The drivers will react to games they are coded for.
Special branches are used to help some games perform better.
So the results from game to game can differ.
Different BIOS versions can react differently as well.

But expect throttling if you dont allow it to use max power. It controls the power use by reducing clocks.
Expect some throttling even when this is set to max and you have high end cooling with some games!
...unless you have a BIOS designed to prevent throttling.

I had a 290x with a AC Xtreme III cooler fitted, it didnt ever reach 60C yet would still throttle with some games.
It didnt really matter though tbh.

Thanks that makes total sense to me, i ll put the slider up to 50%

 

[Nenu]

Oh yes, Pendragons idea of changing the thermal paste can help too.
I change the paste on almost every card I get and it has always helped by a few C.

Although I just realised I havent on my current card because the cooler is effing mental anyway and it clocks like a loony with low temps.
The name makes me laugh, "Inno3D GTX 980 ‘iChill Herculez X4 Air Boss Ultra"
http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=123
Review if curious enough
http://www.kitguru.net/components/g...980-ichill-herculez-x4-air-boss-ultra-review/

 

[a3venom]

"Inno3D GTX 980 ‘iChill Herculez X4 Air Boss Ultra" HOLY BALLS
This card has more SWAGhZ than a titan X and 390x SLI crossfire in one

 

[TheGamerZ]

It doesn't only throttle based on temperatures. It also throttles based on load. If it doesn't need to be running at full tilt to render a game, it wont.

 

[picket23]

Witcher 3 will use 100% gpu on msi afterburner and run it at 999 mhz constant playing for hours, fan will work as intented i have a profile set up, and temp will be locked at 88 - 91 depending.

GTA V will keep going in between 900 - 999 for some reason if when temps are in early 80s

Dota will go between 800 - 999 ( not that performance matters there, but why? )

Clearly temps are not the issue seeing as though the game that runs the card at the highest temps is the one that does not throttle. NFI why people are suggesting temps are your issue.

the games run perfect I just wanna know if they can be even better if it doesnt throttle?

If the games are running perfect then I would suggest that the cards are functioning normally. So one reason that they may be downclocking is that they are hitting a frame rate limit (e.g vsync or cpu bottleneck, etc.) that means running at a higher clockspeed will not produce a higher frame rate. This is standard behaviour of GPUs and CPUs and has been for sometime.

You haven't provided enough data to establish with absolute certainty whether what you are experiencing is normal behavior or an issue. However, given what you have told us, by far the most likely answer is that you card is functioning normally and the reason it down clocks is because there is no performance advantage to be had by staying at max clock speed.

If you are using v-sync in the games, disable it and see what happens with your clockspeed. If this doesn't produce any change then check for a cpu bottleneck by monitoring both cpu and gpu usage and fps to see what is happening.

It doesn't only throttle based on temperatures. It also throttles based on load. If it doesn't need to be running at full tilt to render a game, it wont.

Check out what GamerZ said also. +1 to him for actually comprehending your post instead of seeing "r9 290 throttling" and then going into a frenzy about temps. Sometimes cards only hit their max boost with a little push of the power slider. I usually just add 10%.

 

[ebduncan]

you said your games are running fine.

I would be willing to bet vsync is on. The card only clocks as high as it needs to once 60fps or whatever your monitors refresh rate is achieved.

or it could be power throttling in the more demanding games such as GTA V. Its certainly not power throttling in Dota, as the game is locked to 120fps even with vsync off.