DO NOT USE: MSI Afterburner to Benchmark Vulkan Doom or Wolfenstein II on a Radeon GPU

shankly1985 · 24 Aug 2018 at 07:38

Just a FYI thread
I stopped using MSI afterburner a long time ago I also thought it effected my performance even in DirectX. I never did test it though.

Panos · 24 Aug 2018 at 08:53

shankly1985 said:
Just a FYI thread
I stopped using MSI afterburner a long time ago has I also thought it effected my performance even in DirectX. I never did test it though.

There is no reason what so ever to use MSI AB with AMD GPUs for years now.
The AMD drivers have all the functionality needed to do better job.

Ayahuasca · 24 Aug 2018 at 10:12

has I won’t do that.

GoogalyMoogaly · 24 Aug 2018 at 19:58

Panos said:
There is no reason what so ever to use MSI AB with AMD GPUs for years now.
The AMD drivers have all the functionality needed to do better job.

Can you set a proper fan curve now? Last time I looked it was min and max fan speed or something really basic.
Do the AMD driver monitor software stuff also monitor CPU and RAM usage/temps? Handy to have that in one place.

Thinking of switch back to my FuryX again (using 980, switched to FuryX, had issues with performance and monitor flickering, switched back to 980, problems went away. But my monitor is Freesync so tempted to put the FuryX back in).

I just keep using MSI AB because I'm used to it. I like the graphs and I like that I can have it on a 2nd monitor, but if you can do that without AB I might give it a shot.

Panos · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:01

GoogalyMoogaly said:
Can you set a proper fan curve now? Last time I looked it was min and max fan speed or something really basic.
Do the AMD driver monitor software stuff also monitor CPU and RAM usage/temps? Handy to have that in one place.

Thinking of switch back to my FuryX again (using 980, switched to FuryX, had issues with performance and monitor flickering, switched back to 980, problems went away. But my monitor is Freesync so tempted to put the FuryX back in).

I just keep using MSI AB because I'm used to it. I like the graphs and I like that I can have it on a 2nd monitor, but if you can do that without AB I might give it a shot.

Is the RTSS server (the overlay) that creates the issues not the MSI AB without the overlay server.

ltron · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:08

This happens to me on a GTX 1080 too, even using the FPS counter in the Steam overlay decreases performance.

Nexus18 · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:23

Not noticed any problems with MSI AB + RTSS on my 290.

Until AMD gives me an option where I can just have one slider for undervolting, MSI AB shall be staying, I'm not faffing about with several states........

Panos · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:34

Nexus18 said:
Not noticed any problems with MSI AB + RTSS on my 290.

Until AMD gives me an option where I can just have one slider for undervolting, MSI AB shall be staying, I'm not faffing about with several states........

It has 1 slider for undervolting. is called power limit at the end of the screen

Nexus18 · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:42

Panos said:
It has 1 slider for undervolting. is called power limit at the end of the screen

Power limit is not the same thing as undervolting the core voltage:

As I said, you can do it via AMD's panel but it is nowhere as easy as MSI AB.

Davedree · 24 Aug 2018 at 20:48

Ever since polaris it's been OverdriveNtool for me.

Panos · 24 Aug 2018 at 21:05

Nexus18 said:
Power limit is not the same thing as undervolting the core voltage:

As I said, you can do it via AMD's panel but it is nowhere as easy as MSI AB.

Yet you can lower the power delivered to the GPU greatly, and is been used by the default settings (Power save etc).

Nexus18 · 24 Aug 2018 at 21:09

Panos said:
Yet you can lower the power delivered to the GPU greatly, and is been used by the default settings (Power save etc).

Those preset options are not present for a 290.

EastCoastHandle · 24 Aug 2018 at 21:35

so your saying that if you don't use RTSS then you won't experience the performance decrease?

LoadsaMoney · 24 Aug 2018 at 21:49

Never had any probs here with AB, the FRTC in the drivers, doesn't work in all games, nor does the Overlay i found.

V F · 25 Aug 2018 at 21:03

If you run MSI Afterburner plus RTS, it greatly hinders CS:GO's map loading times.

Kainz · 26 Aug 2018 at 13:51

I've been using AB for years on my 290 mainly because it is accessible and gets straight to the point for tweaks. AMD's panel is just all looks and an untidy UI that puzzles the hell out of me - I still haven't a clue how to use it. Just give me a bunch of sliders with values instead of some useless fancy graph.

I do have a few games like Black Flag, which for some reason my gpu core clock fluctuates on causing fps drops everywhere but that's about it.

EastCoastHandle · 26 Aug 2018 at 15:52

So what's the solution to those who have cards that can turn the fans off?
Anyone remember intelligent fan control ii?

thermal control
With multiple thermal sensors built into the R9 GPU, a dedicated AMD Advanced Fan Control system precisely regulates the speed of each individual fan to achieve the lowest possible speeds for a targeted operating temperature.

And here is the rub

AMD manufactures the physical GPU chip and provides it to manufacturers like MSI, ASUS, etc. These companies design boards around the basic GPU supplied by AMD. That means they mean tweak or change some features of the the GPU. The Crimson ReLive drivers are based on a standard GPU implementation and therefore if there are customizations made by the AIB, the driver does not have access to all the features.

https://community.amd.com/thread/209006

So, what do we do to get the features that are incorporated into the card by that AIB's custom board if AMD isn't willing to implement them in their Drivers?

So far we are only left with our own wit to use MSI AB to create our own custome profile to mimic what the AIB designed for the card.

If there is something I'm missing to get this to work properly I'm all for knowing what one must do.

If I'm not mistaken the min. acoustic limit is what's missing for most. No idea how to get that to show up on Wattman.

Martini1991 · 26 Aug 2018 at 19:37

Wattman for me didn't handle the fan well enough on my Vega 64, I absolutely require MSI AB for the fan curve.

Plus, unless AMD's changed it since its inception, the OSD for the AMD drivers was craptacular.

GoogalyMoogaly · 26 Aug 2018 at 20:24

Martini1991 said:
Wattman for me didn't handle the fan well enough on my Vega 64, I absolutely require MSI AB for the fan curve.

Plus, unless AMD's changed it since its inception, the OSD for the AMD drivers was craptacular.

Have they not expanded the fan control to be a fan curve? Panos didn't actually answer me when I asked. That's annoying. If you're going to the effort of putting fan control in, why not put in a fan curve?

EastCoastHandle · 27 Aug 2018 at 00:47

no fan curve in AMD gpu drivers as a whole. Many have asked countless times in the past. To no avail.