The AMD Driver Thread

[Phixsator]

None taken

I guessing with The Division you have tried FRTC etc? I dont have the game installed anymore to test myself.

No i have not. i used the ingame vsync or the ingame frame limiter. FRTC has been unreliable so i dont care much for it at this point. I fail to see how this is relevant to the whole "freesync is not working within freesync range" issue.

 

[shankly1985]

No i have not. i used the ingame vsync or the ingame frame limiter. FRTC has been unreliable so i dont care much for it at this point. I fail to see how this is relevant to the whole "freesync is not working within freesync range" issue.

When you say you get choppy/stutter does this happen even if Freesync is disabled at driver level?
With Vsync disabled and freesync enabled do you see screen tear?

They is a couple things Freesync wont fix and that is ingame loading of texture streaming stutter something I know Division suffered with really bad not sure how much they improved this.

Do we know the stutter just isn't game related?

Why I say use FRTC is because this forces the game engine frame rate to match the driver frame rate, I have had better experiences with FRTC on demanding games, where the frame rate can change so much.

btw am only trying to help, I might give Division a install over the weekend and report back my results I do remember Freesync working on my end.
The first thing I do with a new game, is disable Vsync and Freesync, load into game, look for screen tear, see screen tear ALT-TAB back out and enable Freesync if Screen tear is gone, I dont need to use Vsync or FRTC for that title.

 

[Chewie]

I've tried with FRTC on and it doesn't change anything, Freesync appears to be inactive/mot doing anything. It's either driver or game related as I definitely had it working before.

And again The Division is only an example here, other games also have an issue which is why I tend to think it's driver related.

 

[Chewie]

Also, for those of who of you who might have problem with Freesyncs I think the explanation (from an AMD guy) below will be useful:

[–]AMD_RobertTechnical Marketing 4 points 1 month ago*

OP, I see you're using FreeSync and FRTC together. Don't. The FRTC algorithms that analyze frames to reject useless ones can interfere with the rolling frame time analysis performed by FreeSync to synchronize the display with the GPU. If you are using FreeSync, your FPS is being capped anyways because you have vsync enabled alongside it to pull the FPS back down when it exceeds the DRR range supported by the display. And if you didn't want vsync enabled to contain the framerate to the DRR range of the display, because you cared about the lowest possible input latency, then you wouldn't be using FRTC.

//edit for clarity: If an app's FPS is within the DRR range of a monitor, then the FPS vs. Hz will be synced 1:1. The vsync setting matters for what happens outside of the DRR range. If vsync is on, then the GPU will simply reject frames to keep you within the DRR range of the display if the FPS tries to go above the range. If vsync is off, then the FPS can go however high it wants and you will get input latency benefit at the expense of marginal tearing. FreeSync will resume activity if the FPS falls to the DRR range again. Below the DRR range of the display, LFC is active if the monitor supports.

In both cases, FRTC is undesirable and unnecessary in the presence of FreeSync.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/4z2spv/fix_freesync/?st=iuicx2mf&sh=ed9bcd66

I personally used to have issues with Freesync not working on some games when I was using it with FRTC, since following the recommendation above I no longer have any problems (R9 Fury + Asus MG279Q).

Quick reminder also of what I had previously found regarding FRTC and why it should not be enabled in conjunction with Freesync (direct from AMD).

 

[Phixsator]

When you say you get choppy/stutter does this happen even if Freesync is disabled at driver level?
With Vsync disabled and freesync enabled do you see screen tear?

They is a couple things Freesync wont fix and that is ingame loading of texture streaming stutter something I know Division suffered with really bad not sure how much they improved this.

Do we know the stutter just isn't game related?

Why I say use FRTC is because this forces the game engine frame rate to match the driver frame rate, I have had better experiences with FRTC on demanding games, where the frame rate can change so much.

btw am only trying to help, I might give Division a install over the weekend and report back my results I do remember Freesync working on my end.
The first thing I do with a new game, is disable Vsync and Freesync, load into game, look for screen tear, see screen tear ALT-TAB back out and enable Freesync if Screen tear is gone, I dont need to use Vsync or FRTC for that title.

The stuttering im talking about is unique to having freesync enabled but not working. This is not about engine stutter or vsync stutter or any of that sort but about freesync not syncing at all as the display stays locked to maximum refresh rate while FPS stays within DRR range. An example would be R6-siege which on driver 16.12.1(relive) it feels like it tries to sync but always uses maximum refresh rate causing weird stuttering if FPS is less than refresh rate. But as i also have stated multiple times going back to driver 16.9.2 fixes all these issues and freesync is working again across all titles ive tested. So it must be a driver issue. I dont know if its because i got a monitor that uses HDMI as its input for freesync and that the driver for this is somehow bugged but it is bugged.

 

[qwerty567111]

I do remember seeing a post about Freesync maybe being broken over HDMI, can't remember where though, here or reddit

 

[shankly1985]

Rainbow six siege Freesync working here, I was only playing it last night.

 

[shankly1985]

Quick reminder also of what I had previously found regarding FRTC and why it should not be enabled in conjunction with Freesync (direct from AMD).

I have seen this post and from a respected guy who I expect knows what he talking about.

But
What he is saying goes against all my own personal testing. Why is it that csgo or TF2 will only remove screen tear when Freesync is enabled if I use FRTC? Without FRTC I get tearing.

So his post doesn't fully make sense.

 

[realscot]

I am currently running an Asus Strix 970 but I also own a 290x with OEM cooler, so tell me, with these latest drivers, should I be taking my 970 out and putting the 290x back in? I changed because I was having issues with ths 290's drivers at the beginning of the year and it was also a little hot/noisy.

 

[Nexus18]

I am currently running an Asus Strix 970 but I also own a 290x with OEM cooler, so tell me, with these latest drivers, should I be taking my 970 out and putting the 290x back in? I changed because I was having issues with ths 290's drivers at the beginning of the year and it was also a little hot/noisy.

I most definitely would;

- faster especially over the last several months with newer games and even better drivers
- 4GB vRAM VS 3.5GB
- way better dx 12 and vulkan support which has a 290x leaving the 970 in the dust

Stick with the 16.11.5 though, the relive ones are unstable for most people.

Of course it will run hotter and louder though but try undervolting your GPU with MSI AB, this works nicely with my 290.

 

[shankly1985]

Think it's unfair to say most people having issue.
Seems the people having issues is people with software conflicting like MSI afterburner..

He doesn't even need to install msi afterburner for down voltage wattman has him covered there.

 

[Nexus18]

Think it's unfair to say most people having issue.
Seems the people having issues is people with software conflicting like MSI afterburner..

He doesn't even need to install msi afterburner for down voltage wattman has him covered there.

Looking at AMD reddit and multiple forums including here, I think it is safe to say a fair share of people are having multiple issues with the latest driver:

- network issues
- lockups
- game crashes
- relive not recording game audio sometimes (I also had this)

etc.

And yes, it could be conflicts with 3rd party programs but there are also people without any of that who still have the above issues.

 

[shankly1985]

Let's not forget here, people who have issue report issue, people who don't say nothing

These things seem bigger than the actually really are tbh

 

[nashathedog]

Think it's unfair to say most people having issue.
Seems the people having issues is people with software conflicting like MSI afterburner..

He doesn't even need to install msi afterburner for down voltage wattman has him covered there.

Agreed,

I don't use software like Afterburner and Relive is running great.

Regarding someone else's Freesync issues, I haven't got The Division to test but Fallout 4 seems to be fine, I'm using a displayport connection with a Fury pro & 1440 ultrawide monitor.

 

[Nexus18]

Let's not forget here, people who have issue report issue, people who don't say nothing

These things seem bigger than the actually really are tbh

True that but you don't see anywhere as many negative reports for the older drivers If you see more than a handful posting about issues, you know to avoid said thing.

EDIT:

Either way, Matt has acknowledge some of the problems and said that they are working on a fix so that indicates that there is problems with the latest AMD driver for some users:

Bug with the mouse pointer is back with the relive drivers.

Yep on it. Will be fixed, stay tuned for an update.

Are you guys working on fixing the ping/network issues too?

Yup.

 

[shankly1985]

They is also reports on front page of amd reddit of massive performance increases, GTA5, batman etc

Think some games need re-benching Digital Foundry

Edit
Don't get me wrong I know they is issue with the driver they is enough people to suggest this. All I was pointing out is they is way less people with issues than people with a issue.
They would be far more up votes if it was has widespread problems.

 

[Nexus18]

They is also reports on front page of amd reddit of massive performance increases, GTA5, batman etc

Think some games need re-benching Digital Foundry

Edit
Don't get me wrong I know they is issue with the driver they is enough people to suggest this. All I was pointing out is they is way less people with issues than people with a issue.
They would be far more up votes if it was has widespread problems.

Performance and stability are 2 different things Give me stability over performance any day of the week

Personally I found division wasn't quite as smooth with the new drivers though but that could have been down to the network issues... Either way, once the issues are sorted out, I am certainly looking forward to another performance boost!

And yes, I'm not saying that everyone is plagued by issues with the latest drivers but it certainly seems like there are a lot more people affected than what there usually is with AMD drivers.

 

[Phixsator]

Rainbow six siege Freesync working here, I was only playing it last night.

In that case i would like to know a few things. To help narrowing this down.

1) What driver version are you using?
2) What monitor are you using and how is it connected?
3) windows version and if its pre or post AU update.
4) What GPU are you using?
5) Is there anything besides enabling Freesync(radeon settings and the monitor OSD) that you have to do to get it to work in the games you play?

Agreed,

I don't use software like Afterburner and Relive is running great.

Regarding someone else's Freesync issues, I haven't got The Division to test but Fallout 4 seems to be fine, I'm using a displayport connection with a Fury pro & 1440 ultrawide monitor.

Thanks for sharing.. I havent come across anyone else with the same issue as i have unless they are using HDMI so i wouldnt be surprised if Displayport is working as intended.

 

[shankly1985]

In that case i would like to know a few things. To help narrowing this down.

1) What driver version are you using?
2) What monitor are you using and how is it connected?
3) windows version and if its pre or post AU update.
4) What GPU are you using?
5) Is there anything besides enabling Freesync(radeon settings and the monitor OSD) that you have to do to get it to work in the games you play?



Thanks for sharing.. I havent come across anyone else with the same issue as i have unless they are using HDMI so i wouldnt be surprised if Displayport is working as intended.

1. 16.12.1
2. BenQ XL2730Z - DisplayPort
3. Latest Windows 10 Build
4. R9 290
5. Just enable or disable within the Driver, monitor only has OSD info Freesync on or Off

 

[Yrkoon]

been noticing with the new ones that the crimson icon disappears from my system tray.

i have to go into radeon settings preferences and declick show in system tray then click it again and it then appears