Random fps drops in games on nitro 5.

Hello everyone, after adding a ssd to my laptop and reinstalling windows 10 every game now is unplayable: in first one-two minutes of gameplay, everything is fine, but then every few seconds i get weird fps drops which last not more than one second or so. I have this laptop for like 10 months and this problem never happened before reinstalling the windows.
I have amd ryzen 7 2700u and rx 560x 4gb and this problem happens only when i am using discrete(rx560x) gpu(when using the integrated one, everything is fine).
In the adrenalin software i notice that the gpu clock speed is suddenly going down every time when fps drops happens.

What i tried to fix this problem and not worked:
-Clean installed(using ddu and amd clean up utility) too many versions of graphic drivers(from amd site + acer oem driver for my laptop) to understand that this is not the problem;
-Reinstalled windows 10 again;
-Disabled ultra power low state from registry editor - https://community.amd.com/thread/176003 ;
-Set powerplans to high performance on windows and also on nitro sense;
-Turned off windows's game mode, game bar and captures;
I also noticed that windows updates do not have an impact on this problem;

I gave up trying to find a solution alone so i hope you guys can help me.

My specs:
Laptop model: ACER Nitro 5 AN515-42-R8VD;
BIOS version: 1.13
Windows 10 Education;
CPU: Amd Ryzen 7 2700u with iGPU vega 10;
GPU: Amd RX 560X 4gb;
RAM: 8gb;
HDD: Toshiba 1tb;
SSD(new added): WD Green 240gb

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MaClane

Good afternoon vasi_ !

Windows installed on the SSD, correct?
Are games also installed on the SSD or HDD?

vasi_

MaClane said:

Good afternoon vasi_ !

Windows installed on the SSD, correct?
Are games also installed on the SSD or HDD?

Yep, windows is installed on the SSD.
Most of the games are installed on HDD, except for the The Witcher 3 which is installed on SDD. All of them have this problem.

MaClane

This is already a huge mistake ...
NEVER install applications (mainly games) on separate disk drives.
Worse still the situation for being an SSD and an HDD since the final access speed of the HDD is much lower and generates access delays.
You must reinstall ALL games on the SSD drive where Windows is located.

vasi_

MaClane said:

This is already a huge mistake ...
NEVER install applications (mainly games) on separate disk drives.
Worse still the situation for being an SSD and an HDD since the final access speed of the HDD is much lower and generates access delays.
You must reinstall ALL games on the SSD drive where Windows is located.

But The Witcher 3 is installed on the SSD and it still get fps drops.
Right now i disabled the HDD's Sata port from BIOS and tried play Witcher and the problem is still present.

I just read that this problem could be related to gpu temperature(gpu throttling) and it is possible to get fixed by changing the thermal paste of the gpu.
Do you think it's worth trying this?

MaClane

The question is much bigger related to your device that does not have adequate support for games.

Mainly the lack of support from Adrenalin drivers.

Check these settings:

1- all drivers and Windows must be properly updated
2- the device must be set to use the Windows high performance power plan
3- the battery must be charged to 100% before playing
4- the battery must be set to advanced power options for maximum performance
5- game applications must be set on the dedicated GPU Panel (Adrenalin) to be the main
6- the device must be connected directly to an exclusive power outlet, properly grounded without any adapter

andylb

Firstly your BIOS version should be 1.16 go here to update
https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7605?b=1

Run through my GPU guide below

The new AMD Adrenalin 2020 Control Center is designed to give support for your hardware and contains Mobile Driver support for this exact model, the Graphics Drivers on the Acer site are only base drivers. If you haven't already downloaded and installed it then click the link below to download it. If you get a failure installing the new Control Center then download and run DDU https://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html for a clean uninstall of your current AMD Center and Drivers then try to install again

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-1-4

First make sure you game with your battery charged to 100% BEFORE gaming and KEEP plugged into the main AC power while gaming. Make sure "High Performance when on AC", is selected in your Windows Power Plan and in Nitrosense. If you fail to do this your CPU will run at around 50% of capacity and you will experience poor game performance

Open the New AMD 2020 Control Center and click the GAMING tab then click the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner and select ADD A GAME, navigate to your games .exe file and double click it to add it, or you can select SCAN FOR GAMES and let the Control Center search your harddrive for games to add. After successfully adding the game click on the game and you will be taken to another window and click the LAUNCH GAME tab.
Only in this way will your games use the Discrete Rx560x GPU, NEVER launch your game through a desktop shortcut or any other way, do it in the manner I have described.

Please remember that online gaming may experience low fps and stutter due to the games servers and bottlenecking and that has nothing to do with your GPU.

PLEASE CLICK YES IF I HAVE ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION, THANKYOU

vasi_

Thanks for the suggestions guys, i will uninstall my driver using ddu and replace it with the linked version of driver and then proceed to launch the games in the conditions you described.
I am feeling nervous to update my bios, i really don't want to mess up something and fry laptop's motherbase and i am also feeling that this will not solve the problem cause i never encountered this strange drops of fps from the moment i updated the bios to 1.13 until in present when reinstalled the windows on ssd.

andylb

If your not comfortable updating the BIOS leave it alone but it is not as scary as people think. Download and unzip the BIOS update then run the .exe, before you do make sure you are plugged into the ac power, close all running programs including antivirus.

vasi_

So nothing worked...but now i am really concerned that the gpu temperature is the trouble:

I turned on "always on top" adrenalin option to see how dGPU performance evolve during a regular gameplay on witcher with graphic settings set to highest values and i could see clearly how everytime i get that **** fps drops, my rx 560x temps are 89 degrees celsius(they never seems to reach 90). Everytime when this is happening the the clock speed and also the power consumtion(W) become pretty low(from 50-60 W to around 10 W) and temps seems to decrease pretty fast from 89 to like 70. After that the temps slowly go up and this cycle is not stopping.

After i set all graphic settings to low and limited the fps to 30 the temps didn't exceed 85 degrees and in this way no fps drop has been recorded.

I will definitely change the thermal paste and i will also get a cooling pad for my little baby.

Right now i am really curious why this problem started just after i upgraded the ssd and until now everything seemed to be fine. I mostly hope i didn't do any damage inside him when i mounted that **** ssd(static electricity worries me). What i did extra was to blow some air over other components who seemed to be pretty dusty.

vasi_

Can you guys please help me find a way to lower gpu max usage so that temps wil not reach 89 anymore? Just until the future hardware improves

andylb

It’s most likely going to be solved by repasting, use Grizzly Kryonaut. What were your COU temperatures, run Nitrosense in the background then post a screenshot please

vasi_

So there are:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/df/nm9hdwhyltai.png

While in regular usage, cpu has a 44 degrees at 10%-20 % loading, during gameplay the temps can reach 73-74 degrees having usage betwen 30 and 60 percent.
Also cpu temperature didn't fluctuated as much as gpu during gameplay (also not in regular usage). Temperature stayed most of the time between 72 and 74 celsius degrees.

Are these temperatures normal or should i change cpu thermal pasta too?