Random (?) stutter since latest AMD update : Fallout 4

» Sat Jan 16, 2016 7:31 am

Hi everyone,

As the title says, I have stutter that doesn't seem to be that random. Actually, it's a combination of stutter and drops in FPS. These drops are always at the same places and don't involve anything that should be weighing heavily on my system. By that, I mean that the drop can be triggered by simply looking the ground (which, at some places, doubles the fps... or diminishes them by half). Here are my sepcs:

Windows 7

Core i5 - 3470 @ 3.20 ghz

8 gb RAM (DDR3)

AMD R9 380 with 4 GB VRAM (Crimson Edition 15.12, latest driver to this date)

So yeah, I should be running Fallout 4 very good. And here's the odd thing: the latest AMD patch made the game way more optimized (I'm squeezing more frames out of about every place) but it also provokes the fps drops (30-40 fps + stutter). The weirdest thing is that it seems to be an issue with the VSync option of the game. When I change iPresentInterval=1 to iPresentInterval=0, the FPS drops dissapear and my FPS is all the time above 60 with everything but the shadows and godrays on the highest quality levels. But, of course, it speeds up the game, as widely known. AMD's software doesn't force the Vsync through the Crimson-control center. Other things I tried that failed to make the game playable:

-Revert to older drivers reduces general FPS

-Rivatuner Statistics Server doesn't limit the game's framerate to 60

-ENBseries limiting the FPS to 60 makes the game OK... But with horrible screen tearing.

I'm getting quite desperate. Any ideas?

» Sat Jan 16, 2016 9:27 am

Other than Rivatuner do you run any GPU monitoring/OCing software?

I'm taking a shot in the dark here due to recent events with my own driver update issues.

I ran into an issue with my FPS being nailed after a driver update. After troubleshooting I discovered it was due to MSI Afterburner.

I had typed up a post but never created the topic/added it anywhere. I'll add it here in a spoiler tags in case anyone notices the same after an AMD driver update and who also uses MSI Afterburner specifically but it may happen with similar utilities.

Spoiler

I was running the game on Ultra settings (Game detected.) with only Shadow Distance/Quality and Godrays turned down to Medium. I was maintaining 60 FPS most of the time minus those known places with issues, like the Diamond City stair top (Mid 40's lowest.) looking over the city.

I noticed when looking at someones dxdiag report there was a newer display drive for my card so I updated to it. I then went to test FO4 and I was getting terrible FPS, as in half (23 FPS) of what I was getting at the top of the stairs in Diamond City pre-update along with some stutter. Changing the game to Low settings had no effect good or bad, same FPS. I tried rolling back to the earlier drivers but it was the same. I deleted the ini files. Nothing helped.

Well, long story short is I use MSI Afterburner to monitor, and OC my GPU. As soon as I killed MSI Afterburner (Auto-starts with Windows.) my FPS went back to normal. I then reinstalled/updated Afterburner (A newer version was available so why not.) and then reverted my OC to default, then reapplied it.

My FPS are now back to normal.

» Sat Jan 16, 2016 6:31 am

I updated both RTSS and MSI Afterburner a few days ago. My graphics card is using the standard frequencies, no OC whatsoever. I deactivated all programs that could make the game lose all those frames. No difference. Looking at the sky or the ground halves my normal FPS when the iPresentInterval-setting is set to "1" in the Fallout 4's .ini's.... It doesn't make any sense.