Quick R9 290x question

Sheza

New member
Hi,

I just switched from a 560Ti to an R9 290X. I'm used to clock speed being as follows:
Idle: 100~ Mhz
Non-Gaming Load: 450Mhz
Load: 950Mhz

But this one fluctuates a lot. I'm assuming it's some kind of feature, could someone explain? I'm especially curious as to why it doesn't go below 300 when not in games, as it's something the 560Ti used to do and I assume it consumed less power and generated less heat as it did so.

Cheers!
 
They are called power states, it's and automatic feature and it ramps up the Mhz when it needs more(from idle for 2D and 3D applications). For example there is no point for it to run at max Mhz when browsing or working on a document.
It doesn't go below 300 because that's how it's programmed in software. I believe you can change that with a custom GPU bios but it's not really worth it unless you are a bored master tinkerer.
Also I haven't tested it but I doubt the difference in power and heat at 100Mhz vs 300Mhz would be significant.
 
it will idle at 300mhz as that is what AMDs ULPS(ultra-low-power-state) is set at. It'll stay at 300mhz on the core and 150mhz on the memory last I checked. It's normal for it to change as your usage changes it just adapts to the load your putting on it.
 
The GPU usage or the core clock? My GPU does that spike then idle thing in AB. It's just AB i'm sure. It doesn't really matter tbh though. It won't ruin the card or anything
 
I think that's power play, only clocks the card as hard as its being pushed, best thing to do, is run a stress test 3mark fire strike extreme, see if the card behaves, maybe a throttling issues if the temps are too high.

It's not uncommon for power play to be intrusive, 9/10 people have it disabled which is a matter of just ticking a check box
 
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