Need help with video settings (Radeon R9 390 8GB)

[Lunkku]

I just bought Alien: Isolation and I really like this game, but I need some help with video settings. My hardware seems to be capable to run this game with really good fps (usually between 120-150 fps or even more), but the downside is, of course, loud fan noise coming from my graphic card. Do you think it is wise to limit fps in the Radeon software or is it better to lower the refresh rate of my monitor (I have 144Hz monitor)? Is it also necessary to use V-Sync? I am also confused with other graphic settings in this game - especially SSAO and Anti-aliasing. Which settings should I use?

I am very happy if someone can help me with this issue.

[-|Nur|-]

You could manually control the fan speed and see how the temperatures hold up; if they don't go up too much then you can settle for a slower fan speed.

[Lunkku]

Yes I can try to make manual fan curve with MSI Afterburnel. But I was thinking if it is even necessary to have high fps in game like this, because it is mostly lurking in the shadows and most of time there is no need to react fast. Is it normal that I must manually adjust fan speed manually or is there something wrong with my GPU?

[-|Nur|-]

Some recent Crimson drivers have had problems with automatic fan control.

Personally I have a 60hz monitor and have no need for more frames. 144hz purists are mostly CS:GO players.

[zorlag]

Cap your framerates with AMD frame rate limiter or Vsync.

You can also try using the power limiter in Crimson control panel. Set it to -20% in Alien: Isolation game settings profile and the card will use less power, generate less heat and thus less noise while you play.

[Lunkku]

Actually I play CS:GO too and there 144Hz is just fine, but I don't need so high refresh rate in games like Alien: Isolation.

Zorlag, I think this power limiter tip is great! To be honest I have to say that I haven't noticed this option before. Definitely I have to try it. Thank you!

[Lunkku]

I tried power limiter in Crimson control panel but it didn't solve this problem. At first I put - 20 % power limit and after that even - 30 % limit, but fan noise was still too loud for me. It seems to be the case that I have to use fps limiter in Crimson control panel. I put 65 fps limit, and with that setting the temperature of my GPU was under 60 degrees celsius and fans were rolling around 35 %. It is sad that I must limit my hardware, but I don't know if there are any other possibilities.

[zorlag]

Your Hawaii-based GPU is actually rated for very high temperatures by design. Anything below 90 degrees celcius is safe. But fan profile of the card may have been build for lower temperature in mind, depending on the model and the bios.

Crimson offers only static custom fanspeed or automatic bios setting both for individual games as well as a general setting. But you could still use this and set a tolerable fan speed in your A:I profile that is enabled only when you start this game. There are programs like MSI Afterburner or Sapphire Trixx that allow full fan profiles to be made by the user as well.

If you want to make more use of your GPUs power in situations where raising your FPS isn´t a good idea, you could try using downsampling. It´s another fairly new feature in AMD cards and goes by the name "Virtual Super Resolution" or VSR. It means that the GPU renders the game virtually at higher resolution and then downsamples the result to lower resolution. This is the best way to do anti-aliasing in A:I. You can find this option from "Display" section of Crimson control panel. You can render at 1440p or even 4k and see what sort of FPS you get.

[Lunkku]

I found this Virtual Super Resolution option from Crimson control panel and put it on. Is there any possibility to manually select if it renders 1440p or 4K and which anti-aliasing method I should select in the video menu of A:I.

[zorlag]

Best post-processing filter in the game is SMAA 2 if I remember correctly. You can use it on top of the VSR if you want.

You just enable the VSR from Crimson drivers for the display you use for gaming (which you already did) and then select a higher resolution from ingame settings panel. What resolutions are available depend on the game and the card you are using.

[Lunkku]

I tried it. I was able to select even 4K resolution. Fps dropped, but using this feature also meant higher temperature level (GPU went over 70 celsius in a minute). I think that next thing is to try make own fan profile for this game in MSI Afterburner.

[Lunkku]

I tried to make my own GPU fan profile, but after that my card went quite hot and it was loud again - maybe more than ever before. Maybe I should sell this card and buy some other card.

[zorlag]

You are doing the fan profile bit wrong in that case. Your chip and card are safe at very high temps. 90 is safe. Only above 95 it starts to become an actual problem with Hawaii (290/390). Temperature numbers can be ignored as long as it is in safe limits. 70+ is nothing.

FIRST: Find out what % of fan speed is tolerable to you. Do this by adjusting the manual setting of Crimson Fan speed. Keep changing it upwards until it gets too loud. Store that fan speed % in your memory.

SECOND: Go to your Afterburner profile and build it as follows. Start fan curve at low. Keep it below your preferred maximum fan speed all the until 90 degrees. Only after that increase the fan speed curve closer to maximum speed.

Doing this I pretty much guarantee that you will have ok fan sound when you play, UNLESS your card is a reference blower card.

Blower card has one fan that doesn´t have centrally mounted blades, but instead has a circular opening with smaller teeth on the outer edge. Shroud of these cards is closed and the air blows out of the case through back of the card. Blower fan cards are unfortunately loud with any card that has a high thermal load, like 390.

[Lunkku]

So you mean the line in my fan curve should be linear between zero degrees (0 % fan speed) and 90 degrees (e.g. 60 % fan speed if I find this point tolerable), and after that strict increase to 100 degrees (100 % fan speed?)?

I'm also wondering why does GPU usage (%) pump up and down almost all the time when playing? One could assume that, especially in demanding games, it should be near 100 % all the time...

[zorlag]

Yes, that´s about what I meant. You should target a noise level instead of low temperature with that GPU.

GPU% use percentage goes does when your GPU is waiting for your CPU to process things. As discrete GPUs and CPUs are not fused together in same unit, communication between them also has some latency. Basically just running its engine idle for a bit. It´s nothing to be worried about.

By the way, if you want a free test program that is really well optimized for your GPU from Steam, try "DOOM demo". That will push your system as hard as it goes if you use "Vulkan" renderer.

[Lunkku]

Last night I did some "research" and realized that actually the loudest part in this whole assembly is my Seasonic S12II-620 power supply unit. I realized that because when I was playing my computer went very loud, but when I adjusted my GPU's fan manually on desktop, it was quite silent even at high speed settings. At first it was hard to tell the difference between the noise coming from GPU and PSU because my PSU is placed under the GPU. So I think right now there is nothing I can do if I won't change my PSU.