Random framerate drops with AMD Radion & Windows 10

First of up:

Windows 10 x64
AMD Radion HD 7770
Latest drivers (released July 29th that upgrades support for Windows 10)

This actually started when I upgraded to windows 10 but before I upgraded to the latest drivers. It continues after I upgraded the drivers.

I've noticed when I'm jumping locations a lot (whether to a dungeon or zone changes due to hunts) my framerate drops considerably. It's not consistent on when it happens but just randomly happens. I'm talking going from 50-70 fps down to 15 fps. It will hold there from then on out. The only thing I have seen that temporarily fixes the issue is switching to another display default (such as desktop (Normal) or Laptop (High)). However given another few jumps, and the fps will drop again.

A few questions here.
Did you do a upgrade to Windows 10 or a clean install?
After Windows 10 was installed, did you install the latest drivers right away or did you uninstall the old ones first?

First of all, I upgraded from 8.1. However I was having issues with my computer before then. About 3 weeks ago I had to do a clean re-install of windows 8.1 and installed the initial drivers then (I believe the June drivers from AMD). Then on Friday, the 31st, I upgraded from 8.1 to windows 10. I did not update the drivers until yesterday. I upgraded the drivers, i did not uninstall the previous drivers and installed the new drivers. I basically just used AMD's auto-update software. I didn't have any issues when I was running on 8.1. However when I upgraded to windows 10 I started having issues.

FFXIV and AMD have never been smooth together. I've known quad-CF systems struggle for no apparent reason where, in reality, they should make the game look like a Win95 release speed wise.

The truth is that I have no idea what goes wrong. My system was perfect for 2.2 but when 2.3 was released I started to get slowdowns to 5fps then crashing. EVERY TIME I PLAYED. Only change being the update from SE. I have since upgraded to a very powerful rig (i7-4820k, 64GB DDR3, SSD (Evo Pro), dual R9 290 on an Asus Rampage Black Edition... But I still only get 20fps max in Idyllshire if it's busy OR if I'm standing outside of it looking at the big monolith (no other characters around). I don't overclock at all, there should be no need.

The DX11 client resolved the 5fps > crash issue though.

You can do a clean install of Windows 10 by going to Start - Settings - Update & Security - Recovery - Reset This PC. It is best practice to always uninstall old drivers before installing new ones. I highly recommend using Display Driver Uninstaller. This will turn off Windows Update from installing drivers.

I'm not going to rest my pc since I already spent quite a bit of time re-installing all of the software I needed on this pc, just because of this ONE PROGRAM. Some of which I had to dig for the cd codes. I'll try resetting the drivers tomorrow when I have more time. But I'm not going to reset Windows. I really don't know why you would suggest that in the first place.

I always recommend a clean install rather than an upgrade.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hinalover

I'm not going to rest my pc since I already spent quite a bit of time re-installing all of the software I needed on this pc, just because of this ONE PROGRAM. Some of which I had to dig for the cd codes. I'll try resetting the drivers tomorrow when I have more time. But I'm not going to reset Windows. I really don't know why you would suggest that in the first place.

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You can actually make a bootable install DVD if you want to actually wipe out the existing install.
Though if you're seeing "seemingly random" slowdowns, bring up the Task Manager (or install Process Lasso) and see what is consuming CPU time in the background. A lot of Search stuff runs in the background that would have little bearing on a SSD but is hugely slow on mechanical drives. Like when I reboot my PC... 10 minutes before the combination of search indexing and windows defender quit making the drive chatter.

Ok a few things..

a) I tried using the driver remover program mentioned earlier and re-installing the AMD drivers. That didn't work
b) Broke down and did a clean upgrade
1) Copied all data files to a separate drive
2) Partisioned my Windows drive (meaning it was cleaned out of all files)
3) Installed Windows 8.1 from disk
4) Upgraded to Windows 10 from auto upgrade (no programs were installed during this download period)
5) used the driver removal program immediatly
6) installed AMD drivers
7) installed Final Fantasy
8) still getting issue

The ONLY TWO THINGS I can think of is
a) an issue with Google running in my second monitor (yes it uses a lot of RAM but no other programs are using that much of my CPU)
b) an issue with Final Fantasy and Windows 10's Virtual Desktop - I can set Final Fantasy to Full Screen mode and I can still move my mouse to my second monitor (as if I was in Borderless Window mode). This is not the case in other games such as World of Warcraft where putting it in Full Screen blocks the mouse from moving onto the second monitor.

Edit:

It just happened now where I was running 80+ fps in Western Thanallan and the MOMENT I ran into the building that houses the portal to the Walking Sands, my framerate dropped to 20 fps and held there even after porting into the Waking Sands. I had NO other programs up at the time (including Chrome) so I'm not sure what is going on.