to anyone experiencing packet loss, stuttering, and lag recently with AMD software

Hi, first post on the forum so if I made a mistake posting here I apologize.

I wanted to make this post because for the past several days I have been dealing with consistent packet loss in XIV, but could not figure out the cause. It mainly showed as players "stuttering" across my screen and input lag. I searched and tried testing everything I could, from ping tests to driver updates to in-game settings. Nothing worked, and I was very frustrated.

It turns out the driver update was actually the problem. If you have AMD software and are on version 23.4.1, update to their repaired version OR revert it.

I won't link the official release notes as I am unsure of the policy on external links on the forums, but if you look up "AMD 23.4.1" it is fairly easy to find. I will copy the "Known Issues" section, which was what tipped me off that it was the issue after days of problems.

Known Issues

• High idle power has situationally been observed when using select high-resolution and high refresh rate displays on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
  
• Video stuttering or performance drop may be observed during gameplay plus video playback with some extended display configurations on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Some virtual reality games or apps may experience lower-than-expected performance on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs.
• Brief display corruption may occur when switching between video and game windows on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon™ RX 6700 XT.

I really hope this will help someone else out there like me, as I said before literally no other fix worked besides reverting the driver to a previous version OR updating to 23.4.2 [while it is better there is still noticeable lag, so while I am content to use the hotfix until a more stable one is released reverting might be the better option].

to mods: I hope this is the correct section to post this in, as I realize its more of a technical fix than a request for support.

I just want to provide some extra clarification as there may have been a bit of a misassumption as to the "cause->symptoms->resolution" process.

Quote:

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"Video stuttering or performance drop may be observed during gameplay plus video playback with some extended display configurations on Radeon™ RX 7000 series GPUs."

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This specific known issue has been an issue longer than v23.4.1. I have experienced it myself -If you look at the release notes for v23.2.1 that same Known Issue is also identified there, and further back too.

It however only manifests when both gaming and streaming video (i.e watching youtube) are happening at the same time. The issue would be seen as either the video will buffer a whole lot, or you'll notice microstutters which would affect how you see everything on screen and not be localized to just players stuttering across the screen.

If its those issues I mentioned you are having then yes its related, however, packet loss is a networking side issue and is very unlikely to be affected by GPU driver issues as network packets aren't being processed via the GPU
Theres a whole lot more to look into if the issue is specific for packet loss, as its not just your PC but everything sitting on the network in-between your PC -> Servers and then back from Servers -> PC, and anything further down the line than your router/modem is 100% out of your control.

What you're perceiving as Input Lag may also be networking issues, if you're hitting buttons on time and you see it on the hotbar but the actual skills are activating late, that would be networking and packet loss related.
If its a case of you're trying to move your character or the camera itself and there is a noticable delay between hitting "move forward" or "pan left" on your input device and seeing it happen on screen - that is indeed a localized issue specific to your PC that could be related to drivers.

My 6900xt had nothing but issues with 23.4.1, browser crashing, sudden frame drops in ffxiv, and black overlays. The newest driver fixes those for me.

23.4.2 will not fix your problem, it's still in the "Known Issues", but it may make other things better.