ClockBlocker (profiled AMD power-management control)

Discussion in 'Videocards - AMD Radeon Drivers Section' started by A2Razor, Dec 10, 2015.

  1. robnitro

    robnitro Member

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    New problem. Whether I use clock blocker compute (or any other methods) or wattman and change a value, the card is slow. RX480 8gb.

    Example, fresh boot, 223 GB/s on oclmembench 2000mhz
    Run clockblocker OR change something in wattman, oclmembench goes to 110 GB/s or games run slow using HIGH gpu utilization despite vsync (not even getting 60 fps at times!!!)

    Anyone else getting this from the CRAP TASTIC amd drivers? If I reboot and not run clockblocker OR change wattman settings (the settings that i changed stick fine anyway) it runs fine.

    I've done DDU and clean install a few times with this reocurring... sheesh wth is wrong??

    ARGH AMD drivers and/or Windows 10 creator is a piece of junk.
     
  2. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Not personally noticed anything on the Fury-X, so keep in mind that this is speculative only...

    -I do have a hunch based on your observations though:

    Touching Wattman (or setting clocks) and starting ClockBlocker have something in common. The ADL helper module runs on the startup of the program once, immediately, (even if ADL method is not selected) and checks the clock-states. If the states look bad, eg -- jammed or stuck -- then it may even attempt to reset the clock-states.

    ^ Considering that touching anything in the Crimson CP is apparently screwing up your performance, I'm going to assume that there's a bug with adjusting (or maybe even querying) clock-states on some cards, or with these new drivers, in conjunction with the Creator Update.


    --You can stop the startup behavior in ClockBlocker and stop the software from touching ADL whatsoever, by deleting or renaming "ClockBlocker_HelperModule_ADL.exe" in the program folder. That's my first suggestion for the sake of testing here.

    Please wipe out that file or rename it so that ClockBlocker cannot find it on startup, deselect ADL from the blocking method (pick compute only), and try restarting the machine & seeing if that works without your performance permanently tanking.
     
  3. Watcher

    Watcher Ancient Guru

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    Post in Wrong Section. Deleted.
     
    Last edited: Apr 18, 2017
  4. robnitro

    robnitro Member

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    Thanks!!!
    This lets me use clockblocker. However, anytime I change mhz or voltage on wattman, ends up killing the performance. Odd.
    I was able to change powertune, fan speeds, temps no problem. One teeny clock/volt change on mem or core, loses the speed.

    I ran DDU again just to see. Very odd and annoying. I can't even get game mode to pop up the game bar on this junk. I just use process hacker instead which is more my kind of tool, simple and useful menus like clockblocker!!!
     

  5. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Probably others with the same issue yet it never hurts to report it, and so I would suggest doing that with the Crimson CP option too. (if you haven't already to raise the perceived severity)

    ^ I'm sure that Microsoft or AMD (or both) is already aware of this [probably]. I'd pretty much scoff it off as a new OS release growing-pain, and one that I expect will be addressed pretty quickly at that. I updated a machine to the new Creator Update, but purely for the sake of testing and not for my main rigs yet (as I do expect problems).


    On the other aspect of program design, yep that's something that I like to call the common saying of "K.I.S.S." . (Or: Keep it simple, stupid) No need to get creative, just go with something that people already know and that works for a tool.

    ^ For instance, ClockBlocker is copying the idea of a firewall with block / allow rules. It doesn't look elegant, but it's simple and powerful.
     
  6. PhenixN70

    PhenixN70 Active Member

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    I wonder if there is a program like the clock blocker? Or is it the only one and not repeatable?))
     
  7. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    There's three ways really that I can think of to interpret similarity between software like ClockBlocker.
    -Concept [design intent], functionality [what it can do, purpose], and behavior [how it works, implementation].


    Conceptually I believe that RadeonPro is the 'closest' in terms of design on the AMD side (as a profiled solution), albeit that RadeonPro's scope and goal reaches beyond just profiled clock control (to all aspects of driver settings). Slowly over time, AMD's own overclocking control is moving (at least I believe) more towards ClockBlocker in concept. (in game profile support at least, there still seems to be some holdout on "full" clock range control)
    - On the NVidia side, I'd say that NVidia Inspector is the closest.

    (or of course NVidia's driver CP option of "prefer maximum performance" ... yet this doesn't completely shut off "boost" clock-jittering)


    For clock control and power-management control (functionality), there's many overclocking tools. Far as locking clockspeeds...
    - MSI Afterburner has its unofficial overclocking mode which I believe is similar. EVGA Precision (K-BOOST) is similar on the NVidia side (speaking of the version back when it was Unwinder's code), though K-BOOST wasn't profiled. Could potentially consider vBios editors in this group, though that's more permanent and not profiled (though still the same end-result).


    In implementation or behavior, I know of no other tool that works the same.
    (at least in the initially used compute approach)
    -ClockBlocker is also designed as a side-tool, not intended to be or to replace a primary overclocking software... It's also intended to be "issue-free" with any protection software and to be relatively unobtrusive in API's used (minimalist, eg. avoiding use of hooks). [to not trip or require whitelisting for anti-hack software]
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2017
  8. PhenixN70

    PhenixN70 Active Member

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    Exactly. What I like about the clock blocker is the simplicity and convenience, as well as the absence of bugs and conflicts. Afterberner is not stable yet. And editing bios as for me is too radical measure.
    In general, I meant what else there are alternative programs for painless blocking of frequencies
     
  9. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Honestly, I wouldn't call Afterburner unstable.
    It's an extremely stable and refined piece of software, one that I use constantly as well. (on all of my rigs, both AMD and NVidia, for hardware monitoring)

    --That's not to say that I haven't had issues with very specific games caused as a result of RTSS, or Afterburner's kernel-mode hardware polling ... yet at the same time remember that Afterburner attempts to do much much more than my software does. (a far greater feature scope)
    => These features that potentially cause problems can also be turned off or not used.

    Point being that sometimes it's impossible to avoid conflict if that goal mandates injection, hooking, and so forth. (for fullscreen ingame overlay, recording, etc) Even then, it's not technically the fault of a bug, or some improper behavior on Unwinder's part in these cases.. Rather, the lower level you go, the more likely you are to cause some type of conflict.

    It's important to note that this is neither the fault of the protection software (doing what it's supposed to), nor RTSS or Afterburner. More or less it's just necessary to occasionally cause conflict by design.
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2017
  10. PhenixN70

    PhenixN70 Active Member

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    I mean, the afterburner does not block frequencies. Even using an unofficial overclocking mode, I could not block the frequency. So all the hope is only for your program or edit the BIOS.
     

  11. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Gotcha, and yes this is more speaking past-tense with the drivers. Aka, just like RadeonPro's method will no longer suffice as well from 16.12 onward ... yet, at one time RadeonPro had functionality much the same.

    -The API and driver behaviors have been changing quite a bit lately it would seem.
     
  12. PhenixN70

    PhenixN70 Active Member

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    On the last driver 17.5.1 working wattman on R9 390
    And a little bit of criticism of the program clock blocker: noticed that when blocking frequency, the program set the maximum voltage (which can give more heating of the video card), regardless of the frequency. Wattman puts the voltage depending on the frequency.
    ClockBlocker
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    WattMan
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  13. PrMinisterGR

    PrMinisterGR Ancient Guru

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    Either of the methods that the program is using, are calling the max state of the GPU performance. The author cannot change what your card declares to be its highest state.
     
  14. StealthxDuck

    StealthxDuck Guest

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    So, it works great for keeping my RAM from downclocking (the GPU always worked fine), but it's preventing my GPU overclock from working, and the frequency setting inside CB doesn't seem to work at all. Also, strangely, the clockrate on the GPU is fairly inconsistent when CB is active, but dead solid when it's not. My log when running ADL gave "overdrive is not supported".
     
  15. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Any chance that you're running the older 1.2-6.5 and not 1.3 beta?


    I'd expect an error just like that in the absence of support for ADL7 (the older release is limited to 5 & 6, yet modern hardware on the later drivers only exposes support for the latest). In jist, ADL in ClockBlocker won't function on drivers past 16.12 on modern cards without using the later betas. The compute method on the otherhand still works on some systems from the older releases.

    Far as that clock jitter that you're seeing, hopefully you're on 1.2-6.xx. There's been changes in the compute method as well and not exclusively for the custom-clocks, so in that case using the beta might resolve everything you're seeing.


    -Of course, if ADL isn't working on 1.3.3 then let me know and we'll go from there.


    EDIT: Be aware that custom-clocks for mem is disabled on that beta.
    (the setting isn't grayed out or anything to indicate such)

    -- Core hopefully will work, though you'll need to use some other tool for voltage adjustment if you're going for a high overclock. CB should respect voltage settings from other applications (not touch your max clock state's voltage), so the trick there is using a delayed startup with the "wait on" option under General settings.

    [such that voltage is raised before any clock profile gets applied]
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2017

  16. StealthxDuck

    StealthxDuck Guest

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    Well, the beta doesn't seem to be applying custom clocks, but the existing OC stays is place now, which was the goal to begin with. Thanks.
     
  17. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    Awesome, glad to hear that blocking is working right on the newer release.

    Far as custom-clocks [... and despite that ClockBlocker is doing everything you want it to right now], any chance that I can get you to gather a bit of details on that machine?

    Or basically if you can provide:
    -config dump : Right click on the system tray icon and select "Misc > Dump to TXT > Settings" (contents of the saved file)

    ---anything else relevant here: such as a quick brief on OS version (aka, Windows 10 slow-ring, fast-ring + version #), installed drivers, OC software used (Afterburner, GPU-Tweak, TriXX, etc), and motherboard.


    This will help me get a better understanding of the types of configurations that there's problems with.
     
  18. chase

    chase Guest

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    I'm sure this has been addressed but i can't find it after looking through half the pages of this thread. I have a gforce Nividia gtx 970. the darn thing keeps throttling back to eco mode while in game. I have all setting properly set in control panel for both Windows and Nividia cp to prefer maximum performance.
    But still at randon times the driver will idle back and crash the game ( X-Plane 11 ). So my question is will your app work on my rig. Win 10 ? Thank to.

    Edit. I also want to add. I even downloaded the DUU and deleted the driver in safe mode and then did a clean install of current driver. That too didnt fix the issue.
     
    Last edited: Jun 17, 2017
  19. A2Razor

    A2Razor Guest

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    In general this is a tool that was designed for and tested on AMD cards (pretty much exclusively minus some very brief runs I did with a 980).

    The compute method has an effect (or at least used to) on NVidia hardware... Yet, at the same time I really couldn't say if it'll work for you, as I certainly haven't been doing any testing on the green-side in a very long time (haven't checked in years). I've also never owned an NVidia card effected by that type of a downclock problem, so I don't know if forcing GPGPU clocks will alleviate anything that you're seeing.


    All said, you certainly can run it on your 970 and give it a shot. The default block method is 'compute', the ADL module additionally shouldn't do anything on startup as long as you don't have any AMD graphics in there.


    --The one thing that I will say is that ClockBlocker will probably cause your memory clocks to drop about 200mhz (when blocking is active) and cause any mem-OC to be ignored [given that's what I saw back then on the 980]. As such, you'd probably want to disable the automatic rules: (FULLSCREEN_PROGRAM and 3D_PROGRAM), then define rules explicitly for whatever games are giving you trouble.

    (else you might lose a bit of performance unnecessarily)
     
  20. chase

    chase Guest

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    Thank you Razor for the quick responce. I think i found a fix without having to use your tool. But i will keep it in mind if this method stops working.
    The EVGA card controller has a K Boost function which i found will lock the driver in full open mode and will give it about 10% more performance.
    First move the power slider to full then press the K button.
    Your driver will reset ( screen goes dark for a second.) Then you'll see your clock speeds are higher. So far that has fixed the problem. Although the problem has only occurred on Xplane no other game. But i hope this post helps others with nvidia cards.
     

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