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New Driver/gpu has hitching on the desktop and in games. And I reinstalled the driver a couple times using these steps.

I just replaced a Radeon R9-290X 4GB with an XFX "Fatboy" Radeon RX590 in another computer system.
I uninstalled the old gpu driver (Radeon Software 18.11.1) and rebooted into safemode to use DDU 18.0.0.3, I did the clean and shutdown for AMD GPU.
I installed the new graphics card.
Once it booted back up, I installed Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition 18.11.2-nov.19.
As soon as it loaded that driver, the computer/mouse cursor would hitch about every 10 seconds. Without the driver it doesnt do that.

Any Ideas?

Run a game, or Furmark, or anything you can that definitely hitches and have task manager open as well. Kill tasks until hitching stops to identify the perpertators. And then badmouth them so that others know to avoid it.

In my experience, the worst offenders are vendor system tray utilities - like Asus AI Suite or similar.

• You don't need a chitzy animated system tray icons for anything. No need to uninstall them, but just run them on demand rather than all the time.
• You don't need motherboard voltage/temp/fan/RGB monitoring utilities. Use BIOS fan control and set a temperature alarm instead; It's more reliable anyway.
• You don't need silly mouse/keyboard/motherboard RGBLED utilities. I mean, if you must have the RGBLED bling, then prepare for janky software to go with it.
• You don't need third-party graphics monitoring/overclocking utiltiies. AMD's built-in overdrive utility is very good and definitely works without causing graphics stuttering.
• You don't need stats-logging or other feedback tools that poll the system. Some hotkey utilies fall into this category too; If that's the problem use AHK instead.

As much as I like Asus, Asrock, Gigabyte, and MSI's hardware, their software should be avoided at all costs. If it isn't WHQL-certified AND 100% necessary, then you should expect it to either be poorly-coded, barely-tested, or both. Thankfully most hardware these days has feature-complete drivers available from Windows Update so you never have to touch the buggy, garish vendor utilities.

One other thing to check is that your monitor isn't frameskipping. It's something I see a lot with Nvidia cards and haven't come across on an AMD card since they were ATi, but if you're tearing your hair out trying to find a ghost process or utility, you can check for frameskipping at https://www.testufo.com/frameskipping

Chrispy_ I followed all your advice, so its all cleaned out.
However I discovered the problem, the new gpu board was actaully right ontop of the M.2 SSD. Or very close to it, underneath lets say. The M.2 was overheating and throttling according to CPUID HWMonitor.
I put the R9-290X back in and used the exact same driver and no issues.
The "fatboy" is really a hot one!

Thankyou for your help!

Unfortunately your board doesn't have a second x4 slot anywhere so you can't move the SSD without incurring a big performance penalty.

What do you have for fans in your Define Mini? The Newegg listing shows a 120-mm fan in front as an intake and another in the back as exhaust. Are they both connected? If the front one in particular is running quietly it might be worth turning it up to see if more airflow helps.

derFunkenstein wrote:

Unfortunately your board doesn't have a second x4 slot anywhere so you can't move the SSD without incurring a big performance penalty.

What do you have for fans in your Define Mini? The Newegg listing shows a 120-mm fan in front as an intake and another in the back as exhaust. Are they both connected? If the front one in particular is running quietly it might be worth turning it up to see if more airflow helps.

After double checking. It has the in front fan as intake that it came with (attached), the back exhaust fan was moved to the chimney exhaust (attached) and the H60 radiator/fan is attached for rear exhaust. I honestly didnt check the front ones speed setting. I will eventually test your idea about increasing the speed. Maybe I can even add a second intake. The case has alot of extra wires that could also be more organized to facilitate better airflow.

Just another update:

I added another intake fan and cranked up the speed. Seems pretty good now.

Some quick benchmark results:
Unigine Heaven- 2560x1440, Ultra shaders, medium tesselation, 2x AA
Old Radeon R9-290X - Score: 1120, FPS: 44.5, Min:8.4, Max: 84.0
New Radeon RX590X - Score: 1340, FPS: 53.2, Min: 25.9, Max: 104.0

Thankyou for all your help!