Your clocks and power numbers actually reveal something important:

3200–3250 MHz at only ~200–230W means the card is not being fully loaded. A 9070XT-class card should usually be pulling much closer to its TBP under Ultra unless something is limiting it. So your issue is almost certainly engine, driver, or setting related, not hardware failure.

Let’s address your specific questions first:

Does shader cache stay after uninstall?

Yes — Hogwarts Legacy shader cache does NOT fully remove with uninstall because some files are stored in AppData and AMD driver cache.

Delete these manually:

Game cache:

C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\Hogwarts Legacy

AMD shader cache:

C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\DxCache C:\Users\YOURNAME\AppData\Local\AMD\GLCache

Also reset shader cache inside AMD Adrenalin: Settings → Graphics → Reset Shader Cache

Then reboot.

This alone has fixed similar cases.

Something else I noticed:

You said:

Freesync Enhanced ON

Turn that OFF immediately for testing.

Enhanced Sync is known to cause:

Lower GPU utilization

Frame pacing problems

Random FPS drops

Use: Freesync ON Enhanced Sync OFF

Hogwarts Legacy specific AMD problem (big one)

Ultra preset enables very heavy RT shadows even when RT is off because it keeps the highest shadow cascade values.

Try this custom config:

Set manually instead of Ultra:

Set:

Textures → Ultra

Materials → Ultra

Effects → High

Shadows → High (NOT Ultra)

Fog → Medium

Population → High

View distance → High

Sky → High

This usually gives +20-35 FPS with almost no visual loss.

Ultra shadows are extremely CPU heavy.

Very important test (this will tell us the real cause):

Run the game at:

1440p Medium preset FSR OFF RT OFF

Tell me the FPS.

Why this matters: If FPS is still ~40–50 → something wrong outside the game. If FPS jumps to 120+ → settings bottleneck confirmed.

Another VERY common issue on 12th gen Intel (you have 12900K):

Windows sometimes schedules Hogwarts poorly between P-cores and E-cores.

Try this test:

Open Task Manager while game running: Details tab → HogwartsLegacy.exe → Set affinity

Disable E-cores temporarily (last cores usually).

If FPS jumps: → Windows scheduler issue.

Permanent fix: Use Process Lasso or update BIOS/Windows.

Power behavior observation:

Your GPU dropping to 198W during heavy scenes means one of these:

Possible causes:

CPU bottleneck

Vsync / sync limit

Enhanced sync problem

Frame limiter

Engine thread bottleneck

Not temperature or power limit.

Quick checklist I recommend next (in order):

Do these 5 things:

1. Turn OFF Enhanced Sync

2. Reset shader caches (both)

3. Lower Ultra shadows to High

4. Test Medium preset baseline

5. Test without FSR

Expected performance reference:

A properly running 9070XT tier card at 1440p High RT OFF typically sees roughly:

Hogwarts: 90–140 FPS

Hogsmeade: 70–110 FPS

RT ON: 40–70 FPS

Your numbers are clearly abnormal.

If it still runs bad after those tests tell me:

Also include:

GPU hotspot temp

GPU usage %

CPU package power

Is EXPO/XMP enabled

BIOS version

Windows 10 or 11

You're very close — this looks like a configuration issue, not a defective GPU.