GTX 560 (NOT Ti) random FPS drop issues

WCKennedy

Honorable
May 24, 2013
6
0
10,510
Hi.

Specs: (main ones only)
AMD FX 4100
nViDia GTX 560
Kingston 8GB DDR3 RAM


First of all, thanks for taking a glance at my issue. Here's the thing. I bought this rig since the last December in 2012. Then I started enjoying big games that need alot of juice like L.A Noire, DoTA 2, Black OPS and such. I set the video settings to the MAX for every games I play. The gameplay is EXTREMELY smooth with a REALLY RARE chance of small lags (I didn't record the avg FPS because at that time this issue haven't made me concerned).

Till recently, when I played a bit of these games, I felt my FPS performance dropped.

Say L.A Noire, when I played free roam, the game starts smooth. After some collisions and steering your car on high-speed pursuits, the FPS dropped drastically (from avg 55 to 26 maybe even <20)

Say, The Saboteur, during huge gunfights, explosions and crossfire, the FPS performance drops to 20-35, it just feels suckish and dissatisfied when this happens very often. (Take note that I've adjusted the video settings to the max for every game I mentioned).

Say, DoTA 2, the FPS is averagely moderate, it can get to 60 during vacant times, it can also get to 20-30 during NORMAL creep-hunting in the early game, the FPS will drop to 10-20 during hero battles where the skills are all unleashed.

I was told that 560 is quite a powerful card. That's why I tried to play games on MAX. I did some review search on the card before I purchased my rig and the feedback is from what I see 90% positive.

I had a few suspicions. Maybe my card wasn't really strong as I expected. Maybe the CPU I chose (AMD FX 4100) is not powerful enough for my graphic card. Maybe my hardware is a counterfeit aka I'm scammed [which is quite impossible as I bought them in a hyperstore and the company had a few branches].

I would really appreciate if you guys could give me answers/correct my misconceptions/suggestions or anything at all that could help. Thank you very much. Cheers.
 
Solution
Solution
the 560 is a decent card . i would over clock both your cpu and gpu and adjust your nvidia control panel settings after doing a clean install of the drivers with the newest drivers.

check you cpu temps and load during the game, but more than likely it just cant handly max settigns without some tweaks
 

WCKennedy

Honorable
May 24, 2013
6
0
10,510


1) I updated the driver to the latest for my GPU only 2 days ago because I figured that would help, but it didn't do much.

2) No. But my GPU is an OC card before it's unsealed according to the package.

3) Which is the heatsink? (Sorry, I'm really a rookie in hardware). I'll check on the dusts later.

4) 1600 x 900



Can you provide me a guide?
 

WCKennedy

Honorable
May 24, 2013
6
0
10,510


Can you suggest a solution?
 
The heatsink is attached to the CPU and GPU and has a fan on it to cool the processors. Dust can collect in the small cracks between the fins of the heatsink and reduce cooling capacity. This, in turn, can cause the processor to reach a temperature that causes it to "throttle" to save itself from damage. The reason I asked about this is that I understand you to mean your system was great at first but has gotten worse over time with the same games. Best way to clean heatsinks is with a can of compressed air (*not* a vacuum cleaner).

Edit: If you OC as suggested you need a 3rd party heatsink, not the one that came with the CPU. At least get an Evo or something similar (hear good things about the Xigmatech Gaia)
 

WCKennedy

Honorable
May 24, 2013
6
0
10,510


Alright, I'll take a look soon. But I don't quite understand how this hierarchy chart works. I've seen this before when I did some research before purchasing a rig.
 
Each row shows which CPUs or GPUs have similar performance. I just wanted you to use that as a reference for what kind of performance you should be getting (in your case, your CPU is roughly equivalent to an older Core2 quad from intel and the GPU is not terrible but far from top of the line for running games that are hard on GPUs).