Is my GPU underperforming? (GTX 660ti oc)

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

Basically, everyone I've asked has said that the GTX 660ti oc will max every game at 720p.
It hardly maxes anything.

Here's a list of games I can almost get a full 60FPS on with settings on medium AT 1280 x 720p.
Sleeping Dogs
Borderlands
Borderlands 2
Fallout: New Vegas
Skyrim
Arkham City
etc etc

Specs:
AMD FX 6300
Windows 7
2x4GB Vengence RAM
Corsair Gaming Series 600w PSU
EVGA GTX 660ti oc
Asrock 970 Extreme 4

I haven't overclocked a single thing.
I've already checked the heat.
The CPU maxes out at around 69c on a prime95 blend test.
The GPU maxes out at around 50 after playing a taxing games for 30 minutes.

The PC has never crashed, in fact, apart from the HDD and CD Drive it's all new.
It has enough airflow, I'd say around 80% of it is empty, there are multiple fans all positioned in the right places.

I did find a few things that are strange though.
Neither the CPU nor the GPU maxes out, they both sit around 60% usage.
I've already turned off cool and quiet and thermal throttling for the CPU.

I really need help. Is it my CPU? Even then, I don't think it'd hamper it this much.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/7330525

killzone2367 · Oct 24, 2013

60 FPS on medium with Skyrim? I have a HD 6850 that maxes it 720p. Are you running more than one monitor? Do you have the latest drivers?

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

killzone2367 :

Haha... the embarrassing bit is that I accidentally forgot to put "almost" before get a full 60FPS.
Single "monitor" (It's a HDTV, but same thing, right?)
Latest drivers, only just updated them a day ago.

killzone2367 · Oct 24, 2013

Have you looked up benchmark scores online? I would say that your GPU is under performing, but I would do more research first to make sure.

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

killzone2367 :

Yup, one example is Geforce themselves saying Borderlands 2, with the GTX660ti can run at 1080p, max settings, will run at near 100FPS.
Although I may have a worse CPU, considering I run it at 720p, no anti-aliasing and most settings on medium and get as low as 30FPS sometimes.

It's around the same for skyrim too.
Either their benchmarks are complete trife, or I'm underperforming. I've also tried running some gaming benchmarks, most actual game ones act like it's underperforming, yet stuff like 3Dmark acts like I'm not.

Gelite5 · Oct 24, 2013

Might be a dieing PSU.

rubidium · Oct 24, 2013

The problem is that you chose a CPU intensive game to test your pc on and your cpu is not that beast, no offense but trying to make it clear. A fx 6350 with a suitable OC will be decent solid CPU but skyrim favors single core performance which was and is AMD's CPUs weakness point http://www.techspot.com/review/467-skyrim-performance/page7.html If you want to check that it is the cpu (in a game specifically), lower the resolution and graphical settings of the game to the lowest things possible, if you still have the same fps, then its your CPU, as you lowered the stress on the gpu so the power of the cpu will appear now (this doesnt decrease strain on CPU but decreases it on gpu). Another way is running monitoring softwares as GPU-z and maybe windows task manager or cpu temp to know the gpu and cpu load, run them and run the game WINDOWED and see the results as you are playing and going into intensive fight. If the cpu is maxed at 100% and your gpu didnt reach the 100%, then its the cpu. You really chose a hard test for the cpu so if you can try other games, it will give you more accurate information about where the problem is. However, if this happened, dont ever be sad or regret buying this cpu, games will tend to use more cores so just wait a bit and see it shining with intel's more expensive i3 or i5, hope this helped.

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

Gelite5 :

Read it next time. "apart from the HDD and CD Drive it's all new"

I really doubt a brand new PSU would die.

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

rubidium :

I ran Sleeping Dogs windowed and the CPU was around 70% usage. I honestly don't think it's the CPU, I'll try it with Skyrim next.
Do you know any games that are more GPU heavy than CPU heavy?
If it is the CPU though... that's actually a relief, it'd be easy to replace it, that is of course if you think the 8350 would be able to handle those games?

rubidium · Oct 24, 2013

^ This can be explained by an easy method (This is not my personal info i just googled and found it). Your cpu has 6 cores, this will be great for multi-threaded apps and games well coded to use more than 4 cores. However, current gen games are coded to use 4 cores efficiently (some are exceptions bf3, maybe arma and some other CPU intensive and can make use of many cores games), so a game like skyrim and all of games you have listed are well coded to use 4 cores as they were current gen games. So, youe fx 6300 now has 4 suffering cores (loaded with game codes) and 2 cores doing nearly nothing, the cpu usage will be 75% at that point, which seems to you that your cpu isnt the bottleneck and its running easily, while its actually not. This example was applied to a CPU intensive game which was planet side 2, this favours single core performace and IS MP so is expected to be CPU hungry more than any game you have listed. The gpu usage being around 70% is the thing making me think the cpu is the bottleneck, but there are people with fx 6300 and are happy with gaming. Maybe as a result, trying to lower games res and settings will help us to exclude possibilities, as if the fps increased then your cpu wasnt the bottleneck.

EDIT: I am pretty sure you gpu can handle these game easily maxed out at 60 fps, but did you turn adaptive v sync from nvidia control panel or from in game settings? If you are running a 60Hz monitor, this might be the reason why it doesnt increase above 60 fps when it has the potential to.

EDIT: By the way, is your hdd pretty old? Skyrim and RPG games with open worlds are known to get info about maps and other game elements from the hdd, so if it is old you might consider buying a new one of defragmenting it if you havent done it from long time.

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

rubidium :

Ah, I see, guess I should have seen that.
When I turn the resolution all the way down on Sleeping Dogs (Extreme settings) it raises around 10FPS, but still doesn't maintain a 60FPS miracle. So then would an overclock help? (Obviously not until I get a decent cooler) Would an 8350 solve this problem?

All vsync settings are turned off in nvidia control panel, they're turned on in the game, I'm fine with it not going over 60FPS, I just don't want it going under.

My HDD was actually a gift, so yeah, probably around 4 years old, unbranded, 500GB space... I kinda guessed it might be a big problem, but still... not this much of a problem. xD

rubidium · Oct 24, 2013

About buying a 8350, i dont want you just to rush and buy it then finding the same problem and find out that the problem wasnt your 6300. About vsync, do you notice drops like to solid 30 fps then 60 again, or just random between 40-60?

To exclude vsync problem, enable adaptive vsync from nvidia control panel. This enables vsync when the fps is more than the refresh rate to prevent tearing and turn vsync off when the fps is smaller than the refresh rate, not prevent fps drops caused by vsync.

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

rubidium :

It varies between 40-60.
I'm defragmenting my HDD now so I can't test the adaptive vsync, but as soon as I can, I will.
I've noticed in a lot of games turning everything down to low from high or vice versa doesn't make as much difference in frame rate than I think it should, even turning it to 1080p doesn't affect it as much, probably around 10FPS.

rubidium · Oct 24, 2013

^ Then i dont think its a cpu bottleneck. I mean if the cpu was the bottleneck, there shouldnt be any increase even if 1 fps, because the cpucan process information that allow the gpu to render 40 frames per second (for example), lowering the settings will decrease strain on gpu , making the cpu the limiting factor, it wont boost the cpu performance and it will still process info for 40 fps, gaining something like 10 fps means that cpu is not the problem. Maybe the fps increase was 10 fps only as it couldnt increase above 60 (cause of vsync), hope adaptive vsync will fix the problem. Okay, to be organized as i said, after defragmenting and trying Skyrim specifically (check if there is performance boost), you could try the adaptive vsync.

I explained the cpu and the bottlenecking for you to imagine the situation and know what is going on ( if you didnt know these info already, it will help you understand more what is hapenning)

FeeMort · Oct 24, 2013

rubidium :

I still think it might be a cpu bottleneck, consider it like this, maybe my GPU isn't good enough to run it at max, maybe a little lower than max and when I lowered it, it gained a couple more FPS but that's all it can do on it's own. Defragmenting helped... a tiny amount, I'd say around 2 FPS, but less micro stutters too! Adaptive Vsync didn't change anything... apart from adding a slight tear every now and again. The only times it really lags though is when there's a lot on screen at once, so mainly looking at the village from a little bit away. Looking at it from on top a mountain doesn't affect it. Which makes me think CPU again, IDK. The knowledge is helping actually. The thing is... it's more than playable at this state for most people, but I just can't get over the up and down framerate, it kind of makes me feel sick.

It's the reason I moved from console to PC actually, especially Far Cry 3 showed that consoles framerate was just getting worse and worse. I'd be happy if I could turn all the settings to console-type graphics and have 60FPS, but that doesn't seem to be happening.

rubidium · Oct 25, 2013

Check batman AC at this review http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/11 and skyrim here http://www.anandtech.com/show/6159/the-geforce-gtx-660-ti-review/14 Its really weird you think that your graphics card cant max these games, they are not so demanding for this gpu. However, since adaptive vsync didnt make it better, why dont you try returning the option in nvidia control panel to default (use 3d application setting) and trying to turn vsync off in every game, i am out of options really if turning off vsync didnt help :/ But i still think its not ur cpu that is holding you back.

FeeMort · Oct 28, 2013

rubidium :

I'm kinda verging towards it being my CPU. People have said that Skyrim's shadows are processed by the CPU, so I turned them to low and behold, it's going as low as 55FPS now. I also tried playing Serious Sam 3, which has a seperate cuztomization for CPU and GPU tasks, I turned down my GPU and it didn't help much, turned down the CPU and behold, it zoomed up to 60FPS. I think it was a bad idea buying the 6300 TBH, although people say they have no problem with it, I tend to consider an occasional 60 to 45FPS drop terrible, maybe they don't.

I know you don't think it's my CPU but just for curiousity, what would you say would be the best upgrade for me, getting a i5 3570k (and a new motherboard) or getting a FX 9590? (although i heard people are having problems with it and I don't know if my 650w psu can handle that and a 660ti.

rubidium · Oct 28, 2013

For current gen games, which are your concern, the i5 will outperform the fx chips. However, i doubt this will last long as the games will start to ytilize more than 4 cores as they will be ported from consoles which have 8 cores cpu. So, if you want better performance for now, get the i5 and you will be fine overclocking it in the future but the fx 8350 will be better if also overclocked, so its your choice really. Wanna be some futurepreef, grab the fx 8350 http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-beta-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/ the tests show that the fx 8350 outperformed the i5 in bf4's MP, which is a clue to the start of utilizing more than 4 cores in upcoming titles (leaked watch dogs reqs also require 8 core cpu as recommended and 4 cores intel as minimum!) Although these specs are thought to be fake, but we can conclude from this and bf4 beta performance that 8 cores WILL be better, but its not currently. I recommend getting the fx-8350 over the 9590, everyone is saying that its hot and draws much power that even affects their bill. They are also saying that the 9590 is OCed 8350, so 8350 with a cooler is your best and cheapest choice in my opinion. Finally, as you said i am still convinced that the cpu is not your problem, so if you buy a new cpu it will be on your own responsibility and i wont guarantee you the increase in performance that you wish, cause i think your cpu is enough, so hope this helped.

FeeMort · Oct 30, 2013

rubidium :

Don't worry, I already know, I'm not going to take you responsible for anything, I'm only asking for your opinion. xD Plus, if it turns out it's not my CPU, then I'll figure it out afterwards. I'm probably going to get the 8350 then, it's cheaper for s start, plus I won't need to buy a new motherboard which reduces the cost even more. Plus, in January I'm going to be buying a gtx 780 so I'd have needed a 8350 if I liked it or not in the end. (To avoid bottlenecking) Plus, I heard that apart from the super expensive 6-8 core intel cpus, the 8350 is the best for streaming?

I'm sure I'll figure out what's wrong in the end, but thanks for your advice, it really helped!

RobCrezz · Oct 30, 2013

You could always trying getting a nice cpu cooler and doing a good overclock? should help things quite a bit! 6 cores is enough, but you need to have faster single thread performance, which you can do by raising the clock speed.

If you decide to change CPU, you will want a nice cooler anyway, so it wont be wasted money

rubidium · Oct 30, 2013

FeeMort :

Im glad i helped you, but feeling sorry at same time that i couldnt help you to figure out the exact cause of problem.I didnt know you were going to stream. Hey thats great news since the 8350 nearly matches with an i7 in streaming, it must in need for a lot of cores. You know i trust you but i have to say the sentence containing responsibility to avoid any problems, especially when they are kiddies alive who will throw the fault on you once they didnt have the performance they expected. Anyway, good luck with your buy ^^

Is my GPU underperforming? (GTX 660ti oc)

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