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How do I tell what's bottlenecking my GPU?

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  • GPUs
  • Bottleneck
  • Hard Drives
  • CPUs
Last response: in CPUs
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March 31, 2014 5:48:55 PM

When running some games my framerate will drop from arround 100fps to about 10. I've noticed that my GPU usage goes from 40% to 10% when I'm experiencing the lag, from this I'm assuming that something is bottlenecking it.
PC Specs:
MB ASRock 970 Extreme3
GTX 780
AMD 8120 OC: 4.4GHz (with watercooler)
16GB DDR3 G.SKILL Ripjaws series
OS Drive 500GB HDD 7200RPM
Storage drive 3TB HDD 7200RPM
OS: Win7 Ultimate x64 sp1 fully updated
Any Ideas?
edit: forgot to add OS

More about : bottlenecking gpu

a c 123 à CPUs
March 31, 2014 5:55:10 PM

bump the cu a little more and see if your minimums increase. or if you cant turn down the oc and see if they collapse completely. either way will tell you if the cpu is the issue. if nothing changes and the numbers stay the same then its likely the game.
if your running win 7 its possible your system is being core parked, check in task manager to see if 4 of the cpu cores are disabled/parked.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2646060 disables core parking on win 7 and server 2008 r2
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a b à CPUs
March 31, 2014 6:57:26 PM

1) Turn off VSync. 2) turn off OC and go stock. If those two don't do it then there is only a few solutions left. Next would be (considering the GPU drop) potentially bottleneck because of the CPU, but what game are we talking and what settings are we using in the game? Have we had this problem across all games or just one? Are we having the problem even if we drop down the graphics level in the game a few times and see if ti changes. Otherwise then I would look at the basics...

Download and run SPECCY, copy and paste the first tab to show your idle temps
Download and run MSI Afterburner, run some of the games, what temps are you getting when underload?
Open Computer, Can Air dust out the bunnies and use paint brush on the vents, coolers, fans, etc.

Did you install all Windows Updates? Including options except BING? Check them and repeat till ALL are installed.
Download and run Slim Drivers, install all the latest updates but you don't need to reboot until you do the last update

Remove whatever AV your using and go to www.filehippo.com and download AVAST! or AVG and do a full system scan - this repeatedly has resolved alot of people issue relying on MS Essentials.
Download Malwarebytes do a full system scan (AV doesn't pick up alot of malware) - this resolved almost ALL other similiar posts to date as most had Malware the AV didn't pick up.
Repeat the AV/Malware scans till the system comes up clean.


Let us know the results of each.
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April 1, 2014 4:54:36 AM

My problem persists in most games, the one I've been playing recently is warframe. I get the lag no matter what the settings are at. My idle temps are; CPU 41c, GPU 40c. I have watched my temps/system load while in game. My GPU max temp is 80c but it's a 780 so that's normal, the GPU load maxes arround 40% when in game. My CPU max temp is 59c and the max load is arround 65% when I'm also running Chrome, foobar2000 skype and steam. I recently dusted out my machine. OS is fully updated on Win7 Ult x64 sp1. IMO the best antivirus is common sense, so I don't have one, I ran combofix (virus removal tool) last night just to be sure. I'm about to go and reset my OC and try the game again. Thanks for all the help thus far, and I'll be back shortly!
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April 1, 2014 5:28:18 AM

I reset my OC and then played for about 30 minutes with no lag whatsoever. Thanks guys! I really thought it wouldn't be that because my cpu never actually hits 60c. Maybe something els is getting too hot? I'm going to experiment with a lower OC maybe 4.0GHz. Any thoughts, recomendations?
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a c 123 à CPUs
April 1, 2014 8:13:33 AM

80'c is about normal for an oc'd 780 running nvidia boost 2. if your not using that and running the gpu at stock i would expect temps closer to 70 using the stock fan curve.
it has also been shown that ocing the gpu isnt always beneficial to game performance. a lot of high end card owners have reported dips in performance after they oc there gpu's. so wind yours back to stock nvidia settings if you are boosting it.(just to test)
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a c 902 à CPUs
April 1, 2014 9:33:57 AM

You have a top of the line GPU with a very poor CPU. Your CPU is definitely a bottleneck.
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April 1, 2014 1:06:26 PM

logainofhades said:
You have a top of the line GPU with a very poor CPU. Your CPU is definitely a bottleneck.


When I lowered the OC on my CPU the problem stopped, my CPU isn't the best there is but it's definitely not poor lol.

I also went with a lower OC and it's still running great, I guess 4.4GHz was just too much. Thanks again!
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a c 902 à CPUs
April 2, 2014 6:21:50 AM

Most likely at 4.4ghz you were overheating and the CPU was thermal throttling as a result. A lower overclock would not improve performance. :lol: 
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