RAM Bottlenecking my PC?

shonjord · Sep 23, 2014

Hello,

Recently i upgraded my pc from this:

i7 920 C0 STEPPING OC @ 3.9 GHZ
GTX 280 SSC
MSI X58 Platinum MOBO

To this:

i7 4790k @ 4.0 GHZ
GTX 780 Ti Classified
z97 MSI Gaming 7

I kept my old RAM:

8GB Corsair 1333 MHZ

After upgrading the components, i thought i was gonna be able to play any game @ 1080p 60 fps, but the answer is no, i've been trying to play Tomb Raider @ steady 60 fps and i can't, there are certain places which makes the fps decrease to 20-30 fps, which is kind of dissapointing considering all the money i spent on the new rig.

For the heck of it i switched the GTX 780 Ti Classified to my old PC and to my surprise, i get the exact same performance,

I also used OC Genie to OC my new CPU and i got a result of 4.5 GHZ @ 1.2 V, and nothing, same performance.

So the question is, could my RAM be bottlenecking?, any suggestions?, maybe i need to OC the RAM?.

Tomb Raider Setup:

Anti-Aliasing: FXAA
Depth of Field: Ultra
DIsplay Mode: FUll Screen
Hari Quality: TressFX
High Precision: On
Level of Detail: On
Post-proccessing: On
Reflections: High
Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Shadow Resolution: High
Shadows: Normal
SSAO: Ultra
Tesellation: On
Texture Filter: Anisotropic 16x
Texture Quality: Ultra

Thanks in advance.

Outlander_04 · Sep 23, 2014

Older RAM is likely to be 1.8 volt . This will damage the memory controller on a new processor which is only designed to work with 1.5 volts .

The memory kit you had may be triple channel too , and that will run as single channel in the new board because it is not in pairs

shonjord · Sep 23, 2014

Hello and thanks for the quick reply,

Here is the ram im currently using

http://www.corsair.com/en-us/cmx12gx3m3a2000c9

1.65 V and as you said is tripple channel, but one of the module died so i'm using only two of them.

Time for a quick upgrade of the ram right?

Outlander_04 · Sep 23, 2014

1.65 volt is not ideal but people are getting away with it . Maybe it will shorten the cpu's life though
2 x4 gig is plenty of RAM for most uses .
Replacing it is probably a good idea . But its also optional , I think

I meant to ask . What version of windows are you using , and is it 64 bit?

I would change a few detail settings and see if you can get the fps a little higher Change the anisotropic filtering to x8 and see if that makes a difference

shonjord · Sep 23, 2014

I'm using Windows 7 64 BIT, what ram would you recommend me for my desktop PC?.

Bee_Dee_3_Dee · Sep 23, 2014

Is vertical Sync enabled? (it can cause FPS to drop from 60 to 30 to 15 to 7.5.)

If so, try Adaptive Vertical sync. it was invented to avoid the above drops. Adaptive Vertical sync RULES!

shonjord · Sep 25, 2014

Tried Adaptive Vertical Sync, and nothing, same performance.

I boguth a pair of Vengeance Corsair 16 GB @ 1600 MHZ, and nothing, same performance, this game is driving me crazy, i don't know what is causing the fps to drop that much.

Outlander_04 · Sep 25, 2014

and you did a full reinstallation of windows?

shonjord · Sep 25, 2014

Outlander_04 :

Wiped all data, installed windowsw8.1 and all updates, and nothing, same result, this is driving me crazy.

Bee_Dee_3_Dee · Sep 25, 2014

-Have u tweaked the OS? (Disable unnecessary Services, defrag, disable Indexing, MSConfig, etc.)

-Full backups make it possible to truly test whether or not tweaks matter. But most important, full backups allow u to experiment and take chances/ experiment. Incremental backups with Acronis are the way to go these days.

-Try, http://www.tweakguides.com/TGTC.html (Regular editions are free.)

-Tomb Raider Rocks on my i7-950 rig. (GTX760-SLI)
(but my OS is super-tweaked.)

-Do u have a dedicated Hard Drive to install Games on?
(Make a partition at the beginning of the Game drive for installing current games ur playing a lot.)

GL

shonjord · Sep 25, 2014

Bee_Dee_3_Dee :

Well, i have tweaked the OS in order to optimize the SSDs, i also forgot to mention that i'm running 2 ssds on raid 0.

I took some screenshots, here they are:

https://mega.co.nz/#!O5ZkmCLQ!bA4zlFHnop6mu_x2SojHcjZS1IgFyMJUZxQadVhA3s8
https://mega.co.nz/#!z5ZCkToD!gmC-lIK3lHKapzBMEimIcNUQlSC2kV4nRIDYhSTxKDY
https://mega.co.nz/#!Xs4CFJ6L!WDPiutWrQuKbtr1mK7zlo3ZFYk6TZzEpGM8W6wwtZAI
https://mega.co.nz/#!S0gUGLwb!kr5SeFAm19yN8k2PrmhTYy5luTfc5A37aVizDCaXamE

Do you play this game @ solid 60 fps?

spooky2th · Sep 26, 2014

that memory should run OK in your system. Have you set the timings correctly? Should be able to set the memory up to 1866MHz according the specs from your link. Two sticks will run in dual channel mode and the third will be single channel. Enable XMP is usually all that needs to be done with memory. Might have to manually adjust the multiplier to 1866MHz with older memory. And possibly manually adjust the timings too. Make sure the timings are 9-10-9-27 and voltage is 1.65V. Won't hurt a thing in your build. 1.5V is just the default with most all newer boards now and can be adjusted up or down as needed and won't hurt a thing.

EDIT:
Setting up the BIOS is the first thing you should do, starting with optimized defaults. Then memory timings and speed.

If still problems try with just two sticks in dual channel.

Bee_Dee_3_Dee · Sep 26, 2014

shonjord :

Bee_Dee_3_Dee :

yes np (adaptive V-sync kicks in occasionally. without it, i would not have enjoyed the game half as much.)

Things i question:

-looking again at ur settings in 1st post makes me ask, if u have tried experimenting with individual settings in Tomb Raider?

-and also in ur 1st post the "certain places which makes the fps decrease to 20-30 fps", makes me wonder if they could all be caused by the same setting or if there are similarities (as far as map characteristics/ items) that could be discovered.

-oh, and ^^ makes me think of GIDing, "i7 4790k Tomb Raider". (maybe a BIOS update is needed.)

-OCing? Properly reset BIOS to Optimal defaults Saved Exit then gone back in and done a few customizations that would not affect Tomb Raider?

-is ur Video card to blame or one of ur SSDs? (Try running the game from an old trusty HDD lying around.)

-u must have played many different games on ur i7-920. try as many as u can to compare. even test HL2 and the original Far Cry. (but crank-up the Anti-Aliasing to 16.

i play Crysis with a Modified Config file from six years ago, designed for only single frame Photographic screen shots and guaranteed to drag FPS to 5 and i get 60 FPS with it.)

-all other games work fine? (Because i think that Tomb Raider is using a custom version of the UT3 Game Engine. check if it is. and if it is u could therefore, compare performance of other games that use the UT3 Game Engine. the latest Bioshock... Infinite uses a custom one and Max Payne 3 maybe. Compare them and some others that use UT3 engine to Unreal Tournament 3 performance... which is not so customized and super good working. sry can't think of a way to say it. lol and try Deus Ex 3.)

-have u monitored the amount of RAM (vid and system) that is in use during game lags? (maybe there's a memory leak due to one of countless things.)

- and Windows Event Viewer has way too much info to help most all the time. But, if u focus on just the problem at hand and the time it occurs, Windows Event Viewer can/ should not be overlooked. there's just an enormous learning curve. but at least using it applies to everything and makes it well worth it in the long run.

-have u tried Windows 7? (sry i forgot if u mentioned that or not.)

GL

shonjord · Sep 27, 2014

Bee_Dee_3_Dee :

shonjord :

1) Yes, i have tried experimenting with individual settings, i have set the lowest detail and left TressFX ON, obtained the same performance, at exact same spots, fps drops like crazy, which makes me thing that the problem is caused by TressFX.

2) I have updated the BIOS, is running the latest firmware.

3) I have tested the game on HDD as well as SSD and obtained same performance.

4) I have played different games, mostly all of the them run just fine, except Hitman and Tomb Raider, but for hitman there is only one spot that makes the fps decrease to 40 fps.

5) I have tested the game on windows 7 64 BIT and Windows 8 64 BIT, no difference.

I have read other forums, and i think the problem is TressFX, is not optimized for Nvidia GPUs, because as i said, i have set the details to the lowest settings and left TressFX ON,and i get the exact same result.

Do you play this game with TressFX ON or OFF?.

Bee_Dee_3_Dee · Sep 27, 2014

i haven't played in over a year. hopefully the game has not reset the settings...

http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp73/Bee_Dee_3_Dee/TombRaiderSettingsPic.png

yes. ^^ are the exact settings i played with. (LUVed the game. but still not ready to play again. maybe if i launch it i won't be able to stop.;-)) i preferred TressFX on (just remembered wat it was lol) because the game is tps.

(Note: only a climbing scene in a cave lagged. and turning off TressFX resolved it. but that was just 2 minuets of the whole game that required i turn it off.)

i should have started posting ^^ but i wasn't sure if the settings would be unchanged.

and i should have pointed out that i DID OC at the time. (i quit OCing for BF4 and because my TP needed to needed to be reapplied and my HAF-X case is too much of a hassle so i just stopped OCing.)

maybe ur very 1st question (RAM bottlenecking) is correctly answered, yes. because in addition to my OCing, when i played TR, i also have/ had 2000MHz RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226195 see review: http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/mushkin_pc3_16000/

although my system can't take advantage of beyond 1600 MHz, it may have helped and may not have helped. so, with the price of RAM nowadays and the spending u have done already, go for it. BUT, take a long long time to decide. the ^^ RAM i got was researched for weeks. (1600 MHz for over a year. but then 2000 MHz was available; so i researched it for weeks.) i used the advice of experts. and got the best (at the time) as a result.

for now there is very little put towards system RAM; compared to years past; and effect on overall system performance. but go for tried and true 1T, lifetime warrantied, and just shop for the best. (hopefully with an GTX9xx card upgrade, maybe next year, ur system can last for many years more. so THAT is why u want the best of the best RAM. it sure paid off for me. STILL no need to upgrade my system.

(probably won't for over two years longer.)

Did u GID "i7 4790k Tomb Raider"? (wat did u find if anythin?)

Edit 1: i just realized Basic settings may matter:

http://i399.photobucket.com/albums/pp73/Bee_Dee_3_Dee/TombRaiderSettingsPicBasic.png

spooky2th · Sep 27, 2014

Find out what your monitor's optimum settings are and set the game to that and see if it helps. Also, try setting monitor up to that so both vid card and monitor are set the same.

Bee_Dee_3_Dee · Oct 16, 2014

i totally forgot that GPU Boost 2.0 could be the culprit (problem)! and i don't see any mention of the PC case or the cooling u have, Shonjord.

GPU Boost 2.0
(http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/gpu-boost-2/technology)

the default "Temp Limit" is 80c. at that temp the card throttles down. (resulting in performance equal to the best a GTX280 could provide.) So determine Max GPU temperatures while playing TR for 15+ minuets.

IF that IS the prob, then the Solution is:
Raise "Temp Limit" to 90c.
(Best way/ way i raise "Temp Limit" to 90c, is, with MSI Afterburner. DL at the bottom of:
http://www.guru3d.com/files_details/msi_afterburner_beta_download.html
scroll down and select, Download 3.0.1 Stable.)

also be sure to enable Fan Control in settings. i use: http://s399.photobucket.com/user/Bee_Dee_3_Dee/media/Clipboarder20140603.png.html

i thought of ur prob again while playing TR yesterday. And again when a friend needed advice on a new SSD and tweaking a new OS , Vid card, etc.

GL

shonjord · Oct 17, 2014

Bee_Dee_3_Dee :

Hi mate,

Thanks for your help, my case is this one: http://www.sentey.com/es/arvina-plus-30-gs-6410

I took an screenshot, and the GPU doesn't even hit 70° C: http://postimg.org/image/vfxz68aad/

I also noticed that the GPU usage is 99%, i think TressFX is fps hungry for my videocard, what do you think?.

spooky2th · Oct 17, 2014

Try setting the resolution down. What is the highest resolution of your monitor? Set to that. Anything higher is just wasted as the monitor only goes so far.

shonjord · Oct 17, 2014

spooky2th :

I'm currently playing @ 1080p, my monitor's native resolution.

RAM Bottlenecking my PC?

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