Low FPS with GTX 970 SLI: Total War Attila (Game)

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

Hello, first time poster here! I've been enjoying my stay in this site as a starter computer enthusiast and I have learned a lot, including how to properly install an SSD.

Anyhoo, my problem:

I just installed a second GTX 970 as an SLI configuration. Problem is, I am not satisfied with the frame rates that I was expecting. Benchmarking with the above game I was having an average of 30 plus/minus 5. I looked at every configuration in NVIDIA, monitored my graphics card usage and temperatures (both averaging 55-65 Celsius while running game). I am also using the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q 1440p monitor. Watching a youtube video that has the same SLI and 1440p setting as I do, he was having an average of 40 fps within the same graphic settings as I have, but the difference is that he had a significantly better processor: i7 5820. Another game in which the FPS i am questioning is Wargame: Red Dragon as I have around 60-80 FPS (depending on my zooming and activities). Dota 2 was consistent around 110-120 FPS.

So, being convinced that my SLI is working properly, I result to blaming my processor - my i7 960 3.2Ghz and/or my MSI x58 Pro. Although I am quite skeptical, because another user asked if the i7 960 will bottleneck 970 SLIs, and most people answered no/minimal.

My questions:
1. Am I right that the processor and/or mobo is/are the culprit/s that is causing my dissatisfaction in terms of frame rates?
2. Will upgrading to an i5 4690k or i7 4790k improve the performance significantly?
3. Would you like me to do some other diagnostics or settings, which I'll report back to you?

Specs:
i7 960 3.2GHz
2x ASUS STRIX GTX 970 SLI (OC Edition)
MSI x58 Pro
12GB DDR3 1033MHz
250GB Samsung Pro SSD
1TB Seagate
Corsair RM850 (Gold Cert.) 850W
Corsair H80i GT (Liquid Cooling)

UPDATE:
Forgot to mention that the processor, motherboard, and memory are 3.5 years old from purchase. All other parts are less than 1 month old from the date of purchase and reinstallation.

Im_Infinity · Mar 21, 2015

honestly an i5 is good enough an i7 might be better but one thing i could say is in the benchmark you seen is he overclocking anything like cpu or even gpu if so that could be the difference factor

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

Im_Infinity :

These are his specs:
Intel Core i7-5820K 6x 3.3 GHz
16GB DDR4 Crucial Dual Channel 2133MHz (2x 8GB)
2x 4096 MB NVIDIA Geforce GTX 970
500GB SATA III Samsung 840 EVO SSD
2TB SATA III Western Digital Red WD20EFRX
Windows 8.1 64bit

And this is the video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV7gh83YPrw

Not sure if he is overclocked but if he is I'm sure that he will indicate it somewhere in the description.

Im_Infinity · Mar 21, 2015

JedStephen :

ok this is gonna sound pretty funny and dumb are you basically saying the fps you seen in the benchmark he did you were expecting in the actual campaign ect

boju · Mar 21, 2015

The 960 is holding you back. Those Bloomfield processors are still ok today but need to be overclocked close to 4GHz to keep up with the latest, and wont be long until that isn't good enough still, including me.

boju · Mar 21, 2015

So simple put, 960 is bottlenecking your twin 970s, not so much single.Wwill need to overclock it, it shouldn't be difficult with your setup

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

Im_Infinity :

JedStephen :

ok this is gonna sound pretty funny and dumb are you basically saying the fps you seen in the benchmark he did you were expecting in the actual campaign ect

No, it is actually the benchmark test that is within the options menu. It's the same track that plays everytime and that is where I found the FPS difference.

Im_Infinity · Mar 21, 2015

JedStephen :

Im_Infinity :

No, it is actually the benchmark test that is within the options menu. It's the same track that plays everytime and that is where I found the FPS difference.

unless the game is more cpu intense then i have no idea

boju · Mar 21, 2015

Jedstephen, have you considered OCing? you have the cooling and it would go a long way with your 970s, it will make a difference.

boju · Mar 21, 2015

Try;

XMP

CPU Ratio: 19x - My mobo only goes upto 20x and Bloomfield likes odd multipliers so choose 19x or 21x if you can; 19 x 190BLCK for 4Ghz and 21 x 200BLCK for 4.2GHz
BCLK FREQ: 190/200
DRAM FREQ: 1264 - I have 1600 memory clocked down to 1264. The IMC of Bloomfield isn't designed to go much higher -they can go higher stock cpu speeds but is not stable when overclocking and produces much more heat than it's worth. So staying 1033 will go a long way.
UCLK FREQ: 2538
QPI LINK: AUTO

______

CPU VOLTAGE: 1.27
CPU PLL: 1.88
QPI/DRAM 1.25
C1E SUPPORT: ENABLED
HT: DISABLED
A20M: DISABLED
INTEL CSTATE: DISABLED

These are settings im using, see how you go, test with prime95 of course and keep an eye on temps.

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

I am familiar with overclocking and it's pros and cons but I never did it myself. Would you mind giving me a brief on which programs are best for stress testing and CPU temperature monitoring? I am only using the GPU-Z through my second monitor. I was also about to use FurMark a while ago but the warnings about the stress testing turned me off. Is FurMark truly safe?

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

Through CPU-Z, my current CPU ratio is x25.0, and my bus speed is 133.0Mhz. Did you want me to change the DRAM to 1260 or just stay at 1033?

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

I also just discovered through CPU-Z that my DRAM Frequency was at 533.8 MHz. I have no idea if that is wrong or there is something to this. What do you think?

boju · Mar 21, 2015

I'm not sure how high your CPU ratio can go, i think it might be 21x im not sure, but MSI are good with that. Your memory i would stay within spec of your memory and not go over, don't really need to.

When overclocking your BLCK and CPU ratio, your memory frequency may change slightly, so near enough to 1033.

How many memory sticks do you have can i ask? If its 3x 4GB to make 12GB is ok but if it's 6x 2GB, overclocking may make things bit more challenging as having that many dimms populated puts more stress.

I'm running 3x4gb 1.5v Corsairs which your Msi board should be adequate for as well. Will make overclocking easier.

boju · Mar 21, 2015

JedStephen :

boju :

I also just discovered through CPU-Z that my DRAM Frequency was at 533.8 MHz. I have no idea if that is wrong or there is something to this. What do you think?

Thats normal, diagnostic memory readers will report single data, even if double data ram is installed. Nothing to worry about here. Your bios will tell you the exact figures.

boju · Mar 21, 2015

Cpuz is a handy tool to know your cpu and memory frequencies, thats what i use.

To monitor heat, Realtemp; http://www.techpowerup.com/realtemp/

boju · Mar 21, 2015

Stress tests:

Intel Burn Test (IBT) 10-20 passes, couple hrs worth. IBT puts more stress quickly than anything else and if the system is not stable it will fail first test.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?197835-IntelBurnTest-The-new-stress-testing-program

Prime95 blend test; Tests bits of everything, cpu and memory. After IBT, leave this go overnight.

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=205

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

Thank you for the very helpful softwares. Right now I am in BIOS and I cannot find the CPU clock adjuster. It is currently set at 24 so I thought of putting the BCLK as 167MHz so the adjusted clock will be 4.01GHz.

Unfortunately as I was looking at the temperatures in BIOS, the IOH temperature at idle mode was 87 Celsius. I quickly did a research and it was found that it's a common issue with the MSI x-58 PRO mobos. Having no spare CPU fans, I turned to my mini-electric fan (since it fights just right on the foot area). Temperature is going down from 87 to 56. CPU temperature went from 31 to 21 as of this writing and system temp is 35. I think leaving this fan open from now on would be a good idea as the only drawback I learned was that dust buildup is exponentially greater, which I believe is manageable by doing routine cleaning.

To answer the memory queston, I have 3 x 4GB sticks.

Thanks for the great help so far. Couldn't have done it without your suggestions. What is XMP by the way?

boju · Mar 21, 2015

You're welcome. XMP profile in an Intel based motherboard is an enhanced mode that surpasses(OC) memory specifications (1600+) is used when manually overclocking on older platforms like mine and yours as it opens and lists other advanced options as i mentioned earlier. Without XMP, the menu structure will be very basic.

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

I cannot find the XMP profile within the BIOS.

What I have done right now was I set the BCLK at 167. Blue screen appeared on Windows loading. Set it to 163, same thing happened. Currently I set it to 155, went past through loading screen and I currently am opening monitoring softwares. I am just about to use stress tests right now and apparently CPU-Z shows that my multiplier is waving from 25 to 26, making the 155 BCLK just the right number for the core speed to fluctuate from 3.99GHz to 4.08GHz. Will just about to do stress tests, and I noticed that the core voltage which I set to 1.28is fluctuating from 1.05 to 1.37 every half a second according to CPU-Z. Is this normal? Will report again with stress tests results.

boju · Mar 21, 2015

Try manual prefix in bios and disable speedstep. Speedstep vary in voltage as it reduces the speed based on usage to save power. Google msi x58 pro overclocking for more info: http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=20081220191040237&board_id=1&model=P6T+Deluxe&page=1&SLanguage=en-us The settings here will be very similar, setting your bios to manual should have the options i've mentioned to work with as well as in the link. XMP i thought might have showed these settings but guess each motherboard is different how the options are displayed and when.

The voltage shouldn't fluctuate. no, Speedstep is the cause of that.

JedStephen · Mar 21, 2015

boju :

Will look into that speedstep feature. So far, IntelBurnTest passed the current BCLK with 10 tests. Max temperature was 68 degrees celsius with the Corsair H80i GT + the cute fan near my feet for IOH temp stability. With the link you sent, I just realized that the 960 doesn't allow the clock multiplier to be modified. PC stable as of now. I will run the benchmark of Total War: Attila again and will tell you the results

boju · Mar 22, 2015

Cool, hoping for the best.

Looking a bit on overclocking with that motherboard, it seems quite restrictive albeit still achievable the same way you did it.

Have you tested your game yet?

JedStephen · Mar 22, 2015

boju :

Yes. I just tested moments ago, and the difference was that 31 fps was the average pre-overclocking and it became 40 fps after. During the grand campaign quest, average fps went from 25-30 to 30-35. I think this is fine, as this is my first overclock and I'm pretty sure that my processor is bottlenecking the two video cards. Only solution to max out the performance I believe is to buy a new set of processor, motherboard, and memory. Probably a processor of 22nm architecture compared to min which is 45nm. All in all, this worked out pretty well as I have not experienced any crashes yet and I am continuously monitoring my temperatures. Thank you for a very good overclock values suggestion, though I had to adjust because the clock multiplier with this processor cannot be changed. So I went for 26*156 BCLK instead.

boju · Mar 22, 2015

That's awesome, squeezed a little more life out of it

Low FPS with GTX 970 SLI: Total War Attila (Game)

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