Gigabyte GTX 970 usage spikes

Brad123127 · Sep 25, 2015

So a while ago my Gigabyte GTX 780ti died (RIP), but before it died, it was able to run Battlefield 4 maxed out in 1080p at a CONSTANT 90+ FPS (NEVER fell below 90, in conjunction with an i7 4790k @4.0GHz). So, after it went RIPpy, I got a new card, the Gigabyte GTX 970. The card looked pretty good. I saw a few reviews, one from this exact website (http://postimg.org/image/c44l4tie5/), the benchmark on Tom's Hardware using a computer with an i7-3960X @ 3.3GHz, and 16GB RAM. I have an i7 4790k @4.0GHz, and 8GB DDR3 RAM.

My 780ti was getting about 20 FPS more than the 780ti in the benchmark build, so logically the 970 shouldn't have much more of a problem, right? Wrong. Even in the lowest settings, the game freezes whenever I: move, aim down sight, shoot, enter a vehicle, click, etc. Basically any inputs freeze my game for a second. But only sometimes it's like this. Other times it's only when I take damage and the blood come up on the screen. That'll freeze it, and sometimes it'll be the only thing that freezes it. I've heard that the Gigabyte 970s are the worst ones, and MSI make the best 970s. Is this true?

I check out MSI afterburner. What's this? GPU usage is spiking.
http://postimg.org/image/5kq8smjhv/

And here's what those spikes look like in game (and no, the video isn't freezing, that's what I saw too). Also, I AM listening to music here, but music through YouTube, music through WMP, no music at all... Doesn't really change anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJoe3PavtAg&feature=youtu.be

Is it maybe Origin in game? I'll just turn that off, and- oh look at that, it isn't on.
Is it all of the background processes that I have open, like Chrome and Steam? Alright, let me just close Steam... And now Chro- oh wait, Battlelog, right. Guess I'll have to have Chrome open.
Play in the lowest resolution possible and with the lowest graphic settings? Well the game definitely looks worse... My frames ARE improving... But the freezing is STILL there.
Lower the resolution scale? Alright, now I'm looking through a blurry window, and nope. Still freezing.
Restart the game? Nope.
Restart Origin? Hahahahahaha no.
Maybe I'll restart my computer? Nope.
Reseat my GPU and RAM? Nope.
Completely close Geforce Experience (recorded that clip with Shadowplay)? Noooope. Still freezing.

I'm completely out of solutions here. I haven't played BF4 in months because of this. ANY help would be greatly appreciated.

Eximo · Sep 25, 2015

Did you uninstall the old drivers before installing the GTX970? I highly recommend giving this utility a try and re-installing the drivers from scratch if you haven't done so. :

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

Aside from that it doesn't even look like the GPU is all that taxed to run this game, either load or temperature, and I know BF4 will consume as much of an Nvidia card as you let it with V-sync off.

Now there is the 3.5GB problem of the GTX970, which isn't in your MSI afterburner picture. Didn't think it would be an issue at 1920x1080 though. But if the card is using more the 3.5GB of the VRAM it will have issues as the last .5GB is not hooked directly to the bus and has to wait an extra clock cycle to access that memory when it is used. Lowering AA or texture details are quick ways to get the memory requirements down if you see that is the problem.

As for the opinions you hear on vendors, worst is relative. Generally this refers to cooling (temperatures), noise, overclocking, or general quality.

MSI Twin Frozr is considered quite good, but then so is the Gigabyte Windforce when it comes to cooling and overclocking. They are all the same GPU, unless you ended up with a faulty one, which you should have immediately RMAd if suspicious of the card, so quality is subjective and everyone will have their stores.

(As an example, I have never had a GPU die on me, going on 20 years of PC building.) PNY, EVGA, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, 3DFX, Elements (now that is a throwback brand), Paradise (even older).)

Brad123127 · Sep 26, 2015

Hmm, that's weird... I can easily run the game at a constant 70 FPS (never goes over), it's only the freezes, which happen VERY often in most games... except for TDM. Not a single freeze in TDM. GPU usage is up and down between 50% and 80%, constant 70FPS. It seems to be only a problem on Conquest maps. And yes, I have removed all 780ti drivers.

As I may have mentioned earlier, I'm kind of happy that I can't run BF4 reliably anymore, as I was growing tired of the game. I just played a game of TDM, and I'm already deterred from going back and playing it. Considering I can run EVERY other game fine (CSGO 200 FPS+, BF3 70 FPS, War Thunder 100 FPS+) with no freezing at all (except for GTA V, the city gives me freezes similar to BF4), completely maxed out (except for some settings I don't like, e.g. motion blur and I only have AA on 2x).

Plus, you say you've never had a card die on you. My 780 lasted for about 6-8 months. I remember one day I was playing War Thunder, and my FPS was only 80 (yeah it's a good framerate, just a bit lower than... 200+ at all times). It was slowly getting worse, and I don't know what caused it. When I first got the 780, it ran BF4 maxed out at 100FPS. Over the course of 6 months, it was running at maybe 70FPS constantly. It never went above 65° C, neither has my 970.

Also worth a mention is that it's not the first thing that's died on me. I had a motherboard that died to what we believe was static electricity (no idea how).

Eximo · Sep 28, 2015

GTA freezes might be VRAM or simply accessing storage to load more environment. It is a rather resource intensive game.

Have you been monitoring the CPU much? Might be the cause of the hiccup if it is briefly shooting up to very high temps. Actually what OS are you running? If it is Windows 7 you might need to unpark your CPU cores. It may be shutting cores down to save power, which causes a delay when it wants to use that core. It was a trick for getting BF4 to run a lot better when it just came out. I assume older, and less resource intensive games, might just run a few cores and be happy. Newer games probably force the unparking at engine launch.

-----------

If you have a lot of part failures over time you might might start looking at other potential factors. Have your incoming power checked for ripples, spikes, and sags. Check the PC power supply. General environment.

Smoking has one of the largest impacts I have seen on PC longevity, at least from what I have seen. (Though one shining example is my friend who chain smoked for years around a Q6600 and it is still plugging along, GPU did die though, but seems to be a sensor failure, fails internal POST, but seems the logic is all still intact)

I've had the occasional motherboard die, but rarely catastrophically, just increasing levels of bluescreens until I gave up on them. That was back in the days of electrolytics being common on motherboards. My X58 board seems to have memory controller problems, but will still read 8GB, so not a big deal for the gamer that is using it. One machine that wouldn't live with itself, but each part separately tested fine. CPU, memory, GPU, hard drive, power supply, sound card, all worked perfectly. Put them in that motherboard and all hell broke loose...Lucky if an OS stayed intact for more then a day or two. That motherboard went on to be the core of an entirely different, perfectly working, system.

Brad123127 · Jan 23, 2016

Ok I completely forgot that I created this thread. I'm still having the spike problems, mainly with GTA V and BF4, with most other games running fine. No-one in my house smokes. I'm running Windows 10, and I've got a program that unparks cores for me, so it can't be that. According to MSI Afterburner, nothing is spiking in temperature. I've more or less just given up on trying to fix it (I'm like that). I just live with the spikes.

I thought that the GTA freezes might have something to do with VRAM though. With my 780ti, it'd never freeze unless i was entering an interior that hadn't been rendered or going underwater for the first time that session or something. There was the occasional noticeable stutter when driving really fast through the city, mainly at night/during rain, but that was about it.

Search

Gigabyte GTX 970 usage spikes

Brad123127

Distinguished

Eximo

Titan

Brad123127

Distinguished

Eximo

Titan

Brad123127

Distinguished

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page