MSI GeForce GTX 950 - random frame drops

Orbit Storm

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Relevant specs:
OS: Windows 10
Motherboard: MSI 760GM-P34
CPU: FX-6300
PSU: Corsair CX430
GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 950 OCV1

Since purchasing this GTX 950 about a week ago, I've noticed significant (and random) frame drops when playing more intensive titles (namely Rust), even on lower settings. These frame drops are accompanied by freezes and MSI Afterburner shows the GPU Usage dropping from 100% to 0% (see a screenshot HERE). Given that I don't have many other titles to test this with, I downloaded Unigine's benchmarking utility and during (as well as after) the benchmark, the usage drops were the same.

Here is the average result:
  • • Render: Direct3d11
    • Mode: 1920x1080 fullscreen
    • Quality: High
    • Tessellation: Disabled
    • • FPS: 55.8
      • Score: 1406
      • Min FPS: 8.3
      • Max FPS: 117.6

Typically, these drops seemingly happen the most when rendering large amounts of terrain (e.g. player buildings, towns, hills with copious foliage). I don't believe this is a power-related issue and my drivers are current (even updated them yet again today).

Any insight into what may be causing this?

Thanks a bunch!
 

Acapella

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It would not surprised me at all if it was a power issue. The Corsair CX series is notoriously pretty iffy. I'd make sure you have the most recent GeForce drivers, windows updates, etc. But if the dropping is this consistent in both gaming and benchmarking environments, I'd have to think it's on the power supply.
 

Orbit Storm

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Would there be any way to determine if it is a power issue? As seen in the screenshot I linked to above, the power percentage for the GPU does have a wild range but it usually averages around 95% or so.

For what it's worth, this CX430 was a recommended unit here on Tom's Hardware; both in a direct support thread and an official list. I'm rather surprised to be told that 430 watts isn't sufficient enough to power this card.. even more so when MSI and EVGA claimed it is as well.
 

Acapella

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It's enough to power the card. I'm not saying that 430 watts isn't enough. I'm saying that the unit in particular isn't one of the brands that I've been recommended in the past. I've heard it's not great, but I don't have facts to back up that statement. If you're GPU usage is dropping that severely, there's a problem in either the card or the power supply.
 

Orbit Storm

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I've spent the last two days speaking with both MSI, NVIDIA, and even Corsair and have eliminated the PSU as being the culprit: voltages are perfectly normal and 430W is more than sufficient to power the card and the rest of the system.

MSI claims that perhaps it's a Win10 compatibility issue with my motherboard (MSI 760GM-P34) as this board doesn't even have chipset drivers for Win10. NVIDIA believes it's a software issue; some underlying problem with the game or maybe even the drivers.

Beyond the PSU, drivers, and a defective card.. what else could it be? Doing a quick search for similar issues turns up a myriad of results; everything from the CPU bottlenecking (which it often does reach 80%+ usage during full load with Rust) to a temperature problem that I'm not seeing.
 

Orbit Storm

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Nearly two weeks have passed and the issue is still persistent. I'm noticing that in a large majority of titles, I'm experiencing some sort of bottleneck and I'm not sure what the culprit may be. Rust, Dayz, and even World of Warcraft are all titles that I experience significant frame spikes and fall well below the estimated benchmark for this system.

With the information I've provided, are there any other possibilities aside from the power supply (something MSI, Corsair, and even CyberPower has already ruled out as being the problem)?

Thank you.
 

Orbit Storm

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Oops. Misclicked on "best answer" from the email alert to your response. Could you kindly remove that?

As for your response, even for being a slightly low-end PSU, it's still more than sufficient to power this system.. so I'm not quite sure why everyone keeps pointing to that. The average, recommended wattage for a PSU is around 340w for this build; this isn't some high-end rig. I've monitored power usage for the PSU and it never reaches 100% during high load, so that goes against the theory of it not being powerful enough, no? This is the only thread that I've been told the CX430 is a bad unit, despite having countless threads where I list it as my current power supply and no one thought to mention that I should replace it.

After doing a bit of scouring on this site, I've encountered another possibility: that my FX-6300 could be bottlenecking my GTX 950. Unparking cores is a thing of the past (to my knowledge) as a result of Win10's updates so one option would be to overclock the processor but I'm unsure if my micro-ATX case could handle that (especially with a stock cooler and now the GTX 950).
 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
Gone ;) Your call, have a feeling if you try a better PSU it should clear up the problems, the JohnnyGuru site which is well known for it's PSU reviews, gave it a 9, and mentioned the poor power regulation and cheap caps.....and their site is pro Corsair
 

Orbit Storm

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Price isn't terrible either. Hypothetically speaking, if I get this unit and I still experience the same issue, what would be the next step? It'd be extremely disappointing to buy a new power supply only to find that I didn't need to in the first place.
 

Orbit Storm

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Currently using a pair of Crucial 4GB DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) sticks with a pair of 8GB G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) sticks on the way as a replacement.

Never heard of system memory causing GPU usage to plummet but I suppose anything is possible at this point (not at all implying you're wrong.. just dumbfounded by PCs at times). I'm upgrading system memory now, not because of any known issue, but simply for better performance overall (with Win10, Chrome, and any mid-tier title, I'm using 80% or more of my memory).

 

Tradesman1

Legenda in Aeternum
you had mentioned 'rendering large amounts of terrain' which is memory intensive. Possible with other programs open and data being held from previous uses, you hit basically a 'memory full' type scenario where the system is flushing held data while trying to load new into memory which could result in a brief drop
 

Orbit Storm

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Heh.. well then, on that note, I'll post an update later today (Friday at the latest) as the new memory is scheduled for delivery Thursday afternoon (later today). I haven't a clue if this clunker motherboard will be able to handle 16gigs of quality RAM versus the 8gigs of low-grade product but let's hope for the best.

Thanks for the responses thus far!