Low GPU usage in games; causing low frame rates and occasional stuttering.

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D

darthsurfer

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
5
0
1,520
My computer's specs:
-i5 6600k at stock
-Zotac 960gtx 2gb
-Ripjaws 8GB 2400 DDR4 RAM
-2TB storage (1.2TB free)
-Windows 10 x64

I apologize in advance for the long post, I'm just trying to be as detailed as possible. When this issue occurred I did not install any new programs, drivers, any windows 10 updates, or change any settings, so I really do not know what's causing this problem.

Usually, in CS:GO, I would get around 200-300fps at 1080 max settings, with around 75% gpu utilization at ~70C temp. But last night I started noticing frame rate drops, using MSI Afterburner I saw that my frame rate to ~60fps when I just walking around, drops even lower when gunfire starts. And gpu utilization just stays around 20-30% with temps at 45C (gpu temp is around 40C during idle). This also happened in all the games that I tried (Fallout 4, TF2, Dota 2, Siege, Overwatch).

At first, I tried restarting my computer and it ended up working back to normal, but then the this morning it went back to being broken, and this time restarting did nothing. Oddly enough, running UserBenchmark was able to push GPU utilization to 99%, but still did not fix the problem in games. CPU utilization for some reason also seemed to go down, from 40% previously to 25%. It doesn't seem to be thermal throttling, while running CSGO CPU stays at 35C, mobo around 40C. Also, running UserBenchmark returned average results in GPU, poor results in CPU (since I ran an unlocked K at stock), good results for other components.

I tried the some solutions I found here and in other sites (none of which helped).
-Running a scan with Malwarebytes and Windows Defender. Nothing came up.
-I set my power to "high performance"
-Set Nvidia Control Panel Power Settings to "Maximum"
-Rolling back Nvidia Driver to an older version
-Re-updating Nvidia Driver to the latest version
-Re-sitting RAM, GPU, SATA Drives, and power connectors
-OCing the GPU (did nothing, so undid it afterwards)
-Changing graphic settings in-game (lowering it raised fps, but not gpu utilization)

I'm honestly stumped. I tried to use the restore point thing in Windows, but apparently it deleted the restore points I manually setup previously. My last resort would just be to reformat or reset my OS, but I'm not even sure if that would fix the issue.

I would really appreciate any help, thanks!
 
Solution
D
Finally found a fix. Turns out, the reason for the low GPU usage was the fact that the CPU clock speed was stuck at a maximum of 800mHz. With that, the way to fix it is found here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=270601.msg1545421

Basically, this issue was caused by an error with MSI motherboards' "Slow Mode" feature, which essentially limits the CPU frequency to the lowest possible speed, regardless of whatever is set in the BIOS. I read some fixes for it (though only the last one worked for me).

1. Shutdown the computer, then on the motherboard, look for small switch (it's a literal switch on the board) labelled "SLOW_1". If it's on, then switch it off. If it is already off, then try switching it on then off. Check your...
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darthsurfer

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
5
0
1,520


I just tried this now, but it says that my drives were 0% fragmented. Also tried running crystaldisk, it didn't find anything wrong with my drives. :(
 
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B

binggoman

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
10
0
1,510
I would recommend you to test your card in a different PC first. Do you have any friend or sibling who has a PC that can you borrow to test your card?

If the warranty of the card is still there, you can bring it to the retailer to RMA it.
 
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D

darthsurfer

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
5
0
1,520
Finally found a fix. Turns out, the reason for the low GPU usage was the fact that the CPU clock speed was stuck at a maximum of 800mHz. With that, the way to fix it is found here: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=270601.msg1545421

Basically, this issue was caused by an error with MSI motherboards' "Slow Mode" feature, which essentially limits the CPU frequency to the lowest possible speed, regardless of whatever is set in the BIOS. I read some fixes for it (though only the last one worked for me).

1. Shutdown the computer, then on the motherboard, look for small switch (it's a literal switch on the board) labelled "SLOW_1". If it's on, then switch it off. If it is already off, then try switching it on then off. Check your motherboards manual to see which way is on and off. Then go into the BIOS and check the CPU frequency/clock speed, if it's back to the correct frequency, then boot into windows. Do some stuff on the computer while monitoring the clock speed (use speccy, CPU-z, windows 10 task manager, or some other program). If it stays at the normal level, then you're done.

2. If that doesn't work and the clock speed in the bios is still slower that normal, then disable Intel Adaptive Thermal Monitor in the BIOS. It should be somewhere in the advance settings, together with the other settings for cpu features.
 
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Solution
D

darthsurfer

Commendable
Aug 13, 2016
5
0
1,520


Yeah, been running my computer for 2 days now, and everything is back to normal. Hopefully it stays that way. Still don't know what caused the slow mode feature to act up tho.

Thanks for taking time to help! :)
 
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