Sudden FPS Drops in games

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CrippledPenguin

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Ok so I have been having this problem for months now and I've tried 99.9% of the solutions and had no luck. I'll describe my issue in as much detail as possible:

While playing games (League of Legends and World of Warcraft) I have had FPS drops. While playing League of Legends I get noticeable FPS drops from around 250 FPS to around 30 FPS. It causes a large stutter almost on the game making it a huge annoyance. While playing WoW I seem to not get FPS drops but more of a stutter now and then, nothing to annoying but I notice it, also I'm not actually sure if this is a WoW problem or not as this problem hasn't occurred in other games that I play that are more graphics intensive (Overwatch) which I found quite strange given the nature of the issue. Now you might be thinking that this must be the games fault, but I've had a support open from the 28th August with Riot Games discussing the issue and possible solutions. To me the trouble of typing the methods here's a list of all of them:

https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752684-Low-Frame-Rate-FPS-Troubleshooting

I have tried re-installing windows, re-installing my GPU drivers, I have monitored my GPU and CPU temps while the FPS drops occur and my GPU was at around 52 degrees and CPU was around 55 degrees which are both pretty low. I also disabled Nvidia streaming service and Xbox DVR which were common causes for FPS drops in games.

Here is a list of my computer specs:

i7 - 4970K 4.0GHz
16GB DDR3 RAM
2TB Hard Drive
128GB Solid State Drive
GeForce GTX 770 2GB
 
Solution
panathas
If you have the required free space on your SSD, I'd recommend that you install one of those games or both, in your SSD and see how it goes from there. Generally SSDs aren't much different than HDDs in games and they don't increase FPS. They just provide faster level loading times. In some rare cases though where lots of data need to be loaded in a split of a second, an HDD may cause lag or shutter because it can't feed the CPU with the required data, causing the CPU usage to drop waiting for the data to arrive and then GPU usage also drops producing the lag or shutter you may see on your screen. It's rare though and it usually happens when something is going with the HDD. As I said before something is holding back your CPU, I think...
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CrippledPenguin

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I have a 700W PSU, my CPU is not overclocked, I already checked CPU and GPU temps during drops. Not sure how to check my MB's vrm temps....

 
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panathas

panathas

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Feb 12, 2014
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PSU model? Motherboard? You also need to check CPU and GPU usage during those fps drops. CPU clocks are also important. VRM temp will show you if it is overheating and throttling your CPU. Also if your motherboard isn't a good one and hasn't any heatsinks over the VRM or has a small VRM, then it may lower the CPU clock during stressful situations

The fact that games that stress your GPU much harder run better than lighter games, means that your GPU is fine and you need to look at your CPU. The games that you are having issues with, seem to rely more on your CPU than your GPU so any CPU strange behaviour could cause fps drops, shutter etc. During those times if you monitor CPU/GPU usage you'll see lower numbers than normal.

CPU temp just doesn't tell the whole story. The CPU temp may be normal but VRM overheating could cause lower CPU clocks and fps drops. Also a bad PSU would not provide clean and stable power to your CPU so it may cause clock issues, although this is rare. 700 watts are certainly more than enough but what about the quality of your PSU?

VRM temp is usually reported as motherboard temp. If your motherboard has any software that monitors temps, you can find it there. Otherwise download hardware monitor. Keep in mind that some motherboards report more than one motherboard temp. You have to make sure that all of them are normal.

Also make sure that you have the windows power plan set to high performance just in case.

EDIT: Also make sure that you have updated your motherboard's BIOS to it's latest version.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Ok so my PSU is a Corsair RM 750 and my motherboard is an ASUS Maximus VII Ranger. I got hardware monitor but honestly not sure which value is the VRM value here, (TZ00 = 28 degrees, TZ01 = 30 degrees, Mainboard = 25 degrees and the CPU = 39/38/54 degrees, all of which are at pretty much an idle state)

Another thing I noticed when monitoring the motherboard temps is that my CPU clocks were a bit jumpy, im not that knowledgeable about this so it might be nothing but the first column of clock values in HW Monitor seem to jump from around the norm of 800MHz to around 1700MHz and sometimes to 4400MHz, again not sure if this is normal, just making an oberservation.

Lastly about the motherboard BIOS, I was on my BIOS a few days ago and noticed my mouse wasn't working on it, I investigated and other people found this problem when their motherboard BIOS version didn't support their mouse software but I didn't bother fixing because of the minor priority. I was reading how updating your BIOS is quite risky if not done correctly. Im happy to update my BIOS if worst comes to worst but I would like to confirm its the BIOS first.

 
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panathas

panathas

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OK. You PSU isn't great but you should be fine. Also your motherboard is very good and has VRM heatsinks so no need to worry there. Your temps seem fine. One of TZ00, TZ01 and Mainboard is the VRM temp. The only way you can be sure is doing CPU stress situations. The one that goes higher is probably the VRM temp but with that motherboard I wouldn't worry about. Asus has AI Suite 3 as a system monitoring utility. You should install it as it provides accurate and extensive monitoring capabilities of your entire motherboard, something that hardware monitor cannot do. It may also report the VRM temp exactly.

Your clocks are also fine. That's normal CPU behaviour. Clocks go up and down based on CPU utilisation. This is done in order to conserve power and increase efficiency.

I thing that you should update your BIOS and you have nothing to worry about. Yes it is a little dangerous procedure if you don't know what you are doing and if power goes out during the update process. Likely your motherboard has safety features that can restore your BIOS in case something goes wrong.
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
- ASUS USB BIOS Flashback
All of the above will help you. Just make sure your read your motherboard manual carefully and you should be fine. For example USB BIOS Flashback allows you to restore your BIOS with a simple USB flash drive in case something goes wrong. You just put a BIOS image into the flash drive and plug it in the appropriate USB port and boot your system. It should restore your BIOS automatically. That's all.

So I think you should update it. It will fix a lot of bugs and it may fix the issues you are experiencing. If you read carefully the instructions you should be fine and if something goes wrong you have a very good board with a lot of safety features that will help you.

Finally as I told you before make sure your windows power plan is set to high performance when you play games. If you choose that power option the CPU clock will not fluctuate as you reported. It will be set to the maximum clock all the time. So it might help in those specific games. Just don't forget to set the power plan back to its previous setting or to balanced performance once you finish gaming unless you want it to stay at high performance all the time. It's your choice.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Ok so I updated the BIOS software to the most recent version, sadly the FPS problems are still occurring..... I'm not really sure what the issue could be at this point.

 
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panathas

panathas

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Have you changed the windows power plan setting to high performance? Are you having any other programs running in the background while you are gaming?

Download GPU-Z and monitor your GPU usage with that during the FPS problems. I think that hardware monitor can also do that. If you use the latter you can also check CPU utilisation during those moments and may be that way you could find which is responsible CPU or GPU.

Also there should be an option in nvidia's control panel about thread optimization. You check this thread for more info http://. You can test all available options and see if it makes any difference in those games that have fps issues.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Yes my power plan is set to high performance, I downloaded GPU-Z and monitored both my GPU and CPU usage while playing League of Legends, when my FPS was uncapped my GPU usage was pretty high at around 70-80% but I capped my FPS at 144, however I still get the FPS drops. During which my GPU usage was around 25% and CPU usage was around 30%. I did notice though my CPU has a factory clock of 4.0GHz and my task manager said that its running at 4.36GHz, not sure what this means.

I also investigated the thread optimization and it was already set to auto. While playing games I usually have Skype and Chrome open, but I'm almost certain these aren't the issue as I have tried playing the game with neither open but the problem persists.
 
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panathas

panathas

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Try testing the other options in thread optimization besides auto. Your CPU has a default max clock at 4GHz with turbo boost at 4.4GHz. That means that you could see it sometimes reach at 4.4 if thermal and power envelop allow it to reach there. So what you are seeing is normal CPU behaviour.

The CPU usage drop is what is causing the GPU usage to drop even further and then producing the fps drops. Something is causing the CPU usage to drop and it's not something that uses your CPU such as another program. If that was the case the CPU usage would rise and not drop. I'd also suspect the online nature of these games. Maybe something is going on with your internet connection. Are the fps drop times totally random or are they occurring during specific cases?
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Actually yes, the FPS issues seem to happen when something graphic intensive happens e.g. using abilities in the game or when in teamfights, when lots of animations are happening. But how could internet have an effect on my fps?


 
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panathas

panathas

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Because it's an online game. Every move you make and every action you take, your PC transmits and receives data over the internet and waits for data to return. Usually fps drops happen in moments that are graphic intensive as you said, but this is usually the case with hardware that cannot lift this excessive load. Your PC is more than capable for this load and as you said in more graphic intensive games it hasn't any issues. Your CPU usage drops for no reason in moments that it should rise, which leads me to suspect that something may be happening with your internet connection. It's just a hunch and I cannot think of anything else at this moment.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Ok, im just noticing that this issue doesnt seem to be limited to League of legends, it also seems to happen in world of warcraft. Im starting to think its a hardware problem now.... in your opinion, what would be the most likely component to cause such an issue?
 
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panathas

panathas

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Usually these issues are rarely hardware related. This can be caused by CPU/GPU overheating, driver issues and other software in your PC running in then background.

I don't remember, have you installed all the latest drivers you could find at your motherboard's internet page? You should do this if you haven't already. You have to make sure that you have the latest drivers in everything not just the GPU.

Your system has good components, motherboard, PSU etc, so since, as you said, temps are fine and you have the latest drivers installed, you should consider reinstalling windows as a last resort. After you do that install only the basic drivers and your games, nothing else. Then test your system.

EDIT: Do you have an antivirus/firewall internet suite installed? You could try disabling them and see if it makes any difference.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Yes I updated my motherboard to its most recent firmware, also I recently reset my computer and also reinstalled windows, and yes I have an anti-virus. I'll try to turn it off for a while to see if there are any improvements.

 
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panathas

panathas

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When I said drivers I didn't mean the motherboard firmware. Every device on your PC besides GPU, such as LAN, audio, chipset, sata, etc, has drivers which you have to update regularly as you are doing with GPU drivers. You can find almost all those drivers on your motherboard's web page. Also talking about firmware, have you updated the firmware of your SSD. There may be a new version that fixes some issues. I think you should also check this out.
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Ok now im quite confused, I updated all of my drivers as you said but heres the thing. I get fps drops in games like league of legends and wow, but not in Overwatch. Im wondering what is the difference, I would say overwatch is more gpu intensive and I dont get fps drops, but for games like wow which are more cpu intensive I do, Finally in LoL which is also gpu intensive I get them too. I'm not 100% ruling out hardware but im struggling to find any other answers.

Also I tried to see if my hard drive read/write speed was affecting my fps but it seems fine also.
 
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panathas

panathas

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Don't be confused, it's simple. As you said, during those games the CPU usage drops for no apparent reason, causing the GPU usage to drop also and produce the fps drops or shatter. It's not a hardware problem, I consider it to be more of a software problem.

Your CPU is very good and it doesn't appear to overheat. Your GPU also doesn't overheat. Although it may not be top notch by today's standards and is relatively old but it should be more than enough for those games. In fact it is capable of playing relatively well all modern games if you relax the resolution/graphic settings a bit.

What I'd suggest is dig into the graphic settings of those games and tweak them trying to find a balance somewhere. I would start from maximum resolution, that your monitor supports, and maximum setting. Then I'd lower each setting and see what happens. Also I'd play with vsync on and off. Then you should go to the Nvidia control panel and test the various available GPU options and see what happens. Hope that helps.

EDIT: Since you talked about your hard drive. You also have an SSD. Is it full? Where are you running those games from, SSD or HDD? Also what resolution do you use for those games?
 
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CrippledPenguin

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Ok I will try some settings tweaking to see how it goes. Now about the HDD and SSD, since I have recently reset my computer my HDD and SSD both still have around 90% of their space left and I run all of my current games from my HDD. I play on 1920 x 1080 res and on 120Hz (not sure if that makes a difference since these issues occurred before I got my 120Hz monitor)
 
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panathas

panathas

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Feb 12, 2014
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If you have the required free space on your SSD, I'd recommend that you install one of those games or both, in your SSD and see how it goes from there. Generally SSDs aren't much different than HDDs in games and they don't increase FPS. They just provide faster level loading times. In some rare cases though where lots of data need to be loaded in a split of a second, an HDD may cause lag or shutter because it can't feed the CPU with the required data, causing the CPU usage to drop waiting for the data to arrive and then GPU usage also drops producing the lag or shutter you may see on your screen. It's rare though and it usually happens when something is going with the HDD. As I said before something is holding back your CPU, I think that it's worth a try as a test to install at least one of those games in your SSD. If you have't enough space for both of them, install the one that has the more severe FPS issues.
 
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