1080ti GPU Spikes makes game unplayable yet at high FPS

XAKEP

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I have a wierd problem that I don't know how to solve.

Recently I made huge upgrade from 980 to 1080ti and I am having problem with GPU spikes. I don't know the cause but it's in most games I tried except one. I'll show you few MSI Afterburner shots where you can clearly see GPU spiking without any need for it let's say on static image where nothing is moving yet it's going up and down like picture is changing.

First Let me show you only game I found my cards are working property in. FYI all games at ultra setting 1440p @ 144Mhz.

Ghost Recon Wetlands.
In this first photo take a look at GPU1 reading, nice straing line with very little spikes yet I am fighting and driving car and picture is changing from nothing to 20 people fighting and only spikes you see are when I am in the menu or a map and stuff. This is how game should look like. Now this is 1 GPU active.
WETLANDS_1_GPU.jpg


This is same thing but 2 GPUs are active both 1080ti once again minimum spikes and somewhat straight line at it should be.
WETLANDS_2_GPU.jpg


Now Let's look at all other game I tried with 1 or 2 GPUS and once again take a look at GPU1 and GPU2 but in this cases everytime spike goes down Iose several frames but it's so quick even FPS counter can't register it but I can and in video below you'll see what I mean. game is unplayable like this when every 2 second you get microstop like this.

Let's begin.


Battlefield 1 gap in the middle is me messing with settings , as you can see didn't help. 1GPU
https://s20.postimg.org/hqjtflufx/BG1_1_GPU.jpg[img]

The Division. This one is odd because as you can see for several seconds may be 10 or so game run good but then again NOT
[img]https://s20.postimg.org/qmuljjl25/DIVISION_2_GPU.jpg

Fallout4 , this one so bad I was in it for about a minute or so lag and spikes were horrible. YEt if you look in the FPS counter it's nice and straight like again ... it's not you'll see in the video below what I am talking about.
Fallout4_1_GPU.jpg


MAss Effect Andromeda this is the game I am currently playing or trying. Both GPUS are active and as you can see spikes are everywhere and GPU in high no lower then 60 yet spiking too. But if it wan't for this stoppages it's totally playable.
MA_Andromeda_SLI_1080ti.jpg


The Witcher 3 I tried to change settings 3 times, nothing helped. GPU spiking.
WITCHER3_1_GPU.jpg


And Finally WOW, IF wow don't play at like 200 FPS .. something is wrong here. Dual 1080ti and at 20% but it's still spiking like crazy. If you look GPU1 Usage right in the middle for about a minute I got nice and smooth gameplay and you can see no big spikes ...and then again it happened big spikes and lag.
WOW_2_GPU.jpg



Guys I am clueless on what is going on. I'll try to put my old 980 inside and see what is going on because I upgraded CPU and GPU and this start happening. from 5930k to 6850 and from 980sli to 1080ti sli.

I though may be it's bottleneck ? Don't think so that's why I tried just one GPU, I took one out for some tests.

Okay this is Video of this micro stops I am getting I hope this will help. To understand what is going on here.

This is VIDEO: https://youtu.be/LWym-ik-cJE

 
Solution
Seems to be working fine. AIDA64 Sensor Panel was to blame if I am correct. Basically first time around when I reinstalled system I installed all my testing tools before doing any tests that included AIDA64. Again I am not sure 100% BUT right now I have identical stuff running EXCEPT Aida. I didn't reinstalled Windows second time around all I did is remove everything , like even Antivirus and then started to test without testing tools just visually to see if I see skips. What a relieve it was when I saw smooth picture.

Right now I have: Optimal Power under power management mode in Global settings and Single display performance mode under Multi-display.

Also System under 3D Mark fully loaded running at 730 WATT according to KILL A...

XAKEP

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I did , I used DDU from safe mode. I'll be swapping 980s back in , may just one to save time back in. Will report progress. Can it be CPU ??? ...... OR power ...I am using AX860. According to KILL A WATT Max system ever eats is around 700. And I am talking about synthetic stress test when CPU/memory and GPUS all 100% loaded.
 

XAKEP

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Here are results from 3D Mark. One with single 980 card and another in same system with single 1080ti card. On 1080ti GPU spikes are evident in 980 it's a straight line.

Any ideas.

GTX980
3_DMARK_TIMESPY_1_GPU_980.jpg


1080ti
3_DMARK_TIMESPY_1_GPU_1080ti.jpg


I really need some here here I don't know where to turn.
 

XAKEP

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I kinda found problem but no real solution.

I took spare hard disk installed new Windows. Took like 4 hours to get all updates because Nvidia drivers wouldn't install on fresh copy saying Windows version not supported, so after latest Creative update Windows 10 update Nvidia drivers finally installed and ..... it worked. Both Ti's work as they should. So I started to look in logs and only thing that I found that is solid is Power. If you look in Power % section you'll in one with nice and steady straight line and another one is spiking. I mean it works so it has to be that. Now how do I fix it on my current system without complete reformat ? I looked in Nvidia panel both are identical, old and new installation. I can't understand any ideas on where to look for more "power" settings or some other ideas.

Good results on new installation.
Tipe_Spy_1080ti_SLI_14022.png


Old installation spiking power and gpu usage.
3_DMARK_1080ti_SLI_POOR_PERFORMANCE_12050.jpg


Thanks !
 

XAKEP

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Well it worked for a while. And then after playing Andromeda for about an hour then by mistake I pressed Alt+F2. IT's a new fancy was of taking in game pictures. And once I came out of this mode everything went to crap. GPU Power Spiking and dropped frames. DAMN IT ! And now in any game iI am having same dropped frames and if I press ALt+F2 to get in this picture mode everything is smooth. So basically in picture mode is smooth as silk with GPU power @ 100 and Usage @ 100 and in regular mode it's spiking.

It almost looks like Power saving is killing me. I don't understand why. I manually put everything to MAX Performance mode , still no good.

Any ideas ?
 

XAKEP

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Seems to be working fine. AIDA64 Sensor Panel was to blame if I am correct. Basically first time around when I reinstalled system I installed all my testing tools before doing any tests that included AIDA64. Again I am not sure 100% BUT right now I have identical stuff running EXCEPT Aida. I didn't reinstalled Windows second time around all I did is remove everything , like even Antivirus and then started to test without testing tools just visually to see if I see skips. What a relieve it was when I saw smooth picture.

Right now I have: Optimal Power under power management mode in Global settings and Single display performance mode under Multi-display.

Also System under 3D Mark fully loaded running at 730 WATT according to KILL A WATT, it goes from 690 to 730 in 3D Mark. So my AX860 doing a great job under load.

Great 3D Mark results: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/19518465?

good_result.jpg


P.S.

Note to self.

Next time if you think you've done everything please remove all devices and pereferels, uninstall or disable all software even if you think it has nothing to do with testing or performance.
 
Solution