Low frames with a GTX 570??

[onem4nb4nd]

I'm not sure what I'm missing here. I recently got my hands on one of these cards and knew it was going to be a true force to be reckoned with. And for a while there, it was just that. Now, while playing Skyrim with the high res pack, I get jumpy frames 60fps-0fps; Yet my hardware isn't even trying! (the fan speed stays the same and the temp never rises) I'm confused why it's holding back! I've played Crysis 2-DX11 and Arkham City on full specs without a problem - why little DX10 Skyrim has low frames I'm baffled (despite Skyrim being vaster and more complex). I was going to save the benchmarking until I was able to finish my build off with 8 more gigs of ram and an SSD but the recent speedbump in gaming brought me to it early. I was astounded how low I was ranking, to say the least. >=( Furmark was the first and I'm about to try unigine and 3dmark and probably be twice as disappointed.

I was wondering how the numbers I've run into on every benchmark site were attained with slower clock speeds than I even have, when I haven't touched overclocking yet since I wasn't worried, until now! furmark put me at a score just over 2,000 (36FPS) >=(!!!
Hardware: (everything @ stock specifications)
i5 2500k @3.3(3.7turbo)GHz w/ a Zalman fan cooler
Asus P8Z68-V Pro mobo
Asus GTX 570 DCU2 (the beastly 3 slotter, yep!)
2-4GB corsair vengeance @ 9-9-9-24
1080W PS
playing on 1680x1050 monitor max resolution. or my 42" TV 1920x1080 (neither makes a performance difference. if so, it's not noticeable. I occasionally think my tv plays smoother with high frames than my monitor)
Edit: and yeah, my drivers are up to date, even specifically Nvidia's high res skyrim update. I wish it were that easy.
What am I doing wrong, that everyone else with this card blows my benchmarks completely away??

 

[the great randini]

unistall gamer osd

 

[onem4nb4nd]

lol k, will do. Thanks, oh Great Randini!
Anyone else got an idea? Just ran separate benchmark programs and I wasn't nearly as disappointed as Furmark lead me to believe I'd be. resultsfree versions)
3DMark Vantage: score P21558 ~68FPS avg between the two GPU tests. and slightly lower ranked CPU results http://3dmark.com/3dmv/3947002 (if I failed this test I was just going to stop and cry xD)
3DMark 11: score 5965 ~31FPS avg between the GPU tests. http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2920945 with again lower CPU results. sad
Unigine Heaven: ~37FPS avg with EVERYTHING cranked to 11! extreme tessellation + 8x AA + 16x AS + high shaders.

Now, in the results of my 3DMark tests it shows my CPU clock at 1605MHz(Vantage) and 2608MHz(Mark11) how is that number generated? does my CPU not run at max speed during benchmarks??? counter-productive?? I'm sort of new to benchmarks if you haven't noticed. Anyway, if that's not normal and probably why my CPU results were lower in the benchmarks I'm going to try and fix it in the BIOS now.
Like I said I haven't touched overclocking with this beastly build until now because I haven't needed it and it's not 100% complete yet (still want to fill out my RAM and get an SSD, really old HDD running now). I turned up the dial a notch or two on my GPU before these tests just to see the effect it would have, but I did nothing to my CPU yet. So, I'm thinking there's some silly ASUS program or mobo feature that's scaling my CPU clock to save energy or some other wasteful thing =P (correct me if I'm wrong, please. Again, I'm new to benchmarks etc)

 

[aaab]

CPU could be overheating.

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Actually, that's the main point of confusion. Sorry if throughout all of my rambling I didn't make the point clear enough, I tend to overkill it. Anyway, none of my hardware is even trying. My fan speed stays the same and it's set on auto - so if the temps rose, the fan speed would as well. And it's not a fan problem, because the temps ARE low enough that it doesn't need more cooling. I guess my situation is better than the opposite - frying components - but I still want to be able to use all of the massive GPU I bought.

Recent update: just used Asus Autotuner before manually OC'ing and it gave me 5x what I expected!! I figured it was going to play it entirely too safe and only give me a couple hundred CPU MHz but after the first run through it increased my clock 30%!! the second run gave me 40 and I left it there; at a solid 4635MHz!! 1335MHz OC in about 2 minutes?!?! amazing! just now getting through further stability tests, so here's hoping that's all fine. But I ran 3DMark 11 and it's got a worse score and cpu clock than before the OC......... Is there something wrong, or am I just entirely misunderstanding??

 

[aaab]

Could you please post your CPU and GPU temps? I don't think your GPU is over heating.

 

[onem4nb4nd]

The thread summed up:
- I don't know why I have low Skyrim & benchmark frames with this build.
- Why isn't my CPU at max clock speeds during benchmarks and games?
(Heat isn't an issue.)
- I can run Crysis 2 DX11 DLC and Arkham Asylum w/o frame loss on max settings
- recent CPU overclock from 3.3 - 4.6GHz = lower benchmark results?? (lower cpu clock on results page for 3DMark 11 >>preOC: 2608MHz // postOC: ~1608MHz)
- Next I'm going to OC my GPU a little
(doesn't seem needed but I was planning on it anyway)

Any help or explanations would be infinitely appreciated!!

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Could you please post your CPU and GPU temps? I don't think your GPU is over heating.

Sure, after a quick reboot I'll get some updated numbers. I know my idle temps are CPU: 30c and GPU 42c

And last I checked, in furmark's burn in my gpu only got up to 60c

I'll post new full load benchmark numbers in a sec. Are you interested in a certain condition? *brb*

 

[aaab]

Also what was your old graphics card (ati or nvidia)? Did you do a driver sweep before installing the new drivers?

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Also what was your old graphics card (ati or nvidia)? Did you do a driver sweep before installing the new drivers?

Oh, when I said I got my hands on this card, that's all I meant. This build was assembled new, so it was/is my first card for this setup. =)

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Could you please post your CPU and GPU temps? I don't think your GPU is over heating.

So, I'm almost more confused than I was before. With regular graphics benchmarks at max settings: 3DMark 11, Unigine Heaven (both free versions) my temps just after the bench (how do you monitor temps during fullscreen bench?) are about 36c/49c (CPU/GPU) during the Furmark 1min burn in my gpu reached 51c
Edit: just ran Prime95 for an hour and my max core temps were 64c-68c (4636MHz OC - stable as a mofo)

Now here's some things to add to my confusion. I overclocked my CPU (not my gpu yet) an entire 1.3+GHz.
1. apparently when I dabbled with GPU OC, I got better scores on the benchmarks, with the slightest increase in clock speed (~20MHz) and voltage(.1v), than I did with 1.3GHz of CPU OC.... really?? the benchmarks are really THAT CPU ignoring? despite having portions dedicated to CPU (in 3Dmark 11)? odd.
2. like stated before, on the results page for 3Dmark my CPU clock is... well.. one test pre OC it was 2608MHz, one after OC was 1608MHz, another after was 4636MHz (supposed OC speeds) and the final one was 1648MHz... what in the world is going on??
Not to mention the test results before any CPU OC (but with the slight GPU tweak) when the cpu clock results stated 1608MHz scored higher overall than after the CPU OC // 4636MHz clock speed (when the GPU specs were returned to default). Again, a complete destruction of cpu by gpu performance affects.
If any of that was too confusing I can try to restate it but I, myself, am confused as to how it works.

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Well I'm pretty sure I've solved one confusion. Speedstep, accursed. I knew it was some energy saving feature my mobo/cpu had, I just couldn't recal the features I hadn't memorized this late in the build. =/

I'll do more number crunching and experimenting to find out if it's worth using or has any impact at all seeing as it 'should' let me access the full OC when needed. Going to check the BIOS for Turbo boost settings as well. hopefully this solves some of my confusion. But still probably won't solve my FPS issues with Skyrim and benchmarks.... wtf do I do now...

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Okay... so I AM still baffled about nearly everything that's happened. but the good news is my Skyrim lag magically disappeared, and the load times are infinitely faster! The only things I've managed to do since I last played (and got fps wildly between 0-60) is install a higher detailed water pack, uninstall GamerOSD (ty O Great Randini!), OC my CPU to about 4.8GHz, and do a ton of benchmarking. I haven't even OC'd my GPU yet... so I don't know how my jumpy frames have turned into spectacularly smooth ones, seeing as it's been jumpy every minute of the 30 hours I've played it sofar. So, I'm about to test my frames with fraps - it looks like a solid 60+ to my untrained eye, but I'll have more news after some tests and maybe a GPU OC.
Thanks to anyone and everyone who's helped or had an input!

 

[onem4nb4nd]

Best answer selected by onem4nb4nd.