560Ti 30 FPS on Bf3 LOW

[adobewan]

I don't know what's going on. I USED to be able to run this game on high with great FPS, but I stopped playing for a while, and all of a sudden my FPS is just horrible.

Specs:

AMD Phenom II 955 x4 @ 3.84 GHz
8 GB RAM
Windows 7 64 Bit
nVidia GTX 560 Ti EVGA Superclocked
750W Corsair Power Supply
BIOSTAR T890FXE Motherboard

I blew out the dust in the system, what I'm suspecting is either the power supply or the Graphics card are just shot. I'm not certain about the best way to go about monitoring performance. I alt-tabbed during BF3 and my processors were all at like 80%. My performance in SWTOR also sucks but I'm pretty sure that's SWTOR being SWTOR. Dota2 runs fine all max, but it's not exactly intensive.

Any advice? Any free benchmarks that will help with my diagnosis? I'm ripping out my hair here, I built this PC around running BF3, and it used to for the first few months. Something must have just gone bad. I was considering sending my Graphics Card in (yay EVGA warranty) but I don't want to be out of commission only to find out I'm an idiot who misdiagnosed the problem.


::EDIT:: I have driver-swept all of the Graphics Card drivers and rolled back to the drivers that were released with BF3 (the ones with which I was stable)

::EDIT2::
3DMark 11 Score
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3070814
PCMark07 Score
http://3dmark.com/pcm7/311313

 

[leeashton]

AFter the last pacth I went from average of 170 down to average of 75 wtf, I think a driver issue with nVIDIA

 

[adobewan]

Could be apart of it, but this was happening to me before today's patch.

 

[ringzero]

When you turn down settings in BF3, does performance improve? Do you have any background processes running now that you didn't before? Have you tried using Driver Sweeper, then reinstalling drivers? Have you checked your CPU and GPU idle and load temperatures?

Just some suggestions.

 

[adobewan]

Turning down settings: No improvement
Background Processes: No, fewer, actually
Driver Sweeper: Yes, I have done it multiple times with different driver version replacements
GPU Load temperature is at 50C and usage bounces between 65 and 99%

 

[ringzero]

Some others are probably better qualified to deduce what the issue is from that, but...

Clearly turning down the settings should improve your performance.

Temp sounds fine, but obviously usage should be much much lower during idle. What about your CPU cores?

 

[DelroyMonjo]

Do some housekeeping, run CCCleaner and clear out cache and other crap you don't need, Run a virus scan.
I'm running the Nvidia 295.73 drivers on my 460's with no change from previous 285.xx drivers.

 

[adobewan]

I ran the Free 3Dmark11, and as I suspected, my score is low.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3070814

I run CCleaner and Spybot every 5 days or so, and Avast once a month.

When I Compare to similar configs (actually way worse ones) all of their scores are much higher. What is the best way to test one's CPU?

 

[ringzero]

I ran the Free 3Dmark11, and as I suspected, my score is low.

http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3070814

I run CCleaner and Spybot every 5 days or so, and Avast once a month.

When I Compare to similar configs (actually way worse ones) all of their scores are much higher. What is the best way to test one's CPU?

They have a similar utility called PCMark.

http://www.futuremark.com/products/pcmark05/

 

[adobewan]

Running that now, I'll post my results shortly. Thanks for the quick replies everybody.

<3 this community.

 

[horaciopz]

I had a problem with GTA 4 and BF3 pretty similar as yours. I had "enough" PC to run it at medium sentings but i couldnt even run it at the lowest. What was my problem? Patch isues. When the Patch 1.0.7 in GTA4 came out, it fixed my problem, as the lastest patch in BF3.

Maybe you should install a fresh Windows 7, get all newer drivers and update Directx and PhysX. It also helped me getting better performance.

 

[ringzero]

The stock memory clock on the 560 Ti is 4000Mhz. On your 3DMark score, it says it's 2203Mhz. That seems like a pretty big discrepancy.

 

[adobewan]

Are you sure that's accurate? In EVGA precision the slider doesn't even go that high, and I never remember it being that high before...

 

[ringzero]

Are you sure that's accurate? In EVGA precision the slider doesn't even go that high, and I never remember it being that high before...

Just looking here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130604

Usually the base memory clock is 1/4 the effective memory clock because with GDDR5, you multiply it by 4. Don't know what effect this should have in 3DMark, but ~2k seems like a weird number.

 

[adobewan]

Well, that's a redflag. It said that a PCmark test failed to run, but it didn't say which one... I'll try running it again I suppose.

 

[ringzero]

Well, that's a redflag. It said that a PCmark test failed to run, but it didn't say which one... I'll try running it again I suppose.

You can also run the CPU stress tester Prime95 and see if it fails. I believe that gives you more detailed information.

 

[adobewan]

When I ran PCmark05 (the one you linked) it said it was testing XP. I'm downloading 07 to see if that finishes its tests.

 

[ringzero]

When I ran PCmark05 (the one you linked) it said it was testing XP. I'm downloading 07 to see if that finishes its tests.

DOH! Sorry about that. Good luck!

 

[adobewan]

http://3dmark.com/pcm7/311313

PCMark07 results, seems like it was mostly testing my HD.

::Edit:: In response to your earlier statement about the clock, the max I can increase it to is 2527 MHz, which I don't want to do for risk of asplosion.

:ouble-Edit:: On the comparison, while slightly lower, the PCmark seems to be closer to acceptable averages.

 

[ringzero]

http://3dmark.com/pcm7/311313

PCMark07 results, seems like it was mostly testing my HD.

::Edit:: In response to your earlier statement about the clock, the max I can increase it to is 2527 MHz, which I don't want to do for risk of asplosion.

:ouble-Edit:: On the comparison, while slightly lower, the PCmark seems to be closer to acceptable averages.

It's kinda sounding like it's centering around your 560 Ti. Do you know of anyone around you who has a comparable card that you could switch out and see if that helps?

 

[AidanJC]

Try clearing CMOS. Every now and then my GTX 580 basically halves its speed. A simple clear CMOS button seems to solve the issue perfectly fine for me

 

[adobewan]

Good news! I swapped the card to a new PCI-E slot and got this score: P4969 3DMarks!!!

Ring, you were awesome. Thankyou so much for your fast and helpful input. (I got the idea to swap it from you saying switch out)

I'm off to play BF3 with playable framerate. Thanks!

 

[ringzero]

Good news! I swapped the card to a new PCI-E slot and got this score: P4969 3DMarks!!!

Ring, you were awesome. Thankyou so much for your fast and helpful input. (I got the idea to swap it from you saying switch out)

I'm off to play BF3 with playable framerate. Thanks!

Hah, awesome. Smart thinking, it never even crossed my mind. Hopefully you won't need to use that PCI-e lane.

 

[adobewan]

Best answer selected by adobewan.