GTX 460 - weird fps drop and low gpu usage

[Aiwendil]

Hello,

First of all, sorry for my English.

I was searching for the possible solution for a long time, but couldn't find anything similar to my problem.

Recently I came back to Crysis 2. It ran smoothly for some time (40+ fps everywhere) but then, 3 days ago, it dropped to ~20. I tried to figure out what the problem was, so I checked the GPU usage in EVGA Precision and it was low - 60% average. Interestingly, when the fps was low, so was the gpu usage (similarly - high fps - high gpu usage).

Then I logged on my secondary OS, wchich I hadn't touched for several months - the game was running smoothly as it used to.

MY SPEC:
i5 661 @ 4,2 Ghz
Gigabyte GTX 460 1GB
4 GB RAM 1600 mhz
Seasonic 620 W
Asrock P55 Deluxe 3

WHAT I DID BEFORE THE PROBLEM HAPPENED:
Updated the nvidia drivers (from 290.53 to 301.42). However, later I tried to reroll the drivers (manually and using Driver Sweeper) to 290.53 and 296.10, but it didn't help. However, after I updated to 301.42 for the first time, it worked fine for 1 day.
Swapped the PCI-e slot (I was cleaning the computer)

WHAT I TRIED TO DO AFTER:
Reseting the BIOS settings
Playing with NVIDIA control panel (single performance mode, and performance mode)
Tweaking some services (nothing important)
Downclocking my CPU to stock speed and overclocking it back


None of this helped.

I know it LOOKS like a CPU bottleneck, but how can it be one, if on the other OS it runs ok?
I think it must be software related.

Should I reinstall Windows?

Thanks for help

 

[Aiwendil]

I'm sorry - I tweaked the services BEFORE the problem happened. I cannot edit my post :/

 

[Aiwendil]

I'd like to add, that I noticed the same thing in Skyrim - it used to run very well, and now has become almost unplayable.

 

[bucknutty]

I had the same issue with my GTX470s on the newest driver. rolling back the driver did not work... I think it might be related to the physics update, or the gpu audio driver update. Any way I reinstalled windows and went with the driver from october, 285.62 because I knew that it worked.

I play MW3 and ME3.

 

[Nunners]

Is there any update on this as I'm having the same problem

MY SPEC:
AMD Phenom 1090T
GTX 460
8GB ram
ASUS M4A89GTD PRO

 

[nforce4max]

Uninstall Everything that is nvidia related and go back to using a working version. I had to do this more times than I would like and couldn't use the latest packs with my Fermi as well older Nvidia cards.

 

[bucknutty]

I am now on the driver from march. Anything newer gives me really low gpu usage and fps.

 

[migdaddy]

Hey guys. I too have experienced FPS drops and driver crashes with the GTX 460 v2. I'm running an i5-3570K and total CPU load rarely surpasses 60% during any full 3D application at 1080p.

IMO, the factory voltages of these cards just aren't sufficient. The short answer is try using EVGA Precision X, MSI Afterburner or something other program to increase the voltage going to your GPU.

In finding what information I could, the symptoms described in this thread are consistent with that of underpowered GPUs.

My card runs at 867-1734-2025 out of the box on 1.013v. On every thread on every forum I checked on overclocking GPUs, these speeds are not stable at this voltage with any card. My GPU load would hover in the mid 90s and go no further.

For example, the older 460s with 768MB memory can only hope to flirt with 800MHz at maximum voltage and 560ti users are running 1.1v+ just to get to 900MHz.

Just overclocking my card to 933-1866-2025 required a voltage increase to 1.063v. That comes out to a total increase of 66MHz and 50mv. I used to get these crashes and fps drops all the time at factory settings and they still occurred with relative frequency until I found a nice stable overclock setting.

My suspicion is that, in seeking maximum performance, these factory overclocked cards are designed to run at or near the limits of stability and a small manufacturing defect or slight overload is enough for all hell to break loose.

Has anyone experienced these issues with a card that isn't factory overclocked?

 

[Aiwendil]

Well, I just re-installed Windows, as uninstalling or rerolling the drivers with every possible program didn't seem to do anything. I'm guessing it's a flaw in one of the drivers' version.

After re-installation everything is back to normal, thankfully.

 

[McEd]

Hay, I am using a GeForce GTX 460M graphics card and My computer keeps dropping frame rate a lot when there is something with particles(explosions, smoke, mist,etc.), I thought my graphics card was not up too date but even games like TF2 when there are an explosion of the tractor thing in the co-op mode drops frame rate a lot.

-I decremented my stuff
-Reinstalled operating system
-Updated my Invidia drivers

Is it just a bad graphics card or what?