Bad FPS in all games with GTX680 + i7 930

[destral]

Hi, I made a similar post on the UK forums without knowing that it was in fact the UK forums. So I wanted to post again here hoping to maybe get more replies than the 1 person who replied over there.



ANY ADDITIONAL INFO THAT I FORGOT TO ADD, LET ME KNOW AND I WILL INCLUDE IT.

First things first:

i7 930 @ 2.8 GHz
EVGA GTX 680 4bg FTW
8gb RAM
Corsair HX750
(Dell OEM motherboard)
Res: 1920x1080
Toshiba 40" 60Hz 1080p TV hooked up via HDMI

I have tried adjusting resolutions and settings in all games that are having problems.

I am getting a very jump fps that goes back and forth between 25-50 anywhere I go. The only time I get 60 is out in the middle of a field with nothing around. If I spin the camera it drops to 55, if I go near any buildings or a town it plummets to 25-40.

In wow I get 55-60 FPS in Orgrimmar on ultra settings but won't stay stable.

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 it seems to be fine staying locked at 59-60 majority of the time.

In Need for Speed: Hot pursuit it stays locked 59-60. This and BF:BC2 are fairly old and barely intensive at all games so I' doubt they're much of a test.

On Tera I get 30-50 FPS depending on settings, but even on lowest settings I can't get 60.

At first I thought it might be the card, but I swapped in my old 5770 and still couldn't do any better on any settings. I have tried doing several different drivers, with and without driver cleaning between installs. I've tried adjusting all settings in the nVidia control panel. I've tried OC'ing the GPU, I would try OC'ing the CPU but the BIOS doesn't have the option because it's the OEM board. I have tried everything I can think of and have had 2 friends who are very good with computers (one who is an engineer) but they have told me everything they can think to try so I've brought the question to you guys. I used to get low FPS with my 5770 but I just thought it was because the card wasn't that great. Now that I bought my GTX 680 and see no improvement, I realize that there is some underlying problem. Please let me know if you can think of anything that may be the cause of this.


I would be extremely grateful to anybody who can even diagnose the problem.


Could the 2.8 clock speed be the factor that is holding be back?

 

[jstanley11]

Yes, the clock speed of 2.8 could be holding you back, especially in CPU reliant titles like Skyrim. In all honesty, you best option is to invest in a new mother board and CPU, or just get a new Mobo and OC your i7. Microcenter has some killer deals on the i5 3570k paired with a Z77 boards (50 bucks off).

 

[17seconds]

An i7-930 is definitely not your problem, although overclocking would be a suggestion just to rule it out. It seems like VSync is on, but that is so basic I assume you've turned that off. The BFBC2 framerates definitely look like VSync is enabled and none of your FPS go above 60. I'm thinking it's a setting somewhere in your Nvidia Control Panel. Make sure VSync is off. What drivers are you currently using?

 

[amuffin]

Yes, the clock speed of 2.8 could be holding you back, especially in CPU reliant titles like Skyrim. In all honesty, you best option is to invest in a new mother board and CPU, or just get a new Mobo and OC your i7. Microcenter has some killer deals on the i5 3570k paired with a Z77 boards (50 bucks off).

No!

 

[rndmavis]

Hi, I made a similar post on the UK forums without knowing that it was in fact the UK forums. So I wanted to post again here hoping to maybe get more replies than the 1 person who replied over there.



ANY ADDITIONAL INFO THAT I FORGOT TO ADD, LET ME KNOW AND I WILL INCLUDE IT.

First things first:

i7 930 @ 2.8 GHz
EVGA GTX 680 4bg FTW
8gb RAM
Corsair HX750
(Dell OEM motherboard)
Res: 1920x1080
Toshiba 40" 60Hz 1080p TV hooked up via HDMI

I have tried adjusting resolutions and settings in all games that are having problems.

I am getting a very jump fps that goes back and forth between 25-50 anywhere I go. The only time I get 60 is out in the middle of a field with nothing around. If I spin the camera it drops to 55, if I go near any buildings or a town it plummets to 25-40.

In wow I get 55-60 FPS in Orgrimmar on ultra settings but won't stay stable.

In Battlefield: Bad Company 2 it seems to be fine staying locked at 59-60 majority of the time.

In Need for Speed: Hot pursuit it stays locked 59-60. This and BF:BC2 are fairly old and barely intensive at all games so I' doubt they're much of a test.

On Tera I get 30-50 FPS depending on settings, but even on lowest settings I can't get 60.

At first I thought it might be the card, but I swapped in my old 5770 and still couldn't do any better on any settings. I have tried doing several different drivers, with and without driver cleaning between installs. I've tried adjusting all settings in the nVidia control panel. I've tried OC'ing the GPU, I would try OC'ing the CPU but the BIOS doesn't have the option because it's the OEM board. I have tried everything I can think of and have had 2 friends who are very good with computers (one who is an engineer) but they have told me everything they can think to try so I've brought the question to you guys. I used to get low FPS with my 5770 but I just thought it was because the card wasn't that great. Now that I bought my GTX 680 and see no improvement, I realize that there is some underlying problem. Please let me know if you can think of anything that may be the cause of this.


I would be extremely grateful to anybody who can even diagnose the problem.


Could the 2.8 clock speed be the factor that is holding be back?

Once I OC'd my CPU, it was no longer bottlenecked. I tested it with monitoring programs to find out what my problem was before hand. It is no longer a problem after OC. Now I get great performance in every game I've played, except in planetside 2

I am using an i930 and gtx 680 evga

Not sure if you can OC that mobo..

 

[Herr_Koos]

Keep Task Manager open in the background to see what your CPU utilization looks like while gaming. Also, use a system monitor like CPUID HWMonitor to keep an eye on you maximum system temperatures. Overheating could be causing your system to throttle back.

 

[destral]

Vsync is on when I play the games yes. But I have tried to turn it off just to see what happens it the FPS is just struggling the whole time in most games. BFBC2 is the only game really that I can get to stay stable 60. All other games just dip all over the place. Guild Wars 2 and TERA are the worst. TERA can't seem to get above 45 FPS and GW2 drops to the 30s and 40s anytime I go near anything other than wide open grass.

No, I'm not able to OC on this crapper dell board. Honestly at this point I'm getting ready to build a new system so I basically just want to make sure that the card itself isn't to blame for the troubles (as in faulty) if it is a driver issue, I can live with it until better ones come out. But if my card is defective I need to RMA it asap.

CPU usage usually hovers around 50-70% while in game. GPU usage varies depending on game. It rarely goes over 65-70% in GW2 from what I've observed.

Also, just to throw it out there, nothing is overheating at all. I have been monitoring temps closely to see if any overheating could be going on. My GPU never gets hotter than 69-70°C and my CPU never really goes above 65-70°C.


I am currently using 306.02 BETA drivers. I have tried using 301.42 WHQL but those didn't make any difference. I have also tried 304.XX but again, no change.

I have just done a fresh install of windows to see if that helped, there is no noticeable change. At this point the only thing I can think of is that the motherboard is at fault.

If it makes any difference, I play using an HDMI cable on a 40" Toshiba TV.

 

[destral]

Once I OC'd my CPU, it was no longer bottlenecked. I tested it with monitoring programs to find out what my problem was before hand. It is no longer a problem after OC. Now I get great performance in every game I've played, except in planetside 2

I am using an i930 and gtx 680 evga

Not sure if you can OC that mobo..

Were you having similar problems?

 

[jstanley11]

No!

Let's be real, 4 cores or not, 2.8 ghz is a pretty low clock speed! And online games like WOW that often have alot of characters interacting at once (say, in raids), can really put the drag on a CPU. And if it isn't the CPU, what do you think it is? Its pretty hard to install a GPU improperly. And also, because he has an Nvidia card, instead of turing Vsync off, he should just turn on adaptive Vsync (unless OP is super sensitive to input lag). Of all the components he has, what seems most likely to be the bottleneck, ESPECIALLY given the games and areas that his rig is having problems with? 8 GBs of RAM is more than fine, a 680 is more than fine...

For reference, my fps in Skyrim (the game that I have that should have the most similar CPU draw to WOW) showed a pretty decent improvement when I took my 3570k from 3.4 to 4.7 with my 670.

 

[nao1120]

Let's be real, 4 cores or not, 2.8 ghz is a pretty low clock speed! And online games like WOW that often have alot of characters interacting at once (say, in raids), can really put the drag on a CPU. And if it isn't the CPU, what do you think it is? Its pretty hard to install a GPU improperly. And also, because he has an Nvidia card, instead of turing Vsync off, he should just turn on adaptive Vsync (unless OP is super sensitive to input lag). Of all the components he has, what seems most likely to be the bottleneck, ESPECIALLY given the games and areas that his rig is having problems with? 8 GBs of RAM is more than fine, a 680 is more than fine...

For reference, my fps in Skyrim (the game that I have that should have the most similar CPU draw to WOW) showed a pretty decent improvement when I took my 3570k from 3.4 to 4.7 with my 670.

Q9950 at stock runs all those games just fin @ stock. Don't see no frame issues at all on a 6950. Seems to be based on peoples suggestions a driver issue. The dell motherboards are very basic, nothing special. Perhaps the video card really is meant for a PCIexpress 3.0 slot, and this one on the board is limiting it? That would be at least a 5-10% difference. Even though they say its compatible, You will see "some" loss based on reviews. Maybe its detecting as 8x instead of 16 x pci lanes.

Part of it is Vsync, the other is drivers of the MB and video most likely.

 

[Kari]

CPU usage usually hovers around 50-70% while in game. GPU usage varies depending on game. It rarely goes over 65-70% in GW2 from what I've observed.

that's a cpu bottleneck then.
Games can very rarely use all 4 cores at maximum load and when 1 of the bigger threads max out a core it will limit the performance of the whole software..

^^edit and pcie3 vs pcie2 has neglible effect, like 1% which falls into margin of error
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/23.html

 

[Derza10]

that's a cpu bottleneck then.
Games can very rarely use all 4 cores at maximum load and when 1 of the bigger threads max out a core it will limit the performance of the whole software..

^^edit and pcie3 vs pcie2 has neglible effect, like 1% which falls into margin of error
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/23.html

I agree that it is most likely a CPU bottleneck. GW2 does a great job of using all 4 cores, for example I have a i5 2500k OC'd to 4.6 and a gtx 680 OC'd to 1250 Mhz, and my cpu loads are normally 40-50% on all cores and in some areas I have seen ALL 4 cores on loads of 85-99%.
With my setup i normally run 40-60 fps and I am playing at 6030x1200 res. At this res it puts a lot more load on gpu. If you are getting the same fps as I am at 1080p... I would think your CPU is bottlenecking (also based on the fact that you saw almost no FPS improvement from switching from a 5770 to a gtx 680 and you said loads on the GPU never go over 70%.) If you are already planning on rebuilding the rest of the computer I see no harm in holding onto your gtx 680 till you have your new mobo and cpu and seeing if that fixes it. If it turns out to be the card (which I doubt it is, really seems to be cpu bottleneck) you can always send the GPU back as defective at that point, it should still be under warranty.

 

[spentshells]

Let's be real, 4 cores or not, 2.8 ghz is a pretty low clock speed! And online games like WOW that often have alot of characters interacting at once (say, in raids), can really put the drag on a CPU. And if it isn't the CPU, what do you think it is? Its pretty hard to install a GPU improperly. And also, because he has an Nvidia card, instead of turing Vsync off, he should just turn on adaptive Vsync (unless OP is super sensitive to input lag). Of all the components he has, what seems most likely to be the bottleneck, ESPECIALLY given the games and areas that his rig is having problems with? 8 GBs of RAM is more than fine, a 680 is more than fine...

For reference, my fps in Skyrim (the game that I have that should have the most similar CPU draw to WOW) showed a pretty decent improvement when I took my 3570k from 3.4 to 4.7 with my 670.

Im afraid hes right that cpu should be enough to handle that GPU, would he get more frames by overclocking absolutely. BUT even a slight OC to 3.4 GHZ should clear that up negating any reason to upgrade the hardware.

OP Since you have a dell motherboard let's find you something cheap

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131658 179 with rebate

my friend had his 920 at 4.2 on water without any sort of issue,

 

[nukemaster]

50-70% is actually pretty high for a cpu with hyper-threading(would be like loading all cores pretty good and then some fake core loading).

If it helps any my girlfriend plays gw2 on a i7 920 @ 3.5ghz with a 5770. If I get a chance I will back it to stock and see what happens.

 

[spentshells]

Q9950 at stock runs all those games just fin @ stock. Don't see no frame issues at all on a 6950. Seems to be based on peoples suggestions a driver issue. The dell motherboards are very basic, nothing special. Perhaps the video card really is meant for a PCIexpress 3.0 slot, and this one on the board is limiting it? That would be at least a 5-10% difference. Even though they say its compatible, You will see "some" loss based on reviews. Maybe its detecting as 8x instead of 16 x pci lanes.

Part of it is Vsync, the other is drivers of the MB and video most likely.

This is likely the best advice given

 

[swifty_morgan]

don't the new nvidia cards throttle up and down depending on needs. Perhaps it's not working correctly ?

I still game on a quad 9550 and one and two 6950 2gig cards. i don't see any problems playing anything. The OP's is faster yet isn't it ?


wondering......... try contacting Dell for support drivers ? ( motherboard and other ( and BIOS ) ???

 

[JamesSneed]

If you Google a bit you will see many reports from owners of i7 930's at stock with GTX 680's that are reporting lower than expected FPS in games but nothing extreme. What I didnt gather was if the games are running fine but you just expected higher FPS?

The GTX 680 doesn't sound like the issue. I would suspect the Dell motherboard along with the i7 930. Since you mentioned building a new PC I think that would be the best course of action as you have a solid PSU and GPU.

EDIT: I was assuming vsync was off.

 

[17seconds]

You have got to either turn off VSync or turn on Adaptive VSync. The whole point of Adaptive is to prevent your FPS from being cut in half, which may be the case here.

Here's a look at CPU performance in WOW:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/world-of-warcraft-cataclysm-directx-11-performance,2793-9.html

 

[sepayne21]

have you tried turning off hyperthreading? Some games/programs run better with hyperthreading turned off.

 

[destral]

To the people asking about VSync, I have tried with it on or off. If I start at the ground in the middle of nowhere, yes the FPS shoot up. But in actual playing I see no increase in performance.

Sep, no I haven't tried turning off hyperthreading. I almost did the other night but figured there was no way that would help. I'll try it tonight when I get home.

To the posts about the motherboard limiting because it is PCIE2.0 instead of 3.0. I don't think it would be this significant of a difference, I have a few friends who are still using 670s on 2.0 slots and getting 70+ in the same games with same settings as me. Only difference being that they have OC'd CPUs. Also, I have looked at GPU-Z to make sure that the PCIE slot is running at x16 and not x8.

In regards to motherboard drivers, how exactly would I go about getting drivers for the motherboard? I have updated the BIOS to the most recent release but it didn't make any noticeable difference.

To the posts suggesting CPU bottleneck. I think this is a likely the issue, when I go to look in task manager, 1 of my (logical) cores is running at around 80-90% and a few others are around 60%.



Thanks for all the replies guys. I have to go to work right now but if you have any suggestions for me just feel free to let me know and I'll try them out when I get home tonight.


So far I have: try disabling Hyperthreading. I don't have very high hopes but any improvement would make me happy.

 

[spentshells]

I would reinstall windows before I ever bought any new hardware. I7 930 is still plenty capable for gaming

 

[17seconds]

To the people asking about VSync, I have tried with it on or off. If I start at the ground in the middle of nowhere, yes the FPS shoot up. But in actual playing I see no increase in performance.

Sorry to harp on it, but it's sill not clear if you have enabled Adaptive VSync. If you are only enabling regular VSync or Adaptive Half Refresh Rate, then there's your problem right there. I'm sure you've tried Adaptive VSync (full refresh rate), but I just want to confirm. With regular VSync, you run the risk of halving your framerates to 30. Also turn off Triple Buffering, just in case.

The other thing to try is disabling Ambient Occlusion, which can kill framerates if its not properly supported in games. From there, look at whether Transparency Supersampling is enabled and turn it off. There's also a setting for Mult-GPU/Multi-monitors that defaults to Multi-monitor performance mode. Put that on Single Display mode (sorry, I forgot the exact wording).

 

[destral]

I have tried all forms of vsync on and off. I never use ambient occlusion. Transparency is on the lowest setting. Yes that single monitor thing i changed already, still no change. Lower resolution doesn't seem to help anything either. Whenever I run heaven 3.0 benchmark I can adjust settings and Res. Some things improve the average fps but nothing gets the min fps above31-32.



edit: fixed typos. (I'm on my phone)

 

[bystander]

Could you post the info from GPU-Z? I've seen loss of performance like this due to bus interface issues.

 

[destral]

Sure, when I get home tonight I will reinstall it and grab a SS from it.

Also to the person who suggested installing windows again. I already did a fresh install and reformat of the drive.