GTX 780 Performance Issues

[superducky94]

Hey guys, 

 

To start off here is my system:

 

WIndows 8.1 Pro

FX 8350 @ 4.6 GHz

EVGA GTX 780 

Gigabyte UD3 MB Rev3

16 GB Mushkin Blackline RAM

Corsair TX 650W PSU

Fractal Design R4

CPU and GPU are water cooled.

I'm gaming on a 1080p monitor.

 

So when I'm playing certain games, notably BF4, I will have huge performance dips, all the way down to 20 or so FPS, even though I'm averaging maybe 80 or so FPS when I turn vsync off (I don't like tearing so I usually keep it on, tearing gets pretty gnarly when you hit those 100+fps moments). I have been monitoring the situation with MSI Afterburner and I notice that my frame rate dips coincide with GPU utilization going down, it'll drop to 20 or 30 percent, where it's usually hovering at pretty close to max utilization when the frame rates are good. I've tried a bunch of things and nothing really seems to make a difference in it happening, messing with the graphical settings, changing the clock speeds of both my GPU and CPU. I've done my fair share of googling and it doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem, but I haven't really seen a definitive answer to solving it. I updated my motherboard BIOS and chipset drivers to the most recent editions, I uninstalled and reinstalled my graphics drivers without using geforce experience, as some people say that could be the problem. I tried older graphics drivers, I changed the power settings both in WIndows and and in the Nvidia control pannel. All sorts of things.

 

Any ideas on things to try, or what could be causing the problem? It just seems like the graphics card slowing down is causing the dips, not the game being demanding, and that seems backwards to me. It only happens in games as well, benchmarks it's balls to the wall the whole time. Maybe it's a BF4 problem or setting somewhere? 

 

I'd love to hear any and all ideas, maybe I messed up or did something wrong somewhere. It's just too annoying to let go, even though it's not the biggest deal. 

 

 

UPDATE: The problem is with the VRM heatsinks on the mother board, they are insufficient at load and cause the CPU to throttle. I solved the problem by putting all the clocks to stock and putting a 120mm fan full blast on intake in the rear of the case. Everything is peachy now, hopefully this and the rest of the thread will be useful to others who encounter this problem in the future.

[Karumu]

odd question but have you checked both power connectors are properly plugged into the GPU? one may have come loose

[TheRoss0411]

I and lots of others are having performance problems with BF4, it's either BF4 or drivers

[superducky94]

Hmmm. Thanks guys. I haven't checked my connections recently, I'll give that a shot and report back lol.

[superducky94]

Well the connections are solid, at both ends of the extensions, they're the Silverstone ones, I don't think those could be the problem? Thanks for the help, back to messing around with stuff.

[SpyRosL]

The dipping happens here and there or constantly?

 

It seems weird that so many ppl having issues with bf4 and i'm just playing it buttery smooth all the time..no dipping no nothing

[lachyman]

Isn't the VRM overheating? I think your board had such problems and the fact you watercool your CPU instead of air makes it even worse.

I'm just brainstorming here, dunno if that can have effects on CPU performance causing it to bottleneck the GPU.

I myself don't have any issues with my 780.

[superducky94]

 

 

Isn't the VRM overheating? I think your board had such problems and the fact you watercool your CPU instead of air makes it even worse. 

I'm just brainstorming here, dunno if that can have effects on CPU performance causing it to bottleneck the GPU. 

I myself don't have any issues with my 780.

Hmmm, interesting thought. I have High Performance SP 120 fans on both my radiators, so I don't think that the airflow should be too terrible. I have two extra, perhaps I'll try adding them in this weekend. I've never heard that about my board though, not that I've really looked into it, thanks for bringing it up, I'll do some investigating. 

 

I've done some more investigating and found a CPU core unparking utility as well as a game file edit that people have said worked, so I'm gonna go try those out now. The utility did say that my cores were parked, so we'll see what the difference it now. This is good stuff guys, thanks for the help, it's always more fun trouble shooting when you have different things to investigate. 

[superducky94]

Allright, goodish news! Unparking my CPU as well as adding a line to PROFSAVE_profile has improved performance, sort of. I'm still getting GPU utilization dips, but now it's oscillating between 30-60% usage instead of going from 99 to 20, so the frame drops aren't as jarring, but it's a strange that the GPU is apparently being used less now even though the frame rates are the same. I'm going to keep fiddling around, hopefully I can come up with something that will be of use to other people in the future. 

[superducky94]

The dipping happens here and there or constantly?

 

It seems weird that so many ppl having issues with bf4 and i'm just playing it buttery smooth all the time..no dipping no nothing

Also sorry, totally didn't see your post. Yes, just here and there, no real pattern to it. Sort of more often on larger maps, but not always.

[ManIkWeet]

You sure your CPU isn't bottlenecking it?

[superducky94]

You sure your CPU isn't bottlenecking it?

I'm pretty sure, changing the clock speeds (up or down) didn't show any change in the frames dipping or the average frames per second.

[superducky94]

Isn't the VRM overheating? I think your board had such problems and the fact you watercool your CPU instead of air makes it even worse.

I'm just brainstorming here, dunno if that can have effects on CPU performance causing it to bottleneck the GPU.

I myself don't have any issues with my 780.

 

 

You sure your CPU isn't bottlenecking it?

 

Ok update, I've done some research and read a number of people that said that the VRM on my board is poorly designed and will cause the CPU to throttle when it overheats, so the issue might be sort of CPU related. I don't really have the money for a new board atm, so I think I'll just go to stock clocks on everything, crank up the fan speeds and throw in some more fans this weekend and see what that does for me. 

[dragoon20005]

Ok update, I've done some research and read a number of people that said that the VRM on my board is poorly designed and will cause the CPU to throttle when it overheats, so the issue might be sort of CPU related. I don't really have the money for a new board atm, so I think I'll just go to stock clocks on everything, crank up the fan speeds and throw in some more fans this weekend and see what that does for me. 

another method is to buy some RAM heat sinks and macgyver them onto the VRMs and add those 40mm fans

[superducky94]

another method is to buy some RAM heat sinks and macgyver them onto the VRMs and add those 40mm fans

 

Hmm, interesting idea. I did see a guy get a fan on there in this thread, and it seems my suspicions are confirmed, shame on me for not doing enough research I guess, as well as the black friday deal that was too tempting to resist .

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/14393-gigabyte-ga-990fxa-ud3-revision-30-stay-away/

[Faceman]

Ok update, I've done some research and read a number of people that said that the VRM on my board is poorly designed and will cause the CPU to throttle when it overheats, so the issue might be sort of CPU related. I don't really have the money for a new board atm, so I think I'll just go to stock clocks on everything, crank up the fan speeds and throw in some more fans this weekend and see what that does for me. 

Yea, let us know if it works better at stock speeds.

 

What chipset is your board? 960? 970? 990?

[superducky94]

Yea, let us know if it works better at stock speeds.

 

What chipset is your board? 960? 970? 990?

 

It's 990FX

[Faceman]

Hmm, interesting idea. I did see a guy get a fan on there in this thread, and it seems my suspicions are confirmed, shame on me for not doing enough research I guess, as well as the black friday deal that was too tempting to resist .

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/14393-gigabyte-ga-990fxa-ud3-revision-30-stay-away/

Ohh, so even though it is a 990 it is still really bad.  That sucks man.

 

Try doing what the other guy did:

Thermal Tape + Copper Heatsink + Fan

[superducky94]

Ohh, so even though it is a 990 it is still really bad.  That sucks man.

 

Try doing what the other guy did:

Thermal Tape + Copper Heatsink + Fan

 

Yeah, I'll see what I can do. I guess just let this thread be another PSA for people to stay away from AMD Gigabyte motherboards. I read that some of their other models have similar issues, though supposedly their most recent revision addresses this issue, but they won't swap your board for you .

[superducky94]

OK guys, minor update. In the most recent update of the BIOS for the motherboard it allows you to adjust the load line calibration. Adjusting this got me great results for maybe 20 minutes. GPU usage stayed at a solid 60% and frame rate was solid. However it eventually started throttling again. So I just need to get some cooling in place until I can get a new motherboard. Too bad there aren't any other all black motherboards that I know of . My rig is literally almost completely black atm. I guess I'll have to go black and blue next. But at least I've identified the problem. 

[ManIkWeet]

OK guys, minor update. In the most recent update of the BIOS for the motherboard it allows you to adjust the load line calibration. Adjusting this got me great results for maybe 20 minutes. GPU usage stayed at a solid 60% and frame rate was solid. However it eventually started throttling again. So I just need to get some cooling in place until I can get a new motherboard. Too bad there aren't any other all black motherboards that I know of . My rig is literally almost completely black atm. I guess I'll have to go black and blue next. But at least I've identified the problem.

Really sucks dude