Windows 8.1 FPS improvement tips?

[Splitzer]

Hi guys,

 

I need some FPS improvement tweaks for Windows 8.1.

 

I bought a new system last week and have ran into some problems setting Windows 8.1 up properly.

 

System specs are NVIDIA Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 980, I7 4790K 4.3GHz (meant to be 4.5GHz by default) Gigabyte SOC Force Motherboard, 16GB RAM, 1000W Superflower PSU and my SSD and HDD's.

 

Installed most of the Windows updates, updated most of the drivers, bought start8 to make it look like Windows 7, set the power plan to high, disabled all start up icons apart from Kaspersky Internet Security, changed superfetch (FPS issue) to manual in services.msc, disabled ndu.sys in regedit (Network memory leakage apparently) advanced system settings and tweaked a few settings and also unparked my cores.

 

Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB3000850)

Download size: 775.2 MB

 

Ran into some issues installing this file. I'm left with a black screen on load up, so had to do some system restores.

 

Also not updated my BIOS because of the overclocked settings that are not accurate.

 

At startup I'm using like 1.3GB memory, GPu and CPU temps at idle are at like 26-35 using Speccy to monitor.

 

FPS on certain games either runs lower than 60 FPS or it runs fine but the mouse and gameplay can look a bit stuttery on playback using Shadowplay or Fraps. Never had a problem with the second part on my old system on Windows 7. Ryse: Son of Rome is the worst one I have tried so far. 15 FPS with 2x supersampling, 20-30 FPS with 1.5x and 40-50 FPS with 0. Seen people on Youtube pushing 90-100 frames with SLI with 1.5x supersampling. Pushing about 90 with 1920x1080 single 980 with 1.5 supersampling and I'm getting 25-50 frames most of the time at 1440P with none.

 

GPU usage is 90-95% most of the time, temps for GPU and CPU are 55-65 when playing most games.

 

Tested some games using MSI Afterburner and everything appears fine on the monitoring. FPS seems to be the issue, or when it isn't the issue the movement looks like crap on playback.

 

Thanks in advance for any tips that may further help.
 

[DevilishBooster]

For starters, always post detailed system specs so that we know exactly what you're working with. Second, make sure that your BIOS is completely up to date. If it's not up to date it can cause all kinds of issues.

 

This may seem like a "duh", but make sure you have V-Sync disabled. Go into "msconfig" and disable any extra programs set to run at start up. If you have a metric crap-ton of stuff on your desktop, clean it up because that can sometimes cause a heavy start up load. if you don't use it already, download CCleaner and run that. You could have a lot of errors in your registry and that can cause a delay/heavy load on start up if you system is have to search through a load of junk to find what it needs. Does Kapersky have a silent or gaming mode? Some AV programs actively run in the background no matter what you are doing, and that can severely impact game performance depending on the system load. 

 

Also, do some research on that update that's giving you problems. I had a similar issue with another KB update causing my entire system to freeze/crash and I found out that the only way to not have the issue was to completely block out and ignore that update. 

[Splitzer]

For starters, always post detailed system specs so that we know exactly what you're working with. Second, make sure that your BIOS is completely up to date. If it's not up to date it can cause all kinds of issues.

 

This may seem like a "duh", but make sure you have V-Sync disabled. Go into "msconfig" and disable any extra programs set to run at start up. If you have a metric crap-ton of stuff on your desktop, clean it up because that can sometimes cause a heavy start up load. if you don't use it already, download CCleaner and run that. You could have a lot of errors in your registry and that can cause a delay/heavy load on start up if you system is have to search through a load of junk to find what it needs. Does Kapersky have a silent or gaming mode? Some AV programs actively run in the background no matter what you are doing, and that can severely impact game performance depending on the system load. 

 

Also, do some research on that update that's giving you problems. I had a similar issue with another KB update causing my entire system to freeze/crash and I found out that the only way to not have the issue was to completely block out and ignore that update. 

I already included the main hardware parts in the above message.

 

Vsync is disabled. Already disabled startup programs. I use CCleaner daily. I do not know if Kaspersky has different modes for different applications, I will check.

 

I will update the BIOS as soon as I know how to save my overclocked settings. If that does not make a difference is there anything else I can do to improve performance without switching back to 7?

 

I also need to learn how to overclock the GPU and CPU to stable settings. The current overclock was done by the place that I bought it from. A poorly job done tbh. Meant to be 4.5GHz at default yet HW monitor reports 4.3GHz.

[DevilishBooster]

I already included the main hardware parts in the above message.

 

Vsync is disabled. Already disabled startup programs. I use CCleaner daily. I do not know if Kaspersky has different modes for different applications, I will check.

 

I will update the BIOS as soon as I know how to save my overclocked settings. If that does not make a difference is there anything else I can do to improve performance without switching back to 7?

 

I also need to learn how to overclock the GPU and CPU to stable settings. The current overclock was done by the place that I bought it from. A poorly job done tbh. Meant to be 4.5GHz at default yet HW monitor reports 4.3GHz.

If the store you bought the system from did the OC, I would reset the CMOS, update the BIOS and start from scratch. Win 8.1 should not cause any kind of FPS issue. What SSD and HDDs are you using? Have you tested them to make sure there's not some kind of issue on the hardware side? I build a new system in Dec and I was having frame rate issues; turns out it was all because the WD Black^2 Dual Drive I bought was faulty right at the start of the HDD. Use HDTune on all or your drives and check if there are any read issues or bad sectors.

 

P.S.: I'm checking out for the night (0200 here). I'll check back in the morning when I'm rested and a little more sober to see if there is anything else I can do to help.