GPU Throttling / Choking usage

[qqqqqq]

Essentially, the more GPU intensive the area, the lower my GPU usage goes, in easy to render areas, such as areas at sea or staring directly at skyboxes, my GPU usage maxes out at 99% utilisation and my FPS surpasses 200 easily. However, when in dense areas that are populated with AI, enemies, buildings and other structures, my GPU usage drops down to 30-50% and my FPS goes below 90.

Temperatures range from 55-65 on both my CPU and GPU.

My GPU is not overclocked, my power limit and temp limits are both maxxed.

GPU-Z only returns VRel in PerfCap Reason (which means the GPU can not boost any higher than it's current clock without being unstable.)

 

Titles this occurs in:
 - DOOM

 - Dishonored 2

 - Far Cry New Dawn

 - Borderlands 2

 

Specs:

i7-7700k @ 4.8GHz

GA-Z270-HD3

CL16 2666MHz DDR4

ASUS Strix 1080 Ti

 

[vanished]

Immediately I think of a CPU bottleneck.  The GPU intensive areas you mention are also likely CPU intensive and that may make more of a difference.  That said, I wouldn't really expect a significant issue with your specs.  Is this a new problem or has it always behaved this way?

[qqqqqq]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Immediately I think of a CPU bottleneck.  The GPU intensive areas you mention are also likely CPU intensive and that may make more of a difference.  That said, I wouldn't really expect a significant issue with your specs.  Is this a new problem or has it always behaved this way?

It has mostly always behaved this way, considering it's doing this in titles from 2012 I doubt it's a CPU bottleneck as my CPU usage is always quite low.

Disabling GeForce experience auto-optimization helped a bit but it has in no way eradicated the issue.

[vanished]

5 minutes ago, qqqqqq said:

It has mostly always behaved this way, considering it's doing this in titles from 2012 I doubt it's a CPU bottleneck as my CPU usage is always quite low.

Disabling GeForce experience auto-optimization helped a bit but it has in no way eradicated the issue.

Yeah I really wouldn't expect it either, it's just the first thing that came to mind.  The issue is if it's not that then there must be some weird software issue going on and that can be hard to track down.  You mentioned that in these heavy scenes you are voltage limited according to GPUZ.  Is the clock speed staying at the highest it can go?

[qqqqqq]

27 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Yeah I really wouldn't expect it either, it's just the first thing that came to mind.  The issue is if it's not that then there must be some weird software issue going on and that can be hard to track down.  You mentioned that in these heavy scenes you are voltage limited according to GPUZ.  Is the clock speed staying at the highest it can go?

My clock speed is pretty much always 1898MHz, never changes during the aforementioned drops. The GPU-Z reading generally means it's boosting normally and usage statistics are normal as well, however we both know that the usage is definitely out of the ordinary.

[SoreRaito]

Are you running the RAM at the said speed of 2666mhz ?
can it go higher ? or is it a 2400mhz kit running higher already?

 

Du you have an idea what your frame times are ? or if there is some light micro stutter ?

[qqqqqq]

7 minutes ago, SoreRaito said:

Are you running the RAM at the said speed of 2666mhz ?
can it go higher ? or is it a 2400mhz kit running higher already?

 

Du you have an idea what your frame times are ? or if there is some light micro stutter ?

I will check my frametimes now, my ram is 2666MHz @ CL16 by default, I am running it at 3000MHz CL16 always.

 

Edit: my frametimes vary between 7ms and 15ms.

[SoreRaito]

20 minutes ago, qqqqqq said:

I will check my frametimes now, my ram is 2666MHz @ CL16 by default, I am running it at 3000MHz CL16 always.

in the text under your window it says the ram is rated at 3200mhz try running it at that speed and see if it changes somehing.

i kinda have a similar issue with another game Black Desert Online, my ram is rated at 2400mhz but i can oc it to run 2933 mhz what helped my cause but it might be game specific.

i have a 8700k @4.9ghz and a 2080ti running the game in 1440p 120hz easy highest setting, but when i do grind in that game my fps go as low as 50-90 fps when i had my ram at 2400 mhz after i got it up to 2933mhz i was between 70-90 fps. It doesent matter what setting i run the game in may it be Low or ultra-high it always happens when i grind.
 

My frame times in the game are between 6-21 ms hence the stutter for me sometimes ingame and when i get frame time spikes my fps go to the 50's.

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by SoreRaito

[qqqqqq]

Here's an example of it happening.

[SoreRaito]

13 minutes ago, qqqqqq said:

Here's an example of it happening.

is that your normal frame time 13ms?

can you have a look in MSI afterburner what your voltage say for your gpu when the frames go lower ?

[191x7]

7 minutes ago, qqqqqq said:

Here's an example of it happening.

 

 

Turn on "Unified GPU monitoring" in MSI Afterburner and re-check,

[qqqqqq]

3 minutes ago, 191x7 said:

Turn on "Unified GPU monitoring" in MSI Afterburner and re-check,

That's listed as an option for AMD GPUs only.

 

4 minutes ago, SoreRaito said:

is that your normal frame time 13ms?

can you have a look in MSI afterburner what your voltage say for your gpu when the frames go lower ?

Updated image including power consumption percentage:

 

[191x7]

Is that Windows 10 and 1080p?

[qqqqqq]

Just now, 191x7 said:

Is that Windows 10 and 1080p?

Yes to both questions.

[SoreRaito]

17 minutes ago, qqqqqq said:

Updated image including power consumption percentage:

So frame times are okay power consumption seems fine too. Im out of hardware ideas then.

 

The other possible thing is that it is software related then but that is something i cant help with.

[xAcid9]

Is that Doom 2016? You should be able to maintain >150fps at 1080p max. 

[KnoT]

Looks like you are CPU limited and looking at overall CPU utilization says nothing, at minimum you should look at per core/thread usage but even that wont tell you the full story are there is usually way more to it like memory latency, bandwidth, cpu cache usage/speed and so on.

 

From games you have listed those have poor CPU optimization or are CPU heavy DRM:

 

- Dishonored 2

 - Far Cry New Dawn

 - Borderlands 2

 

As for Doom 2016 you should try runing it in Vulkan that should help with CPU bottleneck...

[qqqqqq]

 

On 4/22/2019 at 8:20 PM, KnoT said:

Looks like you are CPU limited and looking at overall CPU utilization says nothing, at minimum you should look at per core/thread usage but even that wont tell you the full story are there is usually way more to it like memory latency, bandwidth, cpu cache usage/speed and so on.

 

From games you have listed those have poor CPU optimization or are CPU heavy DRM:

 

- Dishonored 2

 - Far Cry New Dawn

 - Borderlands 2

 

As for Doom 2016 you should try runing it in Vulkan that should help with CPU bottleneck...

No individual cores go above 80% utilization during the GPU usage drops. As for DOOM the drops do happen for no apparent reason however I'm still at 200FPS most of the time.

[KnoT]

Like i said performance stats don't say the full story and are you runing DOOM in vulkan ?

[vanished]

16 hours ago, qqqqqq said:

No individual cores go above 80% utilization during the GPU usage drops. As for DOOM the drops do happen for no apparent reason however I'm still at 200FPS most of the time.

Remember that the way to check for a CPU bottleneck is actually to look at the GPU usage.  Not hitting 100% GPU usage doesn't necessarily mean there's a CPU bottleneck, but just because CPU usage isn't 100% doesn't mean that it isn't a CPU bottleneck.  For example, if you're running a game with only two intensive threads on a quad core system, you will never hit more than about 50% usage despite the fact the game could run faster on a faster CPU.

 

I'm not implying anything about your current situation or suggesting that this is for sure the problem, I'm just mentioning this in passing since the topic came up and I've seen more than a few people over the years who were unaware.