GPU Usage Dropping During Games

[ethaDAboss11]

Hey all,

 

I would like to think that my system is pretty powerful, at least powerful enough to play modern games with decent settings (system specs in signature). Recently, however, I have noticed that I get lag spikes every few seconds consistently, so I opened up MSI Afterburner and low and behold, my GPU usage consistently, every few seconds, dropping to around 24 when it's normally at 80-100 (depending on the game). It's every game I play too. Any ideas? I thought it was my CPU at first because it's old, but it still should be able to keep up. 

 

Thanks in advance!

[Turtle Rig]

3 minutes ago, ethaDAboss11 said:

Hey all,

 

I would like to think that my system is pretty powerful, at least powerful enough to play modern games with decent settings (system specs in signature). Recently, however, I have noticed that I get lag spikes every few seconds consistently, so I opened up MSI Afterburner and low and behold, my GPU usage consistently, every few seconds, dropping to around 24 when it's normally at 80-100 (depending on the game). It's every game I play too. Any ideas? I thought it was my CPU at first because it's old, but it still should be able to keep up. 

 

Thanks in advance!

When is the last time it worked flawlessly ?  I wanna know what you did from the time it worked properly to now.  Also won't probably help but try turning vsync OFF …….

If that doesn't work then I suggest you run DDU "Display Driver Uninstaller" in safe mode and do a clean and restart and back up to normal mode.  Now install the latest WHQL and let us know what happens.

[ethaDAboss11]

2 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

When is the last time it worked flawlessly ?  I wanna know what you did from the time it worked properly to now.  Also won't probably help but try turning vsync OFF …….

If that doesn't work then I suggest you run DDU "Display Driver Uninstaller" in safe mode and do a clean and restart and back up to normal mode.  Now install the latest WHQL and let us know what happens.

Thanks for replying. The last time it worked well was about a couple months ago. I left for the holidays where I always shut down my system because of those stupid Windows updates that turn your computer on and leave it running.

 

As for the DDU, I'll give that a shot when I get the chance. I'll get back to this thread once I've followed your instructions.

[xAcid9]

Usually cause by anti-virus or other processes that spike your CPU usage or also a slow/dying HDD imo. 

[Turtle Rig]

4 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

Usually cause by anti-virus or other processes that spike your CPU usage or also a slow/dying HDD imo. 

Yes xAcid9 I have turned off real time protection on my apps, so I can check it manually after I download something.

[ethaDAboss11]

5 minutes ago, xAcid9 said:

Usually cause by anti-virus or other processes that spike your CPU usage or also a slow/dying HDD imo. 

Interesting. My HDDs are fine though. My main drive is a Samsung 960 Evo and my other drives are basically brand new. I'll look into the antivirus.

[xAcid9]

7 minutes ago, ethaDAboss11 said:

Interesting. My HDDs are fine though. My main drive is a Samsung 960 Evo and my other drives are basically brand new. I'll look into the antivirus.

Try enable real time graph for both GPU usage and CPU usage in MSI Afterburner. Check if CPU usage increase/spike when GPU usage drop. 

[ethaDAboss11]

On 4/17/2019 at 10:05 AM, xAcid9 said:

Try enable real time graph for both GPU usage and CPU usage in MSI Afterburner. Check if CPU usage increase/spike when GPU usage drop. 

It looks like my CPU usage is relatively normal. Occasional usage spikes but nothing out of the ordinary. 

[SpookyCitrus]

Have you been monitoring your GPU temps when the decreases in performance occur, sounds like possible thermal issues to me. If you can, download Furmark, it will give you a consistent read out of temps while showing your clock speed and fps performance while gpu is under full load. 

[ethaDAboss11]

On 4/18/2019 at 11:13 AM, SpookyCitrus said:

Have you been monitoring your GPU temps when the decreases in performance occur, sounds like possible thermal issues to me. If you can, download Furmark, it will give you a consistent read out of temps while showing your clock speed and fps performance while gpu is under full load. 

Okay will do. My issue has mostly been fixed now because I turned off VSync (the issue was primarily in P3D) and now my CPU core 0 usage is pegged at 100% (which is relatively normal for flight sim) and my GPU usage isn't showing any abrupt usage drops. Gameplay is back to what it once was!