[SOLVED!!] GPU for GTA5 @1080p? GTX 1060 isn't cutting it!!

[white magic]

Hi gents,

I have a fairly recent pc with pretty good specs.. and yet GTA5 just isn't running satisfactorily. I was wondering if anyone here might have thoughts on this.

 

These are my specs:

• GTX 1060 3GB by EVGA (03G-P4-6160-KR - the single fan variant)
• i7 6700 (non-K variant)
• GIGABYTE GA-H170N-WIFI (mini-Itx form factor)
• 32 GB DDR memory (16x2)
• Intel SSD 600p Series
• Windows 10 x64 Pro

I'm running this game at 1080p, with a combination of high and very high settings. Here are all my settings >> SETTINGS SCREENSHOTS << . The only other setting to keep in mind is the forced 'fast' sync I have enabled via NVidia control panel.

 

At these settings, when I drive around the city, I can expect the FPS to be in the 20s, to max out in the low 30s and to sometimes be as low as 19.

That is just unacceptable. I have been monitoring the gpu temps and they are quite fine. The cpu temps - also doing great. So what can this be? Do I have a defective GPU? I've been reading the NVidia GeForce forums and it seems I'm not the only one with disappointing performance with the Pascal GPUs. Maybe there are QC issues?

I was thinking of getting a GTX 1060, the 6GB variant, because it's 5% or so faster and the additional 3GB would make sense in the long term. But I also feel that this $200 GPU I have should be able to run this game at the settings I have! If I splurge for a more expensive GPU, I'm almost approaching the price of a console.. I bet GTA5 is optimized to hell and back on a PS4.. Then again, playing the FPS parts even on PC has been traumatizing if I was using the 360 controller so I almost always switch to the kb+mouse hehe..

 

Ok, enough ranting!

 

EDIT: I solved the performance issue, finally! Check my new post.

[Droidbot]

Can you list the full settings? Including MSAA. That is a freaking performance killer on PC. 

[xGGAx]

The gtx 1060 is more than capable of running gtav at 1440p 60fps, ultra/very high settings with a good cpu such as yours. I run similar settings and I get 50ish fps in gta online. 
You should consider making a clean install of geforce drivers and running CCleaner just in case.

[HeavyFtw]

9 minutes ago, white magic said:

Hi gents,

I have a fairly recent pc with pretty good specs.. and yet GTA5 just isn't running satisfactorily. I was wondering if anyone here might have thoughts on this.

 

These are my specs:

• GTX 1060 3GB by EVGA (03G-P4-6160-KR - the single fan variant)
• i7 6700 (non-K variant)
• GIGABYTE GA-H170N-WIFI (mini-Itx form factor)
• 32 GB DDR memory (16x2)
• Intel SSD 600p Series
• Windows 10 x64 Pro

I'm running this game at 1080p, with a combination of high and very high settings. I'm attaching a screenshot of most of the settings below.

 

At these settings, when I drive around the city, I can expect the FPS to be in the 20s, to max out in the low 30s and to sometimes be as low as 19.

That is just unacceptable. I have been monitoring the gpu temps and they are quite fine. The cpu temps - also doing great. So what can this be? Do I have a defective GPU? I've been reading the NVidia GeForce forums and it seems I'm not the only one with disappointing performance with the Pascal GPUs. Maybe there are QC issues?

I was thinking of getting a GTX 1060, the 6GB variant, because it's 5% or so faster and the additional 3GB would make sense in the long term. But I also feel that this $200 GPU I have should be able to run this game at the settings I have! If I splurge for a more expensive GPU, I'm almost approaching the price of a console.. I bet GTA5 is optimized to hell and back on a PS4.. Then again, playing the FPS parts even on PC has been traumatizing if I was using the 360 controller so I almost always switch to the kb+mouse hehe..

 

Ok, enough ranting!

that is sure very strange be sure to check drivers etc i can run 1080p on tweaked high with a gtx 750 the 1060 is about triple the performance if i remember correctly

[Shoob]

Make sure you don't have MSAA too high (2xMSAA is enough) and disable everything in the advanced graphics tab.

[Energycore]

There's gotta be a problem with your card because you should be getting around 80fps

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1060_Gaming_X_3_GB/16.html

 

Can you run its internal benchmark and show us the result?

[Rohit Jackdaw]

Make sure msaa and Txaa is off. Also look whether nvdia dynamic resolution thing is also off. And don't compare a PS4 with Pc dude. Put the settings to around medium and set fps 30 and reduce resolution to 900p or whatever PS4 is using and there u go. A PS4 with Pc controls

[Rohit Jackdaw]

And also advanced graphics tab. Those things take way more fps for little bit gain in visuals

[MegaDave91]

Turn down "Post FX"

[agent_x007]

I'm pretty sure it's either CPU/GPU throttling or Windows/3-rd party program is doing something in the background that eats up resources (check CPU/RAM/GPU usage with Riva Tuner Statistics Server [RTSS]).
I tested GTX V with MSAA x4 (with advanced tab almost all off) on GTX 780 Ti : 

 

[white magic]

9 minutes ago, xGGAx said:

The gtx 1060 is more than capable of running gtav at 1440p 60fps, ultra/very high settings with a good cpu such as yours. I run similar settings and I get 50ish fps in gta online. 
You should consider making a clean install of geforce drivers and running CCleaner just in case.

I'll give it a shot. I'm a bit skeptical but I have few options.

[white magic]

6 minutes ago, Energycore said:

There's gotta be a problem with your card because you should be getting around 80fps

https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_1060_Gaming_X_3_GB/16.html

 

Can you run its internal benchmark and show us the result?

What's an internal benchmark? Do you mean like 3dMark?

[Droidbot]

Just now, white magic said:

What's an internal benchmark? Do you mean like 3dMark?

Hit TAB on the settings screen and it runs the built in benchmark

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, white magic said:

What's an internal benchmark? Do you mean like 3dMark?

No GTA V has its own benchmark that you can run

Check for video card throttling, and also for CPU throttling

[white magic]

14 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Can you list the full settings? Including MSAA. That is a freaking performance killer on PC. 

Check out new screenshots!

[white magic]

3 minutes ago, Energycore said:

No GTA V has its own benchmark that you can run

Check for video card throttling, and also for CPU throttling

Ohhhh, for sure I ran that. It confirmed what I was seeing in game. In plane-flying portion, FPS was in the high 30s, but on the street, while driving, it was in the 20s

 

The throttling seems worth investigating.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, white magic said:

Ohhhh, for sure I ran that. It confirmed what I was seeing in game. In plane-flying portion, FPS was in the high 30s, but on the street, while driving, it was in the 20s

 

The throttling seems worth investigating.

Yup, use a program like GPU Z to look at your clockspeeds while the benchmark runs.

[white magic]

Ok, so I freshly reinstalled the drivers (using DDU). Got the GPU fan running at 100% to make sure temps won't be an issue. GPU Core clock was most of the time at its max of 1506.00012 Mhz during the GTA benchmark. CPU temps were low, too. Max per-cpu-core bus speed was 802Mhz (which probably is correct when multiplied by the multiplier).

 

I lowered all the settings as suggested here (FXAA off, Post FX to Normal, etc), set NVidia control panel settings for GTA5 exe to 'High Performance' and even set the CPU utilization to high in task manager for the exe when it was running. The game looked noticeably uglier, but it ran a bit better (at least 7 FPS better on average) . I failed to log GPU-Z readings to a file but I did capture OpenHardwareMonitor readings to file, though they are a bit too comprehensive and not as friendly.

 

I'll be doing more testing tomorrow but so far the results aren't promising. Thanks for everyone's help so far.

[white magic]

I have finally sorted this out. These are the steps I took.

1) I bought a new GPU. I bought another GTX 1060, but this one's a 6GB variant. I will be far better future-proofed. Will be returning the 3GB variant to amazon (thanks, Amazon!). Plus, a Gigabyte GPU is just meant to be paired with a Gigabyte motherboard.

The new GPU performed a bit better. Incrementally better. As it should. The 6GB variant has a slightly higher clock speed (the doubled vram doesn't necessarily have an immediate impact).

Since buying a 'better' GPU didn't do the trick, I knew I had to get creative..

2) Updated BIOS version on my motherboard - version F4 -> F20. The new version looks gimmicky, very gamer-oriented, which I mean in the worst way possible. Think gaming keyboards and you're not even half way there.

3) Set power plan to 'performance' in the power settings.

4) Explicitly turned off my Intel integrated graphics driver in the BIOS.

5) Re-installed NVidia drivers, right after I formatted my hdd and re-installed windows. Wait, I didn't do any of these things. This 'clean install drivers' mentality needs to die. It's my understanding that NVidia bundles all the drivers you might ever need whenever you run that 300mb+ installer.

 

I suspect that the fix was due to the power plan change. Could a BIOS update be a factor, too? I thought it was more along the lines of - BIOS recognizes a device or it doesn't. It shouldn't affect performance. Anyway..

 

Now I get sky-high FPS in GTA5 and in the Unigine Valley benchmark. FPS improvement in the Unigine Valley benchmark was staggering. From an average of 24 it went to 66. See attached screenshots if you want your jaw to drop.

 

As for GTA 5, I forgot to run Fraps to measure the FPS. But it is butter smooth. I almost started weeping. I cranked up the settings. Game runs just as well.

 

Miracles can happen!! Thanks for everyone here who chimed in!

 

Screenshots

Performance of the Gigabyte 1060 GTX 6GB before taking steps 2-5.

Performance after taking steps 2-5.

[Nena Trinity]

3GB is to little to max GTA V