4790k Gtx 1070 - Low FPS 50% gpu usage [SOLVED]

[privatejoker]

Hello people of the internet! This is my first forum post so please let me know if I am doing something wrong. Let's get straight into it:

 

I've recently upgraded from a GTX 970 to a 1070 in my system with a 4790k. I'm having an issue with low FPS and low GPU usage in games. I've tried reinstalling GPU drivers, I've checked my power options in Nvidia Control Panel, as well as windows. In games like Battlefield 4, Farcry 5, and Pubg, I used to be at 99% usage with my 970 pumping out as many frames as it could (60-144 depending on the game). Now with the 1070 I'm sitting anywhere from 35-144 FPS with 75% GPU usage at most, usually sitting around 40-60%. I game at 1920*1080 @ 144hz so it is my goal to have the GPU running at 99% the whole time so that I can achieve the highest FPS possible.

 

In Battlefield 1, a very CPU heavy game, I am using nearly all of my CPU power 80-90% constantly. This would lead me to believe that I am running into a CPU bottleneck. I overclocked my CPU from 4 to 4.4ghz and have seen no difference in performance by the CPU or the GPU. This is understandable because I know that BF1 is a CPU demanding game, however, in all of the aforementioned games I stay below 70% CPU usage so that doesn't explain why I am only using 40-60% of my GPU in those games.

 

*EDIT* I am able to achieve 99% GPU usage while running the Unigine Heaven benchmark with the results expected of a 1070.

 

I have significantly lower performance in all of my games since upgrading to the 1070. Something isn't adding up here and I've run out of ideas.

 

I have tried:

• Reinstalling graphics drivers
• Overclocking CPU
• Checking power settings in Nvidia Control Panel
• Checking power settings in Windows 10
• Vsync on/off
• Frame lock on/off
• GPU Overclock on/off

I just spent $500 on this new graphics card and I'm very frustrated with the performance so far.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

 

i7 4790k @ 4ghz 

Asus z97 pro

16gb DDR3 - 1600

MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X - 8gb

650w 80+ bronze psu

 

Edited April 11, 2018 by privatejoker

[Streetguru]

17 minutes ago, privatejoker said:

 

If your CPU is at 90-100% you are CPU bottlenecked. Should still be at 100fps or above though

[AntiTrust]

just curious, download furmark and stress test your gpu. Does it hit 100% under benchmark? it should

[privatejoker]

Just now, AntiTrust said:

just curious, download furmark and stress test your gpu. Does it hit 100% under benchmark? it should

Yes sorry, forgot to mention I ran Unigine Heaven and got 99% usage the whole time with framerates expected from a 1070

[AntiTrust]

23 minutes ago, privatejoker said:

 

 

this guy uses your exact specs and gets 150+ frames per second and 65-70% cpu load. I seriously doubt its a CPU bottleneck, 4790K are good

[Daniel Z.]

Well a lot of it should be due to your resolution, get a 1440p monitor, that should resolve most/all of the bottleneck.

[AntiTrust]

 

Download GPU-Z, fire up battlefield and once its doing the problem screenshot the sensors page like I did above. I want to see what the PerfCap Reason says (performance cap reason) 

[privatejoker]

9 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

 

Download GPU-Z, fire up battlefield and once its doing the problem screenshot the sensors page like I did above. I want to see what the PerfCap Reason says (performance cap reason) 

Hopefully those pictures are clear enough.. Beside PerfCap Reason it says "VRel"

[AntiTrust]

it looks like its cycling between Util (grey) and VRel (blue) performance cap codes.

 

I am reading a forum post from a guy who was having similar problems, though its over a year and a half old. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/962449/geforce-1000-series/gtx-1070-periodic-fps-drops-low-gpu-usage/5/

 

I'll keep looking around

 

 

 

[privatejoker]

8 minutes ago, AntiTrust said:

it looks like its cycling between Util (grey) and VRel (blue) performance cap codes.

 

I am reading a forum post from a guy who was having similar problems, though its over a year and a half old. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/962449/geforce-1000-series/gtx-1070-periodic-fps-drops-low-gpu-usage/5/

 

I'll keep looking around

 

 

 

Okay, I'm going to try re-installing my drivers (again) and uncheck every box except the driver like the one guy said. Thank you so much for your help so far! 

[AntiTrust]

might be worth using DDU to completely remove your graphics drivers and reinstalling like you said. Display drivers don't uninstall very easily. 

 

http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

[Majestic]

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/894384-i-have-the-stutters-how-to-provide-detailed-information-with-your-question-as-well-as-a-few-solutions/

 

At me with the results.

[gepowr]

1 hour ago, AntiTrust said:

this guy uses your exact specs and gets 150+ frames per second and 65-70% cpu load. I seriously doubt its a CPU bottleneck, 4790K are good

Cofirmed. My 4790k does not bottleneck my 1080. I don't own bf1 so i can't test that game tho. 

 

1 hour ago, privatejoker said:

Hello people of the internet! This is my first forum post so please let me know if I am doing something wrong. Let's get straight into it:

 

I've recently upgraded from a GTX 970 to a 1070 in my system with a 4790k. I'm having an issue with low FPS and low GPU usage in games. I've tried reinstalling GPU drivers, I've checked my power options in Nvidia Control Panel, as well as windows. In games like Battlefield 4, Farcry 5, and Pubg, I used to be at 99% usage with my 970 pumping out as many frames as it could (60-144 depending on the game). Now with the 1070 I'm sitting anywhere from 35-144 FPS with 75% GPU usage at most, usually sitting around 40-60%. I game at 1920*1080 @ 144hz so it is my goal to have the GPU running at 99% the whole time so that I can achieve the highest FPS possible.

 

In Battlefield 1, a very CPU heavy game, I am using nearly all of my CPU power 80-90% constantly. This would lead me to believe that I am running into a CPU bottleneck. I overclocked my CPU from 4 to 4.4ghz and have seen no difference in performance by the CPU or the GPU. This is understandable because I know that BF1 is a CPU demanding game, however, in all of the aforementioned games I stay below 70% CPU usage so that doesn't explain why I am only using 40-60% of my GPU in those games.

 

*EDIT* I am able to achieve 99% GPU usage while running the Unigine Heaven benchmark with the results expected of a 1070.

 

I have significantly lower performance in all of my games since upgrading to the 1070. Something isn't adding up here and I've run out of ideas.

 

I have tried:

• Reinstalling graphics drivers
• Overclocking CPU
• Checking power settings in Nvidia Control Panel
• Checking power settings in Windows 10
• Vsync on/off
• Frame lock on/off
• GPU Overclock on/off

I just spent $500 on this new graphics card and I'm very frustrated with the performance so far.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

 

i7 4790k @ 4ghz 

Asus z97 pro

16gb DDR3 - 1600

MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X - 8gb

650w 80+ bronze psu

 

Can you post The cinebench r15 score of your 4790k so we can make sure it is performing fine? Is ht activated? 

[privatejoker]

I THINK WE DID IT!

 

So I uninstalled all of my Nvidia stuff from Control Panel>Uninstall a Program. Then re-downloaded the driver ONLY from Nvidia's website. There are several boxes you can check or uncheck such as Physx, Audio Driver, GeForce Experience, etc. and performed a clean install. I had done this earlier however I didn't uncheck the boxes. I am now getting much closer to that 99% target in Battlefield 1, Battlefield 4, Pubg, and GTA 5. Farcry 5 however, still doesn't seem to want to use more than 70% and it lingers around 80fps on ultra. Kind of frustrating but it is a new game so we will just leave that game out of the question until some updates and new drivers come out. I also enabled 'Force Constant Voltage' in Afterburner and upped the power limit to the max. This also seemed to get me a little closer to the 99%. GeForce Experience was convenient for driver updates and ShadowPlay so I'm going to try to get that back hopefully without the other stuff, but let's face it, 100% usage of a 1070 far outweighs a convenient app 

 

My theory on what happened for those that are interested: When uninstalling two of the Nvidia drivers, a reboot is required, one of them is the graphics driver. When my computer booted back up the desktop was flicking back and forth between my two monitors. You could hear the 'found new hardware' wizard and the tone in makes (like when you plug in a new device) Then when I went to continue uninstalling drivers, a new graphics driver was there from Nvidia. Where it came from? I have no clue, but I think what was happening is after rebooting, the found new hardware wizard downloads a random driver for the 2nd monitor and then that driver, and my new graphics driver from Nvidia's website were conflicting with each other when playing games.

 

Anyways, I think it is solved, thank you so much to everyone who chimed in and got some new ideas flowing. I hope this helps someone else in the same boat I was in.

 

Cheers

[privatejoker]

1 hour ago, gepowr said:

Cofirmed. My 4790k does not bottleneck my 1080. I don't own bf1 so i can't test that game tho. 

 

Can you post The cinebench r15 score of your 4790k so we can make sure it is performing fine? Is ht activated? 

Scored 880 on cinebench. I think I figured it out though (see other post). Thank you for your input!

[gepowr]

5 minutes ago, privatejoker said:

Scored 880 on cinebench. I think I figured it out though (see other post). Thank you for your input!

That's good to hear, glad you figured it out.

[AskTJ]

Congats!!

[AntiTrust]

Hey glad to hear that its working better, 

[faziten]

14 hours ago, privatejoker said:

Hello people of the internet! This is my first forum post so please let me know if I am doing something wrong. Let's get straight into it:

 

I've recently upgraded from a GTX 970 to a 1070 in my system with a 4790k Stock or OCed?. I'm having an issue with low FPS and low GPU usage in games. I've tried reinstalling GPU drivers Via DDU or manual uninstall/Install?, I've checked my power options in Nvidia Control Panel, as well as windows. In games like Battlefield 4, Farcry 5, and Pubg, I used to be at 99% usage with my 970 pumping out as many frames as it could (60-144 depending on the game). Now with the 1070 I'm sitting anywhere from 35-144 FPS with 75% GPU usage at most, usually sitting around 40-60%PUBG is expected to perform like trash. Battlefield 4 is too old but should be able to get 144hz. I believe you have VSync enabled, since they wont go higher than 144Hz. If thats the case disengage VSync and test again. I game at 1920*1080 @ 144hz so it is my goal to have the GPU running at 99% the whole time so that I can achieve the highest FPS possible. Remove VSync from NV contron panel in global options, remove any frame limitter if any and test again with a well known software like Unigine. Use standard test configurations and post results here.

 

In Battlefield 1, a very CPU heavy game, I am using nearly all of my CPU power 80-90% constantly. This would lead me to believe that I am running into a CPU bottleneck If its the GAME that is causing this usage, its a fair diagnostic, check if you have any backgound app eating resorces. I overclocked my CPU from 4 to 4.4ghz and have seen no difference in performance by the CPU or the GPUAsuming you dont have any sort of Sync (Vsync, Fast Sync, etc) this means you didnt have a CPU bottleneck to begin with. It may have been just high usage.. This is understandable because I know that BF1 is a CPU demanding game, however, in all of the aforementioned games I stay below 70% CPU usage so that doesn't explain why I am only using 40-60% of my GPU in those games. VSync would explain this.

 

*EDIT* I am able to achieve 99% GPU usage while running the Unigine Heaven benchmark with the results expected of a 1070.

 

I have significantly lower performance in all of my games since upgrading to the 1070. Something isn't adding up here and I've run out of ideas.

 

I have tried: How did you try all this? every combination possible is far too much testing. In paticular: , intall latest STABLE WHQL drivers, stock CPU, Nvidia control panel reset to default, power settings on maximum performance, VSync forced OFF on NV control panel, Frame lock disengaged. GPU stock.

• Reinstalling graphics drivers
• Overclocking CPU
• Checking power settings in Nvidia Control Panel
• Checking power settings in Windows 10
• Vsync on/off
• Frame lock on/off
• GPU Overclock on/off

I just spent $500 on this new graphics card and I'm very frustrated with the performance so far.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated!

 

i7 4790k @ 4ghz Temps and cooling solution?

Asus z97 pro

16gb DDR3 - 1600 dual channel or single?

MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X - 8gb

650w 80+ bronze psu brand and model?

 

Post full screen of MSI afterburner statistics graphs while performing a Unigine Loop.

If unigine works properly the problem is software side. Not hardware.

To be honest i expect to find some sort of Syncing or frame limitting is in place. PUBG is crap so i wont even bother watching benchmarks of it, you shouldnt bother testing either. That game is a mess. Better test BF1 in campaing that is faily consistent and watch out for background software using resorces.

 

Post your results here, hope you get your performance back.

Cheers!