Windows Reinstall Gives Me 50+ FPS, But Why?

[BradB111]

Hello all,

 

Not troubleshooting per say but the most appropriate category I think. Or can it be avoided to save me a few hours time?

 

First I will list my specs (should help show why this is a VERY strange issue)

CPU: Intel i7 6700K @4.8GHz
GPU: GTX 980Ti (2x SLI) (moderate OC)

RAM: 16GB Dominator Platinum @2666 MHz

(Speeds same before and after issue (e.g. problem isn't a result of an unstable OC))

Also had these parts from release dates and it has only just started happening.

 

Recently I have been noticing out of nowhere my performance in games would deteriorate dramatically for no apparent reason, for example got home after work last night and everything was unplayable. This did also happen ~ 4 Weeks ago which unfortunately resulted in another windows reinstall.

 

Symptoms of the issue: 

The 3 games Ive actually compared performance are CS:GO, CoD BO4 and Apex. I will list my before and after FPS values (working / problem) below 

• CS:GO - 200fps / 65fps (with terrible 'Stutter')
• CoD BO4 - 180fps / 80fps (with terrible 'Stutter')
• APEX - 150fps / 90fps (with terrible 'Stutter')

All games remain on the same graphical settings.

As you can see this is a huge drop in these cases seemingly out of nowhere.

 

How I fix the issue:

1. Reinstall windows from USB through UEFI Boot menu
2. Finish installation
3. Restore everything I had running manually as I did before the reinstall
4. Done, fps restored! 

But why?

 

Notes I'd like to make:

• It can't be a background process slowing my PC down as I reinstall the same list of programs as I had prior to the reinstall.
• This has happened AGAIN since my last reinstall only 4 weeks ago.

Other Troubleshooting steps I have attempted (all of which had made no difference at all):

• Checked for Viruses. (none found)
• Checked for malware (nothing found)
• Tried disabling SLI (No difference)
• Used DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) to completely remove graphics drivers and reinstall latest drivers
• Removed overclocks to check for a possible instability causing the issue
• Re-applied all waterblocks with new paste, replaced coolant (didn't bother doing this the second time as it made no difference the first time)
• Tried using less RAM (no change but worth a try I guess)
• Tried disabling EVERY unnecessary process except the game, launcher and core windows processes
• Tried the power setting to 'high performance' (a classic one but still worth trying)
• Making sure every single possible driver is up to date.

The only thing I refuse to try is the windows Restore / Refresh just due to the amount of issues it has caused in the past (breaking programs, deleting personal files). I can perform a clean reinstall in a similar amount of time anyway.

 

I can't for the life of me figure out why this is happening especially with all the steps I have taken to try and solve this. Any ideas are welcome.

 

An interesting one to say the least. 

 

[Catsrules]

Maybe Windows updates?

[JayB]

https://www.pcgamer.com/a-recent-windows-10-update-is-hurting-game-performance-and-messing-with-mice/

[Oalei]

or maybe just some SLI problems

[Aimi]

2 minutes ago, Oalei said:

or maybe just some SLI problems

 

17 minutes ago, BradB111 said:

• Tried disabling SLI (No difference)

 

[BradB111]

1 hour ago, Catsrules said:

Maybe Windows updates?

 

1 hour ago, JayB said:

https://www.pcgamer.com/a-recent-windows-10-update-is-hurting-game-performance-and-messing-with-mice/

Hmm, Possibly. That article seems to suggest its the mouse movement that causes worse performance in the examples given but my comparisons were done standing in the same place on a map looking at the same thing with no movement.

 

Not to say it isn't the cause of course. will keep my eyes on updates to see if any pop up.

 

Looks like I have a pending restart for KB4486553

 

Will test performance now and after restart. 

 

It hadn't even crossed my mind that Windows updates could be the cause of such a huge performance loss. Ever since the early Win 7 days i don't think I've seen anything like it.

 

Thanks for the heads up though I'll let you know how I get on.

 

EDIT: performance before and after the update seems to be almost as bad. 120 fps now in apex which is a drop of 30 but at least it feels smooth.

 

Keep in mind this is a fresh install of windows as of 12h ago.

 

EDIT2: all 'Update for Microsoft Windows' have been uninstalled. still bad. 

 

EDIT3: All updates uninstalled, no difference, reinstalled no difference. the only things i have done since I tested and confirmed it as working were create this post and uninstall updates.

 

This just keeps getting worse to diagnose.

 

 

[Catsrules]

4 hours ago, BradB111 said:

EDIT: performance before and after the update seems to be almost as bad. 120 fps now in apex which is a drop of 30 but at least it feels smooth.

 

Keep in mind this is a fresh install of windows as of 12h ago.

 

EDIT2: all 'Update for Microsoft Windows' have been uninstalled. still bad. 

 

EDIT3: All updates uninstalled, no difference, reinstalled no difference. the only things i have done since I tested and confirmed it as working were create this post and uninstall updates.

 

This just keeps getting worse to diagnose.

 

 

If you look in your in your windows update history, are there any driver updates? Maybe it is updating some device that is causing problems?  You could try disabling windows defender or any other antivirus you have.

 

During game play what is the computer usage on the CPU, GPU, storage, and memory? Do you see any spikes or anything add normal when you get stutters? (If you have dual monitors or set one up temporary for testing this is very helpful to watch the system usage live as your playing.

 

 

[BradB111]

16 hours ago, Catsrules said:

If you look in your in your windows update history, are there any driver updates? Maybe it is updating some device that is causing problems?  You could try disabling windows defender or any other antivirus you have.

 

During game play what is the computer usage on the CPU, GPU, storage, and memory? Do you see any spikes or anything add normal when you get stutters? (If you have dual monitors or set one up temporary for testing this is very helpful to watch the system usage live as your playing.

 

 

Thank you very much for the suggestion.

 

There were some Driver updates, no significant changes removing these. Disabling Windows Defender (have no other AV) didn't make any difference also unfortunately.

 

Funny you should mention Hardware utilisation as this is something I was slightly concerned about ever since i got into PCs ~10 years ago but something I'd just accepted as being normal (low utilisation). I have a heavily modified (for my use) version of a hardware monitoring Rainmeter skin running on my other monitors so I can look during gameplay: https://www.deviantart.com/abu46/art/mii-system-skin-2-206965499

 

This uses Afterburner monitoring as the source for all info (unlike default which only uses Afterburner for some info) so is spot on in terms of accuracy. (Tested this against other monitoring software)

 

When playing most games the GPU utilisation looks fairly normal: fluctuation between ~60-100% depending on the scene etc.. (both in single GPU and SLI)

RAM utilisation is fine too, pretty much exactly what you'd expect.

However CPU utilisation is only at about ~20-40% in the majority of cases which I find very strange although I do know most games don't utilise all cores but I have every core broken out on my rainmeter skin and utilisation seems to be consistent across all cores. 

 

Due to the above I can only assume the GPU/s are the limiting factor.

 

The only games where this doesn't seem to be the case is GTAV which has a fairly high CPU utilisation (approx 60%) and CS:GO which is usually at 20% CPU and 40% GPU. 

 

It's like my system has more to give but the game isn't asking for it?

 

The twist on the whole thing however: this is the same when fps seems to be ok.

 

The only thing I've noticed recently is the GPU clocks will go down to 1100 MHz for no apparent reason during gameplay which seems to be the base clock.

They are the EVGA SC+: https://www.evga.com/products/specs/gpu.aspx?pn=3cdfab4c-0eab-44b7-8f32-2a6780a37c4b

This is down from my overclock to approx 1470 MHz or my usual day to day overclock of roughly 1350MHz (no point going for benchmark numbers with these dinosaur GPUs any more  )

 

I have looked into this previously and it seems to be throttling due to 'power limit' although it isn't even asking for its rated max and increasing power limit on afterburner to max doesn't change this.

 

Not 100% sure but I believe this may be the same during the times I'm getting a 'normal' fps also. I also think this can't be the cause of a 50+ fps drop as I didn't get +50fps after the overclock haha.

 

One thing I can rule out however is temperatures. everything is running at approx 60-70c under load:

Custom twin water cooling loops, x2 480 rads (45mm thick if I remember correctly) with Corsair SP120s