GPU Usage spiking to 0

[yaxhero1]

Lately, my GPU has been acting up lately and performs extremely abnormally for what it was suppose to. For reference, I've had this graphics card since 2016 and it was all okay till recently. After a hardware upgrade and couple software updates later, it starts to stutter and drop in frames every 2-3 minutes. The spiking is bad enough already but I had tried to look past it because after upgrading my motherboard, ram, and CPU, I wasn't trying to spend more since I was perfectly fine with my cooling solution and graphics card. The spiking progressively got worse where it would take a bit to come back to it's full utilization. What I mean by this is for example, in cs:go I can have frames going in the range of  300-390 but then suddenly drop to 2 then stay between 15-25, to 30, back to the full 300 frames. This isn't just with games as well, it's over my entire system. Simply moving a window or my cursor around will freeze for a couple seconds and then slingshot across the screen. I've recorded what happens in an MSI afterburner graph while I was running cs:go for reference. I'm also running the latest BIOS update on my motherboard and nvidia drvier update 451.85.

Thanks to anyone that tries to help!!!

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

after upgrading my motherboard, ram, and CPU,

did you do a fresh OS install?

[yaxhero1]

11 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

did you do a fresh OS install?

I've done a fresh windows install about 3 times now. Might be 4 I lost count, I apologize.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, yaxhero1 said:

I've done a fresh windows install about 3 times now. Might be 4 I lost count, I apologize.

try using DDU and re-install the GPU driver

[yaxhero1]

10 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

try using DDU and re-install the GPU driver

Alright I've cleaned installed the GPU drivers again, I'll go test it.

[yaxhero1]

28 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

try using DDU and re-install the GPU driver

Okay I finished up the test, It's more or less the same. I've also noticed similar spiking in another area called BUS usage, may or may not help out with the explanation here. (First image is the gpu usage and second image is BUS usage.)

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, yaxhero1 said:

Okay I finished up the test, It's more or less the same. I've also noticed similar spiking in another area called BUS usage, may or may not help out with the explanation here.

run a software called GPU-Z, bus interface should be pcie 3.0 x16 (or x8 minimum)

[yaxhero1]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

run a software called GPU-Z, link speed should be pcie 3.0 x16 (or x8 minimum)

Came up with this? It is as you said.

[Moonzy]

Just now, yaxhero1 said:

Came up with this? It is as you said.

when u said fresh install of windows, it's from a USB stick? or u used the built in formating thingy

[yaxhero1]

1 minute ago, Moonzy said:

when u said fresh install of windows, it's from a USB stick? or u used the built in formating thingy

Uhh the factory restore thing. From the recovery settings.

 

[Moonzy]

Just now, yaxhero1 said:

Uhh the factory restore thing. From the recovery settings.

oh, that's not good

do the USB stick method using the windows media creation tool

here's a video on how to do it (roughly)

Spoiler

 

 

[yaxhero1]

Just now, Moonzy said:

oh, that's not good

do the USB stick method using the windows media creation tool

here's a video on how to do it (roughly)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Alrriigghttyyyyy that'll take a day or two lol. I'll get back to you soon though!

[yaxhero1]

5 hours ago, Moonzy said:

oh, that's not good

do the USB stick method using the windows media creation tool

here's a video on how to do it (roughly)

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Alright finished checking that. Did not work mate.

[Moonzy]

4 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

Alright finished checking that. Did not work mate.

can u list down your:

 

CPU:

RAM: (check speed in task manager)

Motherboard:

GPU: 980Ti (what model)

PSU:

SSD:

HDD:

 

did this happen exactly when you upgraded?

[yaxhero1]

2 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

can u list down your:

 

CPU:

RAM: (check speed in task manager)

Motherboard:

GPU: 980Ti (what model)

PSU:

SSD:

HDD:

 

did this happen exactly when you upgraded?

CPU: Ryzen 3900x
RAM: Trident Z Royale 3200mhz
Motherboard: Asus strix b-450 F
GPU: 980ti msi
PSU: 850W Thermaltake TPG - 80 PLUS Gold
SSD: Inland NVME 1TB
HDD: 2TB western digital

It happened a little while after the upgrade. A Nvidia driver update came out and it just happened once or twice now and then but then it slowly descended into multiple spikes 2-3 minutes. Thank you for all your help so far btw!!

[Moonzy]

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

CPU: Ryzen 3900x

how are the load temps?

any OC?

 

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

RAM: Trident Z Royale 3200mhz

2x8gb?

is task manager reporting it running at 3200MHz?

how full is your ram when operating?

which slot is the RAM in?

 

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

GPU: 980ti msi

temp under load?

 

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

SSD: Inland NVME 1TB
HDD: 2TB western digital

how full are these?

all games are on the SSD?

 

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

A Nvidia driver update came out and it just happened once or twice now and then but then it slowly descended into multiple spikes 2-3 minutes.

hmm... sounds like:

1) newer driver causing issues

2) your storage is having issues

 

shouldnt be bloatware issues if you done the USB fresh windows install

or bad driver install if you used DDU and re-installed the driver

 

5 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

Thank you for all your help so far btw!!

you're welcome, hoping to get this fixed

[yaxhero1]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

how are the load temps?

any OC?

 

2x8gb?

is task manager reporting it running at 3200MHz?

how full is your ram when operating?

which slot is the RAM in?

 

temp under load?

 

how full are these?

all games are on the SSD?

 

hmm... sounds like:

1) newer driver causing issues

2) your storage is having issues

 

shouldnt be bloatware issues if you done the USB fresh windows install

or bad driver install if you used DDU and re-installed the driver

 

you're welcome, hoping to get this fixed

2x16gb and it is running at 3200mhz
 

CPU is average 60-70 temps at load same with gpu

the CPU is also OC'ed I think? it use to be 3.7ghz before I made the ram mhz go from 2666mhz to 3200mhz

all storage is pretty open with over half storage unusued

so you can see why I'm pretty confused. I had nvidia driver 451.65 at first and this was happening but then they came out with a hotfix 451.85 and they specifically said there that the addressed the issue I was having. I've added a screenshot of it here. It did help but slightly.

 

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

2x16gb and it is running at 3200mhz

hmm... you're running dual rank in dual channel

might've strained your IMC a bit, im not too sure if zen 2 can handle 3200MHz in dual rank, it should (as it's officially supported up to 3200)

but try switching the speed to 3000, FCLK to 1500 to remain on 1:1 ratio

keep the XMP timing for now, see if it solves your issue

 

also make sure they're on slot 2 and 4 from the left

6 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

so you can see why I'm pretty confused. I had nvidia driver 451.65 at first and this was happening but then they came out with a hotfix 451.85 and they specifically said there that the addressed the issue I was having. I've added a screenshot of it here. It did help but slightly.

if RAM doesnt solve your issue, try DDU-ing this gpu driver and revert back to something older, like, 3 months ago maybe

[Moonzy]

6 minutes ago, yaxhero1 said:

2x16gb and it is running at 3200mhz

make sure they're on slot 2 and 4 from the left, btw

[yaxhero1]

6 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

make sure they're on slot 2 and 4 from the left, btw

yup they're on it. And i'll try that gpu ddu thing

 

[Moonzy]

Just now, yaxhero1 said:

yup they're on it. And i'll try that gpu ddu thing

if these doesnt work, time to check for system stability with stress tests

[yaxhero1]

18 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

if these doesnt work, time to check for system stability with stress tests

Alright good news and bad news. It's back to suttering every now and then when going backwards in drivers. But it still happens. I can live with this but I think my gpu might be bad.

[Moonzy]

1 minute ago, yaxhero1 said:

Alright good news and bad news. It's back to suttering every now and then when going backwards in drivers. But it still happens. I can live with this but I think my gpu might be bad.

yea possibly

weird though, that it doesnt just outright die

or produce artifacts

[Moonzy]

you could try running memtest86 to stress test your ram

cinebench R20 to stress test your CPU (3900x should score around 6.8k-7.2k)

unigine heaven to stress test the gpu

[yaxhero1]

4 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

you could try running memtest86 to stress test your ram

cinebench R20 to stress test your CPU (3900x should score around 6.8k-7.2k)

unigine heaven to stress test the gpu

alright Ill try that soon. Thanks for literally all the help you've been so great!!!