Help understanding V-Sync and frame drops

[LtZvesda]

I will start this off by mentioning my build specs

CPU-Ryzen 5 3400G

GPU- GTX 980

Ram-16gb 3400mhz 

Motherboard-B450 Tomahawk Max

 

Now my issue is that when i use vsync it is never a stable 60fps, I have a free sync monitor. I will consistently have drops under 60 with my GPU never over even 50% in games like Mech Warrior, Battletech, Shogun 2, and Wargame Red Dragon as an example. 

 

When i turn V-sync off i dont see much of a difference, My GPU will still never go over 80-100fps with my PC not struggling at all. Is there certain settings i need to change in nvidia control panel? or disable free sync? Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Ringtail Jax]

Something seems off, is your gpu load at a near 100 percent when vsync on? What are you using to measure your system performance statistics?

[Ringtail Jax]

*vsync off

 

[LtZvesda]

With V-Sync off my GPU load still never goes above 50-60%, like in Battlefront 2 for example. im using taskmanager/Open hardware monitor btw

[.Apex.]

9 minutes ago, LtZvesda said:

I will start this off by mentioning my build specs

CPU-Ryzen 5 3400G

GPU- GTX 980

Ram-16gb 3400mhz 

Motherboard-B450 Tomahawk Max

 

Now my issue is that when i use vsync it is never a stable 60fps, I have a free sync monitor. I will consistently have drops under 60 with my GPU never over even 50% in games like Mech Warrior, Battletech, Shogun 2, and Wargame Red Dragon as an example. 

Do you have Single Channel memory? and how are you checking your GPU usage? it's also possible that those games are not properly multithreaded (or optimized at all) and therefor there is a CPU bottleneck involved.

[LtZvesda]

I'm using dual channel. I'm checking GPU usage with Taskmanager/Open Hardware Monitor

[.Apex.]

1 minute ago, LtZvesda said:

I'm using dual channel. I'm checking GPU usage with Taskmanager/Open Hardware Monitor

You mean Resource Monitor? either way Task Manager is highly unreliable in terms of performance metrics for GPU especially, as well as CPU so I wouldn't trust it, try using HWiNFO instead with "Sensors-only" toggled on.

https://www.hwinfo.com/download/

[Ringtail Jax]

Try downloading a third party program like msi afterburner or evga precision and check your statistics again. Enable the overlay, If the graphs still show under utilization then you're likely to be running into either a thermal, power or bandwidth limitation. With msi afterburner you can see if the gpu thermals are within reason. It will also show you your cpu's utilization. If your cpu is running too hot it could be pinned and underclocking to prevent damage. There are still a lot of veriables. Start with the basics and look at the visual statistics.

[LtZvesda]

4 minutes ago, 178Jax said:

Try downloading a third party program like msi afterburner or evga precision and check your statistics again. Enable the overlay, If the graphs still show under utilization then you're likely to be running into either a thermal, power or bandwidth limitation. With msi afterburner you can see if the gpu thermals are within reason. It will also show you your cpu's utilization. If your cpu is running too hot it could be pinned and underclocking to prevent damage. There are still a lot of veriables. Start with the basics and look at the visual statistics.

Ok ill do some tests with the HW info, but i do know im having no thermal issues, my CPU and GPU havent gone over 65c. my 980 is also overclocked using MSI afterburner as well. Im thinking its a Free sync issue but i dont know, not sure how to disable that with my monitor either

[Ringtail Jax]

You didnt mention your gpu being overclocked, what power supply are you running? Have you tried removing your self overclock and seeing if your gpu runs at near 100 percent utilization?

[LtZvesda]

I have a Thermaltake Smart 600w. And yes i have, nothing changes, Its just a 150mhz core clock boost. Im just not sure as a whole because my friend who plays the same games with a 1070 can play them 144hz 144fps no problem with a Ryzen 5 3600. Which is why i think its my monitor, i still have my APUs drivers installed as well

[Ringtail Jax]

So i have some possible theories but nothing concrete, my guess is a power limit restriction, that psu was released around 2014, degradation is a factor with psus. The 980 power requirements is a 500 watt psu. You have a 600 watt but only with the base 80 plus cert. that means at minimum it will run at 80 percent of it's rated load when maxed.

 

Imo thermaltake does NOT have the best reputation when it comes to psu's, would bite the bullet and get a new psu but that is my IMO....

[LtZvesda]

Does it matter that i got it brand new? And i never had an issue when running benchmarks, firestrike userbenchmark etc had no problem using my CPU/GPU at 100%

 

It's just a weird issue, Do you think it could be my monitor? Its an HP 24F with Freesync but i have no option to turn that off in the monitor settings. 

[Ringtail Jax]

Technically yes technically no, all technology degrades overtime, the use of it only speeds this factor up quicker. My experience would tell me that no your monitor is not the issue. If firestrike and other benchmarks are showing near perfect utilization then it sounds like it could be a driver optimization issue. Try doing a clean wipe of those apu and gpu drivers with ddu uninstaller and install some fresh drivers from nvidia and amd. Also keep the overclock off so you have a baseline. The more variables there are the more there is to test. Once the issue is resolved you can put back your overclock and see if it holds. Were looking for a full 100 percent gpu utilization WITHOUT vsync.

[Ringtail Jax]

Push comes to shove, if the monitor is a factor, plug the system into a tv or another non freesync enabled monitor for testing purposes.

[LtZvesda]

I found the issue! In GPU-Z Apparently my PCI is only running at x8 3.0

[Ringtail Jax]

Hmmm, that shouldn't be a limitation for a 980 but hey if it is it's a new one for me XD Do you have your gpu in the first pcie slot?

[LtZvesda]

I do have it in the first slot yeah, And turns out that didn't do anything yeah lol. I think im just going to leave it be, I don't have the money to upgrade it or anything and this is an odd issue so ill just buy a new PC in a year or two it shouldn't have any issues(hopefully lol) 

[Ringtail Jax]

sounds good to me *thumbs up*