Gtx 960 issues?

[Douglas Wicker]

Hi there.

I wonder if someone could help me? I have recently built a mid-range rig and just last week installed my last part which was the Asus strix gtx 960. It installed fine with all the necessary drivers and such and I got surprisingly good performance, I was able to boost nearly everything to ultra on bf4 with 150% scaling and no msaa with an average of around 55-60 fps. However about a week later I turned on my computer and now all I get is 25-30?

I don't understand how this has happened? I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, nvidia software and bf4 but I haven't observed any change. I haven't over clocked the card yet because I wanted to see if I could get by without and I'm a bit scepticle now if the issue is to do with the card? The only thing I can think of that had changed before the performance drop was a windows update but nothing in the update made me think that this was the cause?

Any thoughts, suggestions or solutions would be really appreciated! Thank you guys

Doug

[samcool55]

Did something maybe turned on V-sync in bf4?

Also, try other games to be sure if it's your pc, or just the game.

What you also could do is install msi afterburner and check if the gpu core goes to full speed under load. Or maybe thermal throttles, or something else not normal...

[CODELEAKER]

well,Ah,This might be a memory leak in your game.

[Douglas Wicker]

Did something maybe turned on V-sync in bf4?

Also, try other games to be sure if it's your pc, or just the game.

What you also could do is install msi afterburner and check if the gpu core goes to full speed under load. Or maybe thermal throttles, or something else not normal...

I was using v-sync to start with because of the poor TV I'm using as a monitor at the moment. The other games seem to run well but they aren't as GPU heavy (TF2, Warthunder and NectCarGame) but the issue could be the same here its just not noticeable because they are easy to run and I don't know what fps they were running at before afterburners a good shout though! Asus GPU tweak isn't very helpful! I'll give that a go. Thank you

[Douglas Wicker]

well,Ah,This might be a memory leak in your game.

Sorry what do you mean by memory leak in this case? Thank you

[CODELEAKER]

Sorry what do you mean by memory leak in this case? Thank you

I dont really know what it is,but in the game sometimes,it will use up like i think all your vram and makes you have lower fps. So i suggest you to go to Orgin and repair game and see how it goes.

[Douglas Wicker]

I dont really know what it is,but in the game sometimes,it will use up like i think all your vram and makes you have lower fps. So i suggest you to go to Orgin and repair game and see how it goes.

Tried that and no change

[Douglas Wicker]

Did something maybe turned on V-sync in bf4?

Also, try other games to be sure if it's your pc, or just the game.

What you also could do is install msi afterburner and check if the gpu core goes to full speed under load. Or maybe thermal throttles, or something else not normal...

During bf4 on the same settings I had before, I'm getting an average of around 60% GPU usage at 55C with around 20fps. Really confused! I've emailed Asus to see if they can help, otherwise I might just ask for a refund and maybe get an r9 290 or a gtx 970 next month.

[Douglas Wicker]

Did something maybe turned on V-sync in bf4?

Also, try other games to be sure if it's your pc, or just the game.

What you also could do is install msi afterburner and check if the gpu core goes to full speed under load. Or maybe thermal throttles, or something else not normal...

During bf4 on the same settings I had before, I'm getting an average of around 60% GPU usage at 55C with around 20fps. Really confused! I've emailed Asus to see if they can help, otherwise I might just ask for a refund and maybe get an r9 290 or a gtx 970 next month.

[samcool55]

During bf4 on the same settings I had before, I'm getting an average of around 60% GPU usage at 55C with around 20fps. Really confused! I've emailed Asus to see if they can help, otherwise I might just ask for a refund and maybe get an r9 290 or a gtx 970 next month.

That's not great. Next thing: cpu, Install coretemp and check if the cpu goes up to it's full speed and it's not pinned at 100%

Also, just disable vsync if you haven't done that. With bf4 you don't need it enabled.

[Douglas Wicker]

That's not great. Next thing: cpu, Install coretemp and check if the cpu goes up to it's full speed and it's not pinned at 100%

Also, just disable vsync if you haven't done that. With bf4 you don't need it enabled.

Okay so core temps are hovering around 33c-35c with about 85% load. This is an i5 4690k with the stock cooler that is not over clocked yet. The VID and FB on GPU tweak are very low. Vid 5% and FB 40%. Is that normal??

[samcool55]

Okay so core temps are hovering around 33c-35c with about 85% load. This is an i5 4690k with the stock cooler that is not over clocked yet. The VID and FB on GPU tweak are very low. Vid 5% and FB 40%. Is that normal??

I think there's something wrong here, it's sounds a bit too good to be true, 33-35°C is is very very cold for a cpu that's on 85% load. Especially becasuse it's on a stock cooler. Also i'm not sure if the vid and fb are good, don't really trust gpu tweak tbh...

 

It's maybe a good idea to install cpu-z and post the core speed during gaming. 

[Douglas Wicker]

I think there's something wrong here, it's sounds a bit too good to be true, 33-35°C is is very very cold for a cpu that's on 85% load. Especially becasuse it's on a stock cooler. Also i'm not sure if the vid and fb are good, don't really trust gpu tweak tbh...

 

It's maybe a good idea to install cpu-z and post the core speed during gaming.

I thought that to. I'll install CPU-Z and give that a go. Thanks for your help, appreciate it. I'll do the test later on and let you know how it goes.

Cheers again

[Douglas Wicker]

I think there's something wrong here, it's sounds a bit too good to be true, 33-35°C is is very very cold for a cpu that's on 85% load. Especially becasuse it's on a stock cooler. Also i'm not sure if the vid and fb are good, don't really trust gpu tweak tbh...

It's maybe a good idea to install cpu-z and post the core speed during gaming.

Installed cpu-z had a test and noticed a few things. Firstly, however low I put the graphics on bf4 (even with 50% resolution scaling) the frame rate only goes as high as about 45 which is really weird. Also the PC kept on freezing whilst alt-tabbing between the performance software and finally I didn't see my cpu clock speed go any higher than 800 MHz and with the same temperatures... So this is the issue?

[samcool55]

Well the cpu is then indeed the issue. To solve it, well that might become a big challenge, but hopefully it won't.

 

Have you updated the firmware if your motherboard to the latest version? If you haven't, or don't know what that is. No problem, post what motherboard you have and it will be alright.

[Douglas Wicker]

Well the cpu is then indeed the issue. To solve it, well that might become a big challenge, but hopefully it won't.

Have you updated the firmware if your motherboard to the latest version? If you haven't, or don't know what that is. No problem, post what motherboard you have and it will be alright.

Yeah reading around and some people are saying it was bent pins I don't think that's possible though if it was working in the first place? It's an MSI z97s ski krait edition BIOS v10.1 I think. Maybe it was the windows update? I haven't done a BIOS update yet...

[Douglas Wicker]

Well the cpu is then indeed the issue. To solve it, well that might become a big challenge, but hopefully it won't.

Have you updated the firmware if your motherboard to the latest version? If you haven't, or don't know what that is. No problem, post what motherboard you have and it will be alright.

I've updated the bios to the latest 10.3. Still no change, CPU z says 800mhz with 8x multiplier...

[samcool55]

I've updated the bios to the latest 10.3. Still no change, CPU z says 800mhz with 8x multiplier...

 

I'm not very familiar with msi bios' but try to change in the overclock part of it the multiplier to 35. That's it's stock speed so it should be fine.

[Douglas Wicker]

I'm not very familiar with msi bios' but try to change in the overclock part of it the multiplier to 35. That's it's stock speed so it should be fine.

I switched to fixed mode set the CPU ratio to 35 and the ring ratio to 35 and all seems to be running at 3500 MHz again! Although it seems to be running at full 3500 MHz all the time. Is that normal?? Although task manager says the utilisation is 1% idle and the temps are around 28c so I guess that's okay

[Douglas Wicker]

I'm not very familiar with msi bios' but try to change in the overclock part of it the multiplier to 35. That's it's stock speed so it should be fine.

I'm really sorry and I hate to be that guy but something weird is happening after putting the multiplier to 35 so it runs at 3.5ghz when playing bf4 at the settings I had before (almost all ultra, no msaa and 150% resolution scale), I'm getting nearly 130fps with high pitch noises which I can't imagine is good for a gtx 960!? That performance is unheard of!? Mate I am the bane of your life and you are my hero, sorry about unloading all this on you! GPU usage sticks at 99%, clock speed max's out and temps rise to about 60c then I chicken out and close the game.

[samcool55]

I'm really sorry and I hate to be that guy but something weird is happening after putting the multiplier to 35 so it runs at 3.5ghz when playing bf4 at the settings I had before (almost all ultra, no msaa and 150% resolution scale), I'm getting nearly 100fps with high pitch noises which I can't imagine is good for a gtx 960!? That performance is unheard of!? Mate I am the bane of your life and you are my hero, sorry about unloading all this on you!

lol no problem, that whining you hear is called coil whine, it's harmless. So no worries it's all good, it's just annoying to hear. But that's it. The reason you hear is because your gpu is under a very heavy load, which is normal of course because you are gaming. If you want to stop the whining, best option is to turn on vsync. But unless it's really really bad, msi (and every other manufacturer) won't fix it and you will have to live with it, like a lot of other people, including me. It's an issue that's more of a plague than anything else for the last years and there's nothing you can do about it, well there is 1 thing, you can glue the coils so they stop whining, because the whining is actually some coils vibrating at a very high frequency, and glue stops them from vibrating. But please, don't do that... Ruins the warranty.

 

edit: the cpu is now "locked" at 3.5ghz, this will cause a bit more power useage, but tbh i won't be bothered about it. I would leave it like it is, it works now and tbh that's the most important thing