GTX 970 Low GPU Usage

[miyabwah]

So I'm playing Just Cause 2 and my GPU doesn't go over 75% GPU Usage. I do not think this is a bottleneck because I have a Core i5-4670K @ 4.5 GHz.. I haven't tried turning my CPU overclock off (didn't change anything) and my GPU isn't overclocked right now. I also played BattleField 4 and was getting worse performance than a GTX 760.

OS: Windows 7 64-bit

CPU :Intel® Core™ i5-4670K @ 4.5 GHz
Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-Z97X-GAMING 3
GPU : ‌‌‌‌‌‌GIGABYTE NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 G1 Gaming
RAM : Kingston 12 GB (3x4GB)
PSU : ‌‌‌‌‌‌Corsair CX 600M V2
HDD : ‌‌‌‌‌‌2x Kingston SSDNow V200 120GB, Seagate Barracuda 1TB, 500 GB WD Green
Case : ‌‌‌‌‌‌NZXT Source 220

I have the latest BIOS. (F5)

 

I recently installed another stick of RAM, so I will take that out and see if it changes anything.

[Guest Kloaked]

By "worse performance", what do you mean? Are you getting a low framerate?

[miyabwah]

By "worse performance", what do you mean? Are you getting a low framerate?

Yes, I was playing with one of my friends who had a GTX 760 and I was getting lower framerate than him.

[Gofspar]

Yes, I was playing with one of my friends who had a GTX 760 and I was getting lower framerate than him.

ayy lmao

 

It was in BF4 and Just Cause 2 btw. not sure because shitty games or if something is wrong with his GPU tho.

[Guest Kloaked]

Yes, I was playing with one of my friends who had a GTX 760 and I was getting lower framerate than him.

 

How long have you had the card? Is it just now doing this or has it been this way since you had it?

 

Did you try reinstalling drivers?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Yes, I was playing with one of my friends who had a GTX 760 and I was getting lower framerate than him.

What FPS are you getting? A lot of newer cards seem to hold back when they don't need to push any more frames. It either works, or they hold back when they're not meant to. 

[miyabwah]

How long have you had the card? Is it just now doing this or has it been this way since you had it?

 

Did you try reinstalling drivers?

It's only started doing this today, yesterday I was getting 200 FPS.

I tried installing driver 347.09, that driver is installed right now.

 

What FPS are you getting? A lot of newer cards seem to hold back when they don't need to push any more frames. It either works, or they hold back when they're not meant to.

In BF4 it was 100 FPS most of the time, sometimes dipping down to 40. In Just Cause 2 it was 60 FPS most of the time, V-Sync not enabled.

[Guest Kloaked]

It's only started doing this today, yesterday I was getting 200 FPS.

I tried installing driver 347.09, that driver is installed right now.

 

In BF4 it was 100 FPS most of the time, sometimes dipping down to 40. In Just Cause 2 it was 60 FPS most of the time, V-Sync not enabled.

 

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

I joke.

 

Go to your power management (Windows key, then type in Power Options) and make sure you're set to high performance or something similar.

[miyabwah]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

 

I joke.

 

Go to your power management (Windows key, then type in Power Options) and make sure you're set to high performance or something similar.

Power Settings were actually the first thing I changed when I installed Windows.

I also have my GPU set to "Prefer maximum performance" in power management.

 

I also noticed that when I'm idling and when I'm playing a game my GPU power usage stays the same... 53-54%...

[Guest Kloaked]

Yeah you should keep the Nvidia power management on Adaptive. It's just going to make the video card(s) eat up power without actually doing anything.

 

Try moving the video card to another PCIe slot and see what happens.

[miyabwah]

Yeah you should keep the Nvidia power management on Adaptive. It's just going to make the video card(s) eat up power without actually doing anything.

 

Try moving the video card to another PCIe slot and see what happens.

Changed the power management to adaptive, gained 10 more FPS....

 

Moved the card to a different slot, changed nothing.

[Guest Kloaked]

Changed the power management to adaptive, gained 10 more FPS....

 

Moved the card to a different slot, changed nothing.

 

Kk. Now we know it's not the motherboard (well it still could be, but I highly doubt it).

 

Do you have another GPU to test at all? Just wanna see if you could try another GPU in the system and see if that card will ramp up to 99/100% usage.

[miyabwah]

Kk. Now we know it's not the motherboard (well it still could be, but I highly doubt it).

 

Do you have another GPU to test at all? Just wanna see if you could try another GPU in the system and see if that card will ramp up to 99/100% usage.

After doing a benchmark in DiRT 3, I found that the GPU chokes itself once the situation becomes more CPU intensive. In the main menus where nothing happens, the GPU easily gets up to 99% and GPU power goes to 92%.

As you can see, GPU Usage and GPU Power drop when the race starts.

[Guest Kloaked]

After doing a benchmark in DiRT 3, I found that the GPU chokes itself once the situation becomes more CPU intensive. In the main menus where nothing happens, the GPU easily gets up to 99% and GPU power goes to 92%.

 

As you can see, GPU Usage and GPU Power drop when the race starts.

 

I think you got the lazy GPU out of the bin.

 

GPU: "Aahhh, this is too much work. 30fps is more cinematic anyways.."

 

 

But on a serious note, may have something to do with the CPU in that case, I would assume. I'd try lowering the overclock to 4.0 and see what happens.

[miyabwah]

I think you got the lazy GPU out of the bin.

 

GPU: "Aahhh, this is too much work. 30fps is more cinematic anyways.."

 

 

But on a serious note, may have something to do with the CPU in that case, I would assume. I'd try lowering the overclock to 4.0 and see what happens.

Ran the benchmark when my CPU was not overclocked, here is what I found.

CPU Usage is normal, never goes to 100%.

[Guest Kloaked]

Ran the benchmark when my CPU was not overclocked, here is what I found.

 

CPU Usage is normal, never goes to 100%.

 

Is that data from the game's benchmark? If not, run the game and see what your framerate is.

[miyabwah]

Is that data from the game's benchmark? If not, run the game and see what your framerate is.

Average framerate is 130 FPS, I can get 190 FPS in the menus..

[Guest Kloaked]

 

Average framerate is 130 FPS, I can get 190 FPS in the menus..

 

Wait, so what's the issue? I thought you were getting bad performance?

[miyabwah]

Wait, so what's the issue? I thought you were getting bad performance?

That was the performance in DiRT 3, a game relatively not CPU intensive compared to other games. Like previously stated, in Just Cause 2 I now average 60 FPS where I averaged 120 FPS yesterday...

[Guest Kloaked]

That was the performance in DiRT 3, a game relatively not CPU intensive compared to other games. Like previously stated, in Just Cause 2 I now average 60 FPS where I averaged 120 FPS yesterday...

 

Did you happen to enable V-Sync in the game options?

[miyabwah]

Did you happen to enable V-Sync in the game options?

No, V-Sync is not enabled. I can go above 60 FPS. Rarely, but I can go above 60 FPS.

[Guest Kloaked]

No, V-Sync is not enabled. I can go above 60 FPS. Rarely, but I can go above 60 FPS.

 

Hmm, that's weird, man. The only other thing I can think of is there might be a framerate limiter causing that, but you said it was working fine the other day and I'm assuming you haven't changed anything.

 

I'm out of ideas right now   ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[alicskysareblue]

Funny people are up in arms against the 3.5 gb limit THIS is what people should be angry about and be asking for refunds

 

I have the same unfortunate issue, apparently a lot of people do and the only way I have been able to clear it up temporarily is through reinstalling windows, something that I have no plans on doing again.

 

from what I can tell it is a driver issue, since in diagnostic mode Unigine valley will run over 166 fps, but on normal boot frame rates is cut to less them 60fps, btw the setting are on basic.

 

the best advice I can give you is  uninstall drivers and then try installing nothing but the nividia drivers, didnt help me but did for some....