Intermittent FPS drop/stuttering after CPU + MB upgrade

[The-Art-of-War]

Hi!

 

New to the forums, had to use my Gmail because my hotmail would never get any confirmation email, tried creating an account with that twice...

 

The problems:

 

After I upgraded my computer with another GPU (I had one before, now 2), a new CPU and a new motherboard, I've been getting annoying intermittent issues.

Basically, after the computer/game has been running for a while (anything from 20-70 mins), it will sometimes (it also sometimes work) drop hugely in FPS. This applies to all games, for example in Star Citizen (I know it's unoptimised but as the FPS was much higher to start with I'll include it) from 55-110 in hangar to 30-65, Vanduul Swarm from ca 50-65 to drops below 30-40.

 

The weird thing here is that it is basically always resolved by a reboot. If I have the problem in one game I can start up another and usually notice the issues there as well, game restart does not seem to help.

 

Less serious, but perhaps important information, is that I also have some crackling static in audio from time to time. It has happened to both headphones plugged into the motherboard and also using the monitor's built-in speakers and GPU as audio device, but if it happens it almost always happens to the monitor and not the headphones. This might be another issue, I don't know... Feels like since I disabled Crossfire this does not happen/less frequently.

 

Also sometimes certain flash videos will be "black" at the beginning of playback, you can see black oil-like colours and some contours for a little while (1-5 seconds) and then the video plays fine.

 

One odd thing that might not be related is (as I only have this on my most recent Win10 install), whenever I start MSI Afterburner, CPU-Z or HWMonitor (GPU-Z does not cause this) the computer will "freeze" for a second where you cannot move the mouse or do anything, and the audio will just be a high buzzing noise. Then the applications start fine though.. I was able to remove this in Afterburner by unticking the setting "Enable low-level IO driver". Seems that this does not make it a "kernel mode driver" service according to event logs, however GPU-Z still shows up as a kernel mode driver service but does not cause the issue. Tried different versions of HWMonitor and Afterburner, but I guess it could just be Windows 10 acting up.

 

Games I've tried (it basically applies to any game):

Star Citizen (as mentioned above)

Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance (things will generally just be slow)

CS: GO (here FPS drops from 250-300 to 120-200, but the main problem is stuttering)

Fallout 4 (this game's optimisation leaves a lot to wish for, but it generally plays smooth with 60FPS (VSync cap on), once this problem occurs it drops to 40-50 in the same areas)

Witcher 3 (from 45 in Novigrad to 35 on single GPU, from 70-80 to 40-50 on multiple GPUs, but with horrible stutter)

 

I would assume this problem has occurred in other games as well where I didn't notice it because the FPS is still decent, for example casual ones like Cities: Skylines.

 

The rig:

 

OS: Win10 Education x64 build 10586

Motherboard: MSi XPower Z97 AC

CPU: Intel i7 4790K

GPUs: 2x AMD R9 290X (one XFX and one Powercolor, both reference design)

DRAM: 16GB (2x8) Corsair DDR3 1600MHz 10-10-10-27

PSU: Corsair RM1000W  (with Corsair green sleeved cables)

SSD: 120GB Intel 520 Series

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 RPM

Case: NZXT Phantom 820

Cooling: Custom watercooling - EKWB CPU and GPU blocks, EKWB reservoir, bridge and coolant, Alphacool and XSPC radiators, AlphaCool repacked Laing D5 pump, EKWB pump top.

Fans - Corsair SP120 3x High Performance and 6x Quiet Edition, 2x BitFenix Spectre Pro LED 120, 1x NZXT 200mm case fan.

 

Software:

 

BIOS: 1.9

vBIOS: 015.039.000.006.003515

Newest MB (chipset, storage, network, audio etc) drivers from http://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/Z97-XPOWER-AC.html#down-driver&Win10 64

AMD Crimson 15.11.1

 

What I've tried that has not solved the problems:

 

Reinstalled OS (1 Win7, 1 upgrade to Win10, 1 clean install Win10)

Tried several different graphics drivers (both betas and normal)

Tried different MB BIOS

Flashed reference vBIOS to new XFX card (same vBIOS as the other one)

Disabled one GPU (the new one that I put in during the upgrade, the one I'm using now should work as it worked fine with another MB and CPU before the upgrade) using HW switch (no power)

Removed 8GB DRAM I had in that was running at another JEDEC freq (1333) but had XMP to 1600. This appears to remove some bluescreens I had before but not the above FPS problems

Updated all drivers after reinstallation

 

I'm thinking it must be the CPU or motherboard as those are the only 2 things that I upgraded (except for the additional GPU, but as stated above I've tested with only the "old" GPU that I know should work and I still have the same problem). I don't know which component is causing it, FPS drop sounds like CPU but audio problem sounds like MB. Flash videos not really sure, but would be CPU I guess.

 

I am not running any overclocks. Stock speeds and voltages on both GPU and CPU. Both CPU and GPU temps never go above 65C in normal cases (Prime95 and Intel Burn-in Test have gotten CPU above that) - the GPU is generally at 50-60C depending on the game and time I've been playing it, sometimes peaking at 65C.

 

Any suggestions of troubleshooting or tips greatly welcome!

 

Thanks!

[Matt420740]

What are GPU temps when the framerates drop?

[The-Art-of-War]

What are GPU temps when the framerates drop?

 

Hi and thanks for the reply!

 

I should have posted that temps are not an issue - both CPU and GPU never go above 65C in normal cases (Prime95 and Intel Burn-in Test have gotten CPU above that) - the GPU is generally at 50-60C depending on the game and time I've been playing it, sometimes peaking at 65C.

[Matt420740]

Run one of the problem games in windowed mode, and use the processes tab of task manager to watch for anything that could be starting in the background and eating resources when the FPS drops.   At the same time use something to monitor the clocks of the GPUs and CPU, maybe HWMonitor, and let us know if you see anything unusual with the clock speeds or usage when the problem occurs.

[The-Art-of-War]

Run one of the problem games in windowed mode, and use the processes tab of task manager to watch for anything that could be starting in the background and eating resources when the FPS drops.   At the same time use something to monitor the clocks of the GPUs and CPU, maybe HWMonitor, and let us know if you see anything unusual with the clock speeds or usage when the problem occurs.

Hi,

 

I'll try that. To clarify, though, I should say that by "FPS drop" I don't mean that the FPS drops for a second and then goes back up (perhaps badly phrased by me) - the FPS is simply constantly just lower than before (which can cause slowness/stuttering). It's like the computer can't handle the game as well as before until it's restarted, not just for a couple of seconds or so.

 

I'll get back with some more data!

[Matt420740]

Hi,

 

I'll try that. To clarify, though, I should say that by "FPS drop" I don't mean that the FPS drops for a second and then goes back up (perhaps badly phrased by me) - the FPS is simply constantly just lower than before (which can cause slowness/stuttering). It's like the computer can't handle the game as well as before until it's restarted, not just for a couple of seconds or so.

I knew what you meant    

 

Thats why I suspect some background process may be starting up and eating resources.