GTX 970 Usage problem

[no_clntrol]

Got a GTX 970 earlier this week and haven't recieved the rest of my upgrades yet. Atm I am using it with an AMD FX 4100 and a 500w AXP500P12P PSU. I was playing all games fine yesterday, GPU working at about 60% with stock speeds. The games I played were Bioshock Infinite, Heroes And Generals and Zombie Army Trilogy. After the intro all the values skyrocket and my computer shuts down (Due to the PSU I guess). Any ideas why this is happening? 

Values from monitoring software:

http://puu.sh/lLs1M/5e5ff58c6e.png

http://puu.sh/lLvbF/1c09a298d0.png (Launching a game) 

 

[Fluxx]

That PSU looks terrible, I would recommend you stop play games on it until you get a new psu. A 970 doesn't use that much power so I can tell you for certain that if it is the PSU then it's probably on its last legs because 500w should be more then enough.

[jimakos234]

your cpu is bottlenecking the gpu. even a fx 63xx/83xx can sometimes bottleneck a 970, but the fx 4xxx series are way less powerfull

Also the psu is pure garbage, change it

[no_clntrol]

That PSU looks terrible, I would recommend you stop play games on it until you get a new psu. A 970 doesn't use that much power so I can tell you for certain that if it is the PSU then it's probably on its last legs because 500w should be more then enough.

Produced back in 2007 I believe, and I've been using it for 2 years. But it still doesn't explain the GPU usage going up to 100% on the main menu? This happened the first time I played a game on it, and I have no clue how it was fixed

[no_clntrol]

your cpu is bottlenecking the gpu. even a fx 63xx/83xx can sometimes bottleneck a 970, but the fx 4xxx series are way less powerfull

Also the psu is pure garbage, change it

That was not a part of the question, and I also stated that I will be solving that. And the "bottleneck" everyone is so afraid of isn't really that terrible when you're used to be playing on a Radeon HD7750.

I have an EVGA G2 650w coming anytime soon, but could the PSU really be the explanation to the weird values? 

[Fluxx]

Produced back in 2007 I believe, and I've been using it for 2 years. But it still doesn't explain the GPU usage going up to 100% on the main menu? This happened the first time I played a game on it, and I have no clue how it was fixed

Some games do that, not sure why. Try turning on V-Sync if you haven't already. 

[manikyath]

That was not a part of the question, and I also stated that I will be solving that. And the "bottleneck" everyone is so afraid of isn't really that terrible when you're used to be playing on a Radeon HD7750.

I have an EVGA G2 650w coming anytime soon, but could the PSU really be the explanation to the weird values? 

actually, if you're playing games that arent that cpu demanding, you may actually not bottleneck *that* hard...

[no_clntrol]

Some games do that, not sure why. Try turning on V-Sync if you haven't already. 

These games ran all fine with 60-70% GPU usage until today, now anything after the intro makes everything go to 100%. What does OV, Voltage limit and Power limit stand for in MSI Afterburner? Current values are 0 and the in-game values are all 1.

[no_clntrol]

actually, if you're playing games that arent that cpu demanding, you may actually not bottleneck *that* hard...

Only games I've really been trobuled with are BF and Arma, so far. Assassin's Creed isn't too gentle with it either, but it works out OK imo.

[Fluxx]

These games ran all fine with 60-70% GPU usage until today, now anything after the intro makes everything go to 100%. What does OV, Voltage limit and Power limit stand for in MSI Afterburner? Current values are 0 and the in-game values are all 1.

Did you overclock the card?

[no_clntrol]

Did you overclock the card?

No, all clocks are stock, CPU and GPU

[Fluxx]

No, all clocks are stock, CPU and GPU

Well usually if the OV, Voltage limit and Power limit are all that 1, that means that they're maxed out. Which it shouldn't be since my card even when overclocked goes no where near the power limit. I will check to see if my card does this.

[jimakos234]

That was not a part of the question, and I also stated that I will be solving that. And the "bottleneck" everyone is so afraid of isn't really that terrible when you're used to be playing on a Radeon HD7750.

I have an EVGA G2 650w coming anytime soon, but could the PSU really be the explanation to the weird values? 

it could be the psu, if it is about to die, or it cant handle the power draw because of its build quality. dont worry tho, if it is a psu related issue, you will solve it when the g2 arrives and you use it

[no_clntrol]

Well usually if the OV, Voltage limit and Power limit are all that 1, that means that they're maxed out. Which it shouldn't be since my card even when overclocked goes no where near the power limit. I will check to see if my card does this.

Please check GPU usage in menus as well while you're at it

[no_clntrol]

it could be the psu, if it is about to die, or it cant handle the power draw because of its build quality. dont worry tho, if it is a psu related issue, you will solve it when the g2 arrives and you use it

I really hope that it is PSU related and not a dying card, but I don't know the symptoms of any of them haha. Yeah, it's gonna be great!

[Fluxx]

I really hope that it is PSU related and not a dying card, but I don't know the symptoms of any of them haha. Yeah, it's gonna be great!

Actually my card does it too, but only for the OV and Voltage Limit, the Power Limit stays at 0 but it do have my power limit set all the way up because of my overclock. I also get around 50% max GPU usage during launching and sitting on the menus, which would be around 60% usage on a stock card.

 

Depends on the game though some use very little and some usage a lot, you could try turning the power limit up but I doubt that's the problem.

[no_clntrol]

Actually my card does it too, but only for the OV and Voltage Limit, the Power Limit stays at 0 but it do have my power limit set all the way up because of my overclock. I also get around 50% max GPU usage during launching and sitting on the menus, which would be around 60% usage on a stock card.

 

Depends on the game though some use very little and some usage a lot, you could try turning the power limit up but I doubt that's the problem.

Is there no way to limit the usage of the GPU somehow? Or set the power limit to lower than 100%, because I do not need, nor want it to run that high.

[Fluxx]

Is there no way to limit the usage of the GPU somehow? Or set the power limit to lower than 100%, because I do not need, nor want it to run that high.

You can turn down the power limit in Afterburner, not sure if it works though.

[no_clntrol]

You can turn down the power limit in Afterburner, not sure if it works though.

Core voltage is already at it's lowest and I can't find anything about power limit.. this kinda sucked lol.

[Fluxx]

Core voltage is already at it's lowest and I can't find anything about power limit.. this kinda sucked lol.

[no_clntrol]

Found it now, the skin I was using didn't have it on there haha. So I tested again to see if the issue was still there or if it was "gone". Bioshock Infinite ran fine, surprisingly. Average was around 50-60% usage and it spiked up to like 72-73% at some points. But as soon as I start Zombie Army Trilogy, which worked fine yesterday, all values skyrocket. The only difference I can think of is Vsync, but that was disabled yesterday as well

Bioshock: http://puu.sh/lLAO2/70d2915025.png

ZAT: http://puu.sh/lLAYg/88ca08ff91.png

[Fluxx]

Found it now, the skin I was using didn't have it on there haha. So I tested again to see if the issue was still there or if it was "gone". Bioshock Infinite ran fine, surprisingly. Average was around 50-60% usage and it spiked up to like 72-73% at some points. But as soon as I start Zombie Army Trilogy, which worked fine yesterday, all values skyrocket. The only difference I can think of is Vsync, but that was disabled yesterday as well

Bioshock: http://puu.sh/lLAO2/70d2915025.png

ZAT: http://puu.sh/lLAYg/88ca08ff91.png

You will have to test with a new power supply to be sure, I doubt it's the card causing the issues and even if the values do skyrocket it shouldn't be switching off. 

[no_clntrol]

You can turn down the power limit in Afterburner, not sure if it works though.

Believe it or not, Vsync solved my problem! Without Vsync: http://puu.sh/lLAYg/88ca08ff91.png With Vsync: http://puu.sh/lLBGj/1c80d7f562.png

I still don't really understand how, since it ran fine without the FPS barrier yesterday. But oh well, at least it's working now!

[Fluxx]

Believe it or not, Vsync solved my problem! Without Vsync: http://puu.sh/lLAYg/88ca08ff91.png With Vsync: http://puu.sh/lLBGj/1c80d7f562.png

I still don't really understand how, since it ran fine without the FPS barrier yesterday. But oh well, at least it's working now!

I'm guessing the power supply isn't supplying enough power to run the card at 100% usage, V-Sync just limits the frame rate which keeps the usage down. Some games don't have fps caps on the loading and menu screens which cause the framerate to go to like 2000 fps and cause high CPU and GPU usage.

[no_clntrol]

I'm guessing the power supply isn't supplying enough power to run the card at 100% usage, V-Sync just limits the frame rate which keeps the usage down. Some games don't have fps caps on the loading and menu screens which cause the framerate to go to like 2000 fps and cause high CPU and GPU usage.

Yeah that's my thought as well. But now I am back, running at 50-60% with 70% spikes, like I wanted to. Weird thing is that I played without Vsync yesterday without any issues (150FPS+ in game and 300FPS+ on some cutscenes). But whatever, it is solved for now! Thanks for helping me adress the issue and what not!