PC not as fast as it should be (maybe)

[MZ Farhad]

Hi guys

Basically I Feel that my pc is really under performing.

My specs are:

4790k at stock sepeds

G1 Gaming  GTX 970 at stock

asus z97-c

8GB hyperx black 1600 mhz 

corsiar ax860i 

im runing everything of a 1tb wd green.

I did benchmark on valley, and these were the results.

 

(performance during benchmark)

I also ran the benchmark tool in shadow of moror

it was at 1080p but everything was at the lowest my average was only 59, and mins were 33.92

compared to other reviews that I saw the mins were over 60 on much higher settings

Its the same with other games in arkham origins i barely get above 40, and its incredibly choppy, even on lowest settings

I know there is a bottleneck somewhere, but nothing is thermal throttling, and 8 gigs of ram isn't a lot, but the ram usage that much because I don't have anything else open, and task manager isnt showing that im using more than 6.

I noticed in valley that there were massive frame drops when the scenes changed, so would i benefit from an ssd.

What eles can i do to diagnose this problem, or is there a problem, and are these results to be expected.

thanks in advanced

[McHox]

i have a similar but slightly better system and get more than twice the amount of points

4790k @4,7ghz

h110i gtx

evga 970 ftw @stock for this benchmark

500gb evo ssd

asus z97 pro gamer 

corsair veangence pro 2400mhz

 

edit: what were the clock speeds during the benchmark?

[Coaxialgamer]

the only thing that might be an issue is the hdd if you are limited by it . This is highly unlikely however.

 

Are you sure all cpu cores are activated ?

[SaladFingers]

What's your screen's refresh rate?

 

Unigine's benchmarks are notorious for giving a borked result because it caps at your screen's hertz. For example running a test with the very same hardware on a 60hz screen and then a 144hz screen, the 144hz will get a far better score because it accounts for the spikes and the parts that your GPU will perform good (e.g 100+ fps).

 

From what I see, your max fps is 60, so I'm leaning towards you having a 60hz screen. If so, then there's no problem, just unigine not being very reliable.

[Marziman]

 

Don't take my word for it but it may be that you're running everything at stock speeds.  I doubt it's a thermal throttle too.

[LNW]

My specs are below, and I believe I achieved just over 3k? Definitely not right.

 

How's your temps? Is your cpu cooler on correctly?

[TidaLWaveZ]

I can tell you two things for sure: those are lower than normal scores and you should definitely get an SSD.

 

The bad news is that although an SSD will improve your overall performance, it is not a guarantee that it will fix your lower than normal scores.  I have both SSD's and HDD's in my setup and which drive I run the games off of doesn't really seem to impact performance.  That being said, your HDD is not the same as the one I have so I can't be sure that it doesn't have any issues itself.  Maybe it's getting worn down, maybe it's low RPM, maybe something else.  Even if an SSD doesn't fix the problem, it is still a worthwhile investment.

[SaladFingers]

guys, the SSD has nothing to do with this benchmark's performance..

[TymmVonD]

Weird, but probably is the Green HDD. Def the biggest bottleneck I see. That''s a slow drive. Any PC in 2016 should have an SSD. Even if it's only an OS drive.

[TymmVonD]

guys, the SSD has nothing to do with this benchmark's performance..

Could be a virus/maleware, nvidia control panel settings jacked, or too many rusty spoons. I like when the red water comes out.

[SaladFingers]

Could be a virus/maleware, nvidia control panel settings jacked, or too many rusty spoons. I like when the red water comes out.

 

Well, me too! Haha....

 

Yeah could be a number of reasons, but they all seem highly unlikely. Only some kind of worm could possibly hit the graphics performance so bad and worms are a little... outdated nowadays. Not impossible though. The HDD definitely cannot impact the graphics performance as much, if any at all.

 

I have had that exact issue while moving between different refresh rates on the same hardware, this looks very similar to what I saw at the time. 

[MZ Farhad]

i have a similar but slightly better system and get more than twice the amount of points

4790k @4,7ghz

h110i gtx

evga 970 ftw @stock for this benchmark

500gb evo ssd

asus z97 pro gamer 

corsair veangence pro 2400mhz

 

edit: what were the clock speeds during the benchmark?

My gpu was at 1367

[MZ Farhad]

the only thing that might be an issue is the hdd if you are limited by it . This is highly unlikely however.

 

Are you sure all cpu cores are activated ?

yes, all 4 were activated with hyperthreading

[MZ Farhad]

What's your screen's refresh rate?

 

Unigine's benchmarks are notorious for giving a borked result because it caps at your screen's hertz. For example running a test with the very same hardware on a 60hz screen and then a 144hz screen, the 144hz will get a far better score because it accounts for the spikes and the parts that your GPU will perform good (e.g 100+ fps).

 

From what I see, your max fps is 60, so I'm leaning towards you having a 60hz screen. If so, then there's no problem, just unigine not being very reliable.

yes it is a 60hz panel, And im ok with it not going over 60, its the low mins that annoy me

[MZ Farhad]

My specs are below, and I believe I achieved just over 3k? Definitely not right.

 

How's your temps? Is your cpu cooler on correctly?

yep my cooler is on correctly, and i changed the thermal paste as well.

temps aren't very high and nothing is thermal throttling

[SaladFingers]

yes it is a 60hz panel, And im ok with it not going over 60, its the low mins that annoy me

 

Okay, but realize that the 60hz screen will give you a much lower average result than a screen of a higher refresh rate. So the average number doesn't mean anything to you. About the min fps, sometimes in some frames (usually at the start of the benchmark) it can get as low, but if you monitor it closely you will find that it doesn't really get as low most of the time. If you run a second test back to back, you might even get it up to 25fps. I'll say it again, Unigine shouldn't be taken dead seriously, because it's not 100% reliable.

 

Edit: We actually got the same GPU (I've overclocked mine a bit) and I'm still getting anywhere from 6 to 35 fps as the minimum reading. I think your hardware is working just fine.

[LNW]

yep my cooler is on correctly, and i changed the thermal paste as well.

temps aren't very high and nothing is thermal throttling

Ugh. You've got to at least work with us here. 

 

Check through all the Nvidia control panel settings and look for anything out of the ordinary, no matter how small. Oh and double confirm you're on the latest driver.

[MZ Farhad]

I can tell you two things for sure: those are lower than normal scores and you should definitely get an SSD.

 

The bad news is that although an SSD will improve your overall performance, it is not a guarantee that it will fix your lower than normal scores.  I have both SSD's and HDD's in my setup and which drive I run the games off of doesn't really seem to impact performance.  That being said, your HDD is not the same as the one I have so I can't be sure that it doesn't have any issues itself.  Maybe it's getting worn down, maybe it's low RPM, maybe something else.  Even if an SSD doesn't fix the problem, it is still a worthwhile investment.

it is a low rpm HDD 5400 rpm I believe, I did run a few utilities to check that the hard drive was working correctly, and everything seems fine. my problem is that pc gaming isn't exactly cheap, i do have a bit of money lying around, just enough to get something like a 256 gb samsung 850 (havent decided between the pro or evo yet) and getting an ssd was next on my list, but if buying another component would improve my fps in games i would rather get that, if you know what I mean

[TidaLWaveZ]

it is a low rpm HDD 5400 rpm I believe, I did run a few utilities to check that the hard drive was working correctly, and everything seems fine. my problem is that pc gaming isn't exactly cheap, i do have a bit of money lying around, just enough to get something like a 256 gb samsung 850 (havent decided between the pro or evo yet) and getting an ssd was next on my list, but if buying another component would improve my fps in games i would rather get that, if you know what I mean

 

Ok then it seems like you're doing all that you can, testing part by part to determine the problem.  Maybe try replacing parts one at a time and then returning them if they do not give you the performance you are looking for.

 

On a side note that HDD needs an upgrade, I would get a smaller SSD to put your OS on and use the HDD to store all your media.

[SaladFingers]

Can someone of you guys with a 970 limit your screen at 60hz and post the results? I would do it if I was home.

 

It doesn't look like he actually has a problem, and everyone just keeps troubleshooting the HDD.... facepalm.

[TymmVonD]

I just read through 3 articles stating that YES, a slow HDD can affect FPS minimums depending on application and how the engine requests data to feed the GPU.

 

"If you have a slow HDD, you will have very slow loading screens and you will have many more FPS drops and skips, this is because in game, the hard drive is not giving enough info for the GPU to process which forces delays to take place. The hard drive most of the time continuously feeds info to the card because most game maps contain over 1GB-2GB of space and the HDD must replace the old memory that no longer needs to be used with new data, the data that will be in use."

•  

[TymmVonD]

Can someone of you guys with a 970 limit your screen at 60hz and post the results? I would do it if I was home.

 

It doesn't look like he actually has a problem, and everyone just keeps troubleshooting the HDD.... facepalm.

Running it now. So far, I think you're right. Running on an SSD, the minimum is still very low but the max is over 100. I think he has Vsync on.

[SaladFingers]

 

I just read through 3 articles stating that YES, a slow HDD can affect FPS minimums depending on application and how the engine requests data to feed the GPU.

 

"If you have a slow HDD, you will have very slow loading screens and you will have many more FPS drops and skips, this is because in game, the hard drive is not giving enough info for the GPU to process which forces delays to take place. The hard drive most of the time continuously feeds info to the card because most game maps contain over 1GB-2GB of space and the HDD must replace the old memory that no longer needs to be used with new data, the data that will be in use."

•  

 

 

Yes, that is true to some extent, but doesn't really apply to this test as most of the textures are pre-loaded when executed and not on the fly. Still, even when the HDD is actually bottlenecking, it hardly ever affects the fps. It is mostly noticable with "texture popping".  Plus, "minimums" are something that might happen once or twice in games.

 

 

Running it now.

 

Thanks, at least let's put this theory to rest. I could be completely wrong, but it's worth a try anyway.

[TymmVonD]

Yes, that is true to some extent, but doesn't really apply to this test as most of the textures are pre-loaded when executed and not on the fly. Still, even when the HDD is actually bottlenecking, it hardly ever affects the fps. It is mostly noticable with "texture popping". 

 

 

That's interesting. I have lots of texture pop-in in BO3 at 4K max settings running on an 840 EVO. May need to upgrade to a faster SSD.

[SaladFingers]

Running it now. So far, I think you're right. Running on an SSD, the minimum is still very low but the max is over 100. I think he has Vsync on.

 

Heaven and Valley cap their framerate at the screen's refresh rate, I don't think you need to have V-sync on. Or maybe it is V-sync doing it and I got it wrong.

Edit: I'm blind! So you're getting a max of 100 with your screen capped at 60? Yes then it's probably V-sync, my bad.

 

That's interesting. I have lots of texture pop-in in BO3 at 4K max settings running on an 840 EVO. May need to upgrade to a faster SSD.

 

Well, 4K is very demanding. Could just mean your VRAM isn't enough.