Dropping frames on new built PC, any ideas?

[steVENOM]

Hi, I just completed my first build roughly 5 days ago. I have been testing games to see what graphics I can run on 60 fps, and so far I am fairly impressed. But there have been some times where I drop frames significantly. For example, Gta 5 story mode optimized by GeForce experience runs almost constantly at 60 fps, and so does online freemode, but when I do a stunt race online, I drop to 30-40 fps. I know this is the newest update so maybe it still needs optimizing or something, but I'm not sure why, because my rig can handle huge explosions without dropping even a single frame, but then I go into a stunt race and it drops, there are just large objects, any way to fix this? Another, more prominent example is when I click optimize for Assassin's creed 4, it just drops to 20-30 completely, so I find myself having to manually downgrade, which I hate to see because the visuals just get lost back at console quality and that completely defeats the purpose of having a gaming rig instead of playing my xbox one. I can still swap out my parts for free from the shop i bought them at. Should I swap out the graphics card? Add more ram? Should I buy another SSD and just keep these demanding games all on SSD's because my graphics card cant handle them? Do I need more power for my power supply? Also, I think I read on both my motherboard box and my graphics card box that there's a way to get a boost, but not by overclocking, not sure what it is though. I'm still new to building so I'd love some guidance here.

My specs:

i7 4790 (not sure if locked or unlocked)

z97-e

650w corsair

Cricial Ballistix sport 16GB Ram

GTX 960 FTW 4GB

850 EVO 250GB

1TB WD Blue

Spec alpha (case)

Windows 10

[mason0819]

The frame drops in GTAV are fairly normal on older GPUs. Not sure about the assassin's creed issue, though. I have nothing else to say other than you should have just opted to getting an RX480 4GB instead. As it is newer hardware and will run more optimally on new games and games to come in the future. That 960 won't hold up as well in DX12 and Vulkan titles.

[steVENOM]

3 minutes ago, mason0819 said:

The frame drops in GTAV are fairly normal on older GPUs. Not sure about the assassin's creed issue, though. I have nothing else to say other than you should have just opted to getting an RX480 4GB instead. As it is newer hardware and will run more optimally on new games and games to come in the future. That 960 won't hold up as well in DX12 and Vulkan titles.

oh, okay, maybe I'll swap it out, or maybe save up for that as well combine their power?

[mason0819]

Just now, steVENOM said:

oh, okay, maybe I'll swap it out, or maybe save up for that as well combine their power?

You could save up. But I personally would switch it out if your shop has it. Not sure if they would have the RX480 4gb or not, its sold out in a lot of places. Good luck.

[steVENOM]

Just now, mason0819 said:

You could save up. But I personally would switch it out if your shop has it. Not sure if they would have the RX480 4gb or not, its sold out in a lot of places. Good luck.

whats the nvidia equivilant of that? I prefer Geforce personally

[mason0819]

Just now, steVENOM said:

whats the nvidia equivilant of that? I prefer Geforce personally

The GTX 1060 is closest. But it does currently cost around 250-300 whilst the 480 4gb is 200. Both the 480 and 1060 perform great at 1080p maxed out, so, if you do get one of them, I think you'll be pleased.

[steVENOM]

1 minute ago, mason0819 said:

The GTX 1060 is closest. But it does currently cost around 250-300 whilst the 480 4gb is 200. Both the 480 and 1060 perform great at 1080p maxed out, so, if you do get one of them, I think you'll be pleased.

ok well my 960 was 240, should i swap it out or maybe get a 1060? and how does having 2 gpu's in a rig work? do they work like hard drives where you have to switch between them? or do they actually work together simultaneously and combine their power?

[mason0819]

Just now, steVENOM said:

ok well my 960 was 240, should i swap it out or maybe get a 1060? and how does having 2 gpu's in a rig work? do they work like hard drives where you have to switch between them? or do they actually work together simultaneously and combine their power?

Well, with pricing im talking about USD. So if you're canadian it might cost more than what I mentioned. As far as having those two GPUs in your system all at once, it wouldnt do anything at all except for eating up a lot of watts. So I would swap out the 960 for a 1060 (If your shop has it. If you shop doesnt have it, then I would wait and save up and buy it whenever you can)

[steVENOM]

1 minute ago, mason0819 said:

Well, with pricing im talking about USD. So if you're canadian it might cost more than what I mentioned. As far as having those two GPUs in your system all at once, it wouldnt do anything at all except for eating up a lot of watts. So I would swap out the 960 for a 1060 (If your shop has it. If you shop doesnt have it, then I would wait and save up and buy it whenever you can)

oh okay, i'll consider swapping it out

[mason0819]

Just now, steVENOM said:

oh okay, i'll consider swapping it out

All right, good luck man.

[steVENOM]

1 minute ago, mason0819 said:

All right, good luck man.

Thank you