GPU Usage screws up FPS

[PCPat27]

Hello,

So I have been playing Battlefield 1 for the past month now, and about 1 week ago I started to get terrible frames. I turned on MSI Afterburner, and I noticed the GPU Usage graph was going up down up down from 80% to 20% to 70%  and just crazy basically. It would stay around 80% in game for 3-4 seconds, then drop to 15%, then go back up to 80%. Whenever I spiked down to 15%, my fps would be terrible. This occurs whether the setting are on low or ultra, and turning v-sync on or off doesnt change a thing. I have a GTX 950, so not the greatest, but before anyone says that it is simply because I have a bad graphics card, I was able to play this game on High settings and get 60fps easy about 2 weeks ago. I have my power management set to prefer maximum performance on control panel and nvidia control panel. While playing, the gpu stays around 63C. My CPU (I3-6100) stays at around 60-75% usage, so no bottleneck there. I have a 650W 80+ bronze PSU, along with 8GB ddr4 ram.  I honestly have no idea why this happened and I am really frustrated that my GPU won't work.

Thank you for any help you can give.

 

[SteamOS]

lower game settings 

[PCPat27]

As I said in the first post, this happens from low to ultra graphics, which means that it is not that my graphics card cant handle it.

[scottyseng]

3 minutes ago, PCPat27 said:

As I said in the first post, this happens from low to ultra graphics, which means that it is not that my graphics card cant handle it.

It's a CPU bottleneck. Sadly BF1 isn't that optimized so it eats CPU threads. It wants more CPU threads. The recommended spec I remember was a i5 or i7 at least.

[PCPat27]

12 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

It's a CPU bottleneck. Sadly BF1 isn't that optimized so it eats CPU threads. It wants more CPU threads. The recommended spec I remember was a i5 or i7 at least.

Yea, when i bought the game I was concerned because of the minimum spec was i5. The only thing is that I played the game for 3-4 weeks fine with 60+fps, which is why I dont understand all of a sudden it deciedes to crap out on me. I did just overclock my gpu a while ago, and that was around when this bug occured. Does that have anything to do with this. Also my cpu usage is at 70% and never maxed out, which is also confusing.

[scottyseng]

1 minute ago, PCPat27 said:

-snip-

Hmm, try stock speeds and see if you still have the GPU usage spikes.

 

Yeah, usually when I see a CPU bottleneck, one core is maxed out / the CPU is maxed out.

 

It might be a driver issue (it happens) and you might need to go back to a previous driver version.

[PCPat27]

15 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Hmm, try stock speeds and see if you still have the GPU usage spikes.

 

Yeah, usually when I see a CPU bottleneck, one core is maxed out / the CPU is maxed out.

 

It might be a driver issue (it happens) and you might need to go back to a previous driver version.

I have tried with stock GPU speeds and get the same problem. Also, should I just go back one driver version or multiple. And also how do I go back a driver? 

Thank you so much

[scottyseng]

Just now, PCPat27 said:

I have tried with stock GPU speeds and get the same problem. Also, should I just go back one driver version or multiple. And also how do I go back a driver? 

Thank you so much

Ah, you have to use something like DDU (from Guru3D) to uninstall the current driver, go to Nvidia's site, and on the latest drivers page, if you scroll down, they have a history of the previous drivers.

 

I think you only need to go back one or two (The last driver update I think was a week or two ago).

[PCPat27]

59 minutes ago, scottyseng said:

Ah, you have to use something like DDU (from Guru3D) to uninstall the current driver, go to Nvidia's site, and on the latest drivers page, if you scroll down, they have a history of the previous drivers.

 

I think you only need to go back one or two (The last driver update I think was a week or two ago).

Thank you for the advice, however, I reverted back a driver, and I did see some improvement, instead of dropping to like 10% usage it went to around 25%. It is still happening and usage is still crazy. Thank you though.

[AMD Spec]

Are u running Dx 12 ?   it buggy 

 

U can try the system Restore thingy , if u luckily have a restore point back when it was all fine , this would probably fix it 

 

Anyways , Try to reinstall the game , Run Game booster app 

 

How much Vram do you have ?

Run Msi afterburner Osd and check all the parameters in game  

 

Run Gpu Z  perfcap  while in game , screen shot it after some time 

[PCPat27]

14 minutes ago, AMD Spec said:

Are u running Dx 12 ?   it buggy 

 

U can try the system Restore thingy , if u luckily have a restore point back when it was all fine , this would probably fix it 

 

Anyways , Try to reinstall the game , Run Game booster app 

 

How much Vram do you have ?

Run Msi afterburner Osd and check all the parameters in game  

 

Run Gpu Z  perfcap  while in game , screen shot it after some time 

I have tried running it dx12 and not dx12 and the problem occurs on both. 

 

What is the system restore thingy? Like windows system restore, Geforce? or someting else?

 

I have 2gb Vram.

 

I used to have the MSI OSD open with BF1, but now I cant get it to pop up, even once i click the hotkey for turning it on and to show it.

 

I'm not familiar with GPU-Z. I just installed it, how do I run perfcap?

[PCPat27]

Ok so quick update. I just ran BF1 again, only difference between this time and the 20 other times i ran it is that GPU-Z was open. SOMEHOW i got 60+fps easily with only 1 or 2 hiccups, (which i can kind of expect with a 950). I dont understand it at all what so ever. Hopefully it will stay like this and not screw up any more.

thanks to everyone for their contributions!!!

[AMD Spec]

2 hours ago, PCPat27 said:

Ok so quick update. I just ran BF1 again, only difference between this time and the 20 other times i ran it is that GPU-Z was open. SOMEHOW i got 60+fps easily with only 1 or 2 hiccups, (which i can kind of expect with a 950). I dont understand it at all what so ever. Hopefully it will stay like this and not screw up any more.

thanks to everyone for their contributions!!!

• I meant Windows system restore ( maybe an update messed sth. up )

 

• This is how u see the perfcap   ( https://www.google.com.eg/search?q=gpuz+perfcap&safe=active&client=tablet-android-samsung&prmd=ivmn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwir67zRtozRAhVJOxQKHYPzB7YQ_AUIBygB&biw=768&bih=1024#imgrc=Volx66nREwmcuM%3A )

 

If u reset the pc and run bf4 does ur gpu usage drop like before ?

i mean is it stable for you now ?

 

2GB VRAM might not be smooth in intensive combat zones in bf1 so its normal to get hiccups ( Still depends on your graphics options but generally its fine for a Gtx 950 )