Unusually low fps on descent setup

[Enocon]

Hi,
As it says in the title, I have problems with my frames in games. I can play them, but the experience is bad, and I know it can do better. Examples are no more than 70 FPS in Guild Wars 2 when nothing is happening, and under 30 when in a city or in combat. At worst it becomes a slideshow. This si not the only game. This happends in every game I play.

My specs: (I know it all is not necessary, but for the sake of completion)
•    OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
•    Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43, Socket-AM3+
•    CPU: AMD FX-8320 Black Edition (3.762GHz, 4-cores, 8 logical)
•    Cooling: NZXT Kraken X61 (double 140mm with the stock fans replaced by 2x Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm)
•    RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB CL9(4x4GB)
•    GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Gaming X
•    PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3, 750W PSU
•    SSD: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB OEM (c: drive)
•    HDD: Western Digital green 2TB, 7200 RPM
•    Soundcard: ASUS Xonar DX
•    Screen: AOC AGON 27" LED FreeSync AG271QX
•    Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black Pearl

 

What I have tried:
•    Windows Power plan on High performance.
•    NVIDIA 3D settings both triple buffering and vertical sync of off, and power management mode on ‘prefer maximum performance’.
•    Unparked CPUs.
•    Flashed BIOS to the latest version (E1772IMS.10F).
•    Manually set the RAM to 1600MHz (was auto-set to 1300 in the BIOS)
•    Updated all drivers I could think of.
•    Tried with and without ‘OC genie II’ on the motherboard, no difference.
•    Tried with and without a mild OC on the GPU with MSI Afterburner. Up to Core +160 and Memory +650 with power limit at 108%.
•    Reinstalled Windows with a complete format of the C-drive.
•    Reinstalled games I play.
•    Tried GeForce Experience game optimization both on 1440p and 1080p on optimize for performance and optimal.

 

Here is a screenshot at idle and when starting up Rainbow 6 Siege at 1440p full screen and GeForce optimization on optimal.
Nr1 – idle    Nr2 – Lobby    Nr3 – In game

 

Stable at 80-90fps when watching. Around 30-40 when playing with dips down to 12-15. The numbers I could see from the in-game fps counter and the steam overlay one (both showed the same).

In GW2 I get 70fps when idle in a remote area. and under 30 when in a city or combat.

 

Now, what am I missing? what's wrong here? or should I accept that this is my life now?

 

Thank you for any reply’s

Regards, Fellow LLT follower
Enocon

 

[tp95112]

Cpu usage is binned at ~100% 

[userzero]

4 minutes ago, Enocon said:

Hi,
As it says in the title, I have problems with my frames in games. I can play them, but the experience is bad, and I know it can do better. Examples are no more than 70 FPS in Guild Wars 2 when nothing is happening, and under 30 when in a city or in combat. At worst it becomes a slideshow. This si not the only game. This happends in every game I play.

My specs: (I know it all is not necessary, but for the sake of completion)
•    OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
•    Motherboard: MSI 970A-G43, Socket-AM3+
•    CPU: AMD FX-8320 Black Edition (3.762GHz, 4-cores, 8 logical)
•    Cooling: NZXT Kraken X61 (double 140mm with the stock fans replaced by 2x Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm)
•    RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600MHz 16GB CL9(4x4GB)
•    GPU: MSI GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Gaming X
•    PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G3, 750W PSU
•    SSD: Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB OEM (c: drive)
•    HDD: Western Digital green 2TB, 7200 RPM
•    Soundcard: ASUS Xonar DX
•    Screen: AOC AGON 27" LED FreeSync AG271QX
•    Case: Fractal Design Define R5 Black Pearl

 

What I have tried:
•    Windows Power plan on High performance.
•    NVIDIA 3D settings both triple buffering and vertical sync of off, and power management mode on ‘prefer maximum performance’.
•    Unparked CPUs.
•    Flashed BIOS to the latest version (E1772IMS.10F).
•    Manually set the RAM to 1600MHz (was auto-set to 1300 in the BIOS)
•    Updated all drivers I could think of.
•    Tried with and without ‘OC genie II’ on the motherboard, no difference.
•    Tried with and without a mild OC on the GPU with MSI Afterburner. Up to Core +160 and Memory +650 with power limit at 108%.
•    Reinstalled Windows with a complete format of the C-drive.
•    Reinstalled games I play.
•    Tried GeForce Experience game optimization both on 1440p and 1080p on optimize for performance and optimal.

 

Here is a screenshot at idle and when starting up Rainbow 6 Siege at 1440p full screen and GeForce optimization on optimal.
Nr1 – idle    Nr2 – Lobby    Nr3 – In game

 

Stable at 80-90fps when watching. Around 30-40 when playing with dips down to 12-15. The numbers I could see from the in-game fps counter and the steam overlay one (both showed the same).

In GW2 I get 70fps when idle in a remote area. and under 30 when in a city or combat.

 

Now, what am I missing? what's wrong here? or should I accept that this is my life now?

 

Thank you for any reply’s

Regards, Fellow LLT follower
Enocon

 

Looking at your spec I would immediately say you are bottle necked by your CPU, and maybe your RAM. Upgrade time?

[Enocon]

1 minute ago, tp95112 said:

Cpu usage is binned at ~100% 

and

Just now, userzero said:

Looking at your spec I would immediately say you are bottle necked by your CPU, and maybe your RAM. Upgrade time?

I have thought about it, but shouldn't 8 cores at 3.5GHz be enough?

[tp95112]

Just now, Enocon said:

and

I have thought about it, but shouldn't 8 cores at 3.5GHz be enough?

no.  Over clock that cpu. 100% means your gpu is pushing as many frames as your cpu allows and you and your 8320 is working extra hard to meet that demand but cant

[Enocon]

Just now, tp95112 said:

no.  Over clock that cpu. 100% means your gpu is pushing as many frames as your cpu allows and you and your 8320 is working extra hard to meet that demand but cant

Ah, so overclocking my cpu sould fix the problem?
I did try the OC genie II that does this, I assume that it doesn't do a good enough job?

[tp95112]

Just now, Enocon said:

Ah, so overclocking my cpu sould fix the problem?
I did try the OC genie II that does this, I assume that it doesn't do a good enough job?

It will not fix the problem but lower the bottleneck a bit. Learn to overclock it yourself. Learn something out of it

[Enocon]

Just now, tp95112 said:

It will not fix the problem but lower the bottleneck a bit. Learn to overclock it yourself. Learn something out of it

Ok, thank you so much. Surprised by how fast you answered.

[Silver47]

14 minutes ago, Enocon said:

•    CPU: AMD FX-8320 Black Edition (3.762GHz, 4-cores, 8 logical)

Bottleneck spotted! Also your screenshots document your cpu sitting at 100% usage most of the time

[Silver47]

16 minutes ago, Enocon said:

 

Also upon taking a second look at this besides sitting at 100% usage often your CPU seems to be throttling either because of thermal or power limitations.

[Enocon]

Just now, black0utm1rage said:

Also upon taking a second look at this besides sitting at 100% usage often your CPU seems to be throttling either because of thermal or power limitations.

But the power limit is never reached as you can see in the first column, and that’s expected from a 750 PSU. And you can see the CPU1 temp the third column that is hovers around 45 degrees Celsius.

[Silver47]

1 minute ago, Enocon said:

But the power limit is never reached as you can see in the first column

That graph should be the gpu power limit.

 

2 minutes ago, Enocon said:

And you can see the CPU1 temp the third column that is hovers around 45 degrees Celsius.

It just seemed pretty weird that the temps briefly spike and then drop down again for a couple of seconds. That usually indicates throttling. Also what I meant with power limits isn't the peak power load your cpu draws from the psu, but rather maybe some kind of power or voltage limitation set by your mainboard.

[Enocon]

1 minute ago, black0utm1rage said:

That graph should be the gpu power limit.

oh, ok.

 

1 minute ago, black0utm1rage said:

It just seemed pretty weird that the temps briefly spike and then drop down again for a couple of seconds. That usually indicates throttling. Also what I meant with power limits isn't the peak power load your cpu draws from the psu, but rather maybe some kind of power or voltage limitation set by your mainboard.

That might be right since the voltage limit is met.

[Silver47]

1 minute ago, Enocon said:

That might be right since the voltage limit is met.

Although the spikes could also be explained by varying in game cpu load, but it still seems weird that the spikes kind of correlate with the cpu usage spikes. But thats a pretty easy thing to rule out. Just run Prime95 or some other tool that sets a continuous load on the cpu for a couple of minutes and watch how the cpu behaves...

[Enocon]

7 minutes ago, black0utm1rage said:

Although the spikes could also be explained by varying in game cpu load, but it still seems weird that the spikes kind of correlate with the cpu usage spikes. But thats a pretty easy thing to rule out. Just run Prime95 or some other tool that sets a continuous load on the cpu for a couple of minutes and watch how the cpu behaves...

 

it does the same when running prime95...

[Silver47]

5 minutes ago, Enocon said:

it does the same when running prime95...

Pretty weird, to me it looks like its not supposed to do that... But I'm afraid I don't really have an explanation for that, since I never really got to play with FX cpus.

[Enocon]

Just now, black0utm1rage said:

Pretty weird, to me it looks like its not supposed to do that... But I'm afraid I don't really have an explanation for that, since I never really got to play with FX cpus.

well, thank you for trying. I will look up some guides and try to figure it out. but at least I know now that it's the CPU that is causing the bottleneck.

[Enocon]

An update to the story.
I’ve found out how you over clock a FX-8320. And with a stable OC at 4.1GHz on a 20.5 multiplier with the CPU Voltage at auto (is auto bad?).

I get these reading from a 20 min prime95 session with all the cores at full load (I checked).

As for the frames I no longer throttle the 100% mark on CPU usage, but rather fluctuates at around 50% and in GW2 I get around 40fps where I earlier had 15.

Thank you all for helping me. I feel that I have learned something from tinkering and trying out overclocking the CPU for the first time.

 

[Enocon]

6 hours ago, black0utm1rage said:

Pretty weird, to me it looks like its not supposed to do that... But I'm afraid I don't really have an explanation for that, since I never really got to play with FX cpus.

Hi, sorry for posting this much but you might want to know this for the future. While overclocking the CPU I noticed that the CPU Voltage only went up to about 1.3 or so. I put it on auto since I think it need at least 1.4 for a multiplier of about 22. The system is stable at 20.5 but the weird throttling still happens.
Now, I noticed while playing some Borderlands 2 that the voltage limit and the CPU temp sync while the CPU is nowhere near full load (I know it says CPU2, but they all looked the same).

So here is my hypothesis: The motherboard can’t deliver the voltage needed to so it voltage-throttles.
Can this be correct?

 

[Silver47]

On 28.11.2017 at 1:34 AM, Enocon said:

but you might want to know this for the future

Thanks, thats really nice of you!

On 28.11.2017 at 1:34 AM, Enocon said:

So here is my hypothesis: The motherboard can’t deliver the voltage needed to so it voltage-throttles.

Might be the case. Is your BIOS up to date? Your mainboard could just be set to some weird power saving setting. You could try to manually set the CPU core voltage to 1.4 volts and test if it still throttles. (But keep in mind that everything above might be a bit high for daily use)

[Enocon]

6 hours ago, black0utm1rage said:

Is your BIOS up to date?

Yes, checked again before posting this thread.

6 hours ago, black0utm1rage said:

Your mainboard could just be set to some weird power saving setting. You could try to manually set the CPU core voltage to 1.4 volts and test if it still throttles.

Might be. I could, I might when I have some spare time.

Thanks again for replying.