Question 2080Ti Core Clock Stuttering from 1905 to 1350 in games

[Strattton]

I get a lot of stuttering and framerate drops in every video game I play. COD:MW 2019, PUBG, EFT, ect. I installed MSI Afterburner and the core clock fluctuates like every second and it makes games unplayable.
Re-installed Windows 10 (1909 Build 18363.815).
Used driver 432 after fresh install.
Used DDU and clean installed 445.75.
Tried changing many settings in MSI.
Made sure power settings are all on Max Perf.
Nothing is overclocked.
Using a full custom water loop.
Intel Core i7-8700K
Gigabyte Z390 AORUS ULTRA ATX LGA1151
Corsair Vengeance LED 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-2666
Samsung 970 EVO 1 TB M.2 NVME SSD
Asus GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11 GB Dual Advanced
EVGA SuperNOVA G2 850 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX

https://imgur.com/PIy0tE9

View: https://i.imgur.com/PIy0tE9.png

https://imgur.com/UZ5fYMa

View: https://i.imgur.com/UZ5fYMa.jpg

 

[Phaaze88]

I suspect thermal throttling.
That gpu temp looks pretty warm, considering it's on a custom loop... in case you didn't already know, the displayed temp is an average of 3: core, VRM, and memory.
Was that an in-game result?
VGA waterblock probably isn't fitted correctly.

That, or power throttling...

 

[Strattton]

the displayed temp is an average of 3: core, VRM, and memory.
Was that an in-game result?
VGA waterblock probably isn't fitted correctly.

That, or power throttling...

So how do you tell the actual temp then?
Yes, when I'm in games the frame rate will go from like 100 at 1905 to like 70 at 1350. So when it's constantly going from 100 to 70 yes its like stuttering. The waterblock has been there since Nov 1, 2018 but I guess I can remove it and re-apply it.

 

[DSzymborski]

When was the last time you fully cleaned out your loop? The thing is, the behavior does match what you expect from thermal throttling. If this block hasn't moved since 11/18, you're way overdue for a cleaning.

It's a pain, but you gotta do it; the first thing I do when I put open loops together for friends and colleagues is make sure they know how to drain and flush (I don't use these on my rigs both because I'm lazy and I have cats jumping all around).

 

[Phaaze88]

Yeah... that is WAY too long to run without some maintenance.

 

[Strattton]

Sorry for taking so long, I took my entire loop and water block completely apart and everything is 100% clear and clean.


However there was a lack of thermal paste on one corner of the die, the paste was in good condition still. I'm not sure if it didn't spread there, dried up, or was moved while taking the block off, but re-applied a very large blob of paste and issue is no longer happening.