[SOLVED] 3090ti SUPRIM with a performance of my old 1080ti ?! How to fix?

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Sep 2, 2022
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I don't know why, but I am having pretty low FPS despite this card should be a top notch one. I have bought it just few days ago.

Before anybody starts with something like "GPUs don't add FPS, you have junk in PC or viruses", let me mention that I have found plenty of other people, benchmark videos or topics about people who have the same HW as I do, but have about 2x more fps than myself with the same GPU.

For example this one, with Far Cry 5 in this case: FPS of some other guy .
I used the same quality settings for my comparison in that game. The guy has about 110 fps on 4K, while I am having about 90-105 fps, but on 1080p! I have even a better GPU than the guy has - I have 3090ti SUPRIM while he has just "plain" 3090. We both have the very same CPU (i9-10900K) and the very same amount/type of RAM (DDR4 32 GB). I have much better PSU with 1300W (platinum 80+) so the power can't be my problem either. Overheating is also NOT a thing as the card is being used just for about 35-45% of its usage, the temperatures are fairly low. The only main possible difference between me and him is the motherboard - the guy in the video has obviously a better one, I have this one: my motherboard.

Could it be because my motherboard supports only up to PCI Express 3.0? Do I need 4.0 or higher with this card like the guy from the video has?

Because software-wise I tried really everything I could think of - I tried to clean reinstall the newest GPU drivers (+using the tool and steps from here clean GPU driver reinstall). I even installed a new fresh Windows to test it all in it, so I was able to be sure that the system is clean of any registry junk etc. or viruses or old GPU drivers reinstalls. On that fresh Windows 10 (x64) I installed just the drivers, main programs like Steam and all the required stuff for the games like directX etc. Didn't work, so then I installed all the Windows 10 updates and more. Nothing helped either. All done on a very fast M.2 SSD. Afterwards I also tried install OS on HDD and do the same just for the sake of it... no luck with anything.

Am I missing something? Or the motherboard's PCI Express version is not enough? Or is the GPU broken?! Because currently it has really about the same FPS performance like my old 1080ti had, which was replaced with this card. And it is like that both game-wise and video-encoding-wise when it comes to HW acceleration.

Any insight into the problem is highly appretiated!

My specs in short:
Motherboard: TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS (WI-FI)
CPU: Intel Core i9-10900K
GPU: MSI 3090ti SUPRIM
RAM: HyperX 32 GB DDR4 3200 MHz CL16 Predator (1x32GB)
OS: Windows 10 Pro x64
System drive: Samsung 980 PRO 1TB (NVMe M.2)
PSU: Seasonic Prime 1300 W Platinum

My FPS: 85-110 on 1080p
The guy's FPS: 90-115 on 4K
 
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Solution
Single DIMM is a big part of the issue. CPU thermal throttling good possibility as well, especially on 10th gen Intel processors, they are power hungry. To your PCI question yes it will have some impact, but not likely more than a couple of percent, and certainly not at 1080. I would throw at least a two stick kit in. I have seen a number of semi boutique builds that slipped in a single stick (for price) upgraded to two stick kits with massive fps increases. This is more apparent on Ryzen with the infinity fabric but cutting your memory bandwidth by half by only using one stick is never good. Just make sure to get something on your QVL list for your ASUS board. Also make sure to slot them correctly. Read the motherboard manual.
Sep 2, 2022
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Just an update info: double problems with the RAM delivery - 1 by the vendor and 2nd problem by the delivery firm... so I still don't have it. My luck as ever.

Hopefully today evening or tomorrow I will finally have it.
 

larsv8

Distinguished
"Because currently it has really about the same FPS performance like my old 1080ti had, which was replaced with this card"

Okay....so this is important.

A 3090ti is not appropriate for 1080p gaming. You are seeing the same performance because your CPU is bottlenecking you.

Return your GPU, spend 600 bucks on a 5800x3d, Cooler and Mobo, and you will see big gains and pocket the extra cash.

OR

Get a nice high refresh 1440 monitor like a VG27AQ
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/pGqBD3/asus-tuf-gaming-vg27aq-270-2560x1440-165-hz-monitor-vg27aq
 
Sep 2, 2022
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So, it seems you guys were right.

That new 2x16 RAM seems to solved the problem. Thank you all the guys who called out the problem in the 1st few responses.

Not sure if it is just due the fact that they are two sticks of 16GB instead of one 32GB, or because the RAM is on the motherboard's compatible vendor list or because it is faster in terms of Mhz... or all in combination. But now the Far Cry 5 and also 3DMark and other benchmarks really has significantly higher FPS, I got additional average +55fps in the FC 5 and the max fps value now is really able to exceed even 220fps on few spots depending where we look (1080p, Ultra details).

There are still few things I am wondering about though.

BIOS and XMP
I may add that I even updated the BIOS in the process to the latest version, because the PC refused to boot the new 2x16GB RAM with XMP and that BIOS updated worked. Funny thing though that now the XMP problem got inverted - the old 1x32GB RAM refuses to boot with XMP now and use any higher frequency than 2100 instead of its 3200... but I don't care about that RAM at this point anymore :D . It is due the BIOS update, but that old RAM was never on the official motherboard's supported vendor list after all, so whatever. The main thing is that the new RAM works well in all aspects.

3500Mhz vs 3600Mhz
When I set the RAM's frequency to 3600Mhz (which both the RAM and motherboard do support), it is visibly lower performance still - about 2000 CPU points less in the 3Dmark's TimeSpy benchmark. But when I set it to 3500Mhz, I got the great performance I mention above. No idea why - I would expect better performance with higher Mhz. With 3600Mhz I also dropped to blue screen few times with the something in sense like "Something bad has happened, we are collecting info" etc. - I paraphrase, but I guess you know which blue screen I mean. Happened just few times and randomly while I was running PC normally (I was able to boot PC, login and all). Would be good to know though why is this.

FC5 - 1080p fps chart vs 1440p fps chart
Although the 1080p numbers seem to be good now and fit the FC5 fps benchmark chart, if I set the in-game res scale to 2x (aka simulated 1440p), the numbers are still not like on the graph here (I have avg 112fps, maximum 130fps - instead of 190 max fps). However, the 3DMark 4K benchmark show that I am where I am supposed to be (88th place overall with TimeSpy Extreme).

Higher CPU temperatures
My CPU (i9-10900K) is now able to overheat (reach 95-100°C) more easier, if consistently used at 35% or higher. Fortunatelly none of my currently newest games (Far Cry 5, Post Scriptum, Hell Let Loose) are using the CPU on more than 10-30% of its capacity so I guess I should be safe, but I fear it may create a new problem later if there will be some game that will use the CPU by 10-20% more than the current games. My CPU cooler (SCYTHE Mugen 5 Rev. B) was one of the best air-based ones I could buy for my CPU at the buying time and yet it seems to be struggling on higher CPU usage % rates... even with my good PC case with many fans and non-solid walls (Zalman Z3 Plus). Maybe a good time for buying a water cooling? But I guess that's a topic for another time.
 
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jasonf2

Distinguished
So, it seems you guys were right.

That new 2x16 RAM seems to solved the problem. Thank you all the guys who called out the problem in the 1st few responses.

Not sure if it is just due the fact that they are two sticks of 16GB instead of one 32GB, or because the RAM is on the motherboard's compatible vendor list or because it is faster in terms of Mhz... or all in combination. But now the Far Cry 5 and also 3DMark and other benchmarks really has significantly higher FPS, I got additional average +55fps in the FC 5 and the max fps value now is really able to exceed even 220fps on few spots depending where we look (1080p, Ultra details).

There are still few things I am wondering about though.

BIOS and XMP
I may add that I even updated the BIOS in the process to the latest version, because the PC refused to boot the new 2x16GB RAM with XMP and that BIOS updated worked. Funny thing though that now the XMP problem got inverted - the old 1x32GB RAM refuses to boot with XMP now and use any higher frequency than 2100 instead of its 3200... but I don't care about that RAM at this point anymore :D . It is due the BIOS update, but that old RAM was never on the official motherboard's supported vendor list after all, so whatever. The main thing is that the new RAM works well in all aspects.

3500Mhz vs 3600Mhz
When I set the RAM's frequency to 3600Mhz (which both the RAM and motherboard do support), it is visibly lower performance still - about 2000 CPU points less in the 3Dmark's TimeSpy benchmark. But when I set it to 3500Mhz, I got the great performance I mention above. No idea why - I would expect better performance with higher Mhz. With 3600Mhz I also dropped to blue screen few times with the something in sense like "Something bad has happened, we are collecting info" etc. - I paraphrase, but I guess you know which blue screen I mean. Happened just few times and randomly while I was running PC normally (I was able to boot PC, login and all). Would be good to know though why is this.

FC5 - 1080p fps chart vs 1440p fps chart
Although the 1080p numbers seem to be good now and fit the FC5 fps benchmark chart, if I set the in-game res scale to 2x (aka simulated 1440p), the numbers are still not like on the graph here (I have avg 112fps, maximum 130fps - instead of 190 max fps). However, the 3DMark 4K benchmark show that I am where I am supposed to be (88th place overall with TimeSpy Extreme).

Higher CPU temperatures
My CPU (i9-10900K) is now able to overheat (reach 95-100°C) more easier, if consistently used at 35% or higher. Fortunatelly none of my currently newest games (Far Cry 5, Post Scriptum, Hell Let Loose) are using the CPU on more than 10-30% of its capacity so I guess I should be safe, but I fear it may create a new problem later if there will be some game that will use the CPU by 10-20% more than the current games. My CPU cooler (SCYTHE Mugen 5 Rev. B) was one of the best air-based ones I could buy for my CPU at the buying time and yet it seems to be struggling on higher CPU usage % rates... even with my good PC case with many fans and non-solid walls (Zalman Z3 Plus). Maybe a good time for buying a water cooling? But I guess that's a topic for another time.
Bios and XMP: First off you need to understand that XMP is an overclock profile that "probably" will be stable. This is highly dependent on a number of factors related to your specific hardware configuration and it is not terribly unusual that setting an XMP will make a system unstable. I hate that the RAM manufacturers advertise overclocks as the RAM speed rather than what SPD performance actually is.

3500 vs 3600: My guess is that when you look at your RAM timings you are probably eaking out a little more frequency, but giving it all up in delays. RAM is finicky and clock frequency while relative to the end performance it isn't the whole story.

FC5-1080 fps vs.... : Benchmarks, especially online, can be dialed in and are often to be taken with a grain of sand.

Higher CPU temps: The increase in RAM bandwidth is reducing a bottleneck to the CPU. The heat is indicative that it is idling less during workload runs.