[SOLVED] 4090 low performance on first startup

[tacticulbacon]

I'm getting some really odd performance issues with my new 4090 that only seem to manifest itself upon first bootup. On games like Battlefield 2042 I'm hitting 100-150 fps with more noticeable frametime stutter when I know I should be getting smooth 250+ fps. Power draw from the card also seems abnormally low, hovering around low 100s in watts when normally it should be drawing at least 190 W. However, when I restart my PC everything works fine and I can't replicate the performance issues. I also tested this in unigine superposition and found that I get consistently lower scores on first bootup vs. after restarting. Coincidentally my roommate has a spare 4080 super that I borrowed to put in my system to see if I can replicate the issue, and that card works perfectly fine so I can say with reasonable certainty that it's the 4090 itself that's the problem.

My GPU temps hover in the mid 50s and GPU utilization is being pinged at 95+%, core and memory clocks are being maxed out under load. In fact besides the low power draw nothing seems out of the ordinary whenever I pull up the monitoring software.

I want to emphasize this is only happening on startup after shutting my pc down. Whenever I restart my system it behaves perfectly normally just as any other 4090 should.

Things I've already tried:
Ensuring VSYNC is off in games
Clean installing Nvidia driver 551.61 using DDU
Disabling generic windows graphics drivers
Disabling Nvidia HD audio device
Setting my PCIEx16 slot to always run at 4.0 speeds in BIOS
Physically unplugging/uninstalling the card and reinstalling to make sure it's properly seated and none of the cables are loose
Switching from performance BIOS to quiet BIOS using the card's BIOS switch
Updating graphics card BIOS using ASUS's update tool
Disabling startup programs
Disabling GPU overclock settings in MSI Afterburner (I'm running an undervolt curve to 925 mV with +1500 MHz memory overclock and it's confirmed stable in the games I play, at least when my 4090 isn't acting up like described)
Troubleshooting with a 4080 super to see if I can replicate the issue (I couldn't, as mentioned above)

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

PC specs:
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
ASUS TUF RTX 4090 OC
Klevv Bolt V DDR5 32 GB CL30
Gigabyte B650 AORUS Elite AX
WD Black SN850X 2TB
Be Quiet Pure Power 12M 1000W 80+ Gold

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

On games like Battlefield 2042 I'm hitting 100-150 fps with more noticeable frametime stutter when I know I should be getting smooth 250+ fps.

Yes, you should be getting much better performance. What monitor are you using?

However, when I restart my PC everything works fine and I can't replicate the performance issues

This kinda leads me to believe it's not the GPU and something software related.

Switching from performance BIOS to quiet BIOS using the card's BIOS switch
Updating graphics card BIOS using ASUS's update tool

Did you clear CMOS after the bios update? This is essential. I would prob do that first then test, and see what results it gives.

 

[tacticulbacon]

Hey there,


Yes, you should be getting much better performance. What monitor are you using?

This kinda leads me to believe it's not the GPU and something software related.

Did you clear CMOS after the bios update? This is essential. I would prob do that first then test, and see what results it gives.

I have a dual monitor setup, Dell S2721DGF 165Hz 1440p and Dell S2716DG 144 Hz 1440p. BF2042 on optimized settings and DLSS quality mode on 1440p usually gives me FPS in the high 200s but on startup I'm stuttering in the range of 100-150.

I also initially thought that some kind of software or windows process was responsible but I disabled my startup programs and it didn't change anything. Basically the only thing I have currently running on startup is my audio driver. Although I just realized I might not have turned off fast startup in windows. I'll let you know if that changes anything when I get home to change it.

I don't see why clearing the CMOS would change anything, I updated the graphics card bios and not the motherboard's. But I'll try just in case.

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Do you get the same results with Gsync/Vsync on the monitors?

What power profile are you using in Windows? I would suggest resetting them all to default and testing on each one just to be sure.

You can do this by typing the following codes into powershell:

Ultimate Performance : powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61High Performance : powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
Balanced : powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
Power saver : powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

Set the NVCP power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance'. Does this change anything?

When you update the bios, it overwrites the older microcode. But, it doesn't always write over everything. Some bits of code can linger and cause bugs/hardware conflicts and performance issues. Clearing CMOS is standard practice. Check here: https://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/B650-AORUS-ELITE-AX-ICE/Manual/718292?page=28 : Page 28 CLR_CMOS. Good to rule it out.

Take off any overclocks/undervolts on either the CPU or GPU. Stop the programs from booting with the OC's, that you configured with OC/UV. Same with Ryzen Master or any 3rd party software that controls hardware.

 

[tacticulbacon]

Do you get the same results with Gsync/Vsync on the monitors?

What power profile are you using in Windows? I would suggest resetting them all to default and testing on each one just to be sure.

You can do this by typing the following codes into powershell:

Ultimate Performance : powercfg -duplicatescheme e9a42b02-d5df-448d-aa00-03f14749eb61High Performance : powercfg -duplicatescheme 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c
Balanced : powercfg -duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e
Power saver : powercfg -duplicatescheme a1841308-3541-4fab-bc81-f71556f20b4a

Set the NVCP power management mode to 'Prefer maximum performance'. Does this change anything?

When you update the bios, it overwrites the older microcode. But, it doesn't always write over everything. Some bits of code can linger and cause bugs/hardware conflicts and performance issues. Clearing CMOS is standard practice. Check here: https://www.manualowl.com/m/Gigabyte/B650-AORUS-ELITE-AX-ICE/Manual/718292?page=28 : Page 28 CLR_CMOS. Good to rule it out.

Take off any overclocks/undervolts on either the CPU or GPU. Stop the programs from booting with the OC's, that you configured with OC/UV. Same with Ryzen Master or any 3rd party software that controls hardware.

Unfortunately none of the above solves the issue, including clearing CMOS. Power Management mode in NVCP was already at max performance, changing windows power management to ultimate made no difference, switching display to second monitor, resetting all overclocking settings and disabling MSI afterburner on startup, turning off fast startup, etc.

At this point I'm fairly convinced that has to be some kind of issue with my graphics card's BIOS. Like I said this problem only manifests specifically with the 4090 and not with my roommate's 4080 super when installed in the same system.

 

[Mahisse]

Maybe an obvious question to ask but are you sure you don't have an anti-virus software, or similar, that performs a scanning on the "first boot of the day".
Are you saying, if you do not check performance and reboot immediately after the first boot, you don't have performance issues? To me it sounds like a scanning process being initiated on your first boot.

Also, as another obvious comment is that you should be aware of any pirated software, which may have ways to go around license/certification checks that also hit performance. It goes without saying but worth mentioning.

 

[tacticulbacon]

Maybe an obvious question to ask but are you sure you don't have an anti-virus software, or similar, that performs a scanning on the "first boot of the day".
Are you saying, if you do not check performance and reboot immediately after the first boot, you don't have performance issues? To me it sounds like a scanning process being initiated on your first boot.

Also, as another obvious comment is that you should be aware of any pirated software, which may have ways to go around license/certification checks that also hit performance. It goes without saying but worth mentioning.

The only antivirus I have is windows defender. Even then it wouldn't explain why my performance would be so poor as I leave it on, as eventually it would stop scanning in the background and performance would turn back to normal (which it doesn't.)

The performance issues disappear entirely when I manually restart the system, whether I restart immediately or anytime later in the day has no impact on this. This is a new build using a fresh windows install so I can't see many avenues of software bloat. Like I said, the only real thing that's running on startup is MSI Afterburner and turning that off didn't fix anything. Either way, it doesn't explain why it only happens specifically to my 4090 and not any other card I install into the same pc.

 

[tacticulbacon]

I managed to find out that it was indeed a BIOS issue. Flashed the card's BIOS and everything seems fixed now, behaves as expected even on initial boot. Thanks for the suggestions guys.