ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II OC Issues

[Dmichael15]

I recently installed an ASUS GTX 660 DirectCU II OC and have had some serious issues. Firstly, GFE recommends just about max settings for all games, one be planetside 2 (which has also given me the most trouble). I do believe that GFE's threshold for optimizing games is 60fps, but when I enter the game, it is never more than 10fps at those recommended settings. I also benchmarked the card with 3DMark and the score was 4553: a long way off from the average score of 6780. All of these issues still persist even though I have OC'd the card to rather high stable frequencies. Am I bottlenecking the card since I have an i7-950? And could that be solved by upgrading to a 4th gen i7 or is this just the nature of the card?

Thanks.

 

[NoOneLt]

Hi,

Maybe You can provide full system specs, VGA driver version, MB, RAM, OS, etc. I have GTX660 (MSI) and Intel i5-2500K, had no problem in planetside, though read it can be CPU demanding, and lot's of people have performance issues with it.

Compared i7-960 (couldn't find) 950 with my CPU they don't' look so different in 3DMark or games.. http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/charts/cpu-charts-2012/compare,3176.html?prod%5B5760%5D=on&prod%5B5751%5D=on

Have You tried to monitor performance of Your system during game?

 

[Dmichael15]

ASUS X58 Sabertooth, 320.49 driver, Crucial 12GB 1866MHz DDR3, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I have OpenHardware Monitor running and during the game my CPU stays below 70C at an average of 25% load (stock heatsink fan) and the video card is anywhere from 45-50C at a 99% load (it never hits 100%). Planetside 2 also crashes every 20 minutes or so which apparenty is a very common problem as of late.

 

[NoOneLt]

And how about other games or tests for example http://unigine.com/products/heaven/?

Also check GPU-Z information, what it shows You in BUS interface during load? Do You have Your card inserted into right (first) PCI-E x16 slot?

And how You system was performing before? Was it sudden performance drop or something have changed?

 

[Dmichael15]

It is in the first PCIe slot and it was only working fine for about 15 minutes after I installed it then everything just went down the drain in terms of performance and framerate. Also, when my computer is idle, the GPU load is 97-99%. Thanks for your help so far.

 

[NoOneLt]

And how about Your PSU? What is it? Also, have You tried to reinsert it? have You removed old drivers, maybe it was AMD?

Check Your BIOS version also, maybe You should flash BIOS and reset to optimal settings.

 

[Dmichael15]

Power supply is by CoolerMaster and is 500W. This PC was custom built by my local computer store back in '10 and was a gift so excuse my lack of information on what the components are. You may be right about the BIOS since it is the first edition and there are 10 new versions. I will update it and see if my problem is solved. Thanks again.

 

[NoOneLt]

Np, inform on progress!

 

[Dmichael15]

I flashed the BIOS and updated to the latest version and the were no changes in framerate in any game and I would also like to make a correction: the RAM is 1066MHz not 1866MHz, my mistake. I am considering just returning the card to my local PC store and getting a card from Newegg or Amazon since I bought this card for $260 and it retails for $200 online.

 

[NoOneLt]

Those local stores... but it could be that problem is somewhere else. Could you run http://unigine.com/products/heaven/ for a while and post what was the settings, performance and if it crashed then how? about the ram, well it can cause lower performance, as 1866 could bring some % performance in some games, i believe PS2 is more cpu demanding and higher ram speeds can give performance boost.. Though Your CPU seems to support 1066MHz Max but mobo says 1866 MHz max

What i concerned about is Your PSU as it seems i7-950 is watt hungry cpu, please check http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp or google other PSU calculator and put all Your components together.

And if it is possible please give more details on Yous PSU, there should be such table on it:

Also, while benchmarking please RUN GPU-Z and provede screen, mine looks like:

And check PerfCap field here, there should be several reasons, what slows down You GPU.

And here is mine Unigene benchmark results:
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

FPS:
25.7
Score:
646
Min FPS:
14.4
Max FPS:
58.0
System

Platform:
Windows NT 6.2 (build 9200) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (3301MHz) x4
GPU model:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 9.18.13.2049 (2048MB) x1
Settings

Render:
Direct3D11
Mode:
1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Preset
Custom
Quality
Ultra
Tessellation:
Extreme

 

[Dmichael15]

Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0

FPS:
23.9
Score:
603
Min FPS:
6.7
Max FPS:
56.1

System

Platform:
Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1) 64bit
CPU model:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz (3073MHz) x4
GPU model:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 9.18.13.2049 (2048MB) x1

Settings

Render:
Direct3D11
Mode:
1920x1080 8xAA fullscreen
Preset
Custom
Quality
Ultra
Tessellation:
Extreme

I don't have a picture of the PSU table, but I did use the calculator and I was very conservative with the estimates and values and it recommended a minimum of 509 watts. I checked the log of GPU-Z during the benchmarking and this is what I came up with:

Max GPU Clock 1110.5MHz
Max TDP 98.6%
Max Memory Clock 1502.3MHz
Max GPU Load 99%
Max Memory Used 1177MB
Max Fan Speed 1440RPM
Max Temperature 63C
Max VDDC 1.162V

Also, I am forced to set my power options to Power Saving mode otherwise my CPU overheats within seconds and shuts downs down the PC.

 

[NoOneLt]

Well, Your card seems to perform as it should. And CPU overheating is not GOOD!! ) Why don't You mentioned it before? You said CPU temps stays at normal levels.

Is your CPU cooler working? Open the case and check. Run Intel CPU diagnostics: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=19792 What temps causes shutdown? It should be very high, like 90~100C, really not normal.

If CPU is really overheating be sure to have thermal paste and use this tutorial to remove old once and apply new http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gx6c62D7I, if You remove cooler not just put it back if You see there is some paste, clean and apply new one even if there was one.

 

[Dmichael15]

I have checked the CPU Heatsink fan and it runs properly. I have applied Arctic-Cool thermal paste twice in a very small quantity, but the CPU still averages 50C idle in power saving mode. When I set it to balanced the average idle temperature is around 60C and when it is set to High Performance the average idle temperature is 65C. I know that these temperatures are way too high for idle. I have two 120mm high performance fans and one 140mm high performance fan in my case, a 508mm box fan blowing directly at my case on full power and a central air register pulling all hot air from the back of the case so it just doesn't make sense why it would be so hot. Shutdowns occur at the temperatures you listed and those occur when the CPU is under load on the Balanced and High Performance power settings, though it has been awhile since I experienced a shutdown. I also perform CPU and RAM stress tests with the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility and the CPU test never passes as it overheats in literally less than 3 seconds.

I also started playing War Thunder and at Medium-High settings I was pulling 100-200fps, but the third time I opened the game it was anywhere from 10-32fps, but mostly at 22-25. I then dropped settings to the absolute lowest they could go and I still only got 20fps in the menu and 50 in-game.

My last post was a bit exaggerated with how the CPU overheats so quickly...

 

[NoOneLt]

Well if You can't pass Intel CPU diagnostic tool there is definitely a problem.. CPU should max out at 70-80C, full load, though i7-950 tJMax is 100C working on max temps do damage CPU..

Make sure You have max performance power option, run some VGA benchmark and take screenshot of GPU-Z - PerfCap could tell You something, of course best to do this when system is performing badly.

 

[Dmichael15]

The problem actually lied with svchost.exe*32. I knew that svchost.exe had to be running from the system32 folder otherwise it was a trojan/virus/malware/bitminer. I saw that I was using 10-13% of my CPU in one particular process and I found that it was the svchost.exe*32 and that it was running from the user directory; in the Temp folder. That is why when I would put the PC in standby and then boot it up again the games would run flawlessly because the svchost.exe*32 was a startup program and it stopped when I put the PC into standby and would not start up when it came back from standby because I wasn't booting up the PC from a powered down state. I ended the process and now there are no issues what so ever. I can run Planetside 2 on High Settings at 35-60fps, War Thunder at Medium-High Settings at 115fps, benchmarks are much higher and the GPU stays at 0% usage when the PC is idle and doesn't even need to go any higher than 50% usage in all games.

I can't thank you enough for all your help. Your knowledge has been invaluable and should any other issue arise, I won't hesitate to look to you for help.