Benchmark drop, low CPU usage on GTX 970

[spAde44]

I bought a used GTX 970 over the summer.

Original benchmark when I first got it [Heaven]: 2223
Current benchmark: 1314

I was looking at the CPU usage for the latter, and it's only 16% (quite low).

Performance suffers in Fallout 4 and Civ 6 as well. Only getting 40-50fps on medium settings at 1680x1050.

This is after cleaning drivers with DDU and reinstalling most recent.

Any help would be appreciated....

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Zotac GTX 970 4GB
i5 - 4460 @3.2Ghz
8GB DDR3 1600MHz

 

[spAde44]

The problem was my Power Setting. I had switched to a custom Remote Desktop setting that borrowed the CPU power management options from Power Saver.

Control Panel > Power Option > Edit Plan Settings > Change Advanced Power Options Setting
[+] Processor Power Management
Minimum processor state: 100% [doesn't mean your CPU burns at 100% all the time, btw]
System Cooling policy: Active [turns the fan on instead of slowing down the processor when things get hot, i.e. gaming!]
Maximum processor state: 100% [Makes sense]

These are the setting from the 'High Performance' default, so just use that.

TL;DR Use the 'High Performance' power default under Control Options > Power Options.