Borderlands 2 Not performing as it should

[Zaku77]

So I'm having a lot of issues with performance in Borderlands 2. My current setup is:

i5 3570k OCd to 4.5 ghz
EVGA 780 ti classified
Windows 8.1
I don't think anything else matters that much.

With every setting turned as high as it will go, no v sync, no triple buffering, unlimited frames, I am not getting the performance that I should be getting. It will often run at 120+ but there are tons of areas--and these aren't even high action, densely populated areas--where it drops to 60s and sometimes even 50s.

I am running the most recent NVIDIA driver beta. I have my power usage set to max performance globally. I left GPU-z running while I was playing it, and it did log 98% usage as the max for the GPU, which just seems like nonsense for this game. Any ideas on what's going on and how to make it better?


Edit: Playing some more now, and it can't even maintain 60 during most combat. This is nonsense, honestly.

 

[Vynavill]

Are you perhaps using PhysX effects? With a 780 Ti they shouldn't be an issue, however I'd try turning those to low or disabling them entirely and see how the game goes. You're not losing anything really, it just adds particle eye-candy which eventually become annoying actually... or at least that's my opinion.
I almost maxed out the game without them on my old 6870, still haven't tried with my R9 290x. I guess I could try giving it a spin and report you the outcome, to see if it's just the latest high-end cards...

Also, what resolution are you playing at?

 

[Zaku77]

Are you perhaps using PhysX effects? With a 780 Ti they shouldn't be an issue, however I'd try turning those to low or disabling them entirely and see how the game goes. You're not losing anything really, it just adds particle eye-candy which eventually become annoying actually... or at least that's my opinion.
I almost maxed out the game without them on my old 6870, still haven't tried with my R9 290x. I guess I could try giving it a spin and report you the outcome, to see if it's just the latest high-end cards...

Also, what resolution are you playing at?

Yeah, I have every thing at max, and that includes Physx. I did notice an increase when I turned it to low--Medium made little to no difference--but this is a 780ti, so needing to do that is just nonsense. I'm playing at 1080p

 

[Vynavill]

I really don't know then...As I stated, I'm on a R9 290x, more precisely an ASUS R9 290x DCUII OC, and after a bit of "benchmarking" with Gpu-Z and Fraps I'm not noticing any slowdown whatsoever unless I fire up PhysX effects (meh, captain obvious here, but whatever...):
Everything maxed out @ 1080p
V-Sync off - unlimited framerate
PhysX low (I forgot this game has no off XD) - Fraps reports constantly between 150 and 250 FPS depending on the situation, Gpu-Z reports 100% max load and 85% avg.
PhysX max - Fraps reports constantly between 100 and 150 FPS, taking a huge hit in combat and going down to 45 FPS, with Gpu-Z still reporting 100% max load and 90% avg.

Both tries have been done by closing the game, Fraps and Gpu-Z entirely before applying changes, so they're not biased by older values.

Other than the fact that the Steam cloud seems to have lost all of my saves (and that means a max leveled, all token challenges completed, "The Bee" powered Zero with a Lyuda, specced for headshot criticals...), and the fact it's back in italian for some reason (which has an horrible dubbing compared to english...) it runs perfectly fine.

Are you sure you don't have any overpowering settings from the Nvidia Control Panel? Might be it's applying some driver-based technologies which improve graphic quality but give a huge it to the game...but I'm totally guessing here...
Can you also post the rest of your specs? just for completion in case someone else comes and tries helping.

 

[Zaku77]

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Zaku77/saved/3k4NnQ

I do have some settings changed in the Nvidia pannel, but they were all default to begin with, so none of the fiddling has really done anything. I do have Physx on High, and 40s for combat is just unacceptable to me with this GPU. I guess my 'fix' is to turn Physx to low, which is a giant piss off, honestly.

 

[Vynavill]

Seriously, you lose nothing of the game by setting Physx to low, although I admit having a 780 Ti and not being able to use them is quite annoying...
I played the entire game at low Physx and seen how it is from videos and friends with Physx set for normal or high.
They indeed look cool, but after a while they become clutter you won't like to see...

Unless someone else with more knowledge about Nvidias can get deeper in the matter, I'm afraid I can't help you anymore than that. Although I must say, for some very odd reason that Z77 MoBo is bugging me...feels like that chipset shouldn't be there and should be replaced by a Z87, but whatever...

P.S. lol about pcpartpicker reporting compatibility issues between the H110 and the Rosewill THOR V2