Constant FPS Drops

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Africa_PC

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Sep 6, 2013
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Hi,

I have been experiencing framerate drops in BF4 with my MSI GTX 760 OC so I decided to upgrade it to a Gigabyte GTX 970 WF3.

I put everything on Ultra of course and yet again I am experiencing FPS drops all the way down to 41fps. I am playing @ 1920 x 1200 and I use VSYNC with frames limited to 58fps.

I am trying to figure out what I need to upgrade next to stop this. I have a few theories but I need some expert help.

I think it could be my motherboard and its 4+1 powerphase throttling the CPU. Or my PSU is not providing enough power/voltage to the system.

AMD FX 6300 Stock
MSI 970A-G46 Mobo
8GB DDR3 1600 Kingston Beast
120GB Kingston SSD
1TB Seagate Barracuda
Gigabyte GTX 970 WF3
Thermaltake ToughPower 550W 80 Gold Plus PSU
 
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I am definitely not going to overclock on that board. I haven't tried my new card on lower res because the card is a 4GB card. In saying that, I did get the same FPS drops with my GTX 760 on my older screen @ 1600 x 900. Same settings. I am only really experiencing the drops during large explosions and sometimes as I spawn in a very detailed area.

I am glad I can eliminate the PSU although I am going to try a 650W Cougar PSU tonight to see if that helps. My next step is running Prime95 to see if the board is throttling the CPU because the VRM's getting too hot. But otherwise I am running out of idea's. I need the solution so that I can buy the right component.
 
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I should add a few things. On the previous card (GTX760) I was noticing that the Utilization Limit in MSI Afterburner was hitting 1 when I was getting the lag. At the same point the CPU usage does not reach 100%. I will do some more monitoring tonight but I am yet to notice CPU usage up to 100% while playing so I don't think that it is throttling me just yet.

I hope we can just conclude that it is the board so I can just get a new board and not have to buy intel just yet. I would rather get a top end board and OC my current chip than buy both board and new chip. Cost effective.
 
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I dont mind having to OC my current chip because I know AMD has a lot of headroom. I am looking at the MSI® AMD 990FXA-GD80 990FX+SB950 if I am going to upgrade my AMD or I will get the overclockable i5 with this board MSI® Intel Z97M Gaming Z97 Chipset, Socket 1150.

I don't want to do that though unless we know that it is the processor that is causing it. If it is because of the board holding back the processor then I can just upgrade my board and OC the chip. Know what I mean ?
 
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I have done a bit more research and it has come to my attention that GPU Boost 2.0 could also cause spikes due to the constant fluctuation in core clocks on the GPU. I will try disable that tonight and see if it helps anything.
 
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I know but in this case I want to find out the problem before I make the decision. Hence I need some expert help here. I ran Prime95, not for too long, it was mainly just to check the temps of the chip, VRM's and the voltage. I have turned off some power saving options on the CPU and the Turbo Core facility. It was stable at 3.5GHz. The voltage was pretty consistent at 1.3v. The CPU temp got up to 63C max which is quite hot but not to alarming.

That has at least eliminated the throttling idea. My next step is trying the higher spec PSU. Will let you know how it goes. Some additional help would be nice.
 
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It's just not a good mobo to oc on,if you want to try that is it up to you.
And i also think this,=bottleneck,is the problem,getting a better motherboard instead of a psu is your money better spend.
In this the moderator says it's a bad board for it also,but others had a stable overclock on it,
http://www.google.nl/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tomshardware.com%2Fanswers%2Fid-2007653%2Famd-6300-msi-970a-g46-mobo-overclocking-guide-beginners.html&ei=rKJQVJutCM7gaLK4gPAP&usg=AFQjCNECF3XCGx7vA9QtRVYKmavB_1wfOQ
and a whole lot of other threads about it,
https://www.google.nl/?gws_rd=ssl#q=msi+970a-g46+overclocking
read some and make up your mind.

The cooler is a good choice of course,make sure you get one that fit's your case.The cooler master hyper 212 evo is always a decent choice for not too much money.
 
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I won't OC on that board because I want to sell it. I did some experimenting last night and it seemed to lessen the frequency of the drops. First I used nvidia inspector to force my GPU to run at max core clock constant instead of fluctuating when needed. Its standard clock is 1114mhz with a boost to 1253mhz. I forced it to stay on 1200mhz. Then in the nvidia control panel, I had set power settings for bf4.exe to prefer maximum performance power settings. I then changed that setting in global settings rather than just for that game. (This seemed to make the biggest difference)

I have also forced my processor to stay at 3.5GHz constantly and disable Turbo Core Technology and all of the power saving options.

I did notice that my CPU usage while running bf4 was 50% BUT that doesnt mean that its not the bottleneck as I found out yesterday. Because it is six core it shares the load, but at the same time it is operating at its max speed. With that being said, I agree with Vic 40 in saying that the CPU is the bottleneck.

I am going to upgrade to core i5-4690K and then I have to choose a motherboard.
 
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Good choice imo,make a new thread if you need help with the motherboard.

Are you sure you want the "K" version? It's really for overclockers so make sure you want to do that.
 
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Well I would rather do that so in the future I can OC if need be. I will proabably get the board that I mentioned earlier in the post.
I dont want to be stuck in the same position that I am in 2 years down the line because I can't OC my processor.
 
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Okay,you're open for it,that's all i need to know.

That motherboard seems a good choice.Quite expensive when i look in the partpicker,there are less expensive ones that look cool too (imo) and get the same performance and features.
Some choices including yours,
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/compare/asrock-motherboard-fatal1tyz97xkiller%2Casrock-motherboard-z97extreme4%2Cgigabyte-motherboard-gaz97xud3h%2Cmsi-motherboard-z97mgaming/
or another m-atx,
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/asrock-motherboard-z97mocformula
 
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How is the quality of the ASRock board. The Z97 Extreme ? Components cost even more in south africa. That MSI board equates to about $180 if converted directly and that is from a distributor. I am just going to put the parts through my business so I dont pay tax. If the ASRock board is fine for OC then Ill go for it.
 
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Ya. Well I hope my new i5 doesnt limit me like my FX6300 has. Thanks for the help dude.
 
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