CPU processing graphics instead of the GPU?

[James Jenkins]

Hello, I have been having a strange problem lately with my PC processing graphics. I have a video card installed (a GTX 660 TI) but it seems to only handle the graphics processing part of the time. I have monitored my GPU load and it will be working for about 20 seconds before droping to 0, at which time I can only assume my CPU is stepping in. After another minute or so, my GPU steps back in, my frame rates look great for another 20 seconds or so and then the GPU cuts out again resulting in a drastic frame rate drop. This cycle continually repeats as long as I have a game open. I can't seem to find any similar issues and I am hoping for some help diagnosing the problem. Here is what I've tried so far:

1) I've tried different video cards on the same set up, all of which produce the same result.
2) I've tried using different hard drives. I installed windows and a video game to test on each, then tested each one. I used the GTX 660 as the video card each time. This produced the same result.
3) I have tried moving my video card to a different PCIe slot but to no avail.

Here is my current set-up
Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM
Motherboard: ASUS M4A77T
Video Card: GTX 660 TI
CPU: AMD Phenom™II X6 1055T
Cooling: XtremeGear Liquid Cooling System 120MM
PSU: 700 Watts - XtremeGear
RAM: 8GB (2GBx4) DDR3/1600MHz Dual Channel
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit) w/ SP1

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

 

[gregbattis]

Update your drivers and make sure you have all the nvidia settings correct. It could be selecting the gpu for some tasks and not others.

 

[photonboy]

1) The CPU or another GPU (like CPU's iGPU) can't dynamically replace your video card. There are some atypical setups but you don't have that.

Thus, your GPU is doing all the proper video processing. Your problem is likely a SOFTWARE issue of some kind.

2) *Try reinstalling the latest NVidia drivers but choose custom "CLEAN INSTALL" instead. That's fixed a problem I had before when removing and reinstalling the drivers didn't work.

3) If it doesn't work I can only suggest reinstalling Windows.

**If you have a spare drive you could download and install the Windows 10 Tech Preview. Boot from the install DVD to install and you should end up automatically with a Dual-Boot setup (do not install from within Windows and do an update).

Not only will you be able to mess around with Windows 10 to determine compatibility with hardware and software (since it's a free upgrade later) but a clean install plus drivers etc will let you see if your problem still exists. Probably it won't. If not, you can decide if you want to reinstall Windows 7 or not.

I had NO MAJOR PROBLEMS with Windows 10 Tech Preview and the NVidia drivers worked just fine.

Other:
If you install W10 in dual-boot I suggest running 3DMark2001 (free) on both systems as well and compare scores. I got just SLIGHTLY higher score on W10 probably because less software was running.

I installed a few games to test and they ran just fine on my i7-3770K + GTX680.

 

[James Jenkins]

Update your drivers and make sure you have all the nvidia settings correct. It could be selecting the gpu for some tasks and not others.

Thank you for your reply. I did check my drivers and they are up to date. While I was looking through the settings I did notice that the physx processor was set to auto i switched it to my video card. While this didn't solve my problem, it did help keep frame rates a bit more stable after the GPU load dropped off. Thanks for your help!

 

[gregbattis]

Sure thing!

 

[James Jenkins]

1) The CPU or another GPU (like CPU's iGPU) can't dynamically replace your video card. There are some atypical setups but you don't have that.

Thus, your GPU is doing all the proper video processing. Your problem is likely a SOFTWARE issue of some kind.

2) *Try reinstalling the latest NVidia drivers but choose custom "CLEAN INSTALL" instead. That's fixed a problem I had before when removing and reinstalling the drivers didn't work.

3) If it doesn't work I can only suggest reinstalling Windows.

**If you have a spare drive you could download and install the Windows 10 Tech Preview. Boot from the install DVD to install and you should end up automatically with a Dual-Boot setup (do not install from within Windows and do an update).

Not only will you be able to mess around with Windows 10 to determine compatibility with hardware and software (since it's a free upgrade later) but a clean install plus drivers etc will let you see if your problem still exists. Probably it won't. If not, you can decide if you want to reinstall Windows 7 or not.

I had NO MAJOR PROBLEMS with Windows 10 Tech Preview and the NVidia drivers worked just fine.

Other:
If you install W10 in dual-boot I suggest running 3DMark2001 (free) on both systems as well and compare scores. I got just SLIGHTLY higher score on W10 probably because less software was running.

I installed a few games to test and they ran just fine on my i7-3770K + GTX680.

Thank you for your suggestions! I will make a partition for W10 tonight and re-install W7 and W10 tomorrow and will see how that goes. I think I've only tried W7 so hopefully a different, or at least updated, operating system will help solve the problem. If you think of anything else please let me know! I appreciate you taking the time to help me!