Question DX12 Games major fps drops on high end PC?

[Xenaisu]

Hi all,

I'm new to posting questions on forums so hopefully I did this correctly.

I have what I believe to be a very unique issue where when I launch some of the newer DX12 games after a few minutes in most, I am met with a huge fps drop down to between 1-15fps. During this state my entire computer freezes and the severity of the freeze depends on the game I launched. After about a minute the fps goes back to normal and I can continue playing my games, however my microphone bugs out as a result of this freeze, sometimes disconnecting, other times distorting in discord calls, in which I have to unplug/replug the microphone. This while also paired with my ISP resetting my network in the middle of the night, dc'ing me from my matches, in most cases having to restart the game to connect faster proves to be quite a headache if I am playing a competitive game. I have troubleshooted this many times and searched all over the internet but could not find a solution. I have lived with this issue for over a year and a half now. So I am writing a full report of everything I've tried and recorded.

Specs:
GPU: Zotac 4090 Trinity OC.
CPU: Ryzen 9 7900X.
MOBO: Asus ROG Crosshair X670E HERO.
RAM: DDR5 32GB (don't know the brand but I know the ram works fine).
PSU: Corsair HX850W.
Storage: 2TB M.2. , 256GB M.2. , 2TB Hard drive (The storage is also okay).
Windows 10 and 11.
Monitor: Samsung Odyssey G9

Microphone setup:
Shure SM7B.
Chained to a DBX286s.
Chained to a Scarlett Solo interface.

Games I play this happens in:
The Finals.
Crossout.
Fragpunk.
Dying Light 2.
Meet your maker.
More that I haven't tested yet.

State of computer:
No malware.
All drivers up to date.
Windows up to date.
Bios up to date.
Monitor firmware up to date.
No background programs running whatsoever.

I tried:
Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
Turning off the Nvidia app overlay.
Turning off DLSS.
Many different Graphics drivers Studio/Gaming.
Lowest settings for each game.
Enabling or disabling Hardware acceleration in Windows settings.
Disabling Control Flow Guard in Windows Exploit Protection for each program. (Known to create hitching in dx12 games)
Resetting the computer.
Deep cleaning the computer.
Changing thermal paste.
Undervolting the CPU.
Thermal throttle limits on CPU.
Underclocking the GPU.
Custom fan curves on GPU.
Unplugging everything but the keyboard and mouse.
Changing the Nvidia Octopus adapter to a dedicated Corsair double 6 pin.

To note:
Upon building the PC it ran smoothly, I thought a driver/software update caused this at the time.
The APU is not enabled.
This doesn't happen in every DX12 game. For example Marvel Rivals and Once Human, which share the same developers as Fragpunk.
This doesn't happen in Unreal engine directly, which Fragpunk and The Finals is built on.
This doesn't happen in any game that is DX12 but doesn't have the newest nvidia technology such as ray tracing or frame generation.
This doesn't happen in any game that is not DX12 or software like Adobe products.
I never use Frame Generation.
Sometimes I use ray tracing but turned off during testing.
Fragpunk didn't freeze when I first installed it and multiple sessions

Observations:
Temperatures are stable
HWInfo suggests all the power rails are stable.
CPU usage stays at normal values.
Upon launching any game but Fragpunk, in task manager I can see the GPU Copy graph spike up to 100% during the freeze while the 3D graph decreases, following both values going back to normal once the freeze is gone.
When I launch Fragpunk however, the freeze happens instantly and the values stay the same.

Speculations:
I have researched the GPU copy graph and while it may suggest it is a memory leak. I find it unplausible because the RAM and storage usage stays at relatively the same values.
While it may also suggest that there is PSU issue it wouldn't make sense how the games go back to normal at 3840x1080 200 fps + stable.

I don't have any other parts to test with outside of my GTX 1080ti which wouldn't do any justice.

But yea I'm losing my mind just thinking about it if you have any questions I would be more than happy to resolve.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

MOBO: Asus ROG Crosshair X670E HERO.
What BIOS version are you on for your motherboard?

PSU: Corsair HX850W.
How old is the PSU?
+
GPU: Zotac 4090 Trinity OC.
People with an RTX 4090 were advised to pick up a 1KW or higher, reliably built PSU to power their entire system.

Upgrading from Windows 10 to Windows 11.
If you performed the upgrade to Windows 11 using the internal upgrade path in Windows 10, then you're advised to reinstall your OS. Recreate the bootable USB installer for Windows 11, disconnect all drives except for the one you wish to install the OS onto, install the OS in offline mode, then manually install all drivers with the latest versions while in in offline mode, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator.

All drivers up to date.
One exception to the above suggestion is that you use driver version 566.36;

View: https://youtu.be/NTXoUsdSAnA

 

[Xenaisu]

Hi Lutfij, thank you so much and for your reply.

I have been at work all day so my response isn't the fastest.

The motherboard version currently is 2904, which is the latest. The previous version was 2124 and the one before that was what the motherboard came with. The issue was present in all of them.

The power supply is 5 years old, I cannot find the exact receipt for it but I know I bought it for my previous build with a B450-F ROG Strix motherboard, with 17/06/20 as the amazon order date.

Yes I heard the news about certain manufacturers recommending 1000 watts for this card and indeed Zotac suggested that as well. However other manufacturers suggested 850w which made me decide on not buying a new PSU at the time. I don't remember the exact numbers but when looking at HWInfo while pushing the build to it's limit, the card never drew an exceeding amount of power. Though it might be limited at it's ceiling. I always wondered if it I can get more performance if I bought an ATX 3.0/3.1 PSU.

Unfortunately at the moment I will not be able to buy a new power supply but I do fear it might be the cause, still how it goes back to normal after a minute of lag, I could not figure that out.

Windows 10 - 11 upgrade was done internally at first but I also reset the whole system when finding that it didn't resolve the issue.

I will try the 566.36 driver and will report back with my findings.

Thanks again.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Current Nvidia drivers are horrible , which isn't helping. I'm on back on 566.36 , which is a tad better but not great.

 

[Xenaisu]

Alright well, I have finished most of the testing today. Indeed it takes a bit of time because this freeze only happens in one of these games once every boot. Once it gets through it the games are "primed" which is really weird.

I have revisited Fragpunk, The Finals and Crossout multiple times. The take away is that Fragpunk still lags as soon as I open it but I had a better stop motion picture, before it would freeze my entire system completely but on the 566.36 driver, I have a few more frames even during the lag.

Crossout still behaves about the same where I can have the game open for a few minutes, it lags and goes back to normal.

However in The Finals I have launched it 6 times and on non of those attempts did it freeze up.

Overall I believe the results are slightly improved but inconsistent, I feel with enough time I might get The Finals to freeze again but until then, one of my friends has a very similar system to me except for he went with AMD's graphics. He lives pretty far from me but I hope I can test his power supply with my system one of the days he's around.

Is there anything else you guys would suggest? I could provide a video of these instances if necessary.

Thanks again.