EVGA GTX 980Ti SC - Poor Performance

bigcores

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Nov 7, 2013
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So last week I purchased the 980Ti. Ever since i installed it I've felt like it just wasn't performing as well as it should be. Today i decided to boot up BF4 and see how the card performed at ultra settings. Now, i know BF4 is notorious for having bad performance but something just isn't right. I'm getting around 70-80 fps on ultra and even when i lower it down to the lowest settings, i get 90-100. After doing some searching, i see people with a 980 at ultra settings getting around the same fps as i get on low.

I have tried some other games that I would usually play such as Witcher 3 which i get around 60-70 fps on max settings. I also tried WoW which gets about 70 fps in the garrison on max settings which to me seems RIDICULOUS for a card of this power.

Here are my specs:
CPU: Intel i7 4790k
GPU: EVGA GTX 980TI SC
PSU: Corsair TX650
RAM: 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3
OS: Windows 8.1
Resolution: 1080p

I know this is pretty vague but I honestly have no idea why the card is performing so poorly. Any help and suggestions would be much appreciated. If I've missed any info i apologise.
 

sz0ty0l4

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you should start with fireing up msi afterburner and checking gpu usage,cpu usage,gpu power load,core and memory clock and temperatures while playing bf4 and then listing the values monitored while the issue is happening.
also is vsync and or gsync switched off while playing?
 

eXimpo

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Well, i couldn't tell you what is wrong, but there obviously is something, because with my computer:
MB: ASUS Maximus VII HERO
CPU: Core i7 4790k
GPU: ASUS GTX 970 STRIX
PSU: EVGA Supernova G2 750W
RAM: 16GB Kingston HyperX Savage 2400Mhz DDR3
OS: Windows 7
Playing BF4 at resolution 1080p and all settings maxed i'm getting 75-85fps in 30+player game all the time.
 

bigcores

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GPU Usage: 40% (why is it not using more?
CPU Usage: 90-100%
GPU Power Load: 45-50%
GPU Core Clock: Default
GPU Memory Clock: Default
GPU Temp: 81c (seems to stay at that and not move while playing games)
CPU Temp: 60-65c
 

bigcores

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Ok, so i uninstalled all GPU drivers and reinstalled the latest 980ti driver and although the performance seems to be sightly improved, its still no right for this card. The GPU usage still seems to be sitting around 40%. Is this normal? shouldn't it be higher?
 

eXimpo

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Probably, because CPU is already loaded at 100%, what does task manager say about CPU usage, is it all going for BF4, or are there other applications, that load it so much?
 

sz0ty0l4

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CAn you please download hwinfo64 and check the 12v rail voltage ,gpu core voltage, pci-e speed while playing for more insight on the system?

I think you have a cpu bottleneck here. Please check all background application, and also please download malwarebytes and choose an antivirus program aswell and do a full scan on your PC. Your CPU threads should definitely not be 90-100%.

If it turns out not to be a cpu issue it may still be a power supply issue.
 

bigcores

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I have just noticed that after getting rid of those old GPU drivers that the CPU usage has came down to around 70-80% which is mostly taken up by BF4 with some of it taken up by chrome and origin.
 

bigcores

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I don't exactly know what I'm looking at here so heres a screenshot of the HWiNFO screen. http://imgur.com/fjPr08l

As mentioned above, the CPU is no longer running at 90-100% after removing the old GPU drivers and doing a restart, which makes no sense to me.
 

sz0ty0l4

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i think something is wrong with this hwinfo why does it think your card has 48 rops? Must be some inconsistency with the hwinfo64 version. could you download the latest? you should be able to see the 12v rail voltage then, monitored in real time while playing as well as all the other values a lot more detailed and corrected.

also i see you are using a z87 board and the bios date is 2014/07. you didn't flash the bios when you bought the 4790k??
 

bigcores

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That was the latest version of HWiNFO i downloaded. Any idea what version i should use?

Also, no, i didn't flash the bios. I'm guessing i was meant to do this?
 

sz0ty0l4

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Yes, but you should first gather information on how to do it. the z87 chipset is designed for haswell (7 4770) and the z97 is designed for haswell refresh( 4790). so this could be a reason for the weird CPU usage.

I think i've downloaded it frm here http://www.hwinfo.com/download.php, but did you look the checkbox when starting hwinfo? you should check " sensors only" for getting the real time monitored values.

here i've found your mb specs and natively it won't support the 4790K
http://www.msi.com/support/mb/Z87-G45-GAMING.html#support-cpu
 

bigcores

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Ok I found the correct screen now, gunna boot up BF4 again and check the info. When you say 12v rail do you mean the +12v row under the mobo section?
 

sz0ty0l4

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or wait i've just checked the bios dates on the same site i've linked and it seems your z87 board has the newest bios with haswell refresh support. so you won't need to reflash it. hmm...
then it's back to malwares/viruses or the psu.
I'd suggest to download malwarebytes run it then run an antivirus program for a full scan on the PC.
Also check the mentioned vlaues in hwinfo while playing( 12vrail voltage& gpu core voltage )


Yes we need the 12v rail values from the motherboard section same for gpu core voltage. we need the min and max values while playing. hwinfo will automatically save them , you can read it while alt-tabbing. also check the pcie speed
 

bigcores

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Ok so here's the info after playing for a few minutes
PCIe Link Speed: 8.000Gpbs
GPU Core Voltage: Minimum=0.999V Maximum=1.187V Average=1.118V
+12V: Minimum=12.056V Maximum=12.144V Average=12.078V

Hope this helps and apologies for not knowing what I'm doing here :p
 

sz0ty0l4

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problem is this points to nowhere, these values are fine.. :/

one more idea is the malware/virus full scan.
also did you uninstall the old driver with ddu? or just from windows? did you delete geforce experience aswell?
 

bigcores

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I just ran a scan on Malwarebytes and no malware was found. It deleted 7 "potentially unwanted objects" but they weren't malware. I used ddu to uninstall all drivers, it then restarted my pc and i had to download the newest driver from the geforce website.

If all else fails i guess i could go for a new PSU and see if it fixes any problems.

I appreciate your time and help :)
 

bigcores

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Oh sorry forgot to mention that, ddu uninstalled GFE as well as all past drivers.