Extreme FPS Drops (60+ to 15) GTX 680

[Dane Carder]

Hello!

Here are my specs

GTX 680 FTW 4Gb
ASRock Z77 Extreme 4
840Pro SSD
I5 3570K @4.5 Ghz.

Any game I play will cycle between butter smooth FPS and drop to unplayable levels.

I am completely stumped. I originally thought my issue was a problem with ArmA 3 because it would run butter smooth on all ultra settings then slow down 5 seconds later to 10 fps for a few seconds then be butter smooth for another few seconds and this cycle would repeat endlessly, until the game crashes and my monitor refreshed. After that every game would run flawlessly butter smooth on ultra. But ONLY after whatever it is crashes and my monitor refreshed. I found out this stuttering happens in Every game, and happens right off the bat when I start my computer until the crash in whatever game I play.

I tried increasing power target in Precision X to 130% and it didn't help. I know my CPU, Memory, and hard drives are not the problem, everything checks out in prime 95, performance monitor and after the crash / refresh.

I have treid the 3.14 WHQL and 3.20 BETA drivers, All sorts of settings in the NVC Panel, Power modes, monitor modes, VSync on and off, all settings to performance / quality... Still.

One thing that I find odd is in GPU-Z my TDP Power consumption will jump from 30-50% while its running butter smooth to 275-280% when my FPS drops to unplayable.

I checked my PCI Express speed, its 3.0 16x 3.0... the core clock and memory clocks are good, my power supply is pumping the right voltage... VCore on processor and GPU check out...

I just don't get it. I try all Default settings in the NVidia control panel and still no cigar... but when whatever game it is finally crashes ... Everything runs butter smooth. I hate having to wait for a game to crash and have my PC be unplayable until then to play games at my PC's full capacity. Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

-Dane

 

[ur6beersaway]

BIOS 2.80?http://www.asrock.com/MB/download.asp?Model=Z77%20Extreme4&o=BIOS

 

[Dane Carder]

BIOS 2.80?http://www.asrock.com/MB/download.asp?Model=Z77%20Extreme4&o=BIOS

Yes, running Bios 2.80 ... updated my chipset drivers... etc

 

[Dane Carder]

I updated to a new version of Precision X... I noticed that in game the memory and core clock are all dropping to 324... and when I exit the game everything jumps back up to full speed= 1241 core and 3321 memory

 

[Rockerbacon]

Make sure your power supply can handle your computer configuration and that all power cables are plugged correctly.

 

[cookybiscuit]

Set up an overlay and monitor GPU usage, core and memory clock, look for anything funny.

324 is the cards idle clock, I've had a similar problem to what you are describing but I had it locked at that, rather than bounce up and down like you describe. I got rid of it by simply restarting the system, though you've probably tried that.

The Nvidia control panel often says its doing something, but isn't. Try downloading Nvidia Inspector, go to a game where you have the problem, and change the power management to 'prefer maximum performance'.

 

[Dane Carder]

Make sure your power supply can handle your computer configuration and that all power cables are plugged correctly.

I've got a 620 watt power supply, M12II Bronze by seasonic...

 

[Dane Carder]

Set up an overlay and monitor GPU usage, core and memory clock, look for anything funny.

324 is the cards idle clock, I've had a similar problem to what you are describing but I had it locked at that, rather than bounce up and down like you describe. I got rid of it by simply restarting the system, though you've probably tried that.

The Nvidia control panel often says its doing something, but isn't. Try downloading Nvidia Inspector, go to a game where you have the problem, and change the power management to 'prefer maximum performance'.

I downloaded and ran inspector... it will drop to 3fps now when it drops to 324mhz @ almost 300% power... then when it speeds up for a moment it runs at regular clock speed at ~30, ~50%, ~70% Power.

 

[Dane Carder]

I fixed it. I uninstalled my graphics card from device manager, uninstalled all my nvidia drivers, uninstalled precision X, Rivia tuner, MSI Afterburner, restarted a few times throughout, reinstalled nvidia display drivers and restarted and no more issues, running flawlessly!

 

[Dane Carder]

Nevermind, It's still doing it!

Edit: http://www.evga.com/support/faq/afmviewfaq.aspx?faqid=59211 Either that helped or just moving around the clock speeds in MSI Afterburner helped. AH!