[SOLVED] FPS DROP AND UNSTABILITY: EVGA RTX 2080 + I7 7700K

[sal94]

Hi there,
I am experiencing major fps drops in all multiplayer games, for this discussion I will be referring to my performance on Call of Duty Black Ops: COLD WAR.
Prior to my desktop configuration, I want to inform you that I updated mobo bios to latest and reset all settings to stock (no overclock)
My monitor is:
- Acer XG270HU G-sync compatible (2560X1440 @ 144hz)
My desktop setup is:

• OS: Windows 10
• MOBO: MSI Z270 SLI PLUS
• CPU: I7 7700k
• COOLER: Thermaltake AIO 3 FANS water cooler
• GPU: EVGA RTX2080 XC ULTRA
• RAM: 32GB DDR4 VENGEANCE RGB
• STORAGE: 1TB Xpg Nvme - PSU: XFX XTR 750W

The performance I am having on game is quite terrible, no matter how much I change the settings, the game spikes from 110 FPS all the way down to 80. When playing Fireteam: Dirty Bomb with the same graphic settings, I get 80 fps and spike down to 60.
I have experienced pretty much the same scenario on WARZONE where after the first couple of minutes of play the game graphics become very unstable.
I have already tried the following:

• Clean windows installation
• Clean driver installation
• Power plan set to high performance
• Tried tweaking settings in NVIDIA PANEL
• Installed a periodic memory cache cleaner (ISLC)

None of this solved my issue, I have contacted friends with a similar or worse build than mine, and at the same graphic settings there are getting 130+ in game FPS. I would really appreciate your help on this.
Thank you,

Sal94

 

[RTX 2080]

Hi there,
I am experiencing major fps drops in all multiplayer games, for this discussion I will be referring to my performance on Call of Duty Black Ops: COLD WAR.
Prior to my desktop configuration, I want to inform you that I updated mobo bios to latest and reset all settings to stock (no overclock)
My monitor is:
- Acer XG270HU G-sync compatible (2560X1440 @ 144hz)
My desktop setup is:

• OS: Windows 10
• MOBO: MSI Z270 SLI PLUS
• CPU: I7 7700k
• COOLER: Thermaltake AIO 3 FANS water cooler
• GPU: EVGA RTX2080 XC ULTRA
• RAM: 32GB DDR4 VENGEANCE RGB
• STORAGE: 1TB Xpg Nvme - PSU: XFX XTR 750W

The performance I am having on game is quite terrible, no matter how much I change the settings, the game spikes from 110 FPS all the way down to 80. When playing Fireteam: Dirty Bomb with the same graphic settings, I get 80 fps and spike down to 60.
I have experienced pretty much the same scenario on WARZONE where after the first couple of minutes of play the game graphics become very unstable.
I have already tried the following:

• Clean windows installation
• Clean driver installation
• Power plan set to high performance
• Tried tweaking settings in NVIDIA PANEL
• Installed a periodic memory cache cleaner (ISLC)

None of this solved my issue, I have contacted friends with a similar or worse build than mine, and at the same graphic settings there are getting 130+ in game FPS. I would really appreciate your help on this.
Thank you,

Sal94

What is your CPU usage like when playing these games? Do any of your cores max out?

Is your GPU being underutilized?

 

[sal94]

What is your CPU usage like when playing these games? Do any of your cores max out?

Is your GPU being underutilized?

Hi thank you so much for looking into this,
I have tried in both WARZONE and COD: Black War ->
The CPU will often get some cores to high 90% but it never maxes out and stays 100% for a while.
The GPU usage looks quite fine to me, in WARZONE it gets to 90 100 no problem.
I have noticed that in COD: Black War it gets to 60-70, which might be actually be the problem because in game the power percentage draw of GPU is set to HIGH (90%).
I can see that performance is better in WARZONE compared to COD (most likely because of that)

 

[RTX 2080]

Hi thank you so much for looking into this,
I have tried in both WARZONE and COD: Black War ->
The CPU will often get some cores to high 90% but it never maxes out and stays 100% for a while.
The GPU usage looks quite fine to me, in WARZONE it gets to 90 100 no problem.
I have noticed that in COD: Black War it gets to 60-70, which might be actually be the problem because in game the power percentage draw of GPU is set to HIGH (90%).
I can see that performance is better in WARZONE compared to COD (most likely because of that)

The fact that …

1. You're getting very high CPU utilization (up to 90%)
2. COD Warzone is quite CPU heavy
3. You're getting similar fps and fps drops regardless of quality settings
4. In COD cold war your GPU is being underutilized

… shows me that you have a CPU bottleneck.

Let me explain the rendering pipeline for you:

When you play a game, your CPU requests data from your hard drive/RAM and renders certain parts of a frame. It then sends the pre-rendered frame to the GPU so that the GPU can do the portion of the frame rendering that it is responsible for which is then displayed on your screen. Thus, if your CPU/RAM isn't fast enough, certain types of games will overwhelm your CPU, causing your GPU to be underutilized because it can't begin rendering a frame until it receives it from the CPU. In your case, your processor is a 4 year old 4 core/8 thread CPU. In many modern games, 4 cores/8 threads isn't enough anymore. Compared to newer CPUs, your IPC is low as well.

To clarify further about bottlenecking, lets talk about resolution for a moment. There is a common misconception that CPU bottlenecking only happens at 1080p. This idea has been widely propagated because this is where it is most likely to happen, but that is only because 1080p has higher frame rates than resolutions like 1440p and 4k do; running at 1440p/60 fps is just as hard on your CPU as 1080p/60 fps is. Your CPU doesn't care about resolution (that's your GPU's job) it cares about frame rates. The higher your frame rates, the harder your CPU has to work, increasing your chance of a CPU bottleneck.

 

[sal94]

Perfect explanation,
I went to browse similar situations and I came across this video with a similar setup.
The same 'issue' can be seen here, where it is even more accentuated because the i7-7700k is paired with RTX3080:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvlT6ifVNRo&t=158s&ab_channel=Sneaky


So bottleneck will be harder the more frames and performance I want to get, and it definitely is game dependent.
Do you know any good way to mitigate this bottleneck?

Thanks again for your input!

 

[RTX 2080]

Perfect explanation,
I went to browse similar situations and I came across this video with a similar setup.
The same 'issue' can be seen here, where it is even more accentuated because the i7-7700k is paired with RTX3080:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvlT6ifVNRo&t=158s&ab_channel=Sneaky


So bottleneck will be harder the more frames and performance I want to get, and it definitely is game dependent.
Do you know any good way to mitigate this bottleneck?

Thanks again for your input!

Sure thing.

In your case, the game you are playing (warzone, cold war) and the frame rate you are trying to play your game at (144 fps ideally) are both heavy on the CPU which leaves you with only two real options:

1. Cap your frame rate at something low like 60 fps. This will prevent your CPU from being pushed to its limit and will give it room to do its thing. In addition, since your GPU power now is no longer being used to render frames in excess of 60 fps, you can turn quality settings back up. The obvious downside of this is that you're stuck playing at 60 fps, which sucks, leading to option #2:
2. Upgrade your CPU. Unfortunately, there is no 'cheap fix' that allows you to run the games you want the way you want with an i7-7700k, its just not powerful enough. And since that's the most powerful CPU you can put in a Z270 motherboard, you'll need to upgrade your motherboard as well.

If you're interested in upgrading, the 'modern baseline' CPUs of today include the Intel i5-10600k and the Ryzen 5 5600X. Both are 6 core / 12 thread CPUs capable of high refresh rate gaming. However, modern COD games (and many newer games in general) scale well over lots of CPU cores and threads which make 8 core / 16 thread CPUs the best bet for people willing to invest a bit more. These include the Intel i7-10700k and the Ryzen 7 5800X. These CPUs are even better equipped to handle modern gaming and are more future-proof than their 6 core / 12 thread siblings.

 

[sal94]

I thank you again for having presented the best options, and everything you've explained makes a lot of sense!
I have a golden i7-7700k for which I designed and printed the delid kit to improve temperatures, I feel really bad even thinking of having to toss this brilliant CPU away.
I managed to get that boy with low voltage to a stable 5.0/5.1ghz 24/7, if you ask me that would be more than enough to out perform any games on decent settings.
I understand that newer game want to spread on multiple cores but at the same they could definitely program an intelligent switch that optimizes the game on the current amount of threads.
It's such a shame that gaming on pc became so mainstream that every company is contributing to this console drive market, but of course everyone's in it for the money!

 

[RTX 2080]

I thank you again for having presented the best options, and everything you've explained makes a lot of sense!
I have a golden i7-7700k for which I designed and printed the delid kit to improve temperatures, I feel really bad even thinking of having to toss this brilliant CPU away.
I managed to get that boy with low voltage to a stable 5.0/5.1ghz 24/7, if you ask me that would be more than enough to out perform any games on decent settings.
I understand that newer game want to spread on multiple cores but at the same they could definitely program an intelligent switch that optimizes the game on the current amount of threads.
It's such a shame that gaming on pc became so mainstream that every company is contributing to this console drive market, but of course everyone's in it for the money!

It's the march forward of technology my friend. FYI, you don't have to toss your CPU away, you could sell it, gift it to a friend of yours, or hang onto it and its motherboard so that you can use it for diagnostic purposes if you run into a problem in the future and are trying to narrow down a hardware issue.

 

[sal94]

Sure, I was speaking figuratively!
I will still be able to play lot's of single player games at high quality rather than performance.
I will hold on to it for as much as I can!
I selected the best answer!
Thanks for your help!

 

[RTX 2080]

Happy to help!