FPS Drops Almost Every Game

[Jamli]

Hey!

I've been playing many different games now like: Arma 3, DayZ, LoL, Wolfenstein ET (hell yeah!) and i have FPS issues in almost every game i play.

Example: normal FPS in Arma is ~30-40fps and then bam! drops to ~5-10fps for about 5-10 second and then goes back to 30-40fps. I've searched something about this from google, and i think issue is my CPU. But i have tried to overclock it, but didn't help much (probably nothing).

So any advice's to get my FPS going stable?

PC Specs:
CPU: AMD FX-8120 (3.1-3.5Ghz) i have different cooler for it.
GPU: ASUS GTX 670 (Base clock)
Some Asus motherboard (dont remember it now)
8GB Ram 1600Mhz
250gb SSD & 1TB HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate

Thanks already for any help!

 

[Jamli]

Always OC in BIOS, not with software.

Your motherboard is fairly low-end with no VRM cooling and your case has poor airflow too (no intake fans added). I don't think you'll get much of an OC without an aftermarket CPU cooler (do you have one?) and some extra case fans to keep air moving over the VRMs

Well I don't have stock cooler for my CPU. I have Cooler Master Hyper 212, and my CPU temps right now was max 45C, after 2 hours gaming

 

[LucoTF]

That's a great little cooler. You should check out some overclocking guides for your motherboard & cpu

And look at adding a couple of fans to the front of your case too (not the sides)

 

[Jamli]

That's a great little cooler. You should check out some overclocking guides for your motherboard & cpu

And look at adding a couple of fans to the front of your case too (not the sides)

Yeah, thanks for your time! I will buy new cooler to in front when I get some money! Very appreciate your time to solve some strangers problem! 😀

 

[LucoTF]

No problem - remember, every time you restart your pc you will have to go into AMD overdrive again!

Just go in, enable turbo core and click ok, then disable again and click ok, and it should disable APM again.

A couple of 120mm case fans should be cheap enough

 

[Jamli]

No problem - remember, every time you restart your pc you will have to go into AMD overdrive again!

Just go in, enable turbo core and click ok, then disable again and click ok, and it should disable APM again.

A couple of 120mm case fans should be cheap enough

Alright! But what if I disable Turbo Core from my BIOS, would that work same way, but without repeating these disable/enable things every time I restart my PC ?

 

[LucoTF]

No, turbo core and APM are not the same thing - it's just that the AMD overdrive software also disables APM whenever you disable turbo core.

I'm gonna PM madmatt about this, he knows a lot more about AMD (and your motherboard) than I do and might know how to turn APM off for good

 

[Jamli]

No, turbo core and APM are not the same thing - it's just that the AMD overdrive software also disables APM whenever you disable turbo core.

I'm gonna PM madmatt about this, he knows a lot more about AMD (and your motherboard) than I do and might know how to turn APM off for good

Thank you alot! You can continue to PM me or adding me at skype for example. Just send me PM to let me know.

 

[helpstar]

all what you have done now, is disabling the turbo up to 4GHz.
The CPU runs at 3,1GHz all the time.
Don´t know why the turbo didn´t work while running prime95 in the 1st place.

Incompatible or faulty motherboard

 

[Jamli]

all what you have done now, is disabling the turbo up to 4GHz.
The CPU runs at 3,1GHz all the time.
Don´t know why the turbo didn´t work while running prime95 in the 1st place.

Incompatible or faulty motherboard

Well, when I ran Prime95, my cores were at 3.4Ghz and then suddenly dropped to 1.4Ghz. So I guess turbo did work ?

 

[LucoTF]

How is prime 95 now with TC disabled in overdrive?
What about if you re-enable TC now? (I believe APM stays disabled until the next restart?)

 

[Jamli]

How is prime 95 now with TC disabled in overdrive?
What about if you re-enable TC now? (I believe APM stays disabled until the next restart?)

Well, I tested this thing with Prime95, and noticed that again when temps was nearly 50C my cores dropped to 1.4Ghz and temp to 30C... When I was gaming my highest temp was 45C. So with 3.1Ghz my cores wont reach 50C to cool it back to 30C. So basically it didn't work like i thought :/

Edit: So could it be that the problem is in C1E Support?

 

[LucoTF]

If disabling APM didn't work then i think the only thing left is that your mobo is thermal throttling. There isn't a quick fix for this.

 

[Jamli]

If disabling APM didn't work then i think the only thing left is that your mobo is thermal throttling. There isn't a quick fix for this.

Well, okay. Maybe I should test to overclock just little bit (like 3.3Ghz) if it would stay under 50C

 

[madmatt30]

Hi all 😉
Got your pm luco.

The boards throttling simply because you're running a 125w 8 core - these boards are a-ok for any 100w chip (fx6100/6300)
A turbocored 8 core will push it over the edge - while it may up core 0 to the boost speed it will drop the rest.
Keeping turbo off in bios is the best idea if you want to run 8 cores ,re-enable cool & quiet (its not at fault here) & also disable c6 states - its a waste of time & will throttle the CPU under heavy load.
While the 212 is a superb cooler it removes secondary Cooling from the vrm area which is bad on a board that has no vrm sinks.

If you're after better performance per core then really your best option is dropping 2 cores in bios to turn your chip into a 6 core .
While this may seem a bad idea at first glance you should be able to pull 3.8-4ghz on the 6 remaining cores then.
This will give you better performance in the long run than having 8 cores at 3.1ghz.

 

[Jamli]

Hi all 😉
Got your pm luco.

The boards throttling simply because you're running a 125w 8 core - these boards are a-ok for any 100w chip (fx6100/6300)
A turbocored 8 core will push it over the edge - while it may up core 0 to the boost speed it will drop the rest.
Keeping turbo off in bios is the best idea if you want to run 8 cores ,re-enable cool & quiet (its not at fault here) & also disable c6 states - its a waste of time & will throttle the CPU under heavy load.
While the 212 is a superb cooler it removes secondary Cooling from the vrm area which is bad on a board that has no vrm sinks.

If you're after better performance per core then really your best option is dropping 2 cores in bios to turn your chip into a 6 core .
While this may seem a bad idea at first glance you should be able to pull 3.8-4ghz on the 6 remaining cores then.
This will give you better performance in the long run than having 8 cores at 3.1ghz.

Actually that sounds pretty good idea, but I'm so unsure that how should I do all these, so is there some kind of tutorial to do it, or could u help me out with this one ? Thanks for help!

Edit: And would this be good idea for gaming ? Just asking because I'm mostly gaming with my PC and looking for best FPS for games, and Arma 3 is probably heaviest game I have, and I get around 20-25fps stable with 8-cores at 3.1Ghz.

 

[madmatt30]

^ I can help with this mate but am travelling home at the minute from work (4.30pm here UK time)
Prob be 7.30-8pm before I'm online proper at home.

I cannot remember where the option is in bios off hand - I believe it is called 'core control' or similar - it will be set to auto by default - setting to manual gives the option to disable cores in multiples of 2.

As I said keep your turbocore off,enable cool & quiet & just disable c6 states.
Try prime again,if your cores are still throttling then msrtweaker will sort that out.
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/28540088/file.html

Included a batch file with this.
Unzip to desktop ,double click the off.bat file - this should disable any over stringent power management (& the m5a78 has incredibly over sensitive power management by default)
You can put a shortcut to this in your startup folder & it will run on boot .

 

[LucoTF]

Having 6 cores with a higher clock is going to beat 8 lower clocked cores in almost everything. Definitely the smart move for Arma 3, which isn't very well mutithreaded so will love the IPC increase.

Thanks for coming matt Anything we can do to improve airflow around the cpu socket at this point? The guy's case has room for side fans on both sides (yep, one goes behind the motherboard) but I don't think it's gonna do much...

 

[Jamli]

^ I can help with this mate but am travelling home at the minute from work (4.30pm here UK time)
Prob be 7.30-8pm before I'm online proper at home.

I cannot remember where the option is in bios off hand - I believe it is called 'core control' or similar - it will be set to auto by default - setting to manual gives the option to disable cores in multiples of 2.

As I said keep your turbocore off,enable cool & quiet & just disable c6 states.
Try prime again,if your cores are still throttling then msrtweaker will sort that out.
http://www68.zippyshare.com/v/28540088/file.html

Included a batch file with this.
Unzip to desktop ,double click the off.bat file - this should disable any over stringent power management (& the m5a78 has incredibly over sensitive power management by default)
You can put a shortcut to this in your startup folder & it will run on boot .

So I just disabled 7th & 8th core and enabled Cool 'n' Quiet. After I enabled manual core change, there popped new thing "Unleashing Mode". So is that suppose to be enabled or disabled ? Also to be sure, I had to disable Turbo Core from BIOS, right ?

Edit: I tested with Prime95 and Core Temp. I got again few times drops from 3.1Ghz -> 1.4Ghz but much less than I had with 8-core. My CPU temperature dropped from 35C to ~20-25C while in desktop. So should i be worried about these drops when I would game, or you think drops were because all time 100% CPU use? And should I try with OC ?

 

[madmatt30]

Unleash mode disabled (its for core unlocking on some of the old phenom chips)
You have c6 states disabled now in BIOS ??
& yes keep turbo disabled in bios too.

Run the amdmsrtweaker off.bat file & try prime again.
Just double click it once - black box should pop up for a split second.
Don't try over clocking until you have your CPU sitting solid at 3.1ghz with no fluctuations with prime.

 

[Jamli]

Unleash mode disabled (its for core unlocking on some of the old phenom chips)
You have c6 states disabled now in BIOS ??
& yes keep turbo disabled in bios too.

Run the amdmsrtweaker off.bat file & try prime again.
Just double click it once - black box should pop up for a split second.
Don't try over clocking until you have your CPU sitting solid at 3.1ghz with no fluctuations with prime.

C6 states is disabled, and I tried again at prime95 when off.bat was used. Few times dropped same way after reached ~48C.

 

[madmatt30]

Do you have any of the Asus software installed that came with your motherboard?
In particular Asus probe II ?
If so run it ,run prime & see what the motherboard (vrm) temp is showing under load.

Your 212 evo is likely creating problems in this respect - the stock cooler is crap but it at least pushes air over the vrm area.
The evo is so high that any rear airflow misses this area completely.
The MOSFETs are rated up to 55c but anything in the high 40's tends to throttle the board down.

 

[Jamli]

Do you have any of the Asus software installed that came with your motherboard?
In particular Asus probe II ?
If so run it ,run prime & see what the motherboard (vrm) temp is showing under load.

Your 212 evo is likely creating problems in this respect - the stock cooler is crap but it at least pushes air over the vrm area.
The evo is so high that any rear airflow misses this area completely.
The MOSFETs are rated up to 55c but anything in the high 40's tends to throttle the board down.

I will try that tomorrow, little busy at this evening. Thanks for your time!

 

[Jamli]

Do you have any of the Asus software installed that came with your motherboard?
In particular Asus probe II ?
If so run it ,run prime & see what the motherboard (vrm) temp is showing under load.

Your 212 evo is likely creating problems in this respect - the stock cooler is crap but it at least pushes air over the vrm area.
The evo is so high that any rear airflow misses this area completely.
The MOSFETs are rated up to 55c but anything in the high 40's tends to throttle the board down.

Am I able to see those motherboard temperatures from HWMonitor ? I remember that there is temperatures to motherboard but does ASUS Probe II help me in something else ?

 

[helpstar]

you also can use Hwmonitor (tmpin0) like before, to monitor the motherboard temps under load, while running prime95.

Disabling cores and disabling the turbo is cutting your fps ingame more and more.

as I suggested in the past:
In conclusion, your problem is your Motherboard. The VRMs are not cooled by heatsinks on your board. You can try, installing heatsinks on them and get extra airflow to it, but getting a better motherboard would be my choice.


http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p

 

[Jamli]

you also can use Hwmonitor (tmpin0) like before, to monitor the motherboard temps under load, while running prime95.

Disabling cores and disabling the turbo is cutting your fps ingame more and more.

as I suggested in the past:
In conclusion, your problem is your Motherboard. The VRMs are not cooled by heatsinks on your board. You can try, installing heatsinks on them and get extra airflow to it, but getting a better motherboard would be my choice.


http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-motherboard-ga970aud3p

Yeah, would probably be best to buy new mother board, but I wish that I had money for it 😀 But I was thinking that with core disabling I could get less heat and more performance without needing to buy anything.