FPS drops to 35 fps with Nvidia 1070, low usage

Jun 1, 2018
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Ok this has been an issue since the PC was built in December but games generally run poorly on my pc, especially when compared to my friends PC's which are very similar.

I'd given up on trying to fix it as I was just getting stressed out over it. However I was playing Borderlands 2 the other day where I would get frame drops to 35 fps in certain parts of the map, for a game that came out in 2012. My friends Borderland 2 will sit well above 60. So I've finally had it with this pc now and am looking for a solution.

Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1070 8GB Dual Series Video Card
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1400 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Kingston - HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory
SSD: Samsung - 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
HDD: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Power Supply: Corsair - 650 Watt CS650M Modular

In Borderland 2, GPU generally sits at 35% usage, CPU 30% usage, and RAM usage at 25%

If anyone has suggestions they'd be much appreciated, cheers.
 
First make sure that your memory is actually running at 2133 Hz. I would also look into programs running in the background. When software is loaded the default is usually to load program at start-up. That means that the program is running always. Use the startup menu in task manager to disable applications with medium and high impact on startup. Then disable applications that aren't used on a daily basis. It just makes those applications load a little slower.

Then you can look into overclocking the CPU and GPU.
 
Jun 1, 2018
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Ok, I made sure that the RAM speed is right using CPU-Z, and I closed the bigger background apps
 
Then I would suggest upgrading to 16 GB of memory. That alone should help a lot. A GTX 1070 is a powerful graphics card. I would then overclock the CPU and graphics card for best performance. The 3.2 GHz quad core R5-1400 is a relatively under powered CPU. Without overclocking, it probably is bottle necking the graphics card.
 
Jun 1, 2018
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The pc already has 16 gb of memory. As for overclocking, that's the last thing I want to do, since my friends computer uses the same cpu and gpu as mine and ram size (not speed, his is 3000 Mhz), without issue of ever dropping below 60 when we're on the same settings. If possible, I'd like to find out why first.

However if I was to go about overclocking my cpu, should I just do that in the bios at cpu configuration? If so, what Mhz and Voltage should I set it at? I know the apparent max Mhz the cpu can do is 3400, but I'd still like to know your opinion.
 
I misread your post. I thought you had only 8GB of memory. If you have the same PC components as your friend then you should have very similar game performance. But there are very many variables that can affect gaming. Like monitor resolution, game settings, installed programs, memory settings, drive type and free space. So narrowing it down to a single cause is going to be difficult.

The best way to learn about overclocking the CPU or the graphics card is to watch a video on it. There are so many videos on YouTube, that you can even find videos on your own hardware.

Here are some good examples.
Graphics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEMS-B1Siw

CPU - Ryzen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZRjoeyz4Z0
 
Jun 1, 2018
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I had a go at overclocking the CPU by referring to the video, I noticed in Ryzen Master and CPU-Z that for some reason, the CPU was only performing at 2.8 Ghz even though it was set at 3.2 Ghz in the Bios. I then changed it to 3.4 and both Ryzen Master and CPU-Z agreed that it was now sitting at 3.4 Ghz. There was definitely a noticeable boost in performance in Borderlands 2. I also tested with my friends pc by looking in the same area where I was looking. After the boost mine was sitting at 55-60 frames, while his was 75 frames. This could be due to my friends computer have 16 gb 3000 Mhz Ram but I'm not sure how much of a difference that makes.

Just to also note, before and after the overclocking, Ryzen Master was saying that 2 cores were disabled, while CPU-Z and Task Manager were saying that all 4 cores and 8 Logical processors were being used. I think this might be a glitch in Ryzen Master but am not sure.
 


Most processors are set up to run at a lower idle speed when demand is low. For example, I have a Intel system that is overclocked for everyday use at 4.4 GHz, but the idle frequency is 1.6 GHz. So the CPU operating frequencies bounce around from 1.6 to 4.4 GHz on all of the cores (depending upon the demand). The overclocked CPU frequency replaces your turbo boost of 3.4 GHz.

You can disable cores in the BIOS. But I think you are right that it was probably a glitch. You may want to check if there is an updated BIOS available.
 


Ryzen is very sensitive to ram speed, the faster the better. In general, you want to have at least 2666MHz or faster.
 


Overclocking the memory does seem to have more effect on system performance for Ryzen processors than it does on Intel processors.
 
Jun 1, 2018
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Ok, some more interesting things have been happening. After overclocking the CPU to 3.6Ghz, I wanted to have a go at overclocking the GPU. To do this, I used EVGA Precision. Before overclocking the GPU, I made 2 profiles, one that was default settings, and the other where the power limit an temperature gauges are at max.

I ran the first default profile, where after 3 run of the Metro: Last Light Benchmark on max settings (but with motion blur on low and PhysX off) the average fps was 96.66, and never dropped below 60. To me this was actually a very good score as I had been playing Metro which would generally drop below 60.

I then switched profiles to the max power one. After 3 runs of the same Metro benchmark on the same settings, the average fps was 64.48, with dropping well below 60 multiple times. Due to this, I switched it back to the default profile, but it could now only reach 64 frames.

Nothing was changed between tests besides the profiles. However, if I remember correctly after the first test, the Metro Benchmark program got an error code and I had to restart it. As to what this code said, I have no idea as I disregarded it, and after probably performing literally 50 tests, I have not been able to reproduce this error, or achieve the previous fps. I did have GPU monitor on for all of the runs and all appeared to run the same.

To me this is becoming the biggest joke in the world and is just really annoying. I just don't understand what's up. If you know anything please help.
 
I would guess that at some time you changed a setting. Try starting over by uninstalling and reinstalling the Precision X. Then recreate your profile.

On a side note, a GTX 1070 should do very well on Metro: Last Light right out of the box. Try the same thing above without the overclock application installed. Then use that as your reference point.
 
Jun 1, 2018
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I'm positive I didn't change any settings between runs, as the results screen displays the settings applied, and I compared the tests to the original and they had the same settings.

I have done many benchmarks of metro without EVGA Precision, all the same results of around 64 fps. I just tried reinstalling EVGA Precision and performed the benchmark again. Same result. I have also done multiple benchmarks with the GPU actually overclocked, but only made a difference of a few frames.

I should also mention that one game that actually does run really well is Doom (2016) with the settings on max. That generally sits at 120 fps. But for a lot of games this is rare.
 
That is very likely the case. An overclock of 0.2 GHz over the standard turbo boost is going to be barely noticeable.

I do know that it is very easy to make a change in the graphics card overclock. I've done it myself. It is also easy to make a mistake in the settings themselves.

My advice is to keep at it. The overclock depends upon the individual processor. The article below suggests that a typical R5- 1400 overclocking to about 3.9 to 4.0 GHz.

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_ryzen_5_1400_review,23.html