Question FPS goes down over time until restart

[willbclos]

Hello all. Here are my specs:

• Motherboard: MSI X370 Gaming Pro
• CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 (Stock speeds)
• RAM: 2x HyperX 8GB DDR4 2400MHz
• GPU: Asus GTX 1080ti Strix
• SSD: One Sandisk 240GB
• HDD: One 2TB 7200rpm | Three 3TB 7200rpm HDDs
• PSU: 850w Corsair HX850i
• H100i Watercooler

I just recently switched to a Q60 TV to use as my main monitor, as it supports 120hz. After setting everything up I started testing out some games, and it was going fine. Went to play Apex Legends with friends, and noticed I wasn't quite getting a consistent 120fps. I started analyzing it further and noticed that the fps goes down over time, eventually it was going below 60 even at 1080p! Restarting the computer solves the problem temporarily, which then starts gradually showing up again.

GPU readings show no drops in clocks, memory usage, etc, and temperatures for for CPU and GPU are fairly safe (no more than 80 °C for the GPU, with the CPU's values being as low as 50-60 at worst). I tried closing Apex and just browse for a bit, and then tried launching it again. I had a fairly stable 82 fps on the main menu, in stark contrast to the (capped) 120fps I get when launching it on a fresh reboot. I also tried running DOOM (2016) on this "low-fps" state, since this one tends to run consistently great on a majority of setups, and confirmed that the issue persists on any game, since I was getting FPS lower than 80, which is evidently way lower than expected for my system.

I used to have my main 1080p monitor connected via HDMI, and my secondary 1680x1050 monitor connected via DVI. After getting the TV, I started using it as my main monitor via HDMI, and started using my previous main monitor as my secondary, via DVI, and got rid of the old secondary monitor. I can't say for sure if the issue was there before switching displays, as the GPU is pretty much overkill for 1080p at 60hz, but I'm also not sure if the display setup would make a difference (I'm using the TV at 1440p for the 120hz), so the problem probably was already there before, but I just didn't notice it as much.

Here's the major stuff I've tried already, to no avail:

• Resetting BIOS settings
• Updating GPU drivers on a clean install via DDU
• Double-checking Windows Power Settings
• Triple-checking Nvidia Control Panel settings (Prefer Maximum Performance, etc)
• Closing any background apps I could, including Discord, DS4Windows, RTSS, MSI Afterburner, Malware Bytes, Corsair Link, Overlays in general, etc.

None of these even hinted at working. So far the only (very temporary) solution has been to reboot the computer, which only allows it to work properly for a very short period of time. I've tried so many different things I found online, none of which worked, and this is driving me insane, so I decided to come ask for suggestions for my specific case. Thanks in advance.

 

[rgd1101]

ram/ssd/hdd usage?
how full is the ssd?
are the games on the hdd?

 

[willbclos]

ram/ssd/hdd usage?
how full is the ssd?
are the games on the hdd?

Hello.

RAM sees no more than a third of its max being used. SSD's got 60GB free out of 223GB. For Apex specifically, I tried both having on the SSD and on the HDD, same result on either.

I can't say anything for sure, as I've tried a lot of different things, but it SEEMS that I was missing a setting on MSI Afterburner which allowed my custom fan curve to kick in. After changing that and a clean reboot, I managed to get somewhat better FPS, getting about 85 at 1440p while on the plane on apex, and about 100 outdoors, with a consistent 120 indoors. DOOM saw consistently decent performance, even though in one of the maps my FPS went as low as about 90 when looking at certain things, even with settings all turned down to low.

Just recently tested Sekiro as well, with it running on 4K but with the more impactful settings turned down to medium/low. Started out fine, but performance started degrading after a while again, down to unplayable performance. Dropping to 1440p seems to help, even though I believe it was still not running as well as it should be. At this point, though, I'm wondering if my processor and RAM speeds are being a bottleneck somewhat. (Even though I shouldn't be needing to drop down from 4K to hit 60fps at lower settings)

 

[willbclos]

EDIT: Did a few more tests and when I got the lowered FPS on Apex I tried booting Doom Eternal back up. Right at the menu I got about 105 fps, funny thing is, though, that changing graphics settings from High to "Ultra Nightmare" didn't impact performance AT ALL by not even a single frame per second, at least not in the menus (was too confused and disappointed to even attempt loading a level as it wouldn't help anyway). From Low to Ultra Nightmare it gave me about... 10 FPS.

EDIT2: Tried going in-game. Got about 95 fps on Ultra Nightmare, with it going to about 115 with everything set to Low. Doesn't seem right at all.

Just tried removing all other HDD's and booting the pc with only keyboard and mouse connected. I also didn't connect any other displays besides the tv. Tried out some Apex, seemed functional but couldn't tell, so I booted up Doom Eternal and chose a level.

As soon as I loaded into it, I checked the fps and it was at about 130 at 1440p with most settings on Ultra, save for some more taxing ones. Moved around a bit, fought some enemies and kept dying so I could go back to that same spot where it was hitting 130. Over time the fps on that scene started dropping, to the point that in one of my reloads the fps was at 104 already, and probably would have kept dropping, so it's safe to assume removing extra devices didn't work at all.

I'm just completely puzzled as to why this is happening, having real trouble figuring out where to even begin diagnosing the issue, considering I've tried so many things already. What bothers me most is how the performance starts out great and begins dropping lower as time passes, and never goes back up again until I reboot.