Framerate and GPU usage problem (GTX 970)

[James Pavett]

When I have certain programs open in my second monitor they cause games to ran at incredibly low framerates with huge fluctuations (1 - 100+ every second), a huge amount of latency and very low GPU usage which also fluctuates hugely (0% to 80%). This only occurs if they are actually open, if the program is minimised the games play as expected. If I tab out and close the offending program then everything also goes back to normal.

Games I've tested all react the same: Witcher 3, MGS V, Wildstar.

Programs that trigger it: Speccy, MSI afterburner (both with monitoring graphs open and not)

Programs that don't: Chrome (except ITV player for some reason), File Explorer

System: i7-4790k @4.7Ghz, Nvidia GTX 970 which is also overclocked, 24" AOC Gsync monitor.

Things that have changed recently: Upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, Updating to the most recent Nvidia driver seemed to make it happen more often (before I could tab out and back in and it might stop).

Things that I have tried: Removing my GPU overclock, Various programs, disabling the on-screen aspects of the monitoring software in question, clean installing my graphics drivers completely, running games as admin.

Any ideas?

 

[maxalge]

When I have certain programs open in my second monitor they cause games to ran at incredibly low framerates with huge fluctuations (1 - 100+ every second), a huge amount of latency and very low GPU usage which also fluctuates hugely (0% to 80%). This only occurs if they are actually open, if the program is minimised the games play as expected. If I tab out and close the offending program then everything also goes back to normal.

Games I've tested all react the same: Witcher 3, MGS V, Wildstar.

Programs that trigger it: Speccy, MSI afterburner (both with monitoring graphs open and not)

Programs that don't: Chrome (except ITV player for some reason), File Explorer

System: i7-4790k @4.7Ghz, Nvidia GTX 970 which is also overclocked, 24" AOC Gsync monitor.

Things that have changed recently: Upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, Updating to the most recent Nvidia driver seemed to make it happen more often (before I could tab out and back in and it might stop).

Things that I have tried: Removing my GPU overclock, Various programs, disabling the on-screen aspects of the monitoring software in question, clean installing my graphics drivers completely, running games as admin.

Any ideas?

sounds like cpu throttling, monitor cpu temps

 

[James Pavett]

When I have certain programs open in my second monitor they cause games to ran at incredibly low framerates with huge fluctuations (1 - 100+ every second), a huge amount of latency and very low GPU usage which also fluctuates hugely (0% to 80%). This only occurs if they are actually open, if the program is minimised the games play as expected. If I tab out and close the offending program then everything also goes back to normal.

Games I've tested all react the same: Witcher 3, MGS V, Wildstar.

Programs that trigger it: Speccy, MSI afterburner (both with monitoring graphs open and not)

Programs that don't: Chrome (except ITV player for some reason), File Explorer

System: i7-4790k @4.7Ghz, Nvidia GTX 970 which is also overclocked, 24" AOC Gsync monitor.

Things that have changed recently: Upgrading to Windows 10 Pro, Updating to the most recent Nvidia driver seemed to make it happen more often (before I could tab out and back in and it might stop).

Things that I have tried: Removing my GPU overclock, Various programs, disabling the on-screen aspects of the monitoring software in question, clean installing my graphics drivers completely, running games as admin.

Any ideas?

sounds like cpu throttling, monitor cpu temps

CPU seems to do exactly the same thing as my GPU: very low usage fluctuating wildly (0% to 40%)

I don't think it's throttling in any way though. Temperature sits around sits around 40-50 in Witcher 3. Under full load in Prime, Intel burn test etc. it hits mid-80's at most.

I stress tested both my GPU and CPU extensively before I was happy with the overclocks I set.

This has only become a problem since my Win10 upgrade.

Tonight I'm going to try stripping out my GPU drivers completely with DDU and perhaps roll back to a previous driver which the problem wasn't nearly as present on.

 

[James Pavett]

I seem to have found the problem.

Tried a bunch of different solutions last night: playing in a window vs. fullscreen, unistalling other programs I'd installed when the problem started, rolling back graphics drivers, etc.

Turns out the problem was Razer Synapse! Closed it completely and no more stutter or fluctuation at all.

Only had the chance to test it briefly last night but I'll test more extensively tonight and post my findings.

 

[James Pavett]

The problem has come back.

Although removing synapse seemed to fix it for a while but it came back.

I ended up doing a clean Windows 10 install and this also fixed it for a while but now it has come back again, albeit now it affects fewer games.

 

[D3LTA09]

The problem has come back.

Although removing synapse seemed to fix it for a while but it came back.

I ended up doing a clean Windows 10 install and this also fixed it for a while but now it has come back again, albeit now it affects fewer games.

Sorry for reviving an oldish thread but I am having the exact same issues as you and have done similar trouble shooting with the same results, ie fixes it and then comes back. Also it only seems to be witcher 3 that this problem is occurring.

Did you end up finding a solution of any sort other than fresh installs of win10?

 

[James Pavett]

The problem has come back.

Although removing synapse seemed to fix it for a while but it came back.

I ended up doing a clean Windows 10 install and this also fixed it for a while but now it has come back again, albeit now it affects fewer games.

Sorry for reviving an oldish thread but I am having the exact same issues as you and have done similar trouble shooting with the same results, ie fixes it and then comes back. Also it only seems to be witcher 3 that this problem is occurring.

Did you end up finding a solution of any sort other than fresh installs of win10?

I seem to have yes. I haven't had a problem since I turned on V-sync in Nvidia control panel. I can't find the article now but apparently it needs to be on for G-sync to work properly now? Not exactly sure why but G-sync is working as it should and I'm not suffering any input lag as is common with V-sync.

 

[D3LTA09]

The problem has come back.

Although removing synapse seemed to fix it for a while but it came back.

I ended up doing a clean Windows 10 install and this also fixed it for a while but now it has come back again, albeit now it affects fewer games.

Sorry for reviving an oldish thread but I am having the exact same issues as you and have done similar trouble shooting with the same results, ie fixes it and then comes back. Also it only seems to be witcher 3 that this problem is occurring.

Did you end up finding a solution of any sort other than fresh installs of win10?

I seem to have yes. I haven't had a problem since I turned on V-sync in Nvidia control panel. I can't find the article now but apparently it needs to be on for G-sync to work properly now? Not exactly sure why but G-sync is working as it should and I'm not suffering any input lag as is common with V-sync.

Ah ok thanks for that, I have just done a fresh install of windows 10 and everything is fine right now (checked and vsync is on in my global 3d settings).

Hopefully it will stay like this but I am still holding my breath every time I launch a game...