Games with 200+ FPS feel like 30fps. Temps are fine.

[heslipsean]

So this started about a month ago. I've had this PC as it is for about 6 months now and I always seem to run into problems with it. This time, I'm unable to play games that run at a high FPS without capping the frames to 140-160. I have an 144hz monitor. I should also mention that AMD Freesync is enabled and is compatible with my RX 480.

This inst too big of a deal because this frame-rate feels perfectly smooth anyway, but this never used to happen and doesn't happen to any of my friends.

I'll go into more detail. The specific games I'm talking about are Rocket League, Left 4 Dead 2 and Halo 1. All of these games run at above 200 FPS a lot of the time, and they all encounter the same issue. Whenever the FPS is high, the games will slow down and deteriorate, resembling something like 30-60 FPS. However, the FPS counter will still display 200 + FPS. This is the same for all of these games. I have tested this multiple times and on every occasion the actual FPS counter does not drop, although the game feels like 60 FPS.

Capping my FPS to around my refresh rate, or enabling VSYNC, fixes this issue. Games with lower FPS such as the Black Ops 4 Beta, Fortnite and Rainbow Six: Siege run perfectly and feel a lot smoother than the previously mentioned games.

I know the initial thought would be that this is temperature related, maybe my CPU or GPU are throttling under heat. Well I thought that too and I've been observing my temperatures, I'm pretty sure they're fine, I'm fairly certain at this point that temps are not the cause of this issue
CPU 20-30 idle / 40-60 under load
GPU 40-55 idle / 65-85 under load

I should probably mention that I've been having other issues with my computer recently along side this. Mainly, my PC shuts itself down in games sometimes. Once again I checked temps and they don't seem to be causing the issue, but I could be wrong. This could be related to the frame-rate issue. I'm not sure.

Finally, I'll list all of my specs

i5 6600k OC'ed to 4.2 (seems stable) with a Hyper 212 Evo
Sapphire RX 480 8GB
Gigabyte z170x gaming 3 mobo
16GB DDR4 3000mhz Corsair RAM
Corsair CX750 PSU
500GB SSD where the games are installed

Any help would be appreciated, I'm pretty stumped.

Thanks, Sean.

 

[bmockeg]

No problem

 

[heslipsean]

That's a good idea. I think that will be my first course of action. I'll buy a new one and then if it doesn't work I'll send it back

I have tried resetting the OC settings before, and the computer did still shut down. I only tested this for a short amount of time though. I have had the OC set up for a really long time and this issue only came up recently. So I don't think the OC is related to the issue. I could be wrong though. I don't really know enough about that stuff. And no I never get any kind of error message, or any information at all. Not even in event viewer. The only thing that logs in event viewer after a shut down is that the power was cut unexpectedly.

Could you recommend a PSU for me to try? Preferably modular, and not too expensive. Thanks.

I would seriously contact Corsair first. They have very good customer service and will often offer to send you a replacement before you send the questionable one back. I would also ask if they might be willing to send you a different model applying what you paid for the CX750 toward purchase of it. On my Corsair H50 they offered to send me 2 free fans just because I told them the temps were not as good as I expected in push/pull config.

If you can't come to an affordable, reliable solution with them, then shop for a new one. This is one of the better deals I've seen lately on a PSU that would handle anything up to a GTX 1080/RX 580. It's 550 watts, gold rated, and only $50 on MIR.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139210

I would mention this TX550M unit to Corsair and ask them if they can do it for less than $50 in a new, full warranty unit, with return of your CX750. Don't let your emotions make your decisions for you. You still have some pretty good parts there, it would be a shame to toss that rig.

As for OCs, they can be tricky and misleading. I've had cases where I used OCCT, Prime95, and the most demanding games I owned to thoroughly test stability, only for new games coming out like Far Cry 3, to cause tons of artifacts. A 4.2GHz OC on a 3.5GHz CPU is kinda getting beyond a moderate uptick in speed with a cheap cooler like the Hyper 212, which are better for a moderate (4GHz) OC. A 700MHz bump on a 3.5GHz CPU, which is a 20% speed increase, should probably have a slight bump in CPU voltage as well. A simpler, often times more stable OC, does not require a voltage bump.

Usually there are visual indicators, like artifacts in games, or obvious out of the norm messages onscreen when a game crashes, but not always. Whenever you get problems like incessant shutdowns out of the blue, it's always a good idea if you're running an OC, to try reverting to default settings. Try factory defaults first, which doesn't use XMP, then XMP for full rated RAM speed.

As bmock said, it's pretty easy to just jot down the settings of your OC and go back to them if that wasn't the problem. If it IS though, it will tell you a lot, like that your PSU, despite the whine, might at least be safe to use until you RMA it for a replacement. Whenever you keep getting shutdowns and loud coil whine though, it could be the PSU going out, and bad PSUs can damage other parts, especially those which draw lots of power, like the GPU.

Thanks so much for all of the advice. This really helped me understand how I can go about troubleshooting this. Luckily, I have some amazing friends. They're basically willing to temporarily donate me parts so I can pinpoint the issue. One of my friends happens to have a compatible motherboard just laying around so I'm gonna try that first, see if it changes anything. I'm gonna contact Corsair like you said and try to get hold of another PSU to test with as well. I really hope the issue doesn't originate from the GPU or CPU, then I would really be screwed.

On another note, I just reset the BIOS to optimised defaults. The only thing I changed was enabling XMP for my 3000mhz RAM. I went on Rocket League, a game that is hard capped at 250 FPS. The problem did seem to be noticeably less severe. This wasn't the case last time I reset the BIOS so it could just be a coincidence. However, I closed the game to go do something else, booted up the game again and my computer shut off pretty much instantly. As I thought it would at some point. Such a shame this is happening so close to the release of Black Ops 4

Anyways, thanks so much for all the help. I'll update you on my findings from the tests i'm going to run over the next few days.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah hopefully you can get a stable, working PSU from one of your friends to see if that's it, because if it IS the PSU, continuing to run it with a bad one is risking damage to other parts.

 

[heslipsean]

Yeah hopefully you can get a stable, working PSU from one of your friends to see if that's it, because if it IS the PSU, continuing to run it with a bad one is risking damage to other parts.

Do you think it makes sense for the PSU to be causing the strange FPS issue? Or do you think this is a completely separate issue? Last question I swear lol.

 

[bmockeg]

If your PSU is not giving enough power then your GPU could be underpowered and have reduced FPS.

 

[Frag Maniac]

If the PSU is bad it could certainly cause the shutdowns you've experienced, but typically you would not notice it in lag or stutters in game because the GPU should function normally as long as it has adequate power. However in the case of shutdowns, especially if caused by low amperage, it can harm the GPU.

So the scenario goes, the GPU works or doesn't work depending on supplied power, but during the process of shutdowns due to voltage or amperage problems, harm can be happening even though no lag or stutters were present in game.

As I said, swapping out the PSU to test whether it's faulty should be of utmost importance.

 

[heslipsean]

If the PSU is bad it could certainly cause the shutdowns you've experienced, but typically you would not notice it in lag or stutters in game because the GPU should function normally as long as it has adequate power. However in the case of shutdowns, especially if caused by low amperage, it can harm the GPU.

So the scenario goes, the GPU works or doesn't work depending on supplied power, but during the process of shutdowns due to voltage or amperage problems, harm can be happening even though no lag or stutters were present in game.

As I said, swapping out the PSU to test whether it's faulty should be of utmost importance.

Update: I fixed the FPS issue. I reverted from Radeon 18.9.1 to 18.5.1. The issue seems to be completely gone so far. Rocket League is smooth again at 250 FPS. I am doubtful that this has fixed the shutting down issue though. Corsair haven't responded to my support ticket yet. I might give them a call and try to get hold of another PSU.

I'm glad this issue is out of the way though as I was concerned that the CPU or GPU may have been damaged.

Another update: I just tried reinstalling 18.9.2 again. The problem came back straight away. What's funny though is, Windows automatically reinstalled Radeon 17.1.1 in the Windows update settings. What's going on here? I googled this and I can't find anything.

 

[Frag Maniac]

Yeah that's why in my first post I said older model GPUs, especially AMD ones on games with older engines, sometimes work better on older drivers.

The only time Windows does that is if you completely remove all AMD software. Windows has a library of drivers in case one is needed if there is no suitable driver upon reboot.

 

[heslipsean]

Yeah that's why in my first post I said older model GPUs, especially AMD ones on games with older engines, sometimes work better on older drivers.

The only time Windows does that is if you completely remove all AMD software. Windows has a library of drivers in case one is needed if there is no suitable driver upon reboot.

So I can confirm the shut down issue is still very much present, I had two shut downs today on very undemanding games.The FPS issue is completely gone on the 17.1.1 drivers, so I'll probably just keep it like that until another big update comes out or something.

I should have another PSU available pretty soon. I'm also getting a new corsair case with more space and better airflow. Hopefully this will be the end of my PC issues.

You said that Windows would only recommend a GPU driver if there was no suitable drivers on boot. However, this happened to me while I had 18.9.2 freshly installed. Windows recommended that I reversed the drivers for some reason. How come 18.9.2 just doesn't want to work on my PC?

 

[bmockeg]

All drivers have potential issues. Might want to get a program that for sure wipes your old drivers amd then install the new. Might be an issue with the AMD update process instead of the drivers themselves.

 

[Frag Maniac]

You said that Windows would only recommend a GPU driver if there was no suitable drivers on boot. However, this happened to me while I had 18.9.2 freshly installed. Windows recommended that I reversed the drivers for some reason. How come 18.9.2 just doesn't want to work on my PC?

Could be that AMD couldn't get MS' WHQL rating for that driver on their older GPUs. At any rate, I wouldn't worry about it, just use the driver that works. And I'm guessing you'll be better off staying on that driver not until another update, but until you upgrade to a newer GPU. Like I said though, Nvidia GPUs aren't as bad that way.

 

[heslipsean]

So I bought a new power supply. I went with the TX650M because I had the money to spend. All of the issues have completely gone. I reinstalled the latest Radeon sofware, FPS feels normal again. Also, I've been playing a lot of games since I installed the PSU and I haven't experienced any shut downs. Looks like we're done here.

Morale of the story: Make sure to do research before blindly buying parts. As Frag said, don't let your emotions make your decisions for you. Even something as seemingly non-important as the PSU can cause serious issues if you decide to go cheap.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[bmockeg]

Sounds good

 

[Frag Maniac]

Even something as seemingly non-important as the PSU can cause serious issues if you decide to go cheap.

Those of us whom have been building PCs for a while know the PSU in fact IS one of the most important parts, and that cheap ones can ruin other parts. Now you know too. Welcome to the PC building 101 club. Glad you got it sorted.