So this issue has had me scratching my head for some time now, and I'm not sure what's causing it. As the title says, I've been getting bad fps (like ~20 fps) with certain games, yet others I can get perfectly fine (60+) fps for seemingly no rhyme or reason.
Here's an overview of my setup (if there's anything missing I'll update it):
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7 @ 3.70GHz
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac
RAM: 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series (2 x 8GB)
GPU: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (EVGA)
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1040
Monitor Frequency: 60 Hz
I've run through a number of game titles from my library (mostly those that had some kind of fps counter already build in, or a benchmark tool), and which ones run well and which ones do not seem completely random. It's especially odd since the same games ran perfectly fine on my previous setup (can't recall the exact specs at time of writing, do remember old processor was an Intel Core i7 @ 3.4GHz, GPU was an Nvidia GTX 970 with 4gb VRAM, and the OS was Windows 7). That's not to rule out problems with the game's optimization, but it seems unlikely given past experience.
In each of these examples, I run the settings at around "High" with certain features turned off (such as motion blur and vertical sync, it'd be a very long post if I listed specifics for everything):
Guild Wars 2: Generally depends on the map I'm in, in hub areas like Lion's Arch or during world events with large numbers of players I average around 50-60 fps. In other maps I average 90 to 110 fps with few to no player presence.
World of Warcraft: Usually holds around 100 fps, but can randomly dip to 75fps every now and again.
Warframe: One of the more wildly fluctuating games. Holds at 60 fps in areas like the orbiter (the "player home"), but during missions can randomly spike into 20-30 fps then return to 60.
Hitman 2: Performance benchmark, ran on all settings at lowest, only managed to get 20.35 fps average. One of the worst offenders.
Batman: Arkham Knight: Performance benchmark, ran on mostly high settings ran at an average of 59 fps, usually 60, lowest it ever dropped to was 59 fps.
Black Ops 3: A particularly odd case, would average 15-20 fps in Singleplayer and multiplayer on lowest settings, but 40-60 fps in Zombies mode.
Other games I can't get specific performance for, but can give a general impression:
Fallout 4 and Fallout 76: Both these games will run smoothly with no noticeable dips in fps.
Dark Souls 3: Runs smoothly, no noticeable changes in fps.
Doom 2016: Another game that performed poorly, while I couldn't get an exact measure I would guess around 10 to 20 fps on lowest settings.
Some of the things I've tried doing to fix these issues:
-Graphics drivers are up to date (old drivers were uninstalled first using "Display Driver Uninstaller" program, to ensure clean installation of new drivers)
-Set priorities for game exes in task manager higher (usually set to low, changed to normal or above normal with no noticeable effect)
-Ran in Windows 7 compatibility mode
-Changed 3D settings in the Nvidia control panel (Such as setting global power management to maximum performance, or global vsync to off)
-Changed Power plan to Maximum Performance
I've got no idea why I'm having problems only with certain titles, even when I should be at least past their minimum requirements. Anyone have any ideas I haven't thought of? Maybe it's a hardware issue, or just an issue with the gpu not playing nice with certain games. Maybe the whole setup is just bad and I have to start over, which I'd rather not do since this pc isn't even a year old. I would greatly appreciate any insight.
Update: So after a bit more trial and error I figured out what was potentially causing the problem. It turns out I was in fact one driver version behind current (a detail so common I'm kicking myself for not double checking) on my graphics card. It's also possible that when I last updated my gpu driver I didn't correctly uninstall the previous version, which would have been fixed when I made sure to fully removed the previous version before installing the latest driver. I also removed any Razer Chroma software, since according to other sources around the web there were apparently people having issues with any Razer related software.
Tested out some of the games that were not performing correctly, the Hitman 2 benchmark came back at an average of 83 fps on mostly high settings, Black Ops 3 now reaches around 90 to 100 fps on mostly high settings in any mode, Warframe can hold a consistent 60 fps and while I can't test Doom 2016 I'd expect it would see a performance increase if the others are anything to go by. Everything else that was working fine before still performs the same as well.
So yeah, had to be either because the gpu drivers were one version out of date, uninstalling old drivers last time I updated didn't get done correctly, or the Razer Chroma software. Which is good because I was at this point worried it was a hardware issue and I'd have to replace something in my current setup, or rebuild.
Here's an overview of my setup (if there's anything missing I'll update it):
Operating System: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i7 @ 3.70GHz
Motherboard: ASRock Z370 Killer SLI/ac
RAM: 16GB G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series (2 x 8GB)
GPU: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (EVGA)
Monitor Resolution: 1920x1040
Monitor Frequency: 60 Hz
I've run through a number of game titles from my library (mostly those that had some kind of fps counter already build in, or a benchmark tool), and which ones run well and which ones do not seem completely random. It's especially odd since the same games ran perfectly fine on my previous setup (can't recall the exact specs at time of writing, do remember old processor was an Intel Core i7 @ 3.4GHz, GPU was an Nvidia GTX 970 with 4gb VRAM, and the OS was Windows 7). That's not to rule out problems with the game's optimization, but it seems unlikely given past experience.
In each of these examples, I run the settings at around "High" with certain features turned off (such as motion blur and vertical sync, it'd be a very long post if I listed specifics for everything):
Guild Wars 2: Generally depends on the map I'm in, in hub areas like Lion's Arch or during world events with large numbers of players I average around 50-60 fps. In other maps I average 90 to 110 fps with few to no player presence.
World of Warcraft: Usually holds around 100 fps, but can randomly dip to 75fps every now and again.
Warframe: One of the more wildly fluctuating games. Holds at 60 fps in areas like the orbiter (the "player home"), but during missions can randomly spike into 20-30 fps then return to 60.
Hitman 2: Performance benchmark, ran on all settings at lowest, only managed to get 20.35 fps average. One of the worst offenders.
Batman: Arkham Knight: Performance benchmark, ran on mostly high settings ran at an average of 59 fps, usually 60, lowest it ever dropped to was 59 fps.
Black Ops 3: A particularly odd case, would average 15-20 fps in Singleplayer and multiplayer on lowest settings, but 40-60 fps in Zombies mode.
Other games I can't get specific performance for, but can give a general impression:
Fallout 4 and Fallout 76: Both these games will run smoothly with no noticeable dips in fps.
Dark Souls 3: Runs smoothly, no noticeable changes in fps.
Doom 2016: Another game that performed poorly, while I couldn't get an exact measure I would guess around 10 to 20 fps on lowest settings.
Some of the things I've tried doing to fix these issues:
-Graphics drivers are up to date (old drivers were uninstalled first using "Display Driver Uninstaller" program, to ensure clean installation of new drivers)
-Set priorities for game exes in task manager higher (usually set to low, changed to normal or above normal with no noticeable effect)
-Ran in Windows 7 compatibility mode
-Changed 3D settings in the Nvidia control panel (Such as setting global power management to maximum performance, or global vsync to off)
-Changed Power plan to Maximum Performance
I've got no idea why I'm having problems only with certain titles, even when I should be at least past their minimum requirements. Anyone have any ideas I haven't thought of? Maybe it's a hardware issue, or just an issue with the gpu not playing nice with certain games. Maybe the whole setup is just bad and I have to start over, which I'd rather not do since this pc isn't even a year old. I would greatly appreciate any insight.
Update: So after a bit more trial and error I figured out what was potentially causing the problem. It turns out I was in fact one driver version behind current (a detail so common I'm kicking myself for not double checking) on my graphics card. It's also possible that when I last updated my gpu driver I didn't correctly uninstall the previous version, which would have been fixed when I made sure to fully removed the previous version before installing the latest driver. I also removed any Razer Chroma software, since according to other sources around the web there were apparently people having issues with any Razer related software.
Tested out some of the games that were not performing correctly, the Hitman 2 benchmark came back at an average of 83 fps on mostly high settings, Black Ops 3 now reaches around 90 to 100 fps on mostly high settings in any mode, Warframe can hold a consistent 60 fps and while I can't test Doom 2016 I'd expect it would see a performance increase if the others are anything to go by. Everything else that was working fine before still performs the same as well.
So yeah, had to be either because the gpu drivers were one version out of date, uninstalling old drivers last time I updated didn't get done correctly, or the Razer Chroma software. Which is good because I was at this point worried it was a hardware issue and I'd have to replace something in my current setup, or rebuild.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram