Good components, lame gaming performance. What's wrong? :(

[empirebeige]

Here's my problem: I've built quite a good computer for gaming (I think), but it has performance issues ranging from mild to serious. This stuff has haunted me for almost two years and is driving me nuts.

In 2013 I first upgraded my computer and started gaming again. I had an AMD FX 8150, a Radeon HD 7870 and 16 gigs RAM. The only part that I kept from my old setup was the HDD, from 2009. I played first person shooters (Battlefield 3 & 4, Insurgency), and the frame rates were inexplicably low.

I couldn't find the reason for this, so I did another round of upgrades and switched the mobo and CPU. Eventually I got a new GPU as well. This is what I have now:

• 
  Intel Core i5 4670K
  EVGA Geforce GTX 970
  16 GB 1333 MHz RAM
  Asus Z87 Pro motherboard
  Standard 7200 RPM HDD
  Corsair CX 600W Plus Bronze PSU
  Windows 8.1 64-bit

Battlefield 4 runs pretty smooth on Ultra, but in maps where there are large building the FPS drops to the 40s.

Red Orchestra 2 (another shooter) runs at around 60 FPS on Ultra, but it suffers from constant microstutter that is very annoying.

IL2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (a flight sim) manages 60 FPS on average settings only when there is nothing going on. When there's some action, the FPS drops to the 40s or even 30s.

These above two worst offenders both run DirectX 9.0 (not 11). Don't know if that has something to do with something.

Insurgency and Planetside 2 run very well, or at least as well as they should (Planetside 2 being quite a CPU hog).

In addition to upgrading all these components, I've reinstalled Windows, tried Razer Game Booster, switched the memory chips around. Cinebench gives a score that is in line with what I should get with these components. CPU temperatures in game are 50 to 60 degrees. GPU temperature maxes out at 70. I analyzed the hard drive with HD tune, and the results didn't seem out of the ordinary.

Someone suggested a while ago that the problem might be with my power supply. It's around 2 years old. But it should be able to handle what I have, right?

I don't know what to do anymore with this. It feels like I've spent almost as much time trying to get games to work as actually playing them. Please help!

 

[mdocod]

In my experience, software designed to prevent viruses and malware, can be just as destructive to the performance of a computer as the viruses and malware they serve to prevent. In many cases, this type of software is nearly as invasive and as hard to disable or remove as a virus.

My advise would be to try the machine without any "protection" software installed or running.

If your CPU heatsink can't keep the CPU cool running P95 at stock speeds, something isn't right there. I would advise running HWiNFO while doing a torture test and/or gaming, let it chart your CPU clocks and load over time to make sure there isn't some sort of throttling taking place. Crank up the CPU fan a bit.

 

[empirebeige]

I would advise running HWiNFO while doing a torture test and/or gaming, let it chart your CPU clocks and load over time to make sure there isn't some sort of throttling taking place.

Played a round of Red Orchestra 2 (the stuttering game), and logged it on HWiNFO. I had the max power plan running to set a constant clock rate.

All kinds of stutter was taking place in the game session. In the logs it shows that the core clock variance was 100 to 200 MHz, between 3597 MHz and 3979 MHz. Total CPU usage was 50 to 60 %. Core voltage was between 1.032 and 1.054 V. CPU core temps were between 43 and 60 degrees.

 

[Bossyfins]

What were the GPU usage?

 

[empirebeige]

What were the GPU usage?

In-game GPU core load was somewhere between 40 and 55 %. If I had to guess, I'd say that my problems are not GPU related. It is a new high-end card, and I had the same performance issues with my old graphics card.

I did a full cycle of Memtest, and it passed with 0 errors. So no help there 🙁

Also, I played a bit of Planetside 2 last night and got into a medium sized battle. FPS dropped to the 20s many times. Really unfortunate.

 

[Bossyfins]

Download Prime95 and run it for atleast 5+ hours.

IF the system crashes, then the PSU may be faulty

 

[JustGetOwned]

He already got a new one.

 

[Bossyfins]

When?

 

[wllmgrms]

Not sure what all your settings are specifically set to... but check this thread out and check the reply given by Lag.

Linky

I don't know much about 970 cards, but it's worth a quick glance.

 

[empirebeige]

In my experience, software designed to prevent viruses and malware, can be just as destructive to the performance of a computer as the viruses and malware they serve to prevent. In many cases, this type of software is nearly as invasive and as hard to disable or remove as a virus.

My advise would be to try the machine without any "protection" software installed or running.

I tried playing my favorite game, Red Orchestra 2, with the Avast shield disabled, and there was a clear reduction in the amount of stutter. Now it's either very rare or nonexistent. My other games still have performance issues, but I will live. It was nice to get a working solution that didn't involve me spending yet more cash on new components. Thanks!

Next time I'll be more careful if someone suggests I buy a new part because it's the "only way to find out if it's faulty"

Anyone wanna buy a working 600 watt PSU? 😀

 

[Gary Host]

What were the GPU usage?

In-game GPU core load was somewhere between 40 and 55 %. If I had to guess, I'd say that my problems are not GPU related. It is a new high-end card, and I had the same performance issues with my old graphics card.

I did a full cycle of Memtest, and it passed with 0 errors. So no help there 🙁

Also, I played a bit of Planetside 2 last night and got into a medium sized battle. FPS dropped to the 20s many times. Really unfortunate.

"It's new" must be good, right? -wrong! Gtx970 is a horrible card for gaming. Kill it with fire! The frame buffer or "memory" bandwidth is all over the place with that card. Especially if you exceed 3.5 GB of usage and it goes in to a low speed 0.5 gb at 1/8 speed.

The rest of your setup seems decent except your cpu has terrible cooling, and isn't even overclocked.

Memory seems decent aswell, for office use. For gaming you want to upclock those badboys to atleast (bare minimum) of 1600mhz .. preferably you want them at 1600~(2400 mhz cl.10-11-11-28) something like that is a good balance between access-time and bandwidth.

Use google to find good guides on how to tweak the OverClock for your specific components.

The power supply is definitely at the low-end, this doesn't necessarily mean it's not adequate. But most likely it is not adequate for you gaming needs. Low watts, Low amps, Low stability.
Although arguably you don't need a "top of the line" psu, it depends on how you look at things. Many people sell components and upgrade their systems, but a solid *Top of the line* power supply from Corsair, Evga, or Enermax will last you build after build no matter what components you throw at it.

So summary. .

1. Better cooling for your components and they will perform much much better.

2. These days it's expected that you over clock your Cpu and Gpu. Memory will run at per motherboard default, unless you "activate" them, using X.M.P profiles, or manually dial in the speeds and voltages. (In some cases, a higher rated speed memory is used to achieve a overclock lower than the rated speed, but it is still considered a overclock since its the motherboard that sets the default)

3. Sufficient adequate power.

4. Research your component and find the individual max performance settings for them.

5. ?

6. Good Luck, have fun.

 

[Gary Host]

ps. Your graphics card driver is also obviously corrupted, if bf4 only uses 45% of your gpu. Use DDU (DisplayDriverUninstaller) to clean out the corrupted driver. You will need to run it 2 full times. First to clean out the AMD garbage, then the NVIDIA crap.

After that is done, download the latest driver from the Geforce homepage, and install it.

 

[Bossyfins]

What were the GPU usage?

In-game GPU core load was somewhere between 40 and 55 %. If I had to guess, I'd say that my problems are not GPU related. It is a new high-end card, and I had the same performance issues with my old graphics card.

I did a full cycle of Memtest, and it passed with 0 errors. So no help there 🙁

Also, I played a bit of Planetside 2 last night and got into a medium sized battle. FPS dropped to the 20s many times. Really unfortunate.

"It's new" must be good, right? -wrong! Gtx970 is a horrible card for gaming. Kill it with fire! The frame buffer or "memory" bandwidth is all over the place with that card. Especially if you exceed 3.5 GB of usage and it goes in to a low speed 0.5 gb at 1/8 speed...

No it isn't lol. Most people dont EVEN exceed the frame buffer. You go over it once you go to 1440p and higher..\

This video says other wise on its performance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6k55epUBCE