GPU Usage drops, (causing FPS drops) GTX980ti

[gasguirre]

Hello,
I know this question has been asked a lot, but I have checked and haven't found an answer that could apply to my case.

I'm having problem when playing one particular game (escape from tarkov) which is very gpu demanding. the issue is that my gpu is at 99 ~ 100 % usage at all times when playing (which I believe is ok) and suddenly usage drops a lot (at around 30% for around a second) and this causes freezes during game.

I haven't tried with other games.

I'm attaching screenshot from HWmonitor showing a session of playing to show temperatures.

and this is the performance monitor at the time of the issue (the usage drop)

I don't know what other information I can give on this.

temperatures seems to be ok, (I have watercooling on cpu and videocard).

FPS during plaring are 100+ and the freezes lasts for about a second. I haven't been able top predict time of freeeze, but is around every 4 minutes.

please let me know what I could do. ah, also attaching gpu and cpu z information.

thank you in advance.

 

[Ramlethal]

When you say temps are fine you mean? ... How much are we talking about? And also, have you checked the temps on the CPU cores aswel? maybe its just throttling cause of the temps on the CPU and not the gpu ones. Please check those and reply me back!

Cheers!

 

[Dunlop0078]

Well according to HWMonitor your GPU hit 99% memory usage which could certainly cause GPU usage and FPS to take a steep dip. Escape from tarkov is a pretty poorly optimized game, probably doesn't manage VRAM very well, you may want to turn down texture quality or other settings that require a lot of VRAM.

 

[gasguirre]

When you say temps are fine you mean? ... How much are we talking about? And also, have you checked the temps on the CPU cores aswel? maybe its just throttling cause of the temps on the CPU and not the gpu ones. Please check those and reply me back!

Cheers!

you can see the tempratures, CPU max temp was 58 celcius on sustained use (136 F)

 

[gasguirre]

Well according to HWMonitor your GPU hit 99% memory usage which could certainly cause GPU usage and FPS to take a steep dip. Escape from tarkov is a pretty poorly optimized game, probably doesn't manage VRAM very well, you may want to turn down texture quality or other settings that require a lot of VRAM.

VRAM would be GPU memory? is that's it says its 6gb used out of 14gb (although my gpu has a memory size of 6144mb) is that what you mean?

 

[Dunlop0078]

Temps are fine.

 

[Ramlethal]

If temps are fine, VRM usage is more than just fine... Then it could be a Driver optimization problem. Are you 100% sure you have the lastest drivers installed ?

 

[gasguirre]

If temps are fine, VRM usage is more than just fine... Then it could be a Driver optimization problem. Are you 100% sure you have the lastest drivers installed ?

yes, 100% just updated them yesterday.

also, is VRM fine? I would like confirmation of that based on the screnshots, because I'm not entirely sure

 

[Dunlop0078]

Im sure the VRM is fine. I was talking about VRAM usage, the memory on the GPU. It reached 99% usage according to HWMonitor. And you are showing 5.8gb of 6 in use in perf mon.

Your problem more than likely is you are using all of your VRAM, thus forcing your system RAM to pick up the slack which is much slower. This causes a bottleneck thus reducing GPU usage and FPS.

Like I said turn down your textures or other settings that use a lot of VRAM and see if the issue still occurs.

 

[gasguirre]

Im sure the VRM is fine. I was talking about VRAM usage, the memory on the GPU. It reached 99% usage according to HWMonitor. And you are showing 5.8gb of 6 in use in perf mon.

Your problem more than likely is you are using all of your VRAM, thus forcing your system RAM to pick up the slack which is much slower. This causes a bottleneck thus reducing GPU usage and FPS.

Like I said turn down your textures or other settings that use a lot of VRAM and see if the issue still occurs.

this makes sense, I will test with lower settings, so VRAM usage is lower, and report back.

 

[gasguirre]

I have done tests, lowering settings to minimum. vram usage stills at 99% and issues still occur. I'm starting to believe is a problem with the GPU, I was wandering if maybe the memory modules from the GPU could be too hot and that could be the cause? I'm asking this as the watercooling I put to the GPU doesn't have heath sinks for the memory modules. only the processor. do you think that this could be the cause? other thing I noticed is small scanlines form time to time when playing (I don't know if they qualify as artifacts) and small "glares" the occur also.

 

[Ramlethal]

I have done tests, lowering settings to minimum. vram usage stills at 99% and issues still occur. I'm starting to believe is a problem with the GPU, I was wandering if maybe the memory modules from the GPU could be too hot and that could be the cause? I'm asking this as the watercooling I put to the GPU doesn't have heath sinks for the memory modules. only the processor. do you think that this could be the cause? other thing I noticed is small scanlines form time to time when playing (I don't know if they qualify as artifacts) and small "glares" the occur also.

Maybe the issue was a little bit more complicated that what we could appreciate.
By any chance have you tried checking in HWInfo if you can see the temps of the VRAM ?
Having artifacts or something that is nearly qualified as an artifact means that the GPU health its in danger and finding a solution to this issue is priority...

 

[gasguirre]

I have done tests, lowering settings to minimum. vram usage stills at 99% and issues still occur. I'm starting to believe is a problem with the GPU, I was wandering if maybe the memory modules from the GPU could be too hot and that could be the cause? I'm asking this as the watercooling I put to the GPU doesn't have heath sinks for the memory modules. only the processor. do you think that this could be the cause? other thing I noticed is small scanlines form time to time when playing (I don't know if they qualify as artifacts) and small "glares" the occur also.

Maybe the issue was a little bit more complicated that what we could appreciate.
By any chance have you tried checking in HWInfo if you can see the temps of the VRAM ?
Having artifacts or something that is nearly qualified as an artifact means that the GPU health its in danger and finding a solution to this issue is priority...

it doesn't show the temperatures of VRAM on HWmonitor, only the GPU one.
yes, I know it's a priority to check this.

I checked a bit, I have the same setup as this guy:

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2751789/check-vram-vrm-temps-gtx-980.html

a gtx 980ti with kraken G10. (so it watercools the gpu, but the VRAMS are open)

update: I was able to check VRAM temps using GPU Tweak.

the temps go to around 75 Celsius. is that too hot?