GPU Usage Randomly Low

[soulsoldier120]

So i tried playing some far cry 4 today and noticed my mouse was lagging in the menu and when i launched the game the fps was stuttering and dipping every few seconds, i noticed this only seemed to happen when i looked around. I tried a few othe games and got similar results.

I launched MSI afterburner to see what the hell was going on. While out of game it should that my gpu clock was 139mhz, mem clock was at 405mhz and voltage was at 0. While in game my gpu clock shot up to 1905mhz, my mem clock went up to 4005mhz and voltage was still at 0. I tried unlocking the voltage in afterburner but to little to no effect. In the OSD while in far cry 4, it showed my gpu usage at 50% and it dipped below 20% with every movement. This happen with other ubisoft games but with other games like dying light and titanfall 2, gpu usage was at 99% but the fps stuttered and dipped below 80% and somtimes below 60% every few seconds. Side note, cpu usage varied from 22% to 44% depending on the game.

I dont know if the solution is obvious and im just looking in the wrong place or what. I dont believe this is a software issue, ive done a clean install of my nvidia drivers and ran a windows memory check. Im worried this might be a hardware issue, i replugged in my gpu's power connector and made sure it was tight (when i had my old rx 580 that ran into a similar issue once, that fixed it), i uninstalled and reinstalled my gpu to ensure it was connected properly. Could this mean a faulty psu, gpu or motherboard? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

My Specs:
Ryzen 5 1600
Asrock x370 killer motherboard
Evga 600w psu
Gtx 1070 windforce oc 2.0
500gb WD SSD

Side note: i recieved my gtx 1070 about 3 weeks ago and its been running flawlessly maxing out most games at 60fps 1440p until today.

 

[Chasingfaith]

When using msi afterburner to monitor your pc, the option "voltage limit" can only output two values: 0 and 1.

0 means that the maximum specified voltage has not been reached (which is a good thing) and 1 means that the maximum specified voltage is being reached (which causes the gpu to throttle, resulting in less performance)

The "power limit" works in the same way. You could use this option to check whether the specified power limit isn't holding your gpu back.

Have you ever overclocked your gpu?

 

[soulsoldier120]

When using msi afterburner to monitor your pc, the option "voltage limit" can only output two values: 0 and 1.

0 means that the maximum specified voltage has not been reached (which is a good thing) and 1 means that the maximum specified voltage is being reached (which causes the gpu to throttle, resulting in less performance)

The "power limit" works in the same way. You could use this option to check whether the specified power limit isn't holding your gpu back.

Have you ever overclocked your gpu?

No i have not overclocked my gpu

 

[Chasingfaith]

Also, I just realized that your problem might be caused by a high polling rate of your mouse. Usually when this problem occurs, there will be no problem as long as the mouse is stationary, but moving it will cause low fps/(micro)stutters.

 

[soulsoldier120]

Also, I just realized that your problem might be caused by a high polling rate of your mouse. Usually when this problem occurs, there will be no problem as long as the mouse is stationary, but moving it will cause low fps/(micro)stutters.

 

[soulsoldier120]

I will try it and get back to you, im only skeptical because even when sitting idol in FC4 my gpu usage is still at 50%

 

[Chasingfaith]

In that case the polling rate probably isn't the issue. The polling rate issue also goes hand in hand with high cpu usage and it seems like you're not experiencing this?

 

[soulsoldier120]

In that case the polling rate probably isn't the issue. The polling rate issue also goes hand in hand with high cpu usage and it seems like you're not experiencing this?

No my cpu usage is at about 35% while in game and i just ran into another odd issue, it happened a couple times in dying light but the steam overlay would randomly open up when ever i hit shift but i never touched tab at the same time. But the exact same thing just happened in FC4 and my mouse spun aroundf for till i tabbed out of the overlay.

 

[Chasingfaith]

Maybe a power saving plan is holding your gpu back. you could try the following:

- Go to Power options
- edit plan settings
- change advanced power settings
- PCI Express
- Change to off (or any other setting indicating no power saving)

 

[soulsoldier120]

Maybe a power saving plan is holding your gpu back. you could try the following:

- Go to Power options
- edit plan settings
- change advanced power settings
- PCI Express
- Change to off (or any other setting indicating no power saving)

Unfortunately its already off

 

[Chasingfaith]

Maybe you could check the "perfcap reason" in gpu-Z. This setting shows what is holding your gpu back. You can find it under the "sensors" tab

 

[soulsoldier120]

Maybe you could check the "perfcap reason" in gpu-Z. This setting shows what is holding your gpu back. You can find it under the "sensors" tab

Well its telling me "VRel" im not sure what that means

 

[Chasingfaith]

Vrel means "Reliability Voltage", indicating that at the current given voltage, the gpu can't run faster because that would cause instability. Vrel is probably the most generic perfcap status and it usually just means that the gpu is running at it's maximum speed (but obviously not in your case). This doesn't really tell you anything because the card should be able to run faster without instability isues at it's current voltage.

Some other things you could try:
-Revert your gpu driver back to a version that you remember working. If the problem is caused by software than this might very well fix it.
-Try your gpu using a different pcie x16 slot. Maybe a faulty motherboard isn't supplying enough pcie power? Idk, this probably won't fix anything but it's worth trying just to rule out a bad pcie lane.

 

[soulsoldier120]

Vrel means "Reliability Voltage", indicating that at the current given voltage, the gpu can't run faster because that would cause instability. Vrel is probably the most generic perfcap status and it usually just means that the gpu is running at it's maximum speed (but obviously not in your case). This doesn't really tell you anything because the card should be able to run faster without instability isues at it's current voltage.

Some other things you could try:
-Revert your gpu driver back to a version that you remember working. If the problem is caused by software than this might very well fix it.
-Try your gpu using a different pcie x16 slot. Maybe a faulty motherboard isn't supplying enough pcie power? Idk, this probably won't fix anything but it's worth trying just to rule out a bad pcie lane.

Hm well rolling back the drivers stopped the gpu from stuttering in the menus on FC4 but unfortunately gpu usage in game is still at 50% so im going to try moving to the other pcie slot now

 

[soulsoldier120]

Vrel means "Reliability Voltage", indicating that at the current given voltage, the gpu can't run faster because that would cause instability. Vrel is probably the most generic perfcap status and it usually just means that the gpu is running at it's maximum speed (but obviously not in your case). This doesn't really tell you anything because the card should be able to run faster without instability isues at it's current voltage.

Some other things you could try:
-Revert your gpu driver back to a version that you remember working. If the problem is caused by software than this might very well fix it.
-Try your gpu using a different pcie x16 slot. Maybe a faulty motherboard isn't supplying enough pcie power? Idk, this probably won't fix anything but it's worth trying just to rule out a bad pcie lane.

Pcie slot change didnt help unfortunately didnt do anything like you guessed, gpu usage is still at 50%

 

[Chasingfaith]

Im starting to think that the problem is caused by either your gpu itself, your psu or some dumb windows setting nobody thought about (but at this point I'm just wild guessing if you haven't noticed )

Is there any possibility you have an old gpu laying around that you could test in your setup to see if the same problem occurs? Also, do you have another pc that you could test your gpu in? This way you might be able to isolate the problem to either of those parts.

 

[soulsoldier120]

Im starting to think that the problem is caused by either your gpu itself, your psu or some dumb windows setting nobody thought about (but at this point I'm just wild guessing if you haven't noticed )

Is there any possibility you have an old gpu laying around that you could test in your setup to see if the same problem occurs? Also, do you have another pc that you could test your gpu in? This way you might be able to isolate the problem to either of those parts.

Yeah actually i just asked my friend if i could have it back to test it out, and wish i had another computer to but no unfortunately. I think it is probably my gpu since i just got it like not even 2 weeks ago. But i really appriciate your time and help man really! 😀

 

[Chasingfaith]

You're welcome! I just hope that I will be able to actually help you though...

I just found some guy that fixed a similar problem by enabling the xmp profile in the bios. If you're not yet running the xmp profile you might want to give that a try.

Also, several people solved the problem by turning OFF "HPET" in the bios. Might as well try that while you're at it