GPUs now sit at 20% usage on idle desktop and 1st PCI-e slot runs at 8x in SLI

[Fatpig11]

Hey Folks,

Built myself a beast of a computer some months ago, has been running flawlessly until today. I'm usually pretty cluey at debugging but this one truly has me stumped.

Turned my comp on today and noticed through Afterburner that my GPUs were sitting idle at 20% usage and 40c. Usually they sit at 3-5% and 25c. I then attempted to play a few games and instead of the expected >60fps I always get I was stuck on between 40-45. I decided that maybe my NVIDIA drivers bugged out so I used DDU to wipe and did a clean reinstall. After noticing no change I went into my bios and saw that my first PCI-e slot is now running at native 8x while my second slot is still at 16x. Both should be native 16x and it has been this way until today.

After spending hours trawling forums I haven't found any answers to my problems. I tried using Malwarebytes in case of a bit miner - but my system is clean as far as I can see. I've reinstalled the drivers multiple times to no avail. I'm hoping someone on here has a solution.

Other potential important info - Running a 4k monitor at 60fps, on idle my CPU sits at expected 0-1% usage and so does my RAM.

Specs.
2x Gigabyte 1080 extreme gaming water cooled
I7 6850k
32GB 2400 RAM
512 SSD Mk.2
6TB Barracuda
ROG Rampage V Edition 10 Mobo
32" 4k Predator

Thanks in advance!

 

[photonboy]

Not sure about the 20%, but my GTX1080 performance dropped when the PCIe power management was kicking in. I turned it off in Power Options.

Not sure why that was even on as I certainly didn't apply that setting.

Your 20% might be due to some program running, and that may explain the low performance but that seems odd. I can't think of an explanation for that.

 

[Fatpig11]

Are you referring to the power management mode under the 3D settings on the NVIDIA panel or something else? I've set the NVIDIA one to 'max performance' which is the closest to having it off however I'm unaware of a PCIe specific one!

I feel like it must be due to a background program, I just haven't found one yet. I'll continue the search though

 

[The Paladin]

as for your SLI set up it is normal both cards will run at 8x when on SLI. it is how it is done.

 

[Fatpig11]

as for your SLI set up it is normal both cards will run at 8x when on SLI. it is how it is done.

Thanks for the response however that isn't the case. Because of my hardware it allows 2-way SLI running at 16x on both channels. Most motherboard/CPUs can only handle one at 16x and one at 8x or as low as both running at 8x however mine has been running at 16x since I built it (with the exception of today)

 

[IntelVEVO]

Do you have any peripherals plugged in that might be taking up pcie bandwidth like m.2 ssd or a network or sound card? If so take them out and try again.