[SOLVED] GTX 1070 shows poor performance (recently)

[winterstefan]

Hi there,

I have a bit of a problem with my GPU. Ever though I tried different approaches and configs, I'm still not able to solve it. So maybe one of you could shed some light for me. Would be very cool.


The problem

Recently, my ASUS GTX 1070 shows very bad performance. That I did notice that by both running games that before performed well (and now aren't smooth at all) and by comparing benchmarks.
In the last couple of days I'm trying to get the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 up and running. But even with low graphic config I'm unable to get beyond ~18 FPS. So I started to be skeptical and did some benchmarking.


The benchmarking

I'm now posting results of userbenchmarking.com. I'm certain that this may not be the most suitable tool for getting thrustworthy and reliable results. But for my case, you will certainly spot the difference between both results. It's not about 1 or 2 percents, I had a drop from 80% to 15% for the GPU.

Previous result (4 months old)
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/27009374

Todays result
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/32211584

In both cases, I restarted the computer before the benchmark.


What I changed between the runs

• Installed new NVIDIA gpu driver
  • Especially this week the 452.06 because it was announced to be optimized for the new FS2020
• Switched from an 24'' 1080p monitor for 4k
  • For benchmarking, I switched to my old 24'' monitor for better comparison
  • Because of now having 28'' 4k, GPU is even more a bottleneck for me.
• Added another 2x8GB of RAM
  • But tested it even without this addition, same results
• Cleaned my PC inside and outside
  • I double-checked every component to be in place and correctly inserted

What I tested to get back to full performance

All of that without any impact to performance, unfortunately.

• As for the benchmark, tested e.g. FS2020 with both 1080 and 4k resolution
• Installed older gpu drivers (451.67 as my latest one and the oldest available 441.20)
• Removed the new RAM
• Checked display settings (both 1k and 4k)
  • Didn't find G-Sync settings and I think my monitors are not ready for G-Sync
  • Tried different cables and ports (but for the 1k, it's still the one from 4 months ago)
• Tried moving GPU to my second PCIe slot (I have 2, board manual says I'm already in the right / fast one)
• Double-checked the GPU being correctly installed in its PCIe slot (removed several times)
• Tried another power adapter in case this cable is faulty
• Installed ASUS GPU Tweak software trying to Overclock

My knowledge

I'm not a hardware specialist. I build the computer on my own, but I'm not an expert in e.g. how to tweak BIOS settings to enable different modes and stuff. So I'm open to any suggestion. For sure I could try out another benchmarking software, but IMHO the comparison of the two results of userbenchmarks is quiet self explanatory.

p.s. If you spot some potential in my setup (yes I know, the benchmarks mostly state that each component is under-performing a bit), feel free to comment.

 

[cdrkf]

Hi there,

I have a bit of a problem with my GPU. Ever though I tried different approaches and configs, I'm still not able to solve it. So maybe one of you could shed some light for me. Would be very cool.


The problem

Recently, my ASUS GTX 1070 shows very bad performance. That I did notice that by both running games that before performed well (and now aren't smooth at all) and by comparing benchmarks.
In the last couple of days I'm trying to get the new Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 up and running. But even with low graphic config I'm unable to get beyond ~18 FPS. So I started to be skeptical and did some benchmarking.


The benchmarking

I'm now posting results of userbenchmarking.com. I'm certain that this may not be the most suitable tool for getting thrustworthy and reliable results. But for my case, you will certainly spot the difference between both results. It's not about 1 or 2 percents, I had a drop from 80% to 15% for the GPU.

Previous result (4 months old)
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/27009374

Todays result
https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/32211584

In both cases, I restarted the computer before the benchmark.


What I changed between the runs

• Installed new NVIDIA gpu driver
  • Especially this week the 452.06 because it was announced to be optimized for the new FS2020
• Switched from an 24'' 1080p monitor for 4k
  • For benchmarking, I switched to my old 24'' monitor for better comparison
  • Because of now having 28'' 4k, GPU is even more a bottleneck for me.
• Added another 2x8GB of RAM
  • But tested it even without this addition, same results
• Cleaned my PC inside and outside
  • I double-checked every component to be in place and correctly inserted

What I tested to get back to full performance

All of that without any impact to performance, unfortunately.

• As for the benchmark, tested e.g. FS2020 with both 1080 and 4k resolution
• Installed older gpu drivers (451.67 as my latest one and the oldest available 441.20)
• Removed the new RAM
• Checked display settings (both 1k and 4k)
  • Didn't find G-Sync settings and I think my monitors are not ready for G-Sync
  • Tried different cables and ports (but for the 1k, it's still the one from 4 months ago)
• Tried moving GPU to my second PCIe slot (I have 2, board manual says I'm already in the right / fast one)
• Double-checked the GPU being correctly installed in its PCIe slot (removed several times)
• Tried another power adapter in case this cable is faulty
• Installed ASUS GPU Tweak software trying to Overclock

My knowledge

I'm not a hardware specialist. I build the computer on my own, but I'm not an expert in e.g. how to tweak BIOS settings to enable different modes and stuff. So I'm open to any suggestion. For sure I could try out another benchmarking software, but IMHO the comparison of the two results of userbenchmarks is quiet self explanatory.

p.s. If you spot some potential in my setup (yes I know, the benchmarks mostly state that each component is under-performing a bit), feel free to comment.

That is strange... the 1070 is performing very poorly, although Userbench suggests there is a frame cap implemented? The CPU and memory appear the same as before.

Have you checked the GPU temps whilst running a game? Also is the fan working correctly on the card? If the hardware appears to be ok you could try running the DDU tool to remove all old drivers then install the latest nVidia drivers again as a clean install.

 

[winterstefan]

Thank you very much for the tips, cdrkf!

After just using a DDU tool to clean up the mess of drivers, I'm back at ~76% for the gpu.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/32217578

(...) although Userbench suggests there is a frame cap implemented?

Yes, that was strange. I never configured stuff like that. But this frame cap notification now is erased after doing your DDU tip. For the sake of completeness: GPU hardware seems to be okay, temps ok, fans correctly spinning.


Speaking of the FlightSim game, I now get 25 average FPS with higher graphic settings (e.g. with rain, other aircrafts, etc) instead of the 18 FPS with black low settings. It's not perfect, but way better and 'playable'.

If you have any quick tip on the other components (like cpu), don't hesitate commenting. Regarding the GPU, I'd consider my problem fixed. Thank you!

 

[cdrkf]

Thank you very much for the tips, cdrkf!

After just using a DDU tool to clean up the mess of drivers, I'm back at ~76% for the gpu.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/32217578



Yes, that was strange. I never configured stuff like that. But this frame cap notification now is erased after doing your DDU tip. For the sake of completeness: GPU hardware seems to be okay, temps ok, fans correctly spinning.


Speaking of the FlightSim game, I now get 25 average FPS with higher graphic settings (e.g. with rain, other aircrafts, etc) instead of the 18 FPS with black low settings. It's not perfect, but way better and 'playable'.

If you have any quick tip on the other components (like cpu), don't hesitate commenting. Regarding the GPU, I'd consider my problem fixed. Thank you!

Yeah looks like your GPU is performing up to spec now, glad I was able to help. In terms of other parts, looking over the userbench data your CPU is performing a bit on the low side, I think that is probably because you are running 2400mhz memory, Ryzen really benefits from fast ram (as the internal 'infinity fabric' - that is what transfers data between cores, is tied to the memory frequency so increasing ram speed also boost the cpu performance a bit).

You could look into getting a DDR4 3200mhz kit (you can hit higher frequencies with 2 ram sticks rather than 4 so a 2 x 16gb kit would be best).... Ryzen can be fussy about ram kits though so best to order a kit that is tested by Asrock with your board and CPU:
https://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/B450 Pro4/#MemoryPR

The above link is the Ryzen 2000 series memory testing, there are some 3200mhz kits listed on there as approved.

The other thing to look at is cooling - it's best to use the free 'HW Monitor' tool to check what temp everything is running at. You can coax quite a nice performance boost out of the 2600 with a mild overclock (should hit at least 4ghz on all cores) but that does require decent cooling. HW monitor can tell you what the temps are running at. The cores need to be below 80c or they will start to throttle. If you want to overclock the cpu you may need to invest in a better cpu cooler (a tower air cooler like a Hyper 212 or similar should do the trick). It's also worth making sure your case has decent airflow, you ideally need at least 2 fans (one intake fan on the front with an exhaust fan on the rear).

That should hopefully be enough to push your frame rate up in Flight Sim to the 30fps range (in theory at least, the GTX 1070 is capable of 40+ fps at 1080p high according to toms recent benchmarks, that is paired with an overclocked 9900k though):
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/oSUbgYWpnaK2bSgL7Lp2Th.png

Flight Sim 2020 is a bit odd cpu wise - it only really uses about 4 cores which holds it back on Ryzen cpu's, whilst Intels higher end parts that can push over the 5ghz mark are the best option for it currently. That is why I think an overclock + faster memory on your 2600 should really help as it will boost per core performance quite a bit. The other option would be to look at a Ryzen 3000 series cpu as they are quite a bit faster per core, something like a 3300X or 3600 would both be good options (although I think you would still want to invest in a faster memory kit either way so I'd probably upgrade that first).

 

[winterstefan]

Wow, thanks for the tips!

The approach of Rzyen having a benefit of fast RAM sound very understandable. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do so by having e.g. 3200 MHz RAM. My current RAM is a 3200 G.Skill RAM, which was clocked to 1600 (according to my benchmarks). But indeed, this particular RAM was not mentioned on the ASRock listing.
So this week I bought some Corsair Vengeance RAM (2x16GB @3200), but got the more or less same results (see here).

According to the Mainboard manual (page 23), it's not possible to reach 3200, is it? For two slots its 2400 / 2667 - for four slots its 1866 / 2133. I configured these values in my BIOS but didn't get any better performance (got from 1200 MHz with the 4x8GB to 1400Mhz now - see here).
Also, with the new 2x16GB it's 1400MHz. Maybe I'm too confused to tune it correctly...
Am I wrong, that the BIOS manual says nothing about the 3200 MHz?


I also tried a bit of CPU OC and got a bit more performance. Currently I'm at 3.9 GHz without any negative impact on temperature.

Speaking of FS2020, I'll hope that soon DX12 will be used and that this may have positive effect on my system / CPU. For a GPU, I might wait for the new 30xx. The 3070 looks quite reasonable, maybe that would be a possible upgrade...

One problem I still have with my GTX 1070: Sometimes, running the benchmark my GPU reaches a result of just 15% (example result - like before dropping old graphic drivers). Any idea? Or could it just be the benchmarking tool itself?

Notes:

• I'm running the benchmark after a clean reboot without any stuff open.
• I didn't change any driver / setup
• I can reproduce the 15% by consecutive benchmarking and even after reboot.
• Only by once again using the DDU tool I get a fresh >90% (for some time)

 

[cdrkf]

Wow, thanks for the tips!

The approach of Rzyen having a benefit of fast RAM sound very understandable. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do so by having e.g. 3200 MHz RAM. My current RAM is a 3200 G.Skill RAM, which was clocked to 1600 (according to my benchmarks). But indeed, this particular RAM was not mentioned on the ASRock listing.
So this week I bought some Corsair Vengeance RAM (2x16GB @3200), but got the more or less same results (see here).

According to the Mainboard manual (page 23), it's not possible to reach 3200, is it? For two slots its 2400 / 2667 - for four slots its 1866 / 2133. I configured these values in my BIOS but didn't get any better performance (got from 1200 MHz with the 4x8GB to 1400Mhz now - see here).
Also, with the new 2x16GB it's 1400MHz. Maybe I'm too confused to tune it correctly...
Am I wrong, that the BIOS manual says nothing about the 3200 MHz?


I also tried a bit of CPU OC and got a bit more performance. Currently I'm at 3.9 GHz without any negative impact on temperature.

Speaking of FS2020, I'll hope that soon DX12 will be used and that this may have positive effect on my system / CPU. For a GPU, I might wait for the new 30xx. The 3070 looks quite reasonable, maybe that would be a possible upgrade...

One problem I still have with my GTX 1070: Sometimes, running the benchmark my GPU reaches a result of just 15% (example result - like before dropping old graphic drivers). Any idea? Or could it just be the benchmarking tool itself?

Notes:

• I'm running the benchmark after a clean reboot without any stuff open.
• I didn't change any driver / setup
• I can reproduce the 15% by consecutive benchmarking and even after reboot.
• Only by once again using the DDU tool I get a fresh >90% (for some time)

Hi... sorry this is so late only just seen your reply....

In regards to ram frequencies, 3200 memory runs at a clock speed of 1600 mhz - it's 'DDR' ram (which stands for Double Data Rate - essentially DDR memory can move data twice per clock cycle so the clock speed you see reported is always half the rated speed). When I looked at the Userbench data it appeared that your memory was only running at ~1066 mhz (i.e. DDR4 2133 speed).

In terms of the benchmark scores, Userbench can be unreliable, if the machine is performing reasonably in games then I wouldn't worry too much about it. Note if you want a more reliable graphics performance test I would suggest using the free 3D Mark demo available on Steam - 3D Mark TimeSpy is probably a good one to test a 1070. If you are thinking of upgrading a GPU, the new 30XX series are good, although a lot of reviewers have pointed out nVidias latest cards do require a very strong CPU to get best performance, so you might actually be better looking at a Radeon card instead if you are still using the 2600 - the new RX 6700XT and 6800 cards are both very strong and would probably give better results with that CPU than say a 3070. The only downside to the RX 6000 cards is the ray tracing performance is much weaker than nVidia (but as that can be turned off it's probably not much of an issue). The biggest problem though with any of these cards is actually getting on at a sensible price, there's a real shortage of cards at the moment. I think your 1070 should be good enough to hold onto for a while longer until the current stock situation gets sorted out.