Question GTX 1080 sometimes not drawing enough power ?

[hhgeka]

This happened a while ago and I have been ignoring it for the most part but its getting really annoying now. A few months ago I noticed I had lower frames than usual (about 100+ less) and frame drops/stuttering while playing SOME games and after looking through HWiNFO64 I noticed my GPU was only drawing 50-60% power, but was running at 100% utilisation. The temperatures of the GPU also stayed below 70C with fans on low.

PC specs
i5 9600k
Asus Z370-G motherboard
32gb 2666MHZ (2x16gb)
500gb SSD + 1tb HDD
ASUS ROG GTX 1080 8GB
550W Gold PSU

My PC was running fine for 6 months before this just happened overnight. Any suggestions would help.


Here are 3 pictures of HWiNFO64 stats I screenshotted after playing 3 different games for 15-30 minutes (use the 2 columns to the right as I took the sc after closing the games, 2nd from the right is max) where one actually makes my gpu draw a normal level of power.

Any help on diagnosing the problem would be appreciated.

Userbenchmark provides the same results as it did 6 months ago.

 

[Lutfij]

550W Gold PSU
550W is the advertised wattage, while gold is the 80+ efficiency rating. We're still going to need to know the make and model of the PSU, as well as it's age.

 

[4745454b]

I'm not super familiar with that card. It's this one?

https://www.newegg.com/p/1DW-00GD-0...rog strix gtx 1080-_-9SIAM4SHCH5187-_-Product

I have a few thoughts on this. First, I can't find anything online as to what it should be, the Vcore seems really low. Are GPUs really down to ~1V? My next thought runs counter to the Vcore idea as you are hitting your boost frequencies according to that newegg link. Newegg says it should boost to 1835, and you are avg 1800ish except for that last one where its only 1550. Boost depends on temps and voltage. The highest temps I'm seeing are 75C, which should be plenty cool. So that leaves Voltage and your Vcore of 1V and the PSU. I don't think I'd use a 550W PSU with that GPU as it's TDP is only 180W, but it's spikes a lot higher than that. If it used to work and now doesn't that could be a dying PSU not being able to supply enough power anymore to handle the peaks. (Could also be a temp issue somewhere else, CPU/board temps ok?)

What is the history of the GPU? What mods have you done to it?

 

[DRagor]

If it is only SOME games, while some others run fine, the first thing to look at are graphic drivers. Also it may matter which games exactly work and which don't - GPU load is not the only thing that can matter. Lastly as already mentioned by guys above PSU can be an issue.

 

[hhgeka]

550W Gold PSU
550W is the advertised wattage, while gold is the 80+ efficiency rating. We're still going to need to know the make and model of the PSU, as well as it's age.

PSU is a SilverStone 550W Strider Gold S 80+ Gold Power Supply (ST55F-GS) - bought in early 2019.

I'm not super familiar with that card. It's this one?

Graphics card is Asus 1080 ROG strix 8gb (https://rog.asus.com/graphics-cards/graphics-cards/rog-strix/rog-strix-gtx1080-a8g-gaming-model/) - no mods, mining or OC. I tried updating graphics drivers as well as reverting to an older version which worked previously, but didn't change anything - but I'll try see if I can update again and report back.

The lower boost could be due to the game taking a while to load (was playing escape from tarkov so long wait times) so wouldn't have required max clock speed, however I am usually reaching the max clock (1949) while actually playing the games.
I have been monitoring the temps of CPU and motherboard etc for about a month now, with motherboard not getting too hot (don't have an exact number) and the cpu rarely going above 75C, occasionally reaching 85C when I have a lot open.

My main issue is that if it is the PSU which is dying, why is it only on particular games - especially when some of those games are much more graphically intensive than others, as the first screenshot with the lowest wattage was cs:go vs the highest being tarkov.

 

[4745454b]

Your CPU is hot to me. Not sure if that's part of the issue or not.

Are there any games where it works as it should? You are hitting the boost frequencies so what exactly is the issue?

 

[hhgeka]

Your CPU is hot to me. Not sure if that's part of the issue or not.

Are there any games where it works as it should? You are hitting the boost frequencies so what exactly is the issue?

CPU is running around 65-70C usually - only going higher when I have chrome and a few games open.

The problem with the graphics card is that the GPU3D usage goes to 100% while the card is drawing 50-60% power, which causes frame drops and a lot of stuttering making a few games impossible to play. CS:GO (which isnt the most graphically intensive), a game which I played for years and got 300-400 fps on max settings with no stuttering etc, now gets 60-90 fps on low along with constant stuttering which makes the game unplayable probably due to the graphics card only drawing 90W (1st screenshot). Contrasted to escape from tarkov, which is a much more graphically intensive game, where i'm getting better frames than most people along with no stuttering, however the card is actually drawing the power required (180W - 3rd screenshot) .

 

[DRagor]

CS:GO (which isnt the most graphically intensive), a game which I played for years and got 300-400 fps on max settings with no stuttering etc, now gets 60-90 fps on low along with constant stuttering which makes the game unplayable probably due to the graphics card only drawing 90W (1st screenshot). Contrasted to escape from tarkov, which is a much more graphically intensive game, where i'm getting better frames than most people along with no stuttering, however the card is actually drawing the power required (180W - 3rd screenshot) .

Hmm, maybe you are looking at the problem from wrong angle. It's hard to believe GPU can draw all power it needs in Tarkov but not in other game just because it's other game? That makes no sense to me. On the other hand we know CSGO is CPU bound game. So MAYBE the problem is in CPU? Do a little test - set graphical settings on CSGO back to max; if after that you still get same 60-90 fps then it would mean your GPU is not your problem after all.

 

[hhgeka]

Hmm, maybe you are looking at the problem from wrong angle. It's hard to believe GPU can draw all power it needs in Tarkov but not in other game just because it's other game? That makes no sense to me. On the other hand we know CSGO is CPU bound game. So MAYBE the problem is in CPU? Do a little test - set graphical settings on CSGO back to max; if after that you still get same 60-90 fps then it would mean your GPU is not your problem after all.

Sorry for late response - just tested it on CS:GO, I seem to be getting very similar frames with maybe a 10% increase, however the stuttering also seems to have drastically increased making it feel as if I have lost fps. Took a screenshot of the CPU sensors on HWiNFO after playing for around 10 mins as well.

I bought the cpu recently as well - about 6 months ago, so would be surprised if it is dead already.

 

[DRagor]

I bought the cpu recently as well - about 6 months ago, so would be surprised if it is dead already.

No, it's not that. Clocks are fine, temps are good, so I doubt there is any problem with CPU itself. But the usage seems to be quite high. This may be the problem.

 

[hhgeka]

No, it's not that. Clocks are fine, temps are good, so I doubt there is any problem with CPU itself. But the usage seems to be quite high. This may be the problem.

Any ideas on what's causing this? Because everything worked perfectly together for about a month after I bought the cpu (upgraded because old one was bottlenecking) and then overnight this happened which leads me to think a part may not be working as intended, but I have no clue to as which one it could be.

Rechecked graphics drivers, was still running on a previous version which worked before (January) and have updated now but still the same problem.

 

[DRagor]

Check out how CPU usage is looking with Tarkov. Also repeat the run with CSGO but close all the apps you can before to see if there is significant usage difference, and if it is how it affects fps/stuttering.

 

[hhgeka]

Check out how CPU usage is looking with Tarkov. Also repeat the run with CSGO but close all the apps you can before to see if there is significant usage difference, and if it is how it affects fps/stuttering.

Haven't checked with tarkov yet as there is a big update, however I remember it being high - 90-100% when monitoring it before.

However, from monitoring HWiNFO64 just now it seems like the cpu usage is actually at 40-50% while playing CSGO with nothing else open on my PC, even my antivirus, and the fps/frame drops are still the same. I don't know when it recorded the max cpu usage in the following images however the current usage (leftmost) is the actual usage as I took the screenshots while playing the game.

And I also took another of the GPU sensors:

 

[hhgeka]

Just took another screenshot of taskmanager along with HWiNFO after finding some more stuff to close:

The FPS while doing this ranged between 70 and 120 (along with stutters increasing for the lower fps) depending on if I was looking towards the middle of the map or away (more stuff loaded into line of sight = lower fps).

 

[DRagor]

Well, I don't really see anything that would suggest hardware failure at this point. Which leaves you with two possibilities: malware eating your system resources; or something like Windows update screwing functioning of certain games.

 

[hhgeka]

Well, I don't really see anything that would suggest hardware failure at this point. Which leaves you with two possibilities: malware eating your system resources; or something like Windows update screwing functioning of certain games.

Do you have any software recommendations for determining if I have malware or some other software is screwing with certain games?

 

[Karadjgne]

I doubt it's the gpu. Clocks are hitting above 1900MHz. Cpu power isn't hitting anything close to what it's capable of though. Neither should 32Gb of DDR4 be pulling only 2w.

What changed? Software updates? Windows updates? Running GeForce Experience and have a 4k DSR enabled? Xbox DVR and/or game helper?

If it's Only affecting Some games, it cannot be a hardware issue, or it'd affect All games. A busted psu is a busted psu, it won't pick and choose which game to be half dead on. Same applies to cpu and gpu. Hardware isn't half-way, it's either busted or not. Software/settings/drivers is totally different.

My guess is you need a bios update, motherboard chipset drivers update (especially audio and Lan), do a full malwarebytes And virus scan (malware and virus are not the same), run ccleaner, both cleaner and registry tool (say Yes to backup!), open up a Admin prompt Type DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (note the space before each "/"), and then press Enter.
Then type sfc /scannow (note the space before /) and then press Enter.

That should start you out clean, basically eliminating software as a culprit, leaving only drivers and settings. Drivers, use DDU through safe mode (after downloading and saving a fresh copy,) then reinstall.

 

[4745454b]

What about running DDU? Remove the cards drivers and run DDU to get rid of all driver parts, and then install from scratch.

Can also install win10 on a different partition. With clean windows and driver that will tell us if it's a software issue.

 

[hhgeka]

What about running DDU? Remove the cards drivers and run DDU to get rid of all driver parts, and then install from scratch.

Can also install win10 on a different partition. With clean windows and driver that will tell us if it's a software issue.

I have already run DDU to remove card drivers initially before I installed a previous version, which ended up having the same problem.

I'll try the partition as well. Would it also work if I had windows installed on my hard drive and tried running it off that? Or would it still have the same problem.

I doubt it's the gpu. Clocks are hitting above 1900MHz. Cpu power isn't hitting anything close to what it's capable of though. Neither should 32Gb of DDR4 be pulling only 2w.

What changed? Software updates? Windows updates? Running GeForce Experience and have a 4k DSR enabled? Xbox DVR and/or game helper?

If it's Only affecting Some games, it cannot be a hardware issue, or it'd affect All games. A busted psu is a busted psu, it won't pick and choose which game to be half dead on. Same applies to cpu and gpu. Hardware isn't half-way, it's either busted or not. Software/settings/drivers is totally different.

My guess is you need a bios update, motherboard chipset drivers update (especially audio and Lan), do a full malwarebytes And virus scan (malware and virus are not the same), run ccleaner, both cleaner and registry tool (say Yes to backup!), open up a Admin prompt Type DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (note the space before each "/"), and then press Enter.
Then type sfc /scannow (note the space before /) and then press Enter.

That should start you out clean, basically eliminating software as a culprit, leaving only drivers and settings. Drivers, use DDU through safe mode (after downloading and saving a fresh copy,) then reinstall.

Not sure what changed exactly, just happened overnight fps dropped significantly. I was able to work around it briefly by uninstalling and reinstalling csgo and it would work for a little bit before dropping again, not exactly sure why.

Checked and I did have 4K DSR enabled, however turning it off changed nothing to the fps or stuttering.

I already had all the Xbox stuff off as I thought it may have caused the problem, but it didn't, same with the game helper - tried turning them back on/off.

Ran a scan though malwarebytes and nothing showed up, ran ccleaner (didn't have the option between the cleaner and registry just had a scan option), ran the admin prompt lines - which did say that some files were corrupt and had been repaired, but no change to fps/stuttering.

I had to update BIOS to install the 9600k as the bios only supported 8th gen chipsets, and the PC ran fine for 1-2 months after before this happened. GPU drivers updated to latest, same with CPU (according to ccleaner but idk how accurate that is). I'll try the other motherboard chipset drivers however I am pretty sure I have already installed them all initially to try fix the problem.

 

[4745454b]

Would it also work if I had windows installed on my hard drive and tried running it off that?

I don't understand what you are asking. You need a blank drive/partition to install a temp copy of windows. You boot to that and see if the problem is there. If it is, it's a hardware issue. If it isn't, it's a software issue.

 

[hhgeka]

I don't understand what you are asking. You need a blank drive/partition to install a temp copy of windows. You boot to that and see if the problem is there. If it is, it's a hardware issue. If it isn't, it's a software issue.

I have a hard drive with windows installed on it which I previously used as my main drive before I upgraded to an SSD. Would running it off that drive work similarly to a partition or do I need a clean drive/partition to work with? Or could the software issue be carried over.

 

[4745454b]

Running it off that drive would be fine. Unplug your main windows SSD so you don't have boot or accident issues.

 

[hhgeka]

Gave up on this after a week because I completely wiped my SSD, unplugged my hard drive and still the same problem. Getting a bit bored of the same few games so anyone have any other suggestions on what could be wrong because I am stumped.