GTX 770 not running on max performance

[pat_star]

Hi,

so i recently upgraded my system from a GIGABYTE HD 7850 2gb to a GIGABYTE GTX 770 2gb.
The 7850 used to run BF4 on medium/low at 70-85fps, never dropping below 60, which was good because i only have a 60hz monitor.

Now, with the new GPU and on the SAME settings in BF4 i get 80-120fps but with frequent drops down to 40. GPU usage is at around 60% and Power Consumption at 50% with those settings.

Here is the problem: When i set BF4 to ultra, i get 55-100fps, but still it drops below 40 frequently. With these settings GPU usage is above 80% for most of the time, but Power Consumption still at around 65%.

Old AMD drivers have been uninstalled completely and registry leftovers were deletet.

Any guesses whats wrong?
Oh and i don't care about the looks of the game that much. I'd rather lower the graphic setting to get 60fps min AT ALL TIMES than having a slightly better looking game.
So basically i want the fps to be above 60 so i can lock it on 60 via the game cfg. GPU usage should be pretty high since i dont want to "waste" any performance.

Hope someone could help me. If you need more detailed information about my system or anything else, let me know.

cheers

System specs are:

CPU: Intel i5 4670k @ 3.4Ghz
Board: MSI Z87-G43
Ram: Corsair DIMM 8 GB DDR3-1333
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 770 2gb
PSU: Strike-X 600W
OS: Windows 7 Pro 64bit

edit: The GPU-temp on the first metioned settings is around 60°C. On Ultra its never above 75°C

 

[laviniuc]

i hear the adaptive vsync setting in the nvidia control center could fix the issue

 

[pat_star]

Thanks for the quick reply. Currently the vsync is set to off. Should i turn it to adaptive then?

 

[laviniuc]

nope, i just thought it could have been forced on. check the settings in the nvidia control panel for anything forced. something must be responsible for the fps drops.

 

[pat_star]

What do you mean with forced on? Everything is set to default values, except vsync which is turned off. Plus Power management which is set to "prefer max" and anisotropic sampling set on. Texture filtering - Quality is set to performance.
Oh and i set Multi-Display... to "single-display-performance-mode" i guess.

 

[azzazel_99]

Windows 7 is the problem. This game is meant to be played on windows 8 and DOES in fact play much better. More consistent fps and also you'll get a fps boost. Everyone is a little different but I got and average 15 fps jump over windows 7.

 

[laviniuc]

go to advanced and check the anti aliasing settings, try also with anisotropic filtering auto/off

 

[laviniuc]

Windows 7 is the problem. This game is meant to be played on windows 8 and DOES in fact play much better. More consistent fps and also you'll get a fps boost. Everyone is a little different but I got and average 15 fps jump over windows 7.

the problem is on the same win7 he had a higher min fps on the 7850

 

[azzazel_99]

Yes and there are several threads on toms with the same issue being fixed by windows 8. You are buying brand new technology and running it on an outdated os. There is more support for windows 8 and seeing as how windows 8 fixes alot of peoples issues and creates performance gains it would be a good place to start. Also check mobo bios and software/driver updates.

 

[pat_star]

the problem is on the same win7 he had a higher min fps on the 7850

Exactly. Well so i'm going to set anything AA-related to off. Plus Anisotropic filtering set to off. Gonna test it now. I'll post the results soon.

 

[azzazel_99]

You arent the first person experiencing the fps drop. Its a bf4 issue and has been acknowledged by bf4 devs.... there are thousands of people reporting this issue and it seems to be on newer hardware. Like I said alot of people have had it fixed by going to win 8. That fixed my issue along with alot of others. Just food for thought.

 

[pat_star]

Seems like i need to try windows 8 then. But still i am confused. Why did those drops never happen with my old 7850?

edit: mobo bios and all drivers are up to date.

 

[azzazel_99]

Older card and older tech. Alot of the newer cards are able to create different things in the newer gamez like bf4 and how they draw the images on the screen. Drivers also are going to vary on the cards. If you do try windows 8 be sure to download a start menu program like start is back or I think startX are both good ones. The gui of windows 8 sucks hard and those apps make it look like windows 7 so its easier to navigate. Good luck on whatever path you choose.

 

[captain kid]

Seems like i need to try windows 8 then. But still i am confused. Why did those drops never happen with my old 7850?

edit: mobo bios and all drivers are up to date.

Well you went from an Ati card to a Nvidia card so it could have something to do with the drivers. Or the hardware itself. Or other software (Windows)
Games are fickle. I've read many threads for different games where people with newer and better hardware have poorer performance then people with older stuff. And fps drops are the complaint I read a lot.

And especially BF4 is well known for it's shoddy programming and countless bugs.

Edit.
I find it strange your GPU doesn't work at 100% but maybe that's normal, I don't know.

 

[laviniuc]

it's still a gtx770 instead of 7850. should be at least 30-40% more powerful.

 

[pat_star]

Alright so by disabling all AA and Anisotropic filtering i gained about 10fps. The frame-rate drops are still existent. One thing i noticed though is, that the GPU is now working at 60-70% only. Before it was above 80% with some spikes to 99%. I think the spikes occured at the same time as the fps drops. Now that i have the AA and Anisotropic filtering off, there are no spikes at 99% GPU usage but the fps do still drop. Also the GPU temp is lower now.

Why does the GPU not work at 99% all the time, regardless of the ingame settings? Like it should be porducing the max fps it can at all time, shouldn't it?

 

[azzazel_99]

Because it isnt having to work at full load to draw what needs to be drawn on the screen. Thats like saying why not drive your car at full speed everywhere you go even when you dont have to be anywhere at a specific time. Why drive fast with no time constraint?

 

[captain kid]

Alright so by disabling all AA and Anisotropic filtering i gained about 10fps. The frame-rate drops are still existent. One thing i noticed though is, that the GPU is now working at 60-70% only. Before it was above 80% with some spikes to 99%. I think the spikes occured at the same time as the fps drops. Now that i have the AA and Anisotropic filtering off, there are no spikes at 99% GPU usage but the fps do still drop. Also the GPU temp is lower now.

Why does the GPU not work at 99% all the time, regardless of the ingame settings? Like it should be porducing the max fps it can at all time, shouldn't it?

Good question and I would also like to know if this is normal behaviour for a GPU card.
You would hope it runs on 100% all the time why else fork out the cash for a faster card.

The only thing I can think of is that performance is limited by the CPU at moments when the card is not running at 100%. So it would be pointless for the card to run at full whack because you wouldn't get any better performance. However in your case that seems like an odd explanation because the game didn't have fps drops with the same CPU before.

Perhaps the CPU has taken over some tasks from your GPU.?

 

[pat_star]

Because it isnt having to work at full load to draw what needs to be drawn on the screen. Thats like saying why not drive your car at full speed everywhere you go even when you dont have to be anywhere at a specific time. Why drive fast with no time constraint?

This makes sense to me. But what would happen if i had a 120hz monitor and set the ingame settings to low? Would it then run on more power to draw 120fps?
What if i wanted to play with 120fps min on a 60hz monitor? (I know this is pointless, just to test it)

@captain kid: I don't think the cpu is limiting or taking tasks from the gpu. The cpu sits at max 75% usage and 50-60°C while playing.

 

[captain kid]

Because it isnt having to work at full load to draw what needs to be drawn on the screen. Thats like saying why not drive your car at full speed everywhere you go even when you dont have to be anywhere at a specific time. Why drive fast with no time constraint?

This makes sense to me. But what would happen if i had a 120hz monitor and set the ingame settings to low? Would it then run on more power to draw 120fps?
What if i wanted to play with 120fps min on a 60hz monitor? (I know this is pointless, just to test it)

@captain kid: I don't think the cpu is limiting or taking tasks from the gpu. The cpu sits at max 75% usage and 50-60°C while playing.

I really don't know maybe it's normal for a GPU to not run at 100% but I find it very odd.
It would mean I could get 140 fps but because the card is being lazy I only get 80. That can't be true.
I think what azzazel_99 writes makes no sense.

edit
Did some light Googling.
A GPU should run at 100% unless the CPU is already at 100% (aka performance is being hampered by the CPU)
Or vsync or other max fps command is on.

 

[laviniuc]

here's a thought... try to install nvidia experience and set the game to the suggested optimal settings. maybe there's a setting on ultra that the 770 simply doesn't like compared to the old radeon

 

[pat_star]

Well the GPU should not be lazy indeed 😀
So i tried running the game on all LOW settings. Turns out i still dont get more than 110fps, mostly 70-80. GPU usage is below 50% and CPU above 75% on all cores. CPU temp at 55°C and GPU at 65°C. This makes absolutely no sense...
Ok i'll try this Laviniu Campean.

Edit: One thing i noticed while running on all LOW settings. When i'm in the "stats" screen at the end of a round, it is at 350fps and the gpu usage goes up to above 90% lol... Whereas while playing it sits at 50%.

Edit2: While on LOW settings and framerate locket to max 60 via ingame command, my cpu usage is much lower. Never above 60%. So it seems like the cpu is reacting to what settings i put, but the gpu always runs at the bare minimum.
I need to find a way to push the gpu to 90% usage all times, regardless of what settings i put in the game.

 

[azzazel_99]

Gpus (unless you are running max settings on a game that really taxes the gpu) will not run max usage that not how it works.

 

[azzazel_99]

Just because a gpu is running say 80 fps and using only 50% usage does not mean it can run 160fps at 100% usage. The video card has thousands of things its doing and drawing. Some things maybe less taxing on the gpu where as if you turned on AA it will put more load on your gpu causing the usage to go up. My gpu gets 80+ fps on medium/low settings and sits at 60% usage. If I turn it to high I get 80-90% usage and fps drop to 60-65 and if I turn on aa in bf4 my usage gets to 100% and fps drop to the 40's.

 

[pat_star]

here's a thought... try to install nvidia experience and set the game to the suggested optimal settings. maybe there's a setting on ultra that the 770 simply doesn't like compared to the old radeon

I did this. Experience set everything to ULTRA...
Most of the time it is above 60fps but still on some maps it will drop below 60. GPU usage is very high, above 90%. CPU not lower than 80% on all cores. All temps are ok and far from the limits.

@azzazel_99: I got this. But there must be a way to tell the GPU it has to work that much that it produces at least 60 fps in all circumstances. Like it should produce 110+ for most of the time so the drops don't go below 60. But this just won't happen when i lower the graphic settings :/