GTX 960 Random FPS Drops

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

I am seeing FPS drops in many games, even on medium graphics setting with GTX 960,

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img924/7246/VZrFUd.png Ghost Recon @ Wildlands Very High Graphics Preset

In the above image you can see that GPU and CPU usage drops, why is this happening?

I think GTX 960 4 GB should be able to deliver 30 FPS at least even in latest games for very high graphics preset

Below are my specs and I live in India

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X Gaming 3
CPU: intel i5 6600
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX 8GB DDR4
GPU: Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 960 4GB
PSU: Antec True Power Classic 750W
Case: Antec GX300
HDD: Toshiba 1TB Internal 3.5 Hard Drive SATA (DT01ACA100) 7,200 RPM
Monitor: DELL S2216H 1920 x 1080p 60Hz IPS monitor
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit

PC Power Options - High performance
GPU Power management mode - prefer maximum performance
OpenGL rendering GPU - GeForce GTX 960

Games I tested and observed FPS drops are,

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - Wildlands
Assassin's Creed - Origins
Far Cry 5
Middle-Earth - Shadow of War

Sometimes I feel the problem is with the map being loaded slowly due to hard disc, the temps seem to be fine, is it throttling issue with CPU or GPU?

how can I find what the problem is and fix it to get at least 30 FPS in very high settings consistently without drops and 60 FPS in medium settings depending on the game, please help

 

[Lutfij]

Your system should've been built with an i5-6600K since you're on the Z170 chipset board and we don't know the SKU to your ram. All the games you're dealing with would put some form of stress on even a GTX970 at the time. You're seeing the right numbers provided you found someone(not a YouTube video) that has the same exact config and gets higher frames than you.

That being said, make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and make sure you've uninstalled and reinstalled your GPU drivers.

What OS are you on?

P.S: That's not the PSU I'd have chosen. Might I ask where you're located?

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

Your system should've been built with an i5-6600K since you're on the Z170 chipset board and we don't know the SKU to your ram. All the games you're dealing with would put some form of stress on even a GTX970 at the time. You're seeing the right numbers provided you found someone(not a YouTube video) that has the same exact config and gets higher frames than you.

That being said, make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and make sure you've uninstalled and reinstalled your GPU drivers.

What OS are you on?

P.S: That's not the PSU I'd have chosen. Might I ask where you're located?

My OS is Windows 8.1 Pro 64 bit and I live in India, I think that PSU is good as it is gold certified, I was on a budget so I bought the i5 6600, maybe I should have spent less on motherboard and got a GTX 970

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

Your system should've been built with an i5-6600K since you're on the Z170 chipset board and we don't know the SKU to your ram. All the games you're dealing with would put some form of stress on even a GTX970 at the time. You're seeing the right numbers provided you found someone(not a YouTube video) that has the same exact config and gets higher frames than you.

That being said, make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and make sure you've uninstalled and reinstalled your GPU drivers.

What OS are you on?

P.S: That's not the PSU I'd have chosen. Might I ask where you're located?

Why not a youtube video? and I agree that I am getting the right FPS but what about the FPS drops why are they happening, I should be getting consistent 30 FPS at high settings and around 40~50 or 40~60 at medium

 

[avenge]

Give a picture of your HDD SMART status and test it for errors. Check "event viewer/window logs/system" for any errors concerning HDD or something with the GPU. Close any background programs that you may use. I see you are using MSI Afterburner - turn on monitoring of GPU and CPU frequencies and see if there is any drop when stuttering begins. Try to turn off antivirus software while playing, also see if there is any windows update running in background. Consider installing a SSD drive.

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

Give a picture of your HDD SMART status and test it for errors. Check "event viewer/window logs/system" for any errors concerning HDD or something with the GPU. Close any background programs that you may use. I see you are using MSI Afterburner - turn on monitoring of GPU and CPU frequencies and see if there is any drop when stuttering begins. Try to turn off antivirus software while playing, also see if there is any windows update running in background. Consider installing a SSD drive.

HDD SMART http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img921/5300/XxZsSE.png
I didn't see any clock speed drop (frequency drop) using MSI Afterburner, though I observed that GPU usage is dropping due to which the FPS is dropping and I am observing high temp on CPU it is around 70 - 73, usually it used to be around 40-60, as it is summer the temperature will be little high but not near 70 for a 6th generation CPU.

The temperature outside is easily around 35 - 45 degree centigrade

 

[avenge]

And how about CPU usage during drops? How high is it?

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

And how about CPU usage during drops? How high is it?

most of the times CPU usage is fine https://youtu.be/UoYnZzcABks?t=6m10s, 2 weeks ago the temps used to be around 60 but now they are around 70 in Far Cry 5 and other open world games but in Middle-Earth: Shadow of War they are around 60

Some times CPU usage also is dropping but usually it is fine. Could be a case of thermal throttling for both CPU and GPU need to do more profiling I guess. I have a stock fan on the processor and there isn't much dust though in the cabinet. Could be problem with air flow due to summer conditions in India

 

[avenge]

The CPU will handle temperatures around 90-100 degrees Celsius without throttling, so temperatures around 70 degrees are perfect. Can you show also HDD usage and CPU frequencies on this video, especially while drops occur?

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

The CPU will handle temperatures around 90-100 degrees Celsius without throttling, so temperatures around 70 degrees are perfect. Can you show also HDD usage and CPU frequencies on this video, especially while drops occur?

Here you can find CPU frequencies https://youtu.be/d3ROKVKjwxU?t=6m15s while drop occurs, could you please tell me how to show HDD usage while drops occur or while gaming?

 

[avenge]

Use windows task manager - performance tab and monitor graph on current disk usage when you see fps drop.

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

Use windows task manager - performance tab and monitor graph on current disk usage when you see fps drop.

hi, I tried to observe disk usage in performance tab by running far cry 5 in windowed mode, I observed high CPU and disk usage.

I also observed during sudden fps drops the disk usage is low and it suddenly goes up.

also my PC is restarting randomly from a few days when I am playing I've observed this with far cry 5

also once it had restarted when I quit the game

 

[Abdul Mateen Mohammed]

Your system should've been built with an i5-6600K since you're on the Z170 chipset board and we don't know the SKU to your ram. All the games you're dealing with would put some form of stress on even a GTX970 at the time. You're seeing the right numbers provided you found someone(not a YouTube video) that has the same exact config and gets higher frames than you.

That being said, make sure you're on the latest BIOS update for your motherboard and make sure you've uninstalled and reinstalled your GPU drivers.

What OS are you on?

P.S: That's not the PSU I'd have chosen. Might I ask where you're located?

I've been testing the hardware by running different games, now there are new problems: system hangs, restarts, CPU temp reaches 70 degree centigrade, blue screen (your PC ran into problem...) clock_watchdog_timeout during gaming

One thing I noticed is I've keep the PC cabinet (Antec GX 300) side open then the issues take some time to occur I think the heat inside is not going outside and new fresh cool air is not coming inside and the temperature here is around 40 degree centigrade

Could you please help me to find the cause of all these problems so that I can fix them before my warranty ends

Thanks in advance

 

[avenge]

Read this:
https://www.reviversoft.com/blog/2013/01/clock-watchdog-timeout/
This can be CPU problem related - maybe your CPU is overheating or faulty. Try replacing it's thermal paste and install better cooler. Try fresh install of windows.