Gtx 970 Overclock Benchmark Unigine Heaven 4.0 (UNDERPERFORMING)

[Brocodo]

Hey everyone,

So I started playing Battlefield 1 yesterday with my friend and noticed that he has remarkably more FPS than I do, even though we have the same videocard. I know FPS is not only related to the GPU but I'm pretty sure it was underperforming.

When playing 64 player Operations on HIGH SETTINGS (MEDIUM/ULTRA wouldn't change this a lot) I would get 30-40 fps sometimes in heavy fights with a lot of shit going on and about 70-90 when it was relatively "calm" on the battlefield. So I asked my friend what is FPS would be and he said it would be minimum 70-80 and sometimes over 100 when always playing on ultra! So that's a huge difference in my opinion. Although he has an Intel CPU (not sure which one), my FX-8350 would not always be at 100%, mostly 90%.

SPECS:

• Windows 10 Pro N 64-bit
  CPU: AMD FX-8350
  RAM: 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 802MHz
  MOBO: SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
  GPU: 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

So I started to do some research about overclocking my GPU. Keep in mind that this was my first overclock ever, I tried to push it to the limit. If I would take these settings any higher the Unigine Benchmark would freeze and my GPU would start acting weird, so these are the benchmark results with the MSI afterburner settings.

My question is: Is this a respectable result for my RIG + overclock settings? Could I improve my PC's performance? Because I saw some people getting above 2000 score with 80+ FPS with the 970 card...

MSI Afterburner settings:

• Core Voltage: +10
  Power limit: 110%
  Core Clock: +190
  Memory Clock: +700
  Fan Speed: Auto

MSI Afterburner Monitor Results:

• Power: Max 104
  Core Clock MHz: Max 1557
  Memory Clock MHz: Max 4270
  GPU Temp: Max 70c

Unigine Benchmark Results

EDIT: Yes I update to the latest drivers. I am using DirectX11, because 12 is worst. V-Sync is disabled and so is the bf memory option in advanced video settings.

 

[Brocodo]

So I just tested some Battlefield 1 with these overclock settings. The problem is that it won't use 100% GPU Power, it stays at 50-70% Power, and my fps are mostly below 60 fps...

 

[nikoli707]

i would say your fx 8 core is the root of the problem in battlefield. it simply doesn't have enough horsepower to fully saturate the 970 in a game that will totally take advantage of high ipc cores. that said, bf1 is a demanding game.

 

[Brocodo]

i would say your fx 8 core is the root of the problem in battlefield. it simply doesn't have enough horsepower to fully saturate the 970 in a game that will totally take advantage of high ipc cores. that said, bf1 is a demanding game.

But then why would my CPU percentage be 75% average. It doesn't go above 90% and is mostly around 70-80. SHouldn't it be 100% if it couldn't handle the game?

 

[maxwellmelon]

because its not an 8 thread program. you have to have 8 threaded program to use all 8 cores at once to achive 100% cpu usage. a single thread can only load a fx 8 up to 12.5% of your cpu at once.


Directx12 should improve your performance as it allows more threads then dx11


my r290x and with my 8350 at stock clocks gives me about 72 fps avg and min of 44 fps but then again I don't get but a max of 108fps. not sure why you have such a wider variance in fps with what I would say is a better card unless your cpu is throttling due to temps a little bit.

I bet if you try a small overclock of your cpu if its not overheating/throttling your fps would come up even if you return your video card back down to default speeds.

 

[SinxarKnights]

Take a look at this thread and try it with those settings: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3207131/heaven-broken-gtx-970.html . Also try 3d mark (regular firestrike) and link us the results page.

 

[Brocodo]

because its not an 8 thread program. you have to have 8 threaded program to use all 8 cores at once to achive 100% cpu usage. a single thread can only load a fx 8 up to 12.5% of your cpu at once.


Directx12 should improve your performance as it allows more threads then dx11


my r290x and with my 8350 at stock clocks gives me about 72 fps avg and min of 44 fps but then again I don't get but a max of 108fps. not sure why you have such a wider variance in fps with what I would say is a better card unless your cpu is throttling due to temps a little bit.

I bet if you try a small overclock of your cpu if its not overheating/throttling your fps would come up even if you return your video card back down to default speeds.

I don't question the fact that my CPU might not be good enough for battlefield 1 to get 60+ fps at all times, but I'm pretty sure Battlefield 1 is able to use 8 cores.

I'm not sure if I dare to overclock my CPU as it gets pretty hot already, but I will look into this if nothing else solves my problem. Thanks for replying.

 

[maxwellmelon]

don't over clock if your cpu is running hot. in fact, that alone can cause short periods of throttling which could be hurting your performance even at default settings.

just wondering are you using the default cooler?
is your cpu fan profile set correctly?

I see a lot of motherboards no run the cpu fan to full speed till 80+c which is way to hot, if you go by amd you should have your cpu fan running at full speed by 61 c which is amd recommended long term max safe temp.(I thing 70c is still safe as silicon takes temps of 95+c before dmg starts on amd silicon but we have to use amd published temps)

 

[Brocodo]

Take a look at this thread and try it with those settings: http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3207131/heaven-broken-gtx-970.html . Also try 3d mark (regular firestrike) and link us the results page.

Here is my firestrike regular results page: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/15632031

 

[Brocodo]

don't over clock if your cpu is running hot. in fact, that alone can cause short periods of throttling which could be hurting your performance even at default settings.

just wondering are you using the default cooler?
is your cpu fan profile set correctly?

I see a lot of motherboards no run the cpu fan to full speed till 80+c which is way to hot, if you go by amd you should have your cpu fan running at full speed by 61 c which is amd recommended long term max safe temp.(I thing 70c is still safe as silicon takes temps of 95+c before dmg starts on amd silicon but we have to use amd published temps)

My CPU always stays under 60c at the moment, not overclocked. I have a pretty good cooler, not the stock one. I don't remember the model but it looks like this: https://ic.tweakimg.net/ext/i/2000593514.jpeg

 

[Brocodo]

After a long search I came to the realisation that I have the Cooler Master Hyper 412S... which can only go up to 1300 RPM. I used prime and HWMonitor to stress my CPU and check the temperatures. I read that the temperature should not go past 62c on the package or 70c on the CPU.

Well I can tell you that it exteeds this by quite a bit. When stressing the cpu both parameters (package & CPU) go up to 80c, so I stopped the prime. When playing Battlefield 1 it would go up to 70-75c.

So I guess I should make a new thread on how to improve my PC's cooling. To give you an idea, I have a small case which JUST fites the GPU in it and the rest of the hardware and I only use 1 external fan for the CPU cooler, not the best airflow as you can tell. Do you recommend a bigger case? More fans? I could post some pictures in the new thread of my case?

 

[maxwellmelon]

check your fan profile. due to small case try making sure cpu fan hits full speed by 58C. a lot of motherboards set default of fan profile speed 100% at 80c

 

[Brocodo]

Alright, so after a while I've decided to improve my rig's cooling solution. With my current setup I could get more out of my PC by overclocking the CPU right? What kind of cooling would you guys suggest? I heard a friend say water cooling works really well for overlclocking, but I wonder if it's really needed and/or the best solution to cool my rig?