[SOLVED] GTX1060 Performing Issues

Nov 8, 2018
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Hello everyone, I'd love some help about a problem I am having with an Asus ROG Strix GTX 1060 6GB, the graphics card is working really bad, I have a really poor performance on it, on furmark I get a score of about 500 while the fps are just 12, really really behind the average for GTX 1060 cards, what's rare about my graphics card is that on power consuption in GPU-Z and HWMonitor it shows it's using 244% TDP or 371W while on idle, and on MSI Afterburner it shows 575 power usage, the graphics card isn't over heating or anything like that, it keeps on temperatures less than 50°C while gaming, when I am playing videogames it will always show 98% and higher GPU usage, but it is only using about 500MBs of VRAM, even when the game is 1080p and settings are high (the game is Smite, it's not a really demanding game for a GTX 1060) I had a GTX 970 before and it was working just fine, while running Smite on max settings at 1080p it only used about 35% of GPU load (I cap frames to 80fps) meanwhile the GTX 1060 can't even reach those 80 frames while using 100% GPU load.
I can't really figure out what's going on with my computer.

My PC specs
Intel Core i7-4790K
Gigabyte H97 Gaming 3
Kingston HyperX 16GB DDR3 1600MHz
PSU Corsair TX850 850W Bronze
Asus Geforce GTX 1060 6GB ROG Strix
 
Solution
Okay.
1) *Based on everything you've said I can only conclude the GPU FREQUENCY is stuck low. Please monitor and post what you get in any game or benchmark. Make sure VSYNC is off.

I'd expect the GPU frequency to be at least 1800MHz. It sounds like it's less than 500MHz.

*If the frequency and GPU usage is good then the card is processing correctly. Nor would there be a CPU bottleneck that explains a low FPS because then the card could not have a high frequency and GPU usage as it would be waiting for data and thus have lower numbers (one or both)... and if one or both are really LOW that means there's one of two problems:
a) CPU bottleneck (too slow to send data), or
b) GTX1060 is throttling down for some reason (it does happen. I've...
I know it wasn't a big upgrade, I wanted RGB effects to mix with my case (I know that's kinda dumb) performance should be like 8% or more in favor of the GTX 970 and now here I am regretting every second, about the drivers, I have completely removed drivers uninstalling and even using DDU, I have tried latest drivers and 390.01 but it didn't make any difference, I really don't want to think the graphics isn't working because, the friend who sent it to me tested it before sending it, and it was working just fine, really rare how this is happening, I forgot to say the graphics card is used.
 
if you got a warrenty that would be awesome. i have a theory that your vram modules are overheating because of the absurd amount of wattage it is taking. i have my doubt though becuase most gpu's have thermal sensors around the vram modules so it should be picking it up. either way it might be best to take it up with the manufacturer and get in touch with the previous owner and ask if they had the problem and know how to fix it.
 
It has warranty, but on the United Kingdom, which I am not in unfortunately, the GPU temperatures are normal, no BSOD or crashes in games, the fans don't even spin while gaming, even when I am supposed to be using "100%" of GPU, max temps I have registered while gaming were 47°C (idle temps are 39°C, ambient temperature here is around 31°C) I can't see why it isn't working fine on my computer, when my friend tested it before sending it to me it was working fine, my old GTX 970 was working just fine in my build, 8 pins connector, just like this 1060, I can't figure out what's wrong.
 


UNLIKELY.
If VRAM modules were overheating you'd either see graphical artifacts or get a crash.

*Also there's simply no way a graphics card can consume far more power than it's designed to but then just operate at a low FPS. None of that makes any sense. If the wattage is high it must be actually processing a lot of data.

Also it shows 50degC which is not anywhere close to overheating so it can't possibly be drawing near its maximum.

I will mull on this post and give a response below soon.
 
Okay.
1) *Based on everything you've said I can only conclude the GPU FREQUENCY is stuck low. Please monitor and post what you get in any game or benchmark. Make sure VSYNC is off.

I'd expect the GPU frequency to be at least 1800MHz. It sounds like it's less than 500MHz.

*If the frequency and GPU usage is good then the card is processing correctly. Nor would there be a CPU bottleneck that explains a low FPS because then the card could not have a high frequency and GPU usage as it would be waiting for data and thus have lower numbers (one or both)... and if one or both are really LOW that means there's one of two problems:
a) CPU bottleneck (too slow to send data), or
b) GTX1060 is throttling down for some reason (it does happen. I've seen it in OVERCLOCKED cards and sometimes resetting them to defaults helps)

2) Can you also run Unigine's Valley benchmark at the EXACT settings listed?
1. Unigine Valley
-DX11, Ultra, x8AA, full screen, 2560x1440

GTX680
- 27.5FPS avg
- 1152
- 16.3FPS low
- 51.9FPS high

GTX1080
- 68.4FPS avg
- 2863
- 32.7fps low
- 140.3fps high

I left my old and new values. The GTX1060 should probably sit in between (60% roughly of GTX1080).

**If you have a 1920x1080 monitor then use DSR and check "1.78x" then the option of 2560x1440 should appear in games and the benchmark. The graphics card still processes at 2560x1440 so that's fine.

DSR instructions: https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3587/~/how-to-enable-dynamic-super-resolution-in-games.

For a benchmark like this I'd also expect that 1920x1080 results should be about 60% higher than 2560x1440 results.

***SO I expect the average FPS at 1920x1080 to be.. huh, about the same as my GTX1080 at 2560x1440 (0.6 x 1.6) give or take 15%.

My system,
i7-3770K @4.4GHz
16GB 2133MHz DDR3
GTX1080
W10 x64
 
Solution
Other:
First, your POWER numbers can't be correct as I've said. But the VRAM usage seems impossibly low too.

*What numbers do you seen in Task Manager->Performance at the bottom for the GPU (should say GTX1060) for:
1) "Dedicated GPU Memory" (should say 6GB)
2) "Dedicated GPU Memory Usage"

Memory usage is the graph just above. You need to guess. I currently see TEN divisions which means I'm using roughly 819MB of memory just with the browser open.

**I forgot to say please use an Asus OSD (On-Screen Display) tool or possibly MSI Afterburner or whatever while monitoring GPU Frequency and GPU Usage in games benchmarks. Don't TOGGLE out of an application to check as that changes results. Must be while running.

In Unigine Valley I got roughly 1950MHz and GPU usage (not counting between scenes) was roughly 96%.
 
Thank you photonboy, I followed what you recommended, I ran Unigine's Valley Benchmark, and the results were quite frustrating, I ran it on 1440p and it had between 5 and 7 fps (really poor numbers) on 1080p it went from 9-15fps(not much better), I will let some screenshots links bellow, where it shows that windows is recognizing the graphics card, it shows in task manager dedicated GPU usage in idle like 2% out of 6GBs, in the benchmark when testing 1440p it showed around 1900MBs of VRAM usage, CPU usage was around 5%, graphics card temperature didn't increase from 45°C (fans didn't even spin) when testing 1080p it only used about 1200MBs of VRAM and on Valley's stats it showed the following:
FPS: 10
Geforce GTX 1060 6GB
Graphics: 1911 MHz
Memory: 810M Hz
Temperature: 45 °C

I really don't think a core i7-4790K can be bottlenecking a GTX 1060, I didn't have any issues with my GTX 970 and both 970 and 1060 have similar performance, the 8 pin PCIe connector is exactly the same I was using with the 970 so it shouldn't be an energy problem, with nothing more to say, thank you once more for helping me, if you have any other ideas i'd love to check them, btw I have double checked the monitor is connected to the graphics card output, not to the mobo, so yeah it's using the graphics card.

I let some screenshots bellow:
https://imgur.com/SMniAtB
https://imgur.com/fhsKoaM (on the GPU usage graph, it shows that it wasn't even at full usage when I ended the benchmark, not even half the usage)
https://imgur.com/IQJ2koH
https://imgur.com/7llIOlE
https://imgur.com/sLosPoz (1080p test)
 
Unless anyone has a better idea I would try resetting my bios settings to default (or clearing your cmos). I'm assuming you're connected to your gpu and not your mobo.

If that doesnt help and no one has a better idea, it might be easier just to back up all your stuff (depending on how much stuff you have). Go to system maintenance and do a wipe with fresh windows install. And see how it works after. If it's still not right you can pretty much blame it on a bad gpu (unless for some reason the psu is causing problems). It's kinda the long way to diagnose it. But rules out most everything else. I'm not an expert. But usually I'm pretty familiar with these things. And this one is odd. Hopefully someone is more familiar.
 
I have installed like 4 variants of Nvidia drivers, none did any difference, I will install Windows 7 and check if it's still the same on it, I just like you am getting out of ideas, I probably already know the answer (faulty GPU) but still I don't want to give up, even more considering a friend before sending it to me tested it on his computer, and as to what he says it was working fine, he didn't benchmark it but he tested it on the same game and it capped to 150fps (game default cap) on max settings, while I on max settings can't even hit 70fps, that's why I still don't think the GPU is faulty, but I really can't figure out what could be wrong with my system.