[SOLVED] Help! is my CPU/GPU getting the right fps?

[Qimnezi]

I had a mid-tier prebuilt PC which would get around 100-120 fps in Apex Legends pretty consistently without much issues, if not at least 60-80 fps during more demanding scenes. It had a GTX 1050 ti with a Intel i5-7400 and never had much issues even when overclocked in msi afterburner which I did sometimes.
Now after having bought a new case, motherboard, power supply and CPU (everything but a GPU due to current prices) i'm finding this setup is running much worse than expected and for whatever reason msi afterburner no longer seems to actually do anything when I try to overclock like how I did before. I'm no expert and have probably missed some obvious things but i'm completely lost on where to look and what to do next.
Somehow my new setup has better parts but struggles in comparison, it gets around 30-60 consistent fps even lower at times, but its an 11th Gen Intel Core i9-11900 with the same GTX 1050 ti which puzzles me. Another thing that is throwing me is that the highest refresh rate I could get before was 144hz but now with these new parts (same monitor) installed the highest option available shown in windows is 120hz, and i'm not sure why or even how to change it back to 144hz. I also tried enabling X.M.P in the bios and my pc no longer turns on without displaying a boot failure message giving an option to go back to the bios setup.
New to building and not so handy with the more technical stuff so its probably something I've overlooked but any insight or direction would be appreciated. Just looking to make the most fps out of it in terms of optimal settings so any performance tips or tricks i'm missing feel free to let me know below. Not 100% what other info is required but ask away if any other details are needed to diagnose possible issues and i'll be happy to answer.
Many thanks in advance!

 

[Darkbreeze]

After you built the new system, did you do a CLEAN installation of Windows? As outlined at the following link? Or did you simply swap your Windows installation from the old system into the new system?

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[Darkbreeze]

If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.

First,​

Make sure your system has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release. In cases where you DO already have the latest BIOS version, simply resetting the BIOS as follows has a fairly high percentage chance of effecting a positive change in some cases so it is ALWAYS worth TRYING, at the very least.


BIOS Hard Reset procedure

Power off the unit, switch the PSU off and unplug the PSU cord from either the wall or the power supply.

Remove the motherboard CMOS battery for about three to five minutes. In some cases it may be necessary to remove the graphics card to access the CMOS battery.

During that five minutes while the CMOS battery is out of the motherboard, press the power button on the case, continuously, for 15-30 seconds, in order to deplete any residual charge that might be present in the CMOS circuit. After the five minutes is up, reinstall the CMOS battery making sure to insert it with the correct side up just as it came out.

If you had to remove the graphics card you can now reinstall it, but remember to reconnect your power cables if there were any attached to it as well as your display cable.

Now, plug the power supply cable back in, switch the PSU back on and power up the system. It should display the POST screen and the options to enter CMOS/BIOS setup. Enter the bios setup program and reconfigure the boot settings for either the Windows boot manager or for legacy systems, the drive your OS is installed on if necessary.

Save settings and exit. If the system will POST and boot then you can move forward from there including going back into the bios and configuring any other custom settings you may need to configure such as Memory XMP, A-XMP or D.O.C.P profile settings, custom fan profile settings or other specific settings you may have previously had configured that were wiped out by resetting the CMOS.

In some cases it may be necessary when you go into the BIOS after a reset, to load the Optimal default or Default values and then save settings, to actually get the hardware tables to reset in the boot manager.

It is probably also worth mentioning that for anything that might require an attempt to DO a hard reset in the first place, IF the problem is related to a lack of video signal, it is a GOOD IDEA to try a different type of display as many systems will not work properly for some reason with displayport configurations. It is worth trying HDMI if you are having no display or lack of visual ability to enter the BIOS, or no signal messages.

Trying a different monitor as well, if possible, is also a good idea if there is a lack of display. It happens.

Second,​

Go to the product page for your motherboard or exact laptop model on the device manufacturer's website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates. When it comes to the chipset drivers, if your motherboard manufacturer lists a chipset driver that is newer than what the chipset developer (Intel or AMD, for our purposes) lists, then use that one. If Intel (Or AMD) shows a chipset driver version that is newer than what is available from the motherboard product page, then use that one. Always use the newest chipset driver that you can get and always use ONLY the chipset drivers available from either the motherboard manufacturer, AMD or Intel.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.

Third,​

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory and SPD tabs. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.

Fourth (And often tied for most important along with an up-to-date motherboard BIOS),​

A clean install of the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Graphics card driver CLEAN install guide using the Wagnard tools DDU
​

And lAnd last, but not least, if you have never done a CLEAN install of Windows, or have upgraded from an older version to Windows 10, or have been through several spring or fall major Windows updates (OR if you have installed ANY, EVEN REMOTELY QUESTIONABLE SOFTWARE, ESPECIALLY ANYTHING THAT'S BEEN PIRATED), it might be a very good idea to consider doing a clean install of Windows (AND THEN NOT PUT THAT QUESTIONABLE OR PIRATED SOFTWARE BACK ON) if none of these other solutions has helped. IF you are using a Windows installation from a previous system and you didn't do a clean install of Windows after building the new system, then it's 99.99% likely that you NEED to do a CLEAN install before trying any other solutions.


How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10, the RIGHT way​

 

[Qimnezi]

Thanks very much for all the info, apologies for the late response. I have gone through all the steps you have provided and noticed an increase in overall performance which has greatly helped. However i'm unfortunately still seeing slightly less FPS (around 60-90 after steps) than my old setup got (100-120) and on top of that i'm no closer to resolving my other issues to do with configuring certain settings.

Having reinstalled windows/drivers and then updating to the latest bios version that I could find on the manufacturers website, I can no longer access the bios no matter what I try i'm afraid. Once I updated the bios from the F2 version to the newest F7 version it appears I no longer have any way to access the bios settings at all, i've tried clearing the CMOS as advised online and still no joy. It's like the PC has locked itself in fast boot mode or something, but I disabled it both in Windows settings and in the Gigabyte software to no avail.

Incredibly frustrating that I could just press a button upon booting to access it before, and now after updating to this latest bios version it's as if the option is completely gone? Confused I did a bit of googling and even tried booting it up with my only hard drive disconnected entirely to see if that would get something, but it simply powers on and then black screen. It even shows the keyboard lighting up the num lock toggles on and off when I press it but nothing shows up on screen at all as the PC doesn't actually launch anything with hard drive disconnected.. just kind of sits in limbo until I power off.

I am beyond clueless what to try next so thought may as well come back here with updates for any help, already sent a support ticket in via the manufacturers website to address this. Ultimately I'd like to enable X.M.P also but when I do so in Gigabyte Easytune it prompts to restart and then just instantly boots back into windows without actually changing anything, then it's still disabled when I check again. (As I've typed this out suddenly my PC seemingly crashed? Screen has just frozen mouse doesn't move but all fans spinning still with the lights on? Like the PC looks like it's still running fine even though I'm essentially staring at a still image of my desktop stuck in place) weird.. anyways if anybody has pointers on any of these problems that would be greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance!

 

[Darkbreeze]

First thing you need to do is get away from Gigabyte Easytune. All these bundled manufacturer apps are pretty much like intentionally installing an infection on your system. If you want to modify or tune your BIOS settings, do so IN the BIOS, not on the desktop. Some people will claim they work fine, but the majority of veteran users here will tell you that almost unilaterally, the bundled apps are garbage and should normally only be used if there is a feature that cannot be used or enabled in any other way.

I'd uninstall Easytune, and then do a complete BIOS hard reset, and THEN go into the BIOS, switch to the advanced view, not the default or "EZ" type view, so that you have access to all of the advanced BIOS settings and configure anything you need to configure such as XMP, fan curve settings, boot settings, or any other settings you wish to configure. It's definitely not rocket science. Anybody with access to internet search, whether Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or whatever, should be able to find an explanation for practically ANY BIOS setting that's out there. So there is little reason to be worried about not understanding what a particular setting does and really no reason to need to use a desktop app that creates more problems than it solves.

Another thing you probably want to do is disable Fast restart and hibernation. Disabling hibernation automatically disables fast restart, and that is what I generally recommend unless it's a laptop or tablet.

To disable Hibernation:

The first step is to run the command prompt as administrator. In Windows 10, you can do this by right clicking on the start menu and clicking "Command Prompt (Admin)"
Type in "powercfg.exe /h off" without the quotes and press enter. If you typed it in correctly, the cursor will simply start at a new line asking for new input
Now just exit out of command prompt

How to Disable Sleep Mode or Hibernation

We have seen a few problems with Sleep Mode and Hibernation in Windows 10, so I wanted to write this article to explain how to turn either of them off in case you would rather not use them.

www.pugetsystems.com

As far as enabling XMP is concerned, after doing a hard reset of the BIOS, as follows below, try again but IN the BIOS this time. If it still does not want to work, then it's highly possible that while your memory kit was compatible with your previous motherboard it is NOT compatible with this one. Many users don't realize it, but not all memory is compatible with all motherboards EVEN IF it's the RIGHT "type" of memory. Simply making sure you have DDR4 desktop memory with a speed that is supported isn't always good enough. In fact, often it is not. Granted, Intel platforms tend to be a lot more forgiving than AMD platforms in this regard, but it still happens that some memory kits don't want to work well, or at all, or at anything other than the default configuration, with some motherboard models. In fact, practically EVERY motherboard will have at least a few memory kits, or more, that it dislikes for whatever reason including primarily the component makeup of the module.

What is the EXACT model of your memory kit and motherboard?

 

[Qimnezi]

I see, sucks if thats the case maybe I can have more success with booting with X.M.P if all the gigabyte software is completely uninstalled. I'll try that next and report back any success, I checked the manufacturer QVL list and believe if i'm not mistaken that my new motherboard is actually compatible with it but I could very well be wrong. It just might not be a good match perhaps. Not sure if I can or should attempt to fine tune any of the values/settings within the bios to try optimize any potential performance gains? Or perhaps in my case it would simply be best to just run at defaults.

Patriot Viper Steel DDR4 3200MHz Kit PVS416G320C6k
and
Intel B560M AORUS PRO (rev. 1.0)

 

[Darkbreeze]

Your memory is indeed on the QVL list and is validated for XMP configurations on that board.

I would try first removing the Gigabyte desktop applications and enabling XMP in the BIOS. If that fails to work, I'd contact Gigabyte for support options and possible replacement of the board. Contacting Patriot might not be a bad idea either.

Either component might have issues. Have you run Memtest86 on the memory at the default configuration, non-XMP, to see if there are any physical problems with the memory that might be affecting it's tweaked XMP performance?

Memtest86​

Go to the Passmark software website and download the USB Memtest86 free version. You can do the optical disk version too if for some reason you cannot use a bootable USB flash drive.


Create bootable media using the downloaded Memtest86. Once you have done that, go into your BIOS and configure the system to boot to the USB drive that contains the Memtest86 USB media or the optical drive if using that option.


You CAN use Memtest86+, as they've recently updated the program after MANY years of no updates, but for the purpose of this guide I recommend using the Passmark version as this is a tried and true utility while I've not had the opportunity to investigate the reliability of the latest 86+ release as compared to Memtest86. Possibly, consider using Memtest86+ as simply a secondary test to Memtest86, much as Windows memory diagnostic utility and Prime95 Blend or custom modes can be used for a second opinion utility.

Click here to download Memtest86 USB package​

Create a bootable USB Flash drive:

1. Download the Windows MemTest86 USB image.

2. Right click on the downloaded file and select the "Extract to Here" option. This places the USB image and imaging tool into the current folder.

3. Run the included imageUSB tool, it should already have the image file selected and you just need to choose which connected USB drive to turn into a bootable drive. Note that this will erase all data on the drive.


No memory should ever fail to pass Memtest86 when it is at the default configuration that the system sets it at when you start out or do a clear CMOS by removing the CMOS battery for five minutes.

Best method for testing memory is to first run four passes of Memtest86, all 11 tests, WITH the memory at the default configuration. This should be done BEFORE setting the memory to the XMP profile settings. The paid version has 13 tests but the free version only has tests 1-10 and test 13. So run full passes of all 11 tests. Be sure to download the latest version of Memtest86. Memtest86+ has not been updated in MANY years. It is NO-WISE as good as regular Memtest86 from Passmark software.

If there are ANY errors, at all, then the memory configuration is not stable. Bumping the DRAM voltage up slightly may resolve that OR you may need to make adjustments to the primary timings. There are very few secondary or tertiary timings that should be altered. I can tell you about those if you are trying to tighten your memory timings.

If you cannot pass Memtest86 with the memory at the XMP configuration settings then I would recommend restoring the memory to the default JEDEC SPD of 1333/2133mhz (Depending on your platform and memory type) with everything left on the auto/default configuration and running Memtest86 over again. If it completes the four full passes without error you can try again with the XMP settings but first try bumping the DRAM voltage up once again by whatever small increment the motherboard will allow you to increase it by. If it passes, great, move on to the Prime95 testing.

If it still fails, try once again bumping the voltage if you are still within the maximum allowable voltage for your memory type and test again. If it still fails, you are likely going to need more advanced help with configuring your primary timings and should return the memory to the default configuration until you can sort it out.

If the memory will not pass Memtest86 for four passes when it IS at the stock default non-XMP configuration, even after a minor bump in voltage, then there is likely something physically wrong with one or more of the memory modules and I'd recommend running Memtest on each individual module, separately, to determine which module is causing the issue. If you find a single module that is faulty you should contact the seller or the memory manufacturer and have them replace the memory as a SET. Memory comes matched for a reason as I made clear earlier and if you let them replace only one module rather than the entire set you are back to using unmatched memory which is an open door for problems with incompatible memory.

Be aware that you SHOULD run Memtest86 to test the memory at the default, non-XMP, non-custom profile settings BEFORE ever making any changes to the memory configuration so that you will know if the problem is a setting or is a physical problem with the memory and it is a good idea to run it AGAIN, after enabling the XMP profile to verify that none of the XMP specific profile settings or timings are in disagreement with the motherboard, especially if it is a memory kit that is not already shown to be validated for that board on the memory manufacturer or motherboard manufacturer's compatibility list.