Huge drops in Framerate after changing from R9 280 to GTX 980

[The Rickest Rick]

Hi guys.

So, I recently got myself a new GPU for my rig, namely an MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G.

After uninstalling all AMD drivers and installing the GeForce drivers, I noticed frequent drops in framerate, for example from 60 to 45 in Borderlands 2, from 60 to 45 in Rocket League and from 60 to 30 (almost freezing) in Dying Light (everything maxed but view distance, which is about 50%).

These drops seem to happen rather randomly, I wasn't able to reproduce them in the exact in-game situations. I can exclude temperature issues. One thing I noticed is that in DL, the CPU is under pretty good load, not full load, but pretty close. The same thing isn't true for the other games though.

I decided to reinstall my OS. Still there are these drops in framerate. Since I'm pretty sure the software shouldn't be causing this issue, all I can think of are these factors:

- the CPU is bottlenecking
- the PSU can't handle the GPU's changes in load
- something with the MoBo or it's BIOS

The point is, that these drops didn't happen with the R9 280 and I didn't even amp up the games' settings too much (not at all actually in Rocket League for example, which I have been maxing out before at super steady 60 FPS).




Here's my system specs

- i5 4960K @ stock // Scythe Mugen 4
- MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G
- Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z97
- 1x 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz
- bequiet Pure Power L8 500W
- WD blue 1TB HDD

all this is sitting inside a Cooltek W2 and is hooked up to a Panasonic 60Hz FHD Plasma TV via HDMI.

I'd be very grateful if anyone had suggestions as to what might be causing these weird drops in framerate.

 

[stavrosmast]

With DDU uninstall the amd drivers

 

[The Rickest Rick]

Just had a fresh install of Win7, so driver problems can be ruled out

 

[stavrosmast]

There is a big chance of your psu not being enough cause the 980 has a min of 600w (i think the ti ) also you had v-sync off?

 

[Britton]

Use a sensor monitoring program to check and see if your clock speeds are being throttled back. GPU-z is the one I use to check the temperature, core speeds and other information about the video hardware. Just run any program that does not take up the whole screen (browser, media player) and keep your eye on the clock speeds This will let you know if the card is being fully utilized or not. Anyway with out more details on your graphics cards actual mode of operation it will be difficult to pin point the exact cause.

 

[stavrosmast]

OR msi afterburner for live monitoring

 

[The Rickest Rick]

The 980 requires a 500W PSU and 42 amps (all which my PSU fulfills).

Will monitor the clock speeds.

 

[Britton]

OR msi afterburner for live monitoring

There are numerous software programs for that. MSI Afterburner is one of them, but I didn't recommend it as that is for overclocking purposes. He only needs information, and the sensors tab in gpu-z shows all the relevant info without all the excess eye candy and its portable with optional install option.

 

[The Rickest Rick]

Okay, so GPU clock speed is a bit all over the place, ranging from the 900s up to 1329 Mhz while playing BL2 for about 90 minutes. Should it be a "fixed" clock speed?

Btw, I'm using Afternurner anyway for the OSD (CPU-Z doesn't have one, right?)

 

[stavrosmast]

It must be downclocking cause of thermal throtling increase fan speed with afterburner before it gets burned

 

[The Rickest Rick]

Have you even read my first post?

Actually, my GPU hasn't run hotter than 70°C (which was during Dying Light with V-Sync tured off - 99% load) since I got it. Normally it runs at 58°C to 63°C, depending on load.

 

[Britton]

Try turning off the "fast startup" feature inside Windows power options in control panel. It is on by default apparently. You can find the settings by going to...

Control Panel>Power Options>Change what the power buttons do. Then click on "change settings that are currently unavailable". Scroll to the bottom of that window and you'll see the option for "Turn on fast startup" which is probably checked. Uncheck it and power your pc off and back on. Your clock speeds should be at the default maxium values again. That fixed my laptop and I just changed the settings on my desktop just to be sure it does not interfere with my desktop's card.

Good luck.