[SOLVED] I recently built my first pc and my gpu hasn't been performing fully.

ANewPCBuilder

Reputable
Nov 12, 2019
28
0
4,530
I built my pc about a month ago and everything was mostly fine but, one day I ran a benchmark and saw that my gpu (a zotac rtx 2060 super.) was performing worse than expected. The benchmark I used, Userbenchmark gave my gpu a 3d score of 98% the first time I benchmarked it. (It was at stock frequencies.) When I ran the benchmark that day, it got a 3D score of 90% on stock. I was surprised so I decided to overclock my gpu. I used the OC scanner that is available to rtx card owners and I think I got a decent Overclock. After running the bench again, I got a score of 95%. The only things that have changed since I first booted the Pc up are that I have changed which display port I have connected to my gpu and I have downloaded a lot of files such as games and documents. I also tried to update the BIOS and this didn't seem to change the scores. I have also noticed that some games aren't running at as many frames as they did before. Are there any tips that you can give me to troubleshoot my gpu? Thanks! (Also, the overclock has been really stable and I haven't had any games crash.)https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/21714629
 
Last edited:
Solution
Install all of these. Ignore the RAID drivers on the AMD website and install ONLY the chipset driver.

You will need to download these drivers and where they are zip files, unzip them to a a folder of your choice and then run them from there.

AMD Chipset driver for X570.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/chipsets/amd-socket-am4/x570

Intel LAN driver:

http://asrock.pc.cdn.bitgravity.com/Drivers/Intel/LAN/Intel_LAN(v23.5.2).zip

These are the only motherboard related drivers you need to install and most of it is contained in the AMD All In One chipset driver package. The Intel LAN driver is the only other required driver you need to install.

Any drivers for specialized keyboard, mouse or other peripherals you should source...
What are your full hardware specifications including CPU, motherboard, power supply, memory kit, CPU cooler, case, any installed case fans, graphics card and all storage devices including what percentage of free space is remaining on your drive? Please include exact model numbers if you can.
 
Are your memory modules installed in the second and fourth slots over from the CPU socket? On your board they are designated as the DDR4_A2 and DDR4_B2 slots. Often, people make mistakes when interpreting the population rules for the memory from the manual, so I see these NOT in the correct slots quite often. They should ALWAYS be in the A2 and B2 slots which are the slot closest to the edge of the motherboard, then skip a slot to the second one over from that slot. SO second and fourth from the CPU.

That goes for ALL dual channel DDR4 motherboards in the consumer mainstream sector.
 

ANewPCBuilder

Reputable
Nov 12, 2019
28
0
4,530
Although, when I originally installed them, they were in a1 and a2 but then I saw that they were in the wrong place. It never booted with them in a1 and a2 but could that possibly be a problem
 
No. It could only be an issue if you ARE running them in the wrong slots. And even then, it MIGHT not be, but it's always better to run them in the slots designated in the motherboard population rules and for DDR4 based dual channel boards, that is always the second and fourth slots.

I would also all of the following.

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 motherboard 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.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer 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.


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.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is 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.

 

ANewPCBuilder

Reputable
Nov 12, 2019
28
0
4,530
Thanks for all the tips, I only have the rtx 2060 super installed. I've installed the latest version of my mobo bios but it is a beta version. Should I install the newest normal bios? I went for the beta because it said that it would fix PCI connections. I'll try everything and see how it goes after that. Thanks again for all the tips.
 
What makes you think you have a PCIe connector problem, and what makes you think a BIOS update could do anything about a connector issue? Or are you misinterpreting what the summary was trying to specify?

The Beta BIOS update that is available for your board has nothing at all to do with PCIe connector problems. It is to improve PCIe CARD compatibility, meaning it adds support for new graphics card architectures that it did not have support for previously which in this case means it is almost certainly for compatibility issues with RX 5700, 5700xt and most probably the RX 5500 cards, since that is soon to be released in December.

The RTX 20 series cards released a long time ago, over a year. There is ZERO chance that any new BIOS being released at this time would have any relevance to those cards and if there was any kind of problem with that architecture it would have been sorted out a long time ago. That Beta BIOS is not going to help your issue and I'd recommend installing the newest stable version instead as that is liable to not remain a Beta version for long and the final version will have changes not found in the current BIOS beta image.
 

ANewPCBuilder

Reputable
Nov 12, 2019
28
0
4,530
Yeah sorry, I think I misinterpreted what i was updating with the Bios. I thought that it might help though because the rtx super cards are higher binned older rtx cards with faster Ram. So I thought that maybe updating it might help. I'll finish all the troubleshooting today.
 

ANewPCBuilder

Reputable
Nov 12, 2019
28
0
4,530
I don't want to ask you too much, so this is my last question, the asrock website says that one of the drivers I downloaded is a restart to the UEFI version 1.0.6. Does this mean that I'm also downloading outdated files? Should I only install the newest one?