Question I upgraded my GPU to an RTX 4090 and it's severely underperforming ?

[ZaGoose]

I need your help troubleshooting this frustrating problem. My computer specs are listed at the bottom. I've upgraded my GPU from an RTX 2070 to RTX 4090 and I'm experiencing extremely low FPS/performance. I launched a few games (in-game graphic settings unchanged) and the FPS is lower than what i get on my RTX 2070 (eg. 30 FPS vs 100 FPS respectively).

Using the 3D mark time spy benchmark on the 4090, i got a score of about 3000, where the average is about 26,000 for those with identical hardware (the test was painful to watch, avg around 20 FPS). Performed the same test on my old 2070 GPU and my score is near the average and the test was much more smooth.

I managed to identify a potential symptom of this problem but unsure of how to solve this:I ran the HWinfo software to monitor power draw and the furmark software to stress test the 4090 and for some reason, the power consumption is only ~60W during the stress test (this is the same value consumption when the computer is idle). I ran the exact same test on my 2070 and the power consumption goes up to 200W. With this, i think it's safe to assume the power supply is fine.

Installed the 4090 on a friend's computer and performed the same stress test as above. the 4090 used ~400W in the stress test, which means the GPU is fine. I also transferred my SSD and booted into it from my friend's computer and works fine. This would eliminate any issues with the drivers on the SSD and the 4090.

Other things I've tried:

• Ensure ALL cables are inserted and sealed correctly. I've swapped both GPU a several times while troubleshooting.
• Fresh windows Install on a separate SSD with drivers
• Tried using only 2 identical RAM sticks on the appropriate channels on the motherboard
• Swapped different power cables to GPU (the official 12vhpwr to 4X 8-PIN cables and a 12vhpwr to 12vhpwr cable)
• Installing latest drivers cause my computer to stutter in windows! (mouse and audio stutters) Playing any game would crash with a black screen and computer restarts. Installing an older driver version which seemed to fix this problem (Driver 537.58). On the Nvidia subreddit, it seems some people are experiencing stutters with the latest drivers as well.

Computer Specs:

• Ryzen 5 5600X
• Asus Tuf X570 motherboard
• two 16GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 RAM
• two 8GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 RAM
• RTX 4090 gigabyte aorus master (New)
• MSI A1000G 1000W power supply (New)

This has been driving me insane and tried almost everything I could possibly think of. My guess is now my motherboard or CPU is somehow the culprit.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Fresh windows Install on a separate SSD with drivers
What OS are you working with? Where did you source the installer for the OS from?

BIOS version for your motherboard at this moment of time?

two 16GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 RAM
two 8GB 3200 Mhz DDR4 RAM
Work with one kit, not mix and match two ram kits, if you're working with two kit of ram at once.

 

[ZaGoose]

I'm currently using windows 10, got the installer from the official Microsoft website.
BIOS version was 4402, but I will upgrade this shortly.

Another thing I've noticed is when I run the GPU-Z software, I notice the bus interface for the GPU is "PCIE X16 4.0 @ X16 1.1"

Does this mean the GPU is running at gen 1.1? This could actually explain why the power draw is so low since the bandwidth seems to be limited. Switching back to my 2070, the bus interface reads as "PCIE X16 4.0 @ X16 3.0"

 

[ZaGoose]

Just wanted to update this post for a potential solution/work around for anyone else in the future who may encounter this problem.

in the BIOS settings, i changed the PCIE to X16 3.0 and now my 4090 is working!
if i were to set it to PCIE X16 4.0, or the default value as "auto", the system somehow decideds to run it at X16 1.1.

I think its very likely that the MOBO is faulty.

 

[thestryker]

Do you have a riser cable?

The PCIe 1.1 x16 is actually standard for nvidia and it's a power savings mode. Once you put load on it should change to whatever PCIe mode you're operating at.

 

[ZaGoose]

Do you have a riser cable?

The PCIe 1.1 x16 is actually standard for nvidia and it's a power savings mode. Once you put load on it should change to whatever PCIe mode you're operating at.

No riser cable, my GPU is connected directly to the motherboard.

When the PCIe BIOS setting was set to "auto", I ran a benchmark test, and some games but the 4090 was only using PCIe X16 1.1 the entire time, it wasn't changing thus poor performance. It's bizarre.

 

[thestryker]

No riser cable, my GPU is connected directly to the motherboard.

When the PCIe BIOS setting was set to "auto", I ran a benchmark test, and some games but the 4090 was only using PCIe X16 1.1 the entire time, it wasn't changing thus poor performance. It's bizarre.

That's really weird to say the least. Did you update the BIOS and still have this issue? If so it may actually be the motherboard, but PCIe 3.0 shouldn't be a big limiting factor.

 

[Phaaze88]

Isn't Wuwu just blowing a raspberry at the pairing of a mid-level CPU with a top-shelf GPU?

Are they? I don't know, that's why I asked, but Wuwu didn't provide a response.

I don't see a problem with that combo, especially if it's being run at 4K.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I really have no idea what the problem is but I'll take a shot in the dark and suggest updating your motherboard's chipset drivers. It probably won't have any effect but it's still good practice, especially if you didn't install new chipset drivers when you re-installed Windows.

AMD Chipset Driver Package for Windows 10 and 11 <-click to download