Is my graphics card holding me back?

[Hazzatr0n]

Hey,
I've recently been having problems with graphics in-game. Whenever I play a demanding title (such as JC3 or GTA 5) in 1080p I get around 20-30fps yet if I lower it to 720p I get 60fps (this is weird as even if I increase the settings it still stays at 60fps)

Do I need to upgrade my graphics card? What is causing this?
I thought my GPU could do 1080p60 gaming

NOTE: None of my components are overheating when gaming and while I was looking around I found this in Event Viewer: Warning - Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.

--My Specs--
CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz (Overclocked to 4GHz but none of the voltage settings changed)
GPU:MSI GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Motherboard: MSI Z97 PC MATE ATX LGA1150
RAM: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM
Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX
OS: Windows 10 Pro
-----------

 

[chemmajorp53]

Just turn some settings down, should be able to handle 1080p at medium-high in those games just fine.

 

[rhelmar1]

what settings were you using at 1080p? And did you have vsynch activated at 720p or maybe locked the frames in any other way? The 960 should be able to do medium to high settings at 1080p

 

[lucas_7_94]

In general, the build is fine. Now, 960 is not the golden spot card for 1080p60. I will second here to chemmajorp53, just turn some settings down and, in the future, think in upgrading.

 

[dontlistentome]

Make sure vsync is off. If you are running vsync on, and have a 60hz monitor, then when your framerate drops to something like 44fps it'll actually be 22fps if vsync is on. When you drop resolution to 720p your 960 has no problem keeping framerate above 60fps at all times which is why you don't see those frame drops at 720p.