Low FPS on 1050ti

[RyGuy92]

Last Christmas I built my girlfriend a gaming PC, only problem is she runs into low FPS on almost any game we throw at it, no matter the settings in some case. So far the games she mainly plays are...

Fallout 4. 18 - 45 fps

Payday 2. 25 - 45 fps

7 days to die. 20- 40 fps

Bioshock and Infinite. 35 to high 50 fps

Sims 4. Usually hovers around 40 fps

All games are running at 1080p. We've tried 720p as well and it will make a small difference but nothing huge.

So far I've completely removed video drivers and done fresh installs several times. changed power settings to maximum performance, re-seated the video card and made sure the bios was not set to integrated. I'm not sure if the card is just weaker than expected, faulty or I'm doing something wrong. One thing I will add, is I have had a lot of issues installing drivers for this card as well. From installations failing stating an unexpected error has occured, to installations taking around half hour or so to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance!

MSI Z170A Gaming M7 1151
Intel I5 6600K
16gb Kingston HyperX Fury
Kingston SSD
EVGA 1050ti 4gb SC gaming
EVGA Supernova G2 550w PSU

 

[photonboy]

Okay, first I know my GTX680 (similar to GTX1050Ti) ran Bioshock Infinite at 1080p, 60FPS on ultra settings. I probably dropped a couple settings to keep that stable.
https://www.techspot.com/review/655-bioshock-infinite-performance/page3.html

So benchmark should show roughly 70FPS on Ultra/1080p for reference. (that's at 1200p and there may be small improvements or some other minor issue but you should be in the ballpark).

I'll post that then give more advice.

 

[FPS-fan]

Just a thought, have you checked device manager to make sure there are no missing drivers or possible hardware conflicts.

 

[RyGuy92]

Just a thought, have you checked device manager to make sure there are no missing drivers or possible hardware conflicts.

I checked through the device manager and everything seems as it should. I completely cleared all previous video drivers in safe mode and reinstalled tonight. Anything I should look for that could cause a possible conflict?

 

[photonboy]

1) confirm your monitor is connected to the GTX1050Ti (not the motherboard and thus using the Intel iGPU)

2) MEMTEST86 for a full pass
www.memtest86.com

3) Your driver issues concern me so you may have:
a) SSD issue
b) system memory issue (#2 checks)
c) software corruption

4) DDU + reinstall video drivers
a) download/run DDU (safe mode recommended option)
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
b) reinstall video drivers (latest direct from NVidia site)

5) reset CPU to default, and memory to "XMP" (in BIOS) if not done so. (overclock CPU later)

6) Intel CPU diagnostic. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool

7) *Monitor the GPU USAGE and the GPU frequency whilst running Unigine Valley benchmark (ignore the right-side that's part of the program as it appears to be WRONG).

Use MSI Afterburner or other. I have EVGA and use Precision.

Your graphics card should be getting 1800MHz+ on the GPU and about 95%+ usage at the same time. Will drop between changing scenes but otherwise should show that.

*THIS IS MAYBE MOST IMPORTANT because sometimes a graphics card can get "stuck" at lower frequencies. It can happen when overclocking.

If so, sometimes THIS fixes:
a) default graphics settings (remove overclock of GPU/VRAM)
b) remove any GPU overclock tools like MSI afterburner
c) DDU + reinstall NVidia drivers

8) Really stuck?
a) get a spare drive (HDD or SSD at least 60GB)
b) install W10 64-bit clean
c) NVidia video drivers
d) game or benchmark to test
e) Works? If so, that probably means bad system drive or data corruption (or both).

If so, options include:

9) Test system drive and reinstall W10, or do an "In-Place Upgrade" of W10 to itself.
- in-place upgrade is started by running "setup.exe" from W10 installed on USB stick (use MS media creation tool to download and create newest version).
- should see "keep data/applications" greyed out (otherwise choose that). ignore key if prompted and let finish (may overwrite corrupted files but everything should otherwise work fine)

MS media creation tool-> https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10
a) download tool
b) insert 8GB+ usb stick
c) run tool (wait for download + install to finish)
d) run "setup.exe" for in-place UPGRADE, or remove and boot for a CLEAN W10 install (do not enter key)

SUMMARY:
If the FPS is way off, then the GPU should not be running at a high frequency and high GPU usage. That's critical. If it's NOT then it's either got its own issue (may be software) or the CPU may be throttling it.

Based on your installation issues it sounds software related in part, though the underlying cause may be hardware causing data corruption.

This is not necessarily in ORDER.

 

[RyGuy92]

One thing I forgot to add, is that it is plugged into my GPU not MOBO and it's connected via HDMI.

 

[FPS-fan]

I came across the following example, it might help:

"Open your nvidia control panel head over to 3D Settings and create a profile for
[Riot Games Folder] \League of Legends\RADS\solutions\lol_game_client_sln\releases\ [version number] \deploy\League of Legends.exe
Change the Power management mode to "prefer maximum performance" and apply."

 

[photonboy]

I came across the following example, it might help:

"Open your nvidia control panel head over to 3D Settings and create a profile for
[Riot Games Folder] \League of Legends\RADS\solutions\lol_game_client_sln\releases\ [version number] \deploy\League of Legends.exe
Change the Power management mode to "prefer maximum performance" and apply."

That's a per-game solution, not global. If the GPU is stuck (as I discuss) low that may "solve" the issue but normally everything should work properly for all games so there's a problem that needs to be fixed.

Plus the ERRORS in install is likely key.

 

[RyGuy92]

1) confirm your monitor is connected to the GTX1050Ti (not the motherboard and thus using the Intel iGPU)

2) MEMTEST86 for a full pass
www.memtest86.com

3) Your driver issues concern me so you may have:
a) SSD issue
b) system memory issue (#2 checks)
c) software corruption

4) DDU + reinstall video drivers
a) download/run DDU (safe mode recommended option)
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html
b) reinstall video drivers (latest direct from NVidia site)

5) reset CPU to default, and memory to "XMP" (in BIOS) if not done so. (overclock CPU later)

6) Intel CPU diagnostic. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool

7) *Monitor the GPU USAGE and the GPU frequency whilst running Unigine Valley benchmark (ignore the right-side that's part of the program as it appears to be WRONG).

Use MSI Afterburner or other. I have EVGA and use Precision.

Your graphics card should be getting 1800MHz+ on the GPU and about 95%+ usage at the same time. Will drop between changing scenes but otherwise should show that.

*THIS IS MAYBE MOST IMPORTANT because sometimes a graphics card can get "stuck" at lower frequencies. It can happen when overclocking.

If so, sometimes THIS fixes:
a) default graphics settings (remove overclock of GPU/VRAM)
b) remove any GPU overclock tools like MSI afterburner
c) DDU + reinstall NVidia drivers

SUMMARY:
If the FPS is way off, then the GPU should not be running at a high frequency and high GPU usage. That's critical. If it's NOT then it's either got its own issue (may be software) or the CPU may be throttling it.

Based on your installation issues it sounds software related in part, though the underlying cause may be hardware causing data corruption.

This is not necessarily in ORDER.

It is connected to the GPU

I will run those tests with afterburner, memtest and unengine valley shortly and get back to you with the results

I used DDU in safemode tonight when I removed and reinstalled the drivers

 

[photonboy]

To be clear, regardless of the underlying CAUSE your actual throttle point should be:

a) CPU, or
b) GPU

Either the GPU is running at lower frequency than it should, or the CPU is. Nothing else is likely to be the bottleneck point.

So Intel CPU Diagnostic should point you in the right direction.

 

[RyGuy92]

I have finally figured out what the heck was tanking the performance. After flicking through the bios I realized her CPU clock speed was at 0.80. It turns out a small switch called SLOW_J was enabled on the mobo not allowing the clock speed to go any higher. Once I disabled frames shot through the roof. Thanks to everyone that posted!

 

[photonboy]

I have finally figured out what the heck was tanking the performance. After flicking through the bios I realized her CPU clock speed was at 0.80. It turns out a small switch called SLOW_J was enabled on the mobo not allowing the clock speed to go any higher. Once I disabled frames shot through the roof. Thanks to everyone that posted!

Great!! Must be a relief.
Select Best Answer if you want.

This is a separate issue, but I suggest you learn how to use Adaptive VSYNC. It runs like normal VSYNC (i.e. locked to 60FPS for 60Hz monitor, but synched to avoid screen tearing) but turns VSYNC OFF if you fall below the target (i.e. 60FPS) which helps avoid added STUTTER/JUDDER which for me in GTA5 is sometimes pretty bad in certain areas. That fixed it (just get a little screen tearing during the drop).

FALLOUT 4 also gets bad judder/stutter for me if it drops below 60FPS (60Hz monitor). VSYNC is ON by default. I think Adaptive VSYNC was what fixed the issue, but initially I had to mess with NVinspector and force to 61FPS or something because of super bad judder (Bethesda has odd issues. I had to set ifpsclamp=60 to fix the Fallout New Vegas stutter issue)

Here's how: (launch and shut game first)
NVidia CP-> manage 3d settings-> .. add game-> (Adaptive VSYNC) -> save

I tweak so drops are not very often. In Assassin's Creed several games ran at a locked 60FPS but I'd get periodic drops with sudden, large STUTTERS which were annoying. I disabled VSYNC but the screen tearing was just horrible. I dropped the settings a LOT but still got the drops (and the quality suffered).

Adaptive VSYNC was the ideal solution (GSYNC is actually best but the monitors are expensive).