Low FPS + poor performance with GTX 560 ti

[Thewolf56]

Hello, ever since I upgraded to a GTX 560 ti from a GTS 450, my PC performance seems to have dropped considerably. I am constantly getting very low FPS and stuttering etc in games that I used to have no problems running. Dropping all settings down to as low as possible still does not yield much of a performance increase, nor does lowering the clock speed. Temps do not seem overly high so I don't think that is a problem. I am at a loss. Any input is appreciated, thank you.

PC Specs:

- Intel i5-750@2.6 GHZ
- Asus P7P55-M Mobo
- 4GB DDR3 1333 MHZ RAM
- 750w PSU
- GTX 560 ti@850 MHZ core

 

[ubercake]

What is the make/model of power supply?

 

[Rockdpm]

-Brand PSU
-CPU Bottleneck.

its one of the two but 750 watts is plenty for a 560 ti. Your CPU i believe is the bottleneck here

 

[Thewolf56]

Thank you for the quick responses. PSU brand is Ultra, it is this one specifically: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&CatId=2533
I know it's cheap and probably not that well known of a brand, is that really all the problem could be?

 

[termhn]

Thank you for the quick responses. PSU brand is Ultra, it is this one specifically: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3276567&CatId=2533
I know it's cheap and probably not that well known of a brand, is that really all the problem could be?

Definitely could be. Look up how to monitor PSU voltages. You need a voltmeter/multimeter to get accurate readings (software is normally off by a significant amount).

 

[smakadopolis]

I'd go with this as opposed to some of the other answers.

Why a CPU bottleneck would cause a performance issue outside of keeping you from getting the most from the card doesn't make sense to me.

What card in specific did you get vs what you had? Have a link?

 

[ubercake]

Yeah. Going from the 450 to the 560 ti would show similar performance if we were seeing a CPU bottleneck.

What you're seeing is degradation of performance when using a video card with a higher power requirement (106W for the 450 versus 170W+ for the slightly OC'd 560ti).

 

[smorizio]

i first start by using a drive cleaner and remove any of the old nvidia drivers and load the 29x drivers from nvidia web page. i then load gpu-z and see that the mb is reading the card ok. I also check what rev the bios is..there been a few fixes from asus for that board there up to rev 1001. i would also check some of the game forums to see if they have any patches for new video cards or tweaks.

 

[Thewolf56]

I'd go with this as opposed to some of the other answers.

Why a CPU bottleneck would cause a performance issue outside of keeping you from getting the most from the card doesn't make sense to me.

What card in specific did you get vs what you had? Have a link?

this is the GTS 450 I had : http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6701580

this is the GTX 560 ti I upgraded to: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7192161&CatId=3669

It says 900 MHZ core though that was causing frequent game crashes, since lowering it things have been playable.

 

[Thewolf56]

i first start by using a drive cleaner and remove any of the old nvidia drivers and load the 29x drivers from nvidia web page. i then load gpu-z and see that the mb is reading the card ok. I also check what rev the bios is..there been a few fixes from asus for that board there up to rev 1001. i would also check some of the game forums to see if they have any patches for new video cards or tweaks.

I made sure to remove all old drivers etc before I installed the new card, also have done it once more a short while ago to see if it might help anything, though I haven't had any success with it. I will look into the BIOS revision though, that could be the problem. Thank you for your input.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Thats a factory overclocked card though you should have no problem OC'ing it further right up to 1000 MHz w/ Afterburner.

Did you .....

1. Uninstall Video drivers
2. Shut down machine
3. Uninstall old GFX Card / Install New GFX card
4. Reboot to Windows
5. Tell Windows to take a hike if it wants to install anything
6. Install latest driver.

Win 7 - 64 Bit OS Assumed
http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-301.34-driver.html

 

[thently]

Yea if you had to lower speed to get it stable I will almost bet you it is the power supply.. I have run myself in circles trying to get a computer stable and it was a PS issue. That video card takes a bit more power than your old one.. Get adecent new one 650 should be fine if you get a decent one.

Thent

 

[catatafish]

+1 on probably drivers.

I'm no electrical engineer but I'm just going by common sense and analogous situations, and please correct me if I'm wrong (with a link or explanation written by a professional preferrably) All a "bottleneck" means is that you've got more card than you do CPU. They don't have to match other than the technology used to connect them. It just means your card has more to offer than will be required of it. Like if you put high performance brembo brakes on a Corolla with $40 tires.

If it was not enough PSU, then it probably woudn't even boot. A PSU either delivers the power or it doesn't. Frames aren't like steam engines that just slow down when they don't get enough steam. When the PSU is stressed, it just fails more quickly.

Edit:
I also found the following comment someone posted when I followed your link:
"Great Card but yours may not work
My card is very unstable when running graphic instensive apps or games. Turning down the core clock from 900 to even 880 seems to help. Gigibyte seems to be aware and is apperently offering a bios fix, although I have yet to recieve it. Other than that, the card works great. Runs very quite and haven't seen it go over 49C. Will be very happy if I get the fix."

One more thing....can you provide 1 example of 1 game that you played, and tell us the FPS you got on that game before, and the FPS you are getting now....and, whether or not you used to use Vsynch, and whether or not you do that now?

 

[Thewolf56]

+1 on probably drivers.

I'm no electrical engineer but I'm just going by common sense and analogous situations, and please correct me if I'm wrong (with a link or explanation written by a professional preferrably) All a "bottleneck" means is that you've got more card than you do CPU. They don't have to match other than the technology used to connect them. It just means your card has more to offer than will be required of it. Like if you put high performance brembo brakes on a Corolla with $40 tires.

If it was not enough PSU, then it probably woudn't even boot. A PSU either delivers the power or it doesn't. Frames aren't like steam engines that just slow down when they don't get enough steam. When the PSU is stressed, it just fails more quickly.

Edit:
I also found the following comment someone posted when I followed your link:
"Great Card but yours may not work
My card is very unstable when running graphic instensive apps or games. Turning down the core clock from 900 to even 880 seems to help. Gigibyte seems to be aware and is apperently offering a bios fix, although I have yet to recieve it. Other than that, the card works great. Runs very quite and haven't seen it go over 49C. Will be very happy if I get the fix."

One more thing....can you provide 1 example of 1 game that you played, and tell us the FPS you got on that game before, and the FPS you are getting now....and, whether or not you used to use Vsynch, and whether or not you do that now?

Thanks for your response. An example I can give is World of Warcraft. On my GTS 450, I used to be able to play just fine even with many other players around at about 70-80 FPS or so on medium-ish settings. Since the upgrade I only get about 20-30 in the same situations, same settings or even lower. I didn't use Vsync before and I don't use it now either. Turning it on hasn't really affected my performance since upgrading. The same trend has continued in all other games I've played now vs. when I did then.

 

[ubercake]

+1 on probably drivers.

I'm no electrical engineer but I'm just going by common sense and analogous situations, and please correct me if I'm wrong (with a link or explanation written by a professional preferrably) All a "bottleneck" means is that you've got more card than you do CPU. They don't have to match other than the technology used to connect them. It just means your card has more to offer than will be required of it. Like if you put high performance brembo brakes on a Corolla with $40 tires.

If it was not enough PSU, then it probably woudn't even boot. A PSU either delivers the power or it doesn't. Frames aren't like steam engines that just slow down when they don't get enough steam. When the PSU is stressed, it just fails more quickly.

Edit:
I also found the following comment someone posted when I followed your link:
"Great Card but yours may not work
My card is very unstable when running graphic instensive apps or games. Turning down the core clock from 900 to even 880 seems to help. Gigibyte seems to be aware and is apperently offering a bios fix, although I have yet to recieve it. Other than that, the card works great. Runs very quite and haven't seen it go over 49C. Will be very happy if I get the fix."

One more thing....can you provide 1 example of 1 game that you played, and tell us the FPS you got on that game before, and the FPS you are getting now....and, whether or not you used to use Vsynch, and whether or not you do that now?

The power requirement for the video card (or the entire system for that matter) is more demanding while gaming than while booting or running in a 2D Windows environment. People will often not see any issue with power until they place this kind of gaming or benchmarking stress on their system. It's not like your entire system requires either zero or max power at any given point. Also, the fact that OP states 'Turning down the core clock from 900 to even 880 seems to help' is another indication where reducing the power load helps with the situation.

As a result, a PC could very well boot even it were under-powered because the power requirement is lower. 45A on a 12V rail is not much power on that rail considering this is a 750W PSU. Add to that a power supply built on low-quality components and you add even more uncertainty to your troubleshooting. You don't have to be an engineer to understand. You just need a little experience.

At this point, the drivers are pretty mature for video cards such as the 560 ti. A driver re-install is worth a try, but I doubt you'd be having this kind of issue since you stated you uninstalled the old drivers before putting the new card in.

 

[catatafish]

It worked better when he lowered the clock speed because it was unstable at that clock speed. And right now he is having low FPS issues, not stability issues.

IIRC, the 560ti recommends 30 or 35amps.

The video card is going to ask for a certain amount of power from a PSU. The PSU will try and deliver it. If it doesn't have it the PSU will continue to work and work and work until it heats up so much it just fails or blows something else up. The PSU and the GPU are not in any kind of intelligent communication with one another. The GPU will not just throttle down when it has reached its max power from a PSU. Think about it.....if the GPU has 100% of the available power, and the CPU and other USB components etc. are also demanding this power, does your mouse "throttle down"? Is there some central command that decides, "ok, these components are all going to get 100% of their power needs met but the GPU is only going to get 50% of its power required, so I'm going to tell the GPU to only run at half its clock speed"?

Based on some of the comments I read on his link, that particular card has some issues that gigabyte knows about, so I'm guessing this issue is software related, or he just has a bad card. I think his best solution is going to come from an email to Gigabyte.

 

[ubercake]

It worked better when he lowered the clock speed because it was unstable at that clock speed. And right now he is having low FPS issues, not stability issues.

IIRC, the 560ti recommends 30 or 35amps.

The video card is going to ask for a certain amount of power from a PSU. The PSU will try and deliver it. If it doesn't have it the PSU will continue to work and work and work until it heats up so much it just fails or blows something else up. The PSU and the GPU are not in any kind of intelligent communication with one another. The GPU will not just throttle down when it has reached its max power from a PSU. Think about it.....if the GPU has 100% of the available power, and the CPU and other USB components etc. are also demanding this power, does your mouse "throttle down"? Is there some central command that decides, "ok, these components are all going to get 100% of their power needs met but the GPU is only going to get 50% of its power required, so I'm going to tell the GPU to only run at half its clock speed"?

Based on some of the comments I read on his link, that particular card has some issues that gigabyte knows about, so I'm guessing this issue is software related, or he just has a bad card. I think his best solution is going to come from an email to Gigabyte.

What I'm saying is there is no static power requirement for the GPU. It varies based on load. It can also vary based on clock speed whereas higher core clocks require more power given the same video card. Lowering the clock speed seems to stabilize the situation. This also will lower the power requirement. It's similar to when you over or underclock a CPU. Lower speeds require less power. If the power required by the GPU is not delivered to the GPU at a particular point in time for whatever reason, you could run into performance issues similar to a device operating during a brownout.

So either the card is bad or the power supply can't get the GPU what it needs.

If I were in OPs shoes, I would pursue the RMA route for the video card because it is the new part (and especially if it's still under warranty).

 

[Thewolf56]

I appreciate all the help Contacting Gigabyte or seeing about an RMA are probably my best options at this point.

 

[Thewolf56]

Best answer selected by Thewolf56.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey