Low GPU usage, low TDP, low FPS

[bsafasf]

Hi.

I just bought a new MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G and in most games I get terribly low framerates. It is worst in the old Tombraider (2013) and Company of Heroes 2. The framerates are around 20fps. In addition the GPU TDP is between 40 and 50% which is odd and GPU usage does not reach 100%. And temperatures are low as well
In theory the new card should outperform my previous R9 270 by miles.

If I use DDU to remove all Graphics Drivers and then reinstall the newest Nvidia drivers (361.82) everything works fine. I get 60fps in Tombraider on highest settings and GPU usage and TDP reach almost 100% and temperatures rise to normal gaming levels.
However, if I shut down the system or just restart it, the framerates are way down again and the games are unplayable. I have no idea why this is the case.

Then the only thing that gets the GPU usage and the power TDP up again is MSI Kombustor.

Some System Specs:
CPU: intel I5-4690K
Mainboard: ASUS Z97A
PSU: Corsair RM550
SSD: Samsung 840 EVO 256GB
HDD: WD Caviar Green 3TB
RAM: 16GB

I already tested the other components and the fact that everything works without restarting the system points to a software issue or driver issue. (I know the PSU is not really strong but I meassured at the plug how much my rig consumes, it never rose above 300W)
However, I already tried reinstalling the drivers several times without any changes.

I really have no idea why this happens and what to do. Please help.

 

[BadActor]

After you shut down and restart and the performance is bad again, have you checked the driver version? I think in Windows 10, it will sometimes reinstall a driver over a newer one if it doesn't recognize it.

 

[bsafasf]

After you shut down and restart and the performance is bad again, have you checked the driver version? I think in Windows 10, it will sometimes reinstall a driver over a newer one if it doesn't recognize it.

Thanks for the idea, I will check it and post the results as soon as possible.

 

[BadActor]

If you find it keeps reinstalling an older driver, there are ways you can prevent Windows from updating it.

 

[bsafasf]

If you find it keeps reinstalling an older driver, there are ways you can prevent Windows from updating it.

I think your suggestion may be the right one. However, my problems increased. Now, the problem is present even after removing and reinstalling the drivers without restart. And additionally, I performed a clean install of Windows 10 on an old HDD to check if the problem persist there too. It does.

The only application that still manages to max the power used is the MSI Kombustor with OpenGL stress tests.

What I did find on the clean install, is that Windows Update automatically installed some older graphics drivers. Maybe DirectX has something to do with the problem.

 

[BadActor]

If you go to Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Hardware>Device Installation Settings, tick "No" and "Save Changes", you can stop driver updates. Then use Display Driver Uninstaller again to uninstall/reinstall. You will have to manually update the drivers until you re enable the device settings. Hopefully, MS will get the driver issues sorted out. You might also run the Dxdiag Tool to see if there is a problem there.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/run-directx-diagnostic-tool

 

[bsafasf]

If you go to Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Hardware>Device Installation Settings, tick "No" and "Save Changes", you can stop driver updates. Then use Display Driver Uninstaller again to uninstall/reinstall. You will have to manually update the drivers until you re enable the device settings. Hopefully, MS will get the driver issues sorted out. You might also run the Dxdiag Tool to see if there is a problem there.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/run-directx-diagnostic-tool

DDU has already set the settings so that Windows Update does not install any new drivers. I tried removing the drivers and reinstalling them several times, no better. The only thing that gets graphics TDP above 50% is the MSI Kombustor.
I also checked DxDiag, it says everything is perfectly fine.

The one thing with MSI Kombustor is that CPU usage is really low, so that could point to an issue with the PSU, however, it already worked twice for a short period of time before a restart. And an even bigger problem is, that I cannot just use an other PSU, I would have to buy another just to test.

 

[bsafasf]

I found the problem. My old AMD R9 270 never worked when I set the BIOS settings to PCI-E gen3.0, but I thought it was a problem with AMD, so I changed it to gen 2.0. When I installed the GTX 980 I set the settings to gen3.0 and it did not work.
So, I set it back down to gen2.0 and everything works, I get 60fps in every game I should get them and GPU load and TDP are at normal gaming levels.

So the problem is a damaged mainboard, at least I still got warranty.

Thank you, BadActor for your help.

 

[BadActor]

Glad you found it!