Low performance after upgrading to GTX 780 (low GPU usage)

[duginox]

Hello everyone, and thank you for checking out my thread!

First off, here's my current build:
GPU - ASUS GTX 780 3GB DirectCU II OC
CPU - i7 3770k running at stock speed (3.5GHz)
Mobo - ASUS P8Z77-V LX
RAM - Kingston 16GB DDR3 HyperX 1600MHz
SSD - Intel 330 SSD 120GB
HDD - Seagate Barracuda 1TB
PSU - XFX ProSeries Black Edition 750W PSU
CPU FAN - CM Hyper 212 Evo
OS - Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Monitor 1 - BenQ GL2450 60Hz 24'
Monitor 2 - Samsung S24B350 24'

Issue
About two weeks ago, I decided it was time to upgrade from my GTX 660 to a GTX 780 to achieve more performance in some of the games that I play, like Battlefield 4, Infestation: Survivor Stories, DayZ, etc.. So I bought a ASUS 780, and I'm not getting nearly the performance that I should. Most of the time the GPU usage is quite low, like 30-60%. Also about 50-70% CPU usage. At the time, my CPU's temp was quite high, so I bought an aftermarket fan to try to cool it. I also bought a new PSU, just to make sure that everything was given enough power. After installing both of those, I got lower CPU temps, but my performance issues were still persisting. I get about 30-50 frames on ultra in battlefield 4, yet the GPU usage sticks at 40-50%. I managed to get it to rise for about 2 minutes yesterday somehow, and my fps rose to 90-100. It's now back to the same abysmal performance. I've updated my drivers, updated my chipset drivers, updated my BIOS to the latest version and nothing seems to resolve this issue. It doesn't matter if I'm at low or ultra in battlefield 4, I'll still get the same lousy performance. GPU usage goes down a bit when I turn down the graphics though.

What I have tried:
-Did CLEAN nvidia driver installs, did nothing
-Updated BIOS and chipset drivers
-Bought new PSU to rule out possible bottleneck
-Bought aftermarket CPU fan to reduce the CPU temps
-Lowered settings, lowered GPU usage
-Cleaned out dust in my PC
-Took off old Thermal paste, applied new, helped CPU temps
-Unparked cores

CPU temps
idle: 40-50C
load: 55-60C

GPU temps
idle: 40-45C
load: 65-67C

Unigine Valley score:

I think something may be bottlenecking my system, hardware wise maybe. I could try to reinstall windows 7 just to see if that would result in better performance, but I doubt it would help with anything.
I really don't know what to do at this point. I don't know if it's my CPU that is bottlenecking me, or if I received a faulty GPU or something. If anyone can come with any solutions that would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers!

 

[swifty_morgan]

what happens when you put your old card back in?

did you try a cmos reset?

when you reinstalled the cpu fan and heat sink........ is it fastened to the cpu properly? even slightly cocked it won't cool properly. cpu might be throttling??

did you think about over clocking at all?

 

[Onus]

Have you done recent anti-virus and anti-malware scans?
Maybe a silly question, but is the graphics card in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU?

 

[swifty_morgan]

gotta add....... I have a problem with a 660. get's terrible frame rates and they drop a lot consistently........ had to enable adaptive vsync to get a smooth ride.

 

[duginox]

what happens when you put your old card back in?

did you try a cmos reset?

when you reinstalled the cpu fan and heat sink........ is it fastened to the cpu properly? even slightly cocked it won't cool properly. cpu might be throttling?? I think it is fastened as much as I can. It had some problems with one of the stand-offs not fitting the backplate completely, but I managed to get it in eventually.

did you think about over clocking at all?

-I haven't tried to put my old card back, but I think performance would be worse. My performance with the 780 is better than with the 660, but it's still not what it should be.
-I have reset my CMOS a few times, so yeah.
-I think it is fastened as much as I can. It had some problems with one of the stand-offs not fitting the backplate completely, but I managed to get it in eventually.
-Yeah, but I don't really know how to do it or how much I should aim for. I'm a big newb when it comes to overclocking.

 

[duginox]

Have you done recent anti-virus and anti-malware scans?
Maybe a silly question, but is the graphics card in the PCIe slot closest to the CPU?

The GPU is definitely in the right PCIe slot. PCI-E 3.0x16 to be more exact.
I do virus checks and malware scans regularly.

 

[duginox]

gotta add....... I have a problem with a 660. get's terrible frame rates and they drop a lot consistently........ had to enable adaptive vsync to get a smooth ride.

Vsync is off in both the game options and in nvidia control panel. I could try to enable adaptive vsync to see if it changes the results.
Edit: Tried with adaptive vsync on, didn't result in anything different.

 

[duginox]

bump

 

[Onus]

Do NOT bump threads.

 

[swifty_morgan]

go into the device manager. uninstall card. reboot. let windows do it's thing. when done don't do anything but open up and play some games. what happens?

 

[duginox]

Do NOT bump threads.

Sorry, first time actually making a thread on this forum..

 

[duginox]

go into the device manager. uninstall card. reboot. let windows do it's thing. when done don't do anything but open up and play some games. what happens?

Didn't help at all in performance. Thanks for the tip though.

 

[swifty_morgan]

could be the cpu throttling?........... all ram is seated firmly?.............. did you try a cmos reset?.............. does this happen on internet related games only?.....................

 

[duginox]

could be the cpu throttling?........... all ram is seated firmly?.............. did you try a cmos reset?.............. does this happen on internet related games only?.....................

Here's a image of both CPU-Z and GPU-Z on a battlefield 4 64 man server. I can't see anything being throttled here. Maybe you can see something I can't? Any values looks strange to you? Also, I've reset the CMOS now for the second time just to be sure, no effect this time either.
I think my ram is seated properly. Also, I tried on singleplayer borderlands 2, and the GPU is still only using 40-60% of it's capability.

 

[swifty_morgan]

borderlands is cpu intensive........... what about an over clock on the cpu?

no images posted.

 

[duginox]

borderlands is cpu intensive........... what about an over clock on the cpu?

no images posted.

Sorry, updated now. But what should I do to try to find my bottleneck? There must be something I can do?

 

[swifty_morgan]

one thing I do know.......... bigger card......... more horse power to give it's worth.

 

[duginox]

one thing I do know.......... bigger card......... more horse power to give it's worth.

You think if I overclock my CPU, I'll get better performance? If so, how much should I aim for? 4.3GHz, 4.5GHz?

 

[swifty_morgan]

not every cpu is the same. trial and error......... to OC these ask in cpu forum. ......... problems continue please come back here. maybe someone will have thoughts of something different...??

 

[duginox]

not every cpu is the same. trial and error......... to OC these ask in cpu forum. ......... problems continue please come back here. maybe someone will have thoughts of something different...??

Alright, I'll try to oc it and report back when it's done.
Just also wanted to say thank you to everyone who is putting their time aside to help a total stranger like me, really appreciate it!

 

[duginox]

Update: Ok, so it seems like CPU-Z just shows the stock speed no matter what, and doesn't update in real time for me. I can't seem to find any other software that shows me the correct core clock either, which is strange. So it might after all be CPU throttling since I have relied on false information from CPU-Z. Anyone know a different software that shows the clock frequency in real time?
Edit: managed to fix this problem. It seems like it was some obscure settings in msconfig's boot that only utilized two of my cores. Only helped a bit with my performance problems, but not much.

 

[swifty_morgan]

try reinstalling it or finding an updated download.

 

[duginox]

try reinstalling it or finding an updated download.

Ok, it is not stuck afterall, it's just that my cpu won't OC at all. I don't think it goes over 3.5GHz no matter what I set it to in the bios. The temperature stayed the same from 3.5GHz-4.2GHz. I'm just so confused. Why won't my CPU OC? It won't go over stock settings.

 

[swifty_morgan]

go to the cpu section. I don't over clock anymore. time and processors have changed.......... used to have to disable a couple of things to keep the processor from throttling. ( will run a constant 4.5 ) instead of only running that fast when needed........... so it runs hotter all the time............ not familiar with the BIOS' as I used to be and can't do things from recall that much anymore. I have to sit behind the screen and do it in real time.

 

[duginox]

go to the cpu section. I don't over clock anymore. time and processors have changed.......... used to have to disable a couple of things to keep the processor from throttling. ( will run a constant 4.5 ) instead of only running that fast when needed........... so it runs hotter all the time............ not familiar with the BIOS' as I used to be and can't do things from recall that much anymore. I have to sit behind the screen and do it in real time.

Alright, after a lot of testing and lurking on different forums and threads, I finally managed to OC my cpu. Somehow only 2 of my 4 cores and 4 of my 8 threads were activated or something. Managed to change that so it recognizes all of my cores, and my CPU-Z is now showing my core frequency correctly. I think my CPU is now running stable at vcore of 1.300 @ 4.3GHz. Thinking about doing a 8 hour prime95 test just to make sure. Will do some benchmarks and game testing to see if this might have solved my performance problems and then report back shortly.