Major FPS drops with i5-4690k and 980 Ti

TheEternal

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I recently got a 980 Ti to pair with my i5-4690k...neither are overclocked.

I started up Borderlands 2 and I noticed some extremely strange performance. I'm playing on 1080p with max settings on a 144Hz G-sync monitor with a framecap of 135...not very often does my fps hit that cap, but my GPU and CPU never seem fully utilized.

Here's a video I recorded with some gameplay as an FPS test - note that 5:00-5:10 has pretty much the worst drop, with FPS going all way down to 20.

I think I've narrowed the problem down to PhysX, but why would this be the case? I would assume that a 980 Ti would be able to handle maxing PhysX and every other setting in a 3-year-old game with hardly any drops...especially since neither the GPU nor CPU seem to be hitting full load and are staying cool.

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated!

PC Specs:

Gigabyte G1 980 Ti 6GB
i5-4690k
16GB DDR3
AsRock Pro3 motherboard
OCZ 750W PSU
Windows 10
GeForce Windows 10 Driver (353.62)
 

Blueberries

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Overheating, memory failure, bad programming? The drop at 5:00 looks like it occurs when multiple sprite effects are loaded into memory. That could just be an optimization error on the developers part.

How old is your DDR3 kit?
 

Blueberries

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Watching the video again it's definitely sprite effects causing the issue which may not be your end. My recommendation is to run MemTest and monitor your VRAM and RAM usage while in game and see if you notice any spikes.
 

TheEternal

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Fairly new...just bought them about 4 months ago. Here's what I bought.

I ran a pass of Memtest86+ a week ago or so and discovered no errors...
 

TheEternal

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VRAM usage is the second % in the GPU row (which looks like it hovers right around 1GB VRAM usage). RAM usage I don't have in my OSD because I figured 16GB is a bit on the overkill side still, but I do run HWinfo64 and I don't think I've ever seen my memory utilization go above 8.5GB.
 

TheEternal

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I do play online, but in my FPS test video I was playing solo offline.
 
I see nothing wrong here.

Every game has times when it gets low. It's not an overheating issue and your system is getting high frame rates at other times so it's not a lack of performance.

Memtest looks for errors which would then results in corruption or crashing NOT simply low frame rates.

So again, when you get low frame rates periodically but high at other times it's almost certainly just the game.

*If the frame drops are too frequent then turn off PHYSX or other settings to determine the main cause. Maybe Medium PhysX makes more sense. I don't know for sure.
 

TheEternal

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I have the G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series F3-12800CL10D-16GBXL RAM.

How could I tell if it's configured properly?
 

TheEternal

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Some areas I can get 100+ fps easily, sometimes I get framedrops to 40-70 while, for example, looking from a high point where I can pretty much see the entire map, and sometimes major drops to 20-50 just in combat with PhysX effects, explosions, etc. In all of these three of these cases, though, GPU/CPU utilization always seems to be fairly low. I'm kind of thinking it may just be unoptimization of the game, unfortunately :/
 

TheEternal

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Does PhysX use more than just the GPU? In the NVIDIA Control Panel I put the PhysX Processor as my 980 Ti because I figured, if anything, the CPU would be the bottleneck in my system. But I'm not sure if it still uses some processing power or has anything to do with it being loaded into the memory or what...
 

TheEternal

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Sorry for the multi-post, but here's something else.

In this screenshot, I'm only getting ~90fps, yet my GPU utilization, CPU cores (highest), and RAM are at 44%, 78.7%, and 23% respectively.

So is that just unoptimization in the game or what? Why is my system not being fully utilized even though I'm below my 135 framecap?
 

Blueberries

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Video games work in ticks based on clockrates. There aren't always 135 frames to draw. You wouldn't want 100% utilization, that would be a bad thing.
 

TheEternal

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Why would it be a bad thing? Not 100% in everything, but I would like to see my GPU being fully utilized, for example, if my frames aren't at 135.

Also, pardon my lack of knowledge, but what do you mean they work in ticks based on clockrates? I mean, I guess I just don't understand why if, for example, my CPU is the bottleneck in this game, why isn't it being fully utilized rather than only 75% of its power being utilized.
 


Hi,
First of all, I'm not seeing any obvious hardware problems. Memory is either too slow or defective which is not your problem here. Again, since you hit high frame rates the low ones you get at other times are almost certainly just due to the game code.

*I've looked at your frame rates in the video and they match what I'd expect compared to my video card. As for the CPU or GPU not hitting full load I'm not sure what to say. It may be a bottleneck due to PHYSX code. Again, disable PHYSX completely and see what happens.

I have a GTX680/i7-3770K setup but don't use the highest PHYSX setting because it causes significant drops at times.

As for XMP:

Most memory sticks have an embedded code which the motherboard can then access to setup optimized profiles. This code is added through BIOS updates (so the profile may be missing for newer models of memory until it's added to a BIOS update). Intel has a feature called "XMP" which attempts to choose the best profile of frequency and timings for your memory.

Thus, say you're at 1600MHz (ignore timings) and you click "XMP" when you are in the BIOS you might go to 2133MHz. Once you save it's then set. (In some cases clicking XMP can fix timing problems and make the system less prone to errors as well).

So, to keep things simple and ignoring overclocking for now:
1. "DEL" on boot to enter BIOS
2. Select "XMP"
3. Observe what the FREQUENCY is set to for DDR3/4 memory and see if it matches.
4. Observe the CPU frequency as well (i.e. 3.9GHz Turbo?).
5. SAVE, reboot then TEST.

Tests:
1. Run MEMTEST www.memtest.org (two minute quick test, and later until a "FULL PASS" has been completed which is roughly 30 minutes for 8GB).
*Booting to the created USB/DVD will require the BIOS to have the device set first in boot order or it just skips to boot to the Windows drive.

2. CPU diagnostic:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool-64-bit-

Other:
XMP/SPD info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_presence_detect
 

Blueberries

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I may have used incorrect terminology here but let's say the CPU gives a command to DRAW X times per second. If the CPU requests 60 frames per second be drawn then there's a benefit to the GPU rendering 300 FPS to create a smooth interpolation between the frames. However, if the CPU is telling the GPU to draw 5 times per second the GPU would only need to render 25 frames / second to produce the same smoothing effect.

Hence the extra frames are cut.

If there's no work for the CPU and GPU to do they're not going to do the same work twice.

If you can imagine waving your hand across the air at a steady rate and every second you say "Beep!" When you make a noise you are the CPU, but the hand doesn't stop moving. Now wave your hand across the air and say "Beep!" every two seconds. Your hand appeared to move at the same speed but the beeps only needed to occur half as much. In order to make that your hand appear as smooth as it did before on your computer monitor the GPU would have to produce twice as many frames to fill in the gaps between.

The rate at which your hand moves being the FPS and the beeps being the thread ticks from the game client.

That might be a dumb way of explaining it but essentially you wouldn't pour water into a glass and then keep pouring when it's full, that would be a waste of water. In the same sense your CPU isn't going to use 100% utilization if it only needs 30% to do the job.
 

TheEternal

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That makes sense, but at the same time, if the fps is dropping from 135 to 90, I wouldn't consider that doing the job...I put the 135 fps cap on there because that's what I consider "the job", and so I guess I just don't get why it's not getting to 135fps or at least trying as hard as it can to do that.
 

TheEternal

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My memory sticks are? Coincidentally I ran Memtest86+ for an hour (1 full pass) last week and received no errors. And again, coincidentally, I also ran that Intel Processor Diagnostic Tool earlier today and received no errors.

As for the DRAM Frequency in BIOS, should I set it to 1600 or just leave it on auto? I understand very little about RAM.
 
In your BIOS picture, it does look like you loaded XMP Profile, so the RAM appears to be configured properly. If you would like you can try overclocking the RAM to see if that improves performance. Let us know if you have any interest and we will be glad to help.

Especially for high end gaming, DDR3-2400 is recommended for Z97 platforms. Doesn't make sense to have everything top of the line but use standard frequency RAM.

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=12820

http://www.gskill.us/forum/showthread.php?t=12828
 

TheEternal

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Maybe I'm just misinformed, but I was under the impression that RAM frequency had very little to do with gaming performance.

If I do overclock the RAM, would it void my warranty or drastically shorten its lifespan?
 
Unfortunately, RAM frequency is commonly misunderstood. Not all games need or can take advantage of high frequency RAM, not all systems can take advantage, so there are different experiences and opinions that can cause confusion.

Overclocking the RAM does not void warranty nor does it shorten lifespan if done properly. Your RAM is 1.50V, it can easily handle 1.65V, so you have some room to play with. Try manually setting DRAM Frequency DDR3-2133, DRAM Timings tCL 10 - tRCD 12 - tRP 12 - tRAS 31, DRAM Voltage 1.65V, then you can work down timings or increase frequency from there if it is successful. Let us know how it goes!