Metro Last Light: abysmal frame rates on gtx 670

[Hobogaragesale]

I cannot get above 20fps in Metro Last Light (in game or in benchmarks),

My system:
1 GTX 670: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125423
Processor: i7 3770k Oc'ed to 4.2ghz
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131819
Memory: 16GB g skill (4x4GB) @ 1600mhz
Windows 7 64 bit

I'm using the Nvidia Beta drivers: 320.14
(had the same problem with non-beta drivers as well.)

My latest benchmarks: (The total frames are low because I'm tired of watching the full benchmark all choppy and ugly)

1) Options: Resolution: 1920 x 1080; DirectX: DirectX 11; Quality: Very High; Texture filtering: AF 4X; Advanced PhysX: Disabled; Tesselation: Not supported; Motion Blur: Low; SSAA: OFF;

Results:
Total Frames: 242, Total Time: 27.7489 sec
Average Framerate: 8.94
Max. Framerate: 25.13 (Frame: 76)
Min. Framerate: 5.53 (Frame: 233)

2) Options: Resolution: 1600 x 900; DirectX: DirectX 11; Quality: Low; Texture filtering: AF 4X; Advanced PhysX: Disabled; Tesselation: Not supported; Motion Blur: Normal; SSAA: OFF;

Results:
Total Frames: 375, Total Time: 21.90219 sec
Average Framerate: 17.40
Max. Framerate: 38.73 (Frame: 30)
Min. Framerate: 8.75 (Frame: 22)

3) Options: Resolution: 1024 x 768; DirectX: DirectX 11; Quality: Low; Texture filtering: AF 4X; Advanced PhysX: Disabled; Tesselation: Not supported; Motion Blur: Normal; SSAA: OFF;

Results:
Total Frames: 517, Total Time: 25.09462 sec
Average Framerate: 20.84
Max. Framerate: 48.58 (Frame: 422)
Min. Framerate: 12.72 (Frame: 514)

In game I get actually slightly better than this... but not much, really choppy and ugly.

Can anyone help me out here? This is really frustrating, I know the game isn't going to be absolutely perfect on a single gtx670... but none of the bells and whistles and none of the performance?

Also, I've monitored it with hardware monitor and the temp of the card never goes above 63 degrees Celsius... it's like it's not even doing anything.

I decided to run a GPU benchmark (Uningine Heaven DX11)
I struggled to get above 20fps on High quality at 1920x1080 with no tesselation, activating V-sync cut my fps in half... This can't be a good sign can it?

Any information would be great, thanks.

 

[gaborbarla]

Metro does seem to have a problem with 670s. Does your pc have this problem in other games?

Hope this helps.
Gabor

 

[Hobogaragesale]

I have had this card for about 6months but have only gotten to really use it lately, only other thing I've really played on it is Bioshock: Infinite, here is a quick benchmark from that:

Fraps Benchmark:
2013-05-23 02:34:13 - BioShockInfinite
Frames: 3203 - Time: 124379ms - Avg: 25.752 - Min: 16 - Max: 32

 

[gaborbarla]

That seems to be a very low score your should get well above 60 I recon in Bioshock Infinite.
I have a 670 and its perfectly smooth all the time with everything maxed out. Benchmark

Check your temperatures (such as CPU) it is perhaps getting throttled. Also check if your power cables are plugged into the graphics card. You could also try resetting the bios to default values.

I am assuming you are running in 1080p. (http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2013/04/23/bioshock-infinite-performance/3)

Gabor

 

[Hobogaragesale]

Yes I'm running in 1080p.
Something seems off here...
Here is my CPUID HW monitor results over the past 3 hours (includes, FFXI Benchmark, Unigine Heaven Benchmark, Metro Benchmark, and Fraps Benchmark of Bioshock): http://imgur.com/IYGffSF - doesn't look like anything is getting too hot to me.

Power cables look good, GPU-z recognizes the card - here is an info dump:
Graphics card:
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/05/23/8wf.png
Sensors:
http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/05/23/d2p.png
Is a 98% gpu load normal?

Any other ideas?

 

[coozie7]

That GPU load would be normal if you were running Metro when the readings were taken, if you're seeing 98% load under idle (desktop plus GPU-Z running) you have something unwanted going on.
Check Task Manager and see if you can identify any apps/processes that look odd, there are several malware Bitcoin miners out there ATM and your system may be infected.
Malware bytes is a excellent freebie malware scanner, and is always a good companion to any anti-virus software you have.

 

[Hobogaragesale]

I restarted my PC and ran Rkill.exe, according to it's log it stopped these 4 processes:

Checking for processes to terminate:

* C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\dx9.exe (PID: 2544) [AU-HEUR]
* C:\Users\**\AppData\Local\Temp\afolder\node.exe (PID: 3240) [T-HEUR]
* C:\Users\**\AppData\Local\Temp\afolder\drivers_host.exe (PID: 3380) [UP-HEUR]
* C:\Users\**\AppData\Local\Temp\afolder\drivers_host.exe (PID: 3380) [T-HEUR]

Upon terminating them, GPU load dropped from 99% to 0% (http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/13/05/23/4uy.png)... any idea what the hell is going on here or if/why one of these processes is the culprit?

I don't do any bitcoin mining, nor anything else like that.

Here's a new Metro Last Light Benchmark:

Options: Resolution: 1920 x 1080; DirectX: DirectX 11; Quality: Very High; Texture filtering: AF 16X; Advanced PhysX: Enabled; Tesselation: Normal; Motion Blur: Low; SSAA: OFF;
Total Frames: 6043, Total Time: 143.442 sec
Average Framerate: 42.17
Max. Framerate: 74.14 (Frame: 753)
Min. Framerate: 14.40 (Frame: 1052)

Much improved, but I'm afraid every time I restart I'll have to rkill the wonky processes or else my GPU will naturally be under full load:
Going to do a full AVG scan right now, anyone got any further ideas?

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[coozie7]

I'm not a security expert but I'll guess the bottom three, AFAIK it's common for malware/virus infections to place themselves into the temp folders, usually making themselves hidden but like I say, I'm no expert...Anyone else like to comment on this?
If AVG does n't clear them out, and I'm guessing it will, grab a copy of CCleaner and run that, it should clear out the temp folders and plenty of other garbage as well, most likely killing the problem.

 

[Hobogaragesale]

I'm guessing I was being farmed for GPU power for mining coins or something (although from what I understand Nvidia cards are shit for mining so womp womp). Oh well, I feel dumb and feel like I should have caught this sooner, thanks to everyone who helped.

Everything is working a lot better. I think I've removed whatever was causing the problem:
Ran Malwarebytes - Anti-Malware
Ran Malwarebytes - Anti-rootkit
Ran a Full AVG system scan

(restarts in between each)

They flagged both the dx9.exe and each drivers_host.exe as malware, the files have been dealt with and even on restarts my GPU is no longer under load, and I can get good frame rates in Metro Last Light and 60fps on Bioshock Infinite with everything maxed out.

Quick recap to help anyone else with this problem:
Had shit framerates across games. What I now realize was high "idle" temperatures (card was always around 55+ at "idle", and around 63 celsius under "load." Card now idles around 30 degrees celsius.
Ran GPU-Z, went to the sensors tab and saw GPU load was 98%-99% with no games running. (Download Link: http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/)
Ran rkill.exe (Download Link: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/rkill/)
It stopped the processes that were causing this - checking GPU-Z load is now 0%, temperature started falling.

Run a course of anti-malware, ant- rootkit, and anti-virus scans to make sure everything is taken care of.

Use GPU-z to make sure you're never under load while idle anymore.

Thanks everyone, cheers.

 

[jimthenagual]

My system is IDENTICAL to yours for Mobo, cpu and gpu. I've Oc'ed to 4.4ghz though, and you have 16Gb where I have 8Gb ram.

My results for Metro LL

Options: Resolution: 1920 x 1080; DirectX: DirectX 11; Quality: Very High; Texture filtering: AF 16X; Advanced PhysX: Disabled; Tesselation: Very High; Motion Blur: Normal; SSAA: OFF

Average frame rates: 49.78
High 118.30
Low 19.23

Looks like your system is back on track.

 

[awesomedude911]

I turned off Advanced physics from the start menu of the game which fixed my problem. I had like 10-30fps, but now its like 150-300fps