Month Old GTX 970 Suddenly Starts To Perform Terribly

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Joder921

Joder921

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Jan 15, 2014
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For the past month my custom built PC has been preforming flawlessly. I brought my computer downstairs to try playing some games on my big screen downstairs. I started to play skyrim (with mods) and the FPS was getting into the single digits in some places. This never happened before. This is when I really noticed it, but if it started here, IDK. This is just the first time I saw the problem. I brought it back upstairs to see if it was just the 1080p resolution that was causing the problem. But it continued. I tried out other games that I knew I could max out just the day before, and all had decreased performance.

I opened up my computer to make sure all the right plugs were in, and they were. I replugged them back in to make sure. Still the same.

I then decided to use precision X to track its usage while in game. I tested it in every game and it never went above 30% usage. This bugged me, I knew it was supposed to be using 90% - 100%, yet it was only running at third of that!

I tried completely getting rid of anything and everything Nvidia and reinstalling the newest driver and tried doing the same but with the previous driver version. No luck...

I have gone into the Nvidia control panel and set the GPU to "Perfer Maximum Performance", I have tried overclocking it slightly, and putting it into another PCIe slot. STILL NOTHING.

This has been getting frustrating, and I'm on the fence about calling EVGA to return it. Anything i should try to fix it before I fill out an RMA?

Specs-
CPU: Intel i5-4590
GPU: EVGA GTX 970
RAM: 8GB of DDR3
MOBO: Asrock H81M'
STORAGE: 250GB Kingston SSD
1TB Caviar Blue HDD
POWER: Corsair 500W Modular
OS: Windows 8.1 Pro x 64
Monitor: Dell 1400x900

FPS IN GAMES (Max Settings)
Skyrim (with mods and enb) Before: 45 - 60 After: 10 - 30
Skyrim (vanilla) Before: 60+ After: 15 - 30
The Crew Before: 60+ After: 30 - 45
Darksouls (With enb) Before: 60+ After: 20 - 45
Minecraft (with shaders) Before: 40 - 50 After: 10 - 20

Thank you for your help!
 
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Sounds like the game has somehow become cpu limited(the gpu wants to render/send messages to the cpu faster than the cpu can handle). This is indicated by the low gpu usage.

Check your cpu temperates it may be underclocking itself/ otherwise like tayguerr said check your window power setting set it to make sure it is set to high performance.

You could also try unparking cpu cores:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkfIFP0g2xY
 
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Alright, you might be onto something. The CPU ALWAYS stays at 27 C. idle or working, its always 27. You have any heavy duty CPU things for me to try out to see if i can get it higher? Forgot to mention, but i got an aftermarket cooler for my computer also.
I tried running the 3dmark software, and it crashed upon loading.
I have also had very long loading times in games, would make sense if it was a CPU problem. I'll look into it more.
 
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Alright, I used a program called "Heavy Load" and had it use 100% of my cpu. It still never got above 29 C. Hope we can figure this out!

EDIT: I'm gonna have a look at my cpu and mess with some things in my computer. I'll be back after I check it out.
 
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Interesting cpu temps quite low. Did the cpu usage cause the pc to crash?

I'm interested to see what would happen if you run the unigine heaven benchmark.

You only have a 500watt power supply that could be an issue.

Did you recently upgrade the graphics card to the 970gtx?
 
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I took off my cpu and put it back in and started my computer without my cpu fan. It was reaching up in the 60s and increasing just by being idle. i then turned off my computer and put the fan back, and then the cpu temp was down to 24 C.
Interesting cpu temps quite low. Did the cpu usage cause the pc to crash?

I'm interested to see what would happen if you run the unigine heaven benchmark.

You only have a 500watt power supply that could be an issue.

Did you recently upgrade the graphics card to the 970gtx?
Click to expand...

I'm downloading unigine heaven benchmark now. I'll let you know how it goes.
I don't think the power supply is the issue because it has been running fine for a month fine, and only now it is acting up.
 
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Unigine heaven on ultra
YGeSGdj.png

still running at 27 C even during the benchmark.
 
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Ill test on my pc when I get home in a couple hours(I have a 3770k and 970gtx so they should be similar) just to make sure im not kidding myself and thinking the results should be higher.
 
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From home PC about 3 times the fps with very similar hardware. I think my cpu is approximately 10 percent faster overall but this should not show in the results because:

The heaven benchmark is gpu intensive rather than cpu intensive

I should mention that when running the benchmark my gpu is maxed @ 99-100% usage @1379mhz gpu clock. The heaven benchmark is only utilizing 1 cpu core fully it is not very cpu intensive. Temperatures on gpu are hovering around 77 degrees.

One thing I can see is that we are using different NVIDIA gpu drivers though this should not explain the massive difference.

I know from before that the NVIDIA 3d vision driver can sometimes reduce performance as well which is why I always remove it when updating the drivers(as well as ticking the option to 'perform a clean installation in the NVIDIA driver' in the driver update.

Another thing it could be is Geforce Experience. If you tell it to it will optimize the performance of your games for you sometimes in a suboptimal way i.e it will optimize the game based on your gpu rather than your cpu which can sometimes result in a significant drop in performance,

Not the case here though as this is likely your first time running the software so Geforce experience will not have had a chance to *optimize* the application.

I will have a think for a bit what else it could be
 
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I thought it may be CPU related but that still doesn't explain your low benchmark results in heaven benchmark as the demo hardly uses the CPU at all(its meant to stress test the gpu).



I recommend running a clean install of the latest nvidia driver just be sure to untick anything beginning with 3d vision and check "perform a clean install".

Reboot.

After than rerun the heaven benchmark and keep note of the max gpu temperature reached using either PrecisionX or the benchmark itself.
 
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alright, i will try installing the drivers AGAIN. although at this point i doubt its a driver problem

3dmark didnt crash this time. here ya go. http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/5330424?
idk if this matters, but i got really low fps when all the squid like aliens came out. not sure if because polygons, or just AA.
EDIT: just looked at the physics test, and it was waaaaaay below my graphics test, plus on the side it gives me an achievment saying "Your GPU is ready to rumble, but your CPU doesn't want to play".
I think this confirms that this is a processor problem.
 
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