Question My 3060 performs terribly under expectations, and there are other weird problems I've noticed too.

May 23, 2022
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First off all, the model is EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC BLACK GAMING, 12G-P5-3655-KR, 12GB GDDR6, Dual-Fan. With no overclock, this gpu performs 85% bench on userbenchmark. With +150 on core and +750 on memory, it performs 91%, which is still terrible compared to other 3060s. +225 on core and +1250 on memory it performs 94.3%. (According to userbenchmark, the average 3060 performs 98%) By the way, I've tried the benchmarking app called NovaBench, and it said my gpu was in the 3rd percentile and performed horribly. I tried underclocking, but that obviously only lowered the gpu's performance. A weird problem I noticed is that I average 110 frames on apex legends on all low settings. My cpu is an i5-10600k, so that definitely isnt the bottleneck, and it performs well according to userbenchmark. I have 2x8gb 3600mhz cl18 ram. My PSU is be quiet! Pure Power 11 600W CM, 80 PLUS Gold. Also, my gpu is at 95% usage when it is at 110 frames all low settings, which is weird. Once i turn it to all high, it only goes down by 15 frames. For reference, I should be getting 180-220 or more frames on apex legends with these specs and all low settings according to benchmarks i found on youtube. The thing that doesnt add up is, even though my gpu performs under expectations compared to other 3060s, i should still be getting way more frames. I have the latest nvidia driver. I tried reseating the gpu and dusting the gpu socket and the gpu, but it didnt help. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated.
 
May 23, 2022
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May 23, 2022
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use gpuz. see if it running at pcie 3.0 x16
other on the benchmark might be using pcie 4.0. do you have issue with game?
I will do that when I'm back home. Also in apex legends my frames drop to 100 anytime I'm near a building or in the city but when I'm running out in the open in the middle of nowhere I get 180-200. Also In red dead redemption 2 I get like 80 frames riding my horse outside of cities but when I get into city it drops to 40.
 

KyaraM

Admirable
Sounds good, I'll use that too
You will have to activate the overlay for the game, but it's not that hard. And you can choose yourself what you want displayed! For example, I'm usually monitoring the two most preferred cores (clock, usage, power draw of the CPU) and their threads, and GPU clock, draw, and temperature. It also shows averages and can log all readings to CSV for later analysis. It's a pretty powerful analysis too all around.
 
May 23, 2022
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use gpuz. see if it running at pcie 3.0 x16
other on the benchmark might be using pcie 4.0. do you have issue with game?
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what the heck... it says my gpu is running at PCI-Express x1 3.0!
I have it in the highest slot of my motherboard, it should be running at x16 3.0
any ideas?
 
May 23, 2022
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x1 on power saving.
I moved my gpu down to another slot, a pcie x16 3.0 rated at x4, and in gpu-z it reads pcie x4 3.0.
I am seeing 5% improvements on userbenchmark now. Still not getting the most i can out this card. I dont know why the first slot doesnt work properly. I think it is a motherboard issue.
 

P0tluck94

Commendable
Nov 22, 2021
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I moved my gpu down to another slot, a pcie x16 3.0 rated at x4, and in gpu-z it reads pcie x4 3.0.
I am seeing 5% improvements on userbenchmark now. Still not getting the most i can out this card. I dont know why the first slot doesnt work properly. I think it is a motherboard issue.
What they mean about power saving is your power option make sure it's on high performance

Go to search type in power click on power options set it to high performance not power saving mode or balanced

Or

  1. Press Windows key+X (hold down the Windows key and press X) to open the Power User Tasks Menu.
  2. Select Power Options (or press O).
 
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Karadjgne

Titan
Ambassador
I will do that when I'm back home. Also in apex legends my frames drop to 100 anytime I'm near a building or in the city but when I'm running out in the open in the middle of nowhere I get 180-200. Also In red dead redemption 2 I get like 80 frames riding my horse outside of cities but when I get into city it drops to 40.
That's cpu. Not gpu. Cpu when it creates the frame has to place every object, do the calculations for motion, Ai, spacial dimensions etc. Closer to cities there's a lot more objects, massive Ai with npc's etc that aren't in the country.

Put the graphics on High, how much of a difference does that make to fps, city-country.

The bad part about userbenchmark is you are up against every other 3060 user, and the XC is very popular and a reference board so easily adapted to full loops or hybrids which can give them an edge in cooling and most likely boost clock speeds as a result. Depending on whether UBM is considering just the 3060 XC or All 3060's, you could also be up against FTW3, Gaming X, ROG and other top line cards with over the top OC or amd users with pcie4.0 access.

So don't place too much faith in UBM, it's a tool, not Gospel.

Nvidia gpus will downclock when not in use, same as a cpu. You'll see that in the screen as pcie3.0 x1 instead of pcie3.0 x16 since the full power of the card is not needed for simple windows applications. You'd need to catch it in game or bench test and then you'd see pcie3.0 x16.

Your board isn't capable of pcie4.0, it's limited to pcie3.0 regardless of what the gpu is capable of. Intel skipped pcie4.0, went to pcie5.0 with 12th gen.
 
May 23, 2022
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That's cpu. Not gpu. Cpu when it creates the frame has to place every object, do the calculations for motion, Ai, spacial dimensions etc. Closer to cities there's a lot more objects, massive Ai with npc's etc that aren't in the country.

Put the graphics on High, how much of a difference does that make to fps, city-country.

The bad part about userbenchmark is you are up against every other 3060 user, and the XC is very popular and a reference board so easily adapted to full loops or hybrids which can give them an edge in cooling and most likely boost clock speeds as a result. Depending on whether UBM is considering just the 3060 XC or All 3060's, you could also be up against FTW3, Gaming X, ROG and other top line cards with over the top OC or amd users with pcie4.0 access.

So don't place too much faith in UBM, it's a tool, not Gospel.

Nvidia gpus will downclock when not in use, same as a CPU. You'll see that in the screen as pcie3.0 x1 instead of pcie3.0 x16 since the full power of the card is not needed for simple windows applications. You'd need to catch it in game or bench test and then you'd see pcie3.0 x16.

Your board isn't capable of pcie4.0, it's limited to pcie3.0 regardless of what the GPU is capable of. Intel skipped pcie4.0, went to pcie5.0 with 12th gen.
i have found the culprit. After talking with my friend for a while I mentioned to him that I started lagging badly in town areas in rdr2 after my computer crashed because of me overclocking my CPUtoo much. (This happened about 4 months ago) He then mentioned that that would be the same reason I lag in apex legends when I'm around buildings and cities.

And the cause turned out to be... I apparently killed the lane pins on my CPU when I overclocked too much. Or something like that. Ever since then the x16 slot was acting like a x1 slot. I never noticed this much because all I played was Fortnite and Valorant. At that time I played little rdr2 to care enough. It started to bug me now because I recently got into apex legends, which the x1 lane really affected it. The only solution right now is to move my GPU to the next fastest slot on my motherboard, which is a x4. And it worked, I don't drop frames in rdr2 in cities or apex legends near buildings or cities.

I searched up a video online comparing frames across 3 different systems ranging from the GPU being in the 4x slot, 8x slot, and 16x slot. I saw that some games have barely any difference. And some games (that thankfully I don't play) have a major difference. So for now, I should be good unless I get into a game that needs more interface speed, then I might have to upgrade my CPU and motherboard.

Btw, on GPU-Z it displays "Running at x4 3.0" whether my GPU is under load or not.
 
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May 23, 2022
14
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That's cpu. Not gpu. Cpu when it creates the frame has to place every object, do the calculations for motion, Ai, spacial dimensions etc. Closer to cities there's a lot more objects, massive Ai with npc's etc that aren't in the country.

Put the graphics on High, how much of a difference does that make to fps, city-country.

The bad part about userbenchmark is you are up against every other 3060 user, and the XC is very popular and a reference board so easily adapted to full loops or hybrids which can give them an edge in cooling and most likely boost clock speeds as a result. Depending on whether UBM is considering just the 3060 XC or All 3060's, you could also be up against FTW3, Gaming X, ROG and other top line cards with over the top OC or amd users with pcie4.0 access.

So don't place too much faith in UBM, it's a tool, not Gospel.

Nvidia gpus will downclock when not in use, same as a cpu. You'll see that in the screen as pcie3.0 x1 instead of pcie3.0 x16 since the full power of the card is not needed for simple windows applications. You'd need to catch it in game or bench test and then you'd see pcie3.0 x16.

Your board isn't capable of pcie4.0, it's limited to pcie3.0 regardless of what the gpu is capable of. Intel skipped pcie4.0, went to pcie5.0 with 12th gen.
Kinda surprised that an x16 card fit in the x4 slot, they usually aren't open ended. Some boards will have the x1 slot open ended but not heard about the x4 slot.
Yea, mine has a 16x slot rated at 4x