My GTX 970 is getting stupidly low fps while playing the Witcher 3?

[emtasty123]

I have 8 GB RAM, an I5 4590 and a GTX 970, so I'm more than capable of running this game. I tried messing with the power settings in the NVidia control panel, changing the graphics settings ingame and even tried plug in a fan to keep my CPU cool. Didn't work. My fps on average is around 20-30 FPS.

 

[10tacle]

What resolution are you running, and what are the game graphic quality settings? Also do you have Hairworks enabled? FYI as a reference, I have a pair of overclocked 970s in SLI and run 1440p and do not use Hairworks. I get an average FPS in the low 70s with 4xAA and Ultra settings otherwise.

Also do you have MSI Afterburner installed? If so, what is your GPU load %?

 

[emtasty123]

I'm running at 1920x1080, and its on ultra. Hairworks is disabled as it may tank my framerate. Also, the max GPU usage was at around 44%

 

[10tacle]

Okay so your rig isn't fully utilizing the GPU. That should be at least at 90% or above. Do you have a custom fan curve profile set for the video card? I'm wondering if you aren't running into thermal throttling problems.

I have heard of people whose CPUs run hot due to poor cooling (improperly seated coolers specifically) get low FPS due to thermal throttling as well.

Finally, do you notice this poor performance in other games or is it just W3? Oh, and I just noticed in your rig specs that you have a single 1x8GB stick of RAM. I have read that you need to run dual-channel RAM to get maximum performance of W3, but I'm not sure if a single 8GB stick is really making any impact vs. say a 2x4GB kit.