My GTX 970 isn't performing correct. Help Please!

[Jumpman_x]

So I've been using my new EVGA GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0 for about a month now, and coming from a Radeon R7 250 2GB, gaming has been alot better. Though, I firmly believe its not at it's full potential. NOTE: My CPU is an FX-6300, which isn't the best, nowadays. So here's my FPS in games, on Max Settings, with Physx on max (Using MSI Afterburner):
Planetside 2: 45-60 in empty areas. 15-28 in massive battles.
Borderlands 2/Pre-Sequel: 70-100fps running around. 18-30 in fights with alot of physx.
The Forest: 12 FPS. At all times.
DayZ: 15-20fps
BF4: 45-60fps
Bad Company 2: 120fps

Is it just me or is this beyond terrible performance. And is it my CPU, I'll buy a FX 9590 if I have to!!
Thanks in advance, I just wanna be a happy PC gamer who doesn't have to worry about this nonsense.

 

[LookItsRain]

Use a program like msi afterburner to monitor gpu usage and cpu usage.
Im assuming you have all the correct drivers etc.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

It seems like there is a CPU bottleneck, which is clear to me because I have had people report low performance from the GTX 970 having an FX-6300. You might want to either upgrade you CPU to an i5, or overclock the FX.
Just in case, would you mind monitoring the GPU and CPU usage while playing these games? You can use MSI Afterburner for monitoring.

 

[Jumpman_x]

Use a program like msi afterburner to monitor gpu usage and cpu usage.
Im assuming you have all the correct drivers etc.

I use MSI Afterburner and Core Temp to monitor, most of these games my GPU and CPU usage never go above 50%.

 

[Jumpman_x]

It seems like there is a CPU bottleneck, which is clear to me because I have had people report low performance from the GTX 970 having an FX-6300. You might want to either upgrade you CPU to an i5, or overclock the FX.
Just in case, would you mind monitoring the GPU and CPU usage while playing these games? You can use MSI Afterburner for monitoring.

I use MSI Afterburner and Core Temp to monitor, most of these games my GPU and CPU usage never go above 50%.

 

[madmatt30]

What's your motherboard model??
Use MSI in conjunction with rivaruner
Enable CPU clocks & usage in the MSI overlay.
Are all your cores hitting fullspeed in gaming or are some downclocking.
This sounds like some form of throttling not just a normal bottleneck.
The 6300 ,even at stock,should not be limiting the 970 as much as your results show.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

Ok that's weird. What resolution are you playing at? Because if none of the loads goes near 100% then the game isn't pushing it far enough.

 

[Jumpman_x]

Ok that's weird. What resolution are you playing at? Because if none of the loads goes near 100% then the game isn't pushing it far enough.

1080p

 

[Jumpman_x]

What's your motherboard model??
Use MSI in conjunction with rivaruner
Enable CPU clocks & usage in the MSI overlay.
Are all your cores hitting fullspeed in gaming or are some downclocking.
This sounds like some form of throttling not just a normal bottleneck.
The 6300 ,even at stock,should not be limiting the 970 as much as your results show.

I have a MSI 760GM-P34(fx) MoBo and usually while playing some cores are at 80% while others can be at 60%

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

I have a MSI 760GM-P34(fx) MoBo and usually while playing some cores are at 80% while others can be at 60%

I also experience this in some games, but I usually get maxed out GPU usage 90%+. Something might be limiting your GTX 970

 

[Jumpman_x]

I have a MSI 760GM-P34(fx) MoBo and usually while playing some cores are at 80% while others can be at 60%

I also experience this in some games, but I usually get maxed out GPU usage 90%+. Something might be limiting your GTX 970

That's what I'm saying, I'm praying its just a software issue but if not I'll upgrade my CPU, gonna have to anyways for this years games.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

You don't actually have to upgrade your CPU. It depends on the games you are going to play this year.
You should try running a Heaven/Valley benchmark maxed out and tell us the score you got, compare it to others with a GTX 970 to see if there's something wrong with your graphics card.

 

[madmatt30]

Your boards likely throttling that CPU mate.
I'm at work on mobile at the mo- I will post s bit of info when I get home regarding pulling full (or at least better ) performance from it when I'm at home - bear with me mate - the UK/USA time divide will probably mean a bigger wait than you'd like.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

Absolutely not ^
That board can throttle an 8core, but not the FX-6300.

 

[Jumpman_x]

Your boards likely throttling that CPU mate.
I'm at work on mobile at the mo- I will post s bit of info when I get home regarding pulling full (or at least better ) performance from it when I'm at home - bear with me mate - the UK/USA time divide will probably mean a bigger wait than you'd like.

Yea I'd really appreciate that. But I'm pretty sure my board can power my CPU fine.

 

[Jumpman_x]

You don't actually have to upgrade your CPU. It depends on the games you are going to play this year.
You should try running a Heaven/Valley benchmark maxed out and tell us the score you got, compare it to others with a GTX 970 to see if there's something wrong with your graphics card.

Just benchmarked in Valley:
FPS: 53.2
Max FPS: 101.9
Min FPS: 20.1
Score: 2227
1080p 8xAA
Extreme HD Preset

Seems like I have a problem.

 

[madmatt30]

Run heaven 4 bench mate max settings as below
http://s2.postimg.org/krrma4ec9/heaven_normal.jpg
Theyre my scores on a stock clock galax exoc 970
My 6300 is at 4ghz but stock will affect it by 20 points at most.
Its comparable to an i3/i5/i7 & has barely any CPU dependancy at all.

I never said the board isn't 'capable' of running a 6300 but a lot of 760g boards have excessive APM controlling set as a default.
There are easy solutions but wait till I am at my desktop rather than mobile
Compare your heaven scores to mine - be sure to set to custom settings & max aa & tessellation.

 

[Jumpman_x]

Run heaven 4 bench mate max settings as below
http://s2.postimg.org/krrma4ec9/heaven_normal.jpg
Theyre my scores on a stock clock galax exoc 970
My 6300 is at 4ghz but stock will affect it by 20 points at most.
Its comparable to an i3/i5/i7 & has barely any CPU dependancy at all.

I never said the board isn't 'capable' of running a 6300 but a lot of 760g boards have excessive APM controlling set as a default.
There are easy solutions but wait till I am at my desktop rather than mobile
Compare your heaven scores to mine - be sure to set to custom settings & max aa & tessellation.

Thanks for the help, but I don't have Heaven benchmark, just valley. After comparing my result last night, I'm still confused. I scored 2227, and I seen people with scores from 2300-5000 using 1 970.

 

[madmatt30]

give me 10 minutes mate,will download valley & give it a run through

no mate your scores are perfectly normal ,I got incredibly similar scores to you & I know my setup is running right

did 3 runthroughs ,all within 20-30 points of your result.

 

[Jumpman_x]

give me 10 minutes mate,will download valley & give it a run through

downloading heaven now too

 

[Jumpman_x]

give me 10 minutes mate,will download valley & give it a run through

no mate your scores are perfectly normal ,I got incredibly similar scores to you & I know my setup is running right

did 3 runthroughs ,all within 20-30 points of your result.

Awesome. Good to know. My heaven benchmarks:
Max FPS: 120.5
Min FPS: 8.4
Score: 1389

 

[madmatt30]

valley is a terrible bench mate,it seems geared towards intels which is not good for a gpu benchmark
There are so many discrepancies between different results its not worth using.
Its wierd because general cpu usage on mine was max 70% on one core & literally nothing on the others wiht a lot of fluctuations.

Heaven is pretty much non cpu intensive , Ive matched or beaten scores with i7's & the GB g1 & asus strix cards.
Thres still a few discrepancies but its far closer across the board irregardless of cpu.

your heaven score is perfectly normal ,did 3 runs ,range from 1338 up to 1459 - that little stutter at the start of some sections drops overall fps & score & its different every single time (running from a ssd so I know its not down to disk caching or anything)

a lot of those valley scores are sli setups mate or absolutely huge overclocks if you look more closely.

 

[madmatt30]

do you have prime installed mate
if not here
http://download.cnet.com/Prime95-64-bit/3001-2053_4-75869492.html?hasJs=n&hlndr=1
unzip to desktop

download hwinfo64
http://www.hwinfo.com/files/hw64_448.exe

install it & run in sensor only settings

start prime95
do the standard test it starts with 'blend' click ok to start
leave it 5 seconds then click the clock at the bottom of hwinfo to reset timers
leave it running for a few minutes
look at the core clocks 0-5
you want to see straight clock speeds across the board on all current /minimum/maximum/average tabs - all identical
to stop prime ,click the test tab then stop,keep an eye on cpu 0 temps ,if they go notrth of 65c then stop the test.
let me know results of this.

 

[Mr_Venbeer]

My score in Valley is 1731 and in Heaven (1600x900 Extreme) is 1079. So basically those score seem to be fine.