New PC Build Having Problems

[Enslaved]

HEY SORRY FOR THE LONG POST, ITS NOT A HARD READ REALLY, BUT I COULD REALLY USE SOME HELP!

So for starters, my specs are in my signature. If you need any more info just let me know. The only thing I can think of to add is that my PC is currently connected to my 40 inch samsung TV, 1080p, 60Hz, through an HDMI/DVI cable.

The whole computer is only a couple months old besides the GPU and PSU which are now just coming up on 2 years old.

But, I am having a problem. It doesn't feel like the PC is running at its full potential, or even close sometimes. It takes almost a minute to load up Geforce Experience, or some games (Hitman Absolution for example). Also, most of my games appear to be having FPS drops constantly. The worse times I've noticed it are on Diablo 3, Skyrim, BF3, Simcity, Hitman Absolution. The only games I've really notice that run well are Dead Space 3, and some other smaller games I'd expect to run it without any problems. But I for sure thought I wouldn't be having problems with a game like Diablo 3, or Simcity. Diablo 3 has got to be the worse because it always stutters throughout. These games aren't unplayable or anything.. it's just I notice constant, random fps drops and lag (not network). Geforce Experience has set the optimal levels of every game to Ultra too basically.

I've checked some of my temps, through Asus Suite 2 and EVGA Precision. My CPU never goes above 50C, and my GPU has gone to a max of 82 C it says. Also another thing I decided to check was usage, and I notice a lot that it reaches 99%. Often when I see it lagging it's at 99%. Also I was checking my FPS in those games, and I saw sometimes they reached past 60, sometimes above 100, I even saw 1000??? Doesn't make any sense to me because I thought my TV only went up to 60 anyways. So I switched Vsync to adaptive in my NVCP, and that kept it down, but I didn't really see any changes.

Also, someone asked me to try changing the Power Management Mode in NVCP to Prefer Maximum Performance, but that didn't seem to change. Besides that though all I have changed was the Multidisplay mode to single display, and in the BIOS I used Asus Optimal instead of Normal or Powersaving.

The thing is, I'm not really computer savvy either. I know some basic stuff, but really the guy at the PC store helped me pick my parts out. He put the CPU on the mobo, and I put the rest together, which is also making me wonder if I put it together wrong maybe.

But basically, I realy need some help. Maybe I am expecting too much out of what I have. Maybe my GPU is just outdated or not good enough, I don't know. That's why I'm here though. Maybe there are some tests I could do to show you guys some other information that would be useful. If there's anything I can do, I will. I really want to get the best out of this PC. This is the best one I have had so far, and it sucks feeling like I'm not getting that huge of an upgrade. My PC's have always seemed to be a little behind, or old, and now that I have a bunch of new hardware I'm kind of disappointed. I thought the GTX 560 Ti was suppose to be still good too.

Anyways... sorry again for the long post if you took the time to read it. Any help is greatly appreciated, and I'll usually be here to get back to you, so I will try to ASAP.

Thanks!

 

[vinhn]

First off, your TV is probably having a low GTG time, TV aren't meant to play games and therefore may cause you to feel the way you felt.

Second, for load times, it is probably your Hard Drive is getting old or you got a bad one.

Third, the GPU you listed aren't optimum to play games like BF3 at Ultra, you might what to un-check AA on most games.

Finally, update all your drivers.

Oh, and 1GB really pulls you back in most of those memory intensive game.

 

[ingtar33]

well, you have 2 obvious bottlenecks... 1 is the gpu... it's a bit outdated and no where near as top of the line as the rest of your system. you pointed out it's often at 100% utilization, that means it's bottlenecking the rest of your system. The other issue is you're running a very bargain basement hard drive. Seagate Baracuda drives provide a lot of storage space for very little cost... the problem is they aren't the fastest hard drives in the world... if anything they're a bit on the slow side. You probably would see a huge improvement in speed by getting a SSD to operate as your OS/main hard drive.

 

[Enslaved]

sorry but what exactly is bottlenecking?

I guess I should have known though that the GPU, using my TV, and not having an SSD could be a problem. I'm not too sure why Geforce Experience is setting everything to the max though for optimal settings. I do remember the guy telling me that it wouldnt be able to run BF3 and Skyrim at max settings, yet it thinks it can. Maybe because of the rest of the system? I would think it would bring the 560 into account first though.

 

[ingtar33]

sorry but what exactly is bottlenecking?

literally speaking a bottleneck is a narrowing of a container near the opening, which acts on the fluid pouring out of the container by slowing it down. because the fluid is limited by the amount of space it can pass through it comes out slower. try this, take a 12 oz cup and fill it with pepsi, then take a 12oz pepsi can, turn them both upside down... the cup will empty almost as fast as it takes to turn the cup upside down, while the can will take many seconds more to empty, that's a "bottleneck"

a system is only as fast as it's slowest part. when the gpu is hitting 100% activity it's become the bottleneck in your system (same if your cpu is hitting 100% utilization, then the cpu is bottlenecking). So you solved your own problem when you noticed your gpu was hitting 100% use. Thats all you needed to know~ turn down the graphic settings a little bit and take a little load off the gpu, you'll notice an immediate improvement in frame rates.

as for load times, that's almost always 100% your hard drive. I have 2 barracudas in a RAID 0 setup and it's still too slow for comprehension. My cpu utilization never gets over 10% when loading stuff because the hard drives are so slow. Your i5 is a much more capable cpu then my phii, so i can assure you the load time slowness is from your barracudas. You will nuke that problem with an SSD (conveniently that's my next planned purchase as well).

 

[Enslaved]

awesome, thanks for the simple answer, makes sense to me, lol. so I take then that Geforce Experience isn't that reliable maybe? I only liked it because again I don't have a lot of expertise when it comes to some of the settings in games. I know AA is one to check on, and shadows. That's about it, lol. I hate adjusting those constantly though, trying to find the right set up. That's why I thought the Geforce Experience was a great idea, but I'm not sure it's doing it's job correctly now.

I just need to get a better graphics card so it doesn't matter lol, and I can just run it on max. SSD would be a great idea too, I know how much my buddy raves about his lol.

Thanks a lot though. I think I'm gonna stop using GE for now, and maybe try adjusting some settings myself for in game.

 

[Enslaved]

Is there anything else I need to worry about changing in game, besides AA and shadows to improve performance?

So far I have just set Skyrim to its default High settings, and so far I'm feeling pretty good about it. GPU usage hasn't gone above about 65%. I'll have to check it after playing for a while but so far I see a bit of an improvement. Usually it got really bad though after an hour or so of play so I'll have to see, but ya that's why it would be good to know what else may be too stressfull on the card in terms of in game settings.

Also maybe theres something I should look out for in the NVCP? So far I've changed VSYNC to adaptive, Power Management to Prefer Maximum Performance, and Multidisplay to Single Display.

I'm gonna try D3 out next, and maybe BF3 tomorrow, and leave an update.

 

[ingtar33]

Is there anything else I need to worry about changing in game, besides AA and shadows to improve performance?

So far I have just set Skyrim to its default High settings, and so far I'm feeling pretty good about it. GPU usage hasn't gone above about 65%. I'll have to check it after playing for a while but so far I see a bit of an improvement. Usually it got really bad though after an hour or so of play so I'll have to see, but ya that's why it would be good to know what else may be too stressfull on the card in terms of in game settings.

Also maybe theres something I should look out for in the NVCP? So far I've changed VSYNC to adaptive, Power Management to Prefer Maximum Performance, and Multidisplay to Single Display.

I'm gonna try D3 out next, and maybe BF3 tomorrow, and leave an update.

generally shadows, water, texture settings, aa, af, and vsync all affect gpu performance the most. Play with those till you get the result you're looking for. depending on the 3d engine it could just take changing one setting to make your game run flawlessly.

 

[Enslaved]

well I tried D3 and it was lagging like normal on start up in game. so I started lowering everything and it worked good. I thought it may have just been the clutter density, but as I started to raise some settings up to the point where everything was at max again, and it was working fine. it just seems to be really bad at startup.

BF3 was working great though. I put it on high, noticed the usage going up really high though, so I put it down back to medium.

I think I expected too much of the video card, especially after using the geforce experience.