PC performance loss after NVIDIA driver update

[Bacono10]

General decrease in PC performance

So yesterday I updated my NVIDIA drivers from GeForce Experience

(driver version 355.60)

and ever since that my PC's performance has dropped considerably.

Things are generally slower, but it is most most noticeable in games.

before the driver update I would get solid 60+ FPS in Battlefield 4 at Ultra settings, but now the average is 30-40 FPS on medium settings. Same situation for all my other games.

I have tried uninstalling the driver and reinstalling it, and installing an older driver to no avail.

any suggestions are appreciated

PC SPECS:
Strix GTX 970

AMD FX-8350

8GB RAM

600 WATT PSU



Nothing has been overclocked.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I'm not sure that even makes sense. Fast boot is controlled from the bios on every system I've ever seen or worked on. That isn't even an option on a desktop so I don't see how it's applicable in this situation. For laptops or tablets that option exists but not on desktops, to my knowledge.

And, I've no idea how fast boot would be related to in game performance since it only relates to what is and is not loaded during the boot process. USB initialization and UEFI hardware are the main factors with fast boot. I don't see how it affects GPU performance whatsoever.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I just noticed that earlier in the thread you said your PSU was bottom mounted and that you have the fan vent facing upwards. That is wrong. The intake vent for the PSU should be facing the bottom of the case, not into the case. You are drawing hot air into the PSU and probably making it unstable under load as well as allowing additional heat to be dissipated into your case, further compounding any heat issues in the system. The PSU cooling system should be completely isolated from the rest of the case internals. The intake vent is designed to be facing the bottom so it can draw the coolest air, which is always at ground level, into the power supply and then expel the heat exchanged air out the back. Flip your PSU over, it is installed wrong.

 

[Bacono10]

I flipped my PSU over a few days ago.

Yesterday I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the CPU cooler and the CPU, and it didn't change anything.

I will be trying a clean windows install today.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you repaste when you reinstalled the cooler and if so, how much paste are you using. If you are using less or more than a very large uncooked rice grain or about 1/3 to absolutely no more than 1/2 the size of a #2 pencil eraser, you are using too much or too little.

If you used a similar amount and the cooler is well seated, you should be fine. I'd also be sure your CPU cooler fan is blowing through the heatsink towards the back of the case and the rear exhaust fan.

 

[Bacono10]

I used your guide for thermal paste, and I used the most popular guide for AM3+ boards for the 212 EVO, which said to have the fan blowing air out of the top of the case.

I also have an exhaust fan in the top of the case now, above the CPU cooler.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, that configuration WILL work, but it's not the recommended configuration. In that configuration you are directly drawing heated air from the GPU card or cards through the CPU fan heatsink rather than allowing it to draw air from the front of the case in a draft configuration where the cooler intake air is being run through the CPU cooler. This will likely result in lower cooling performance as cool air always, well, cools, better than heated air.

In a front to back configuration the majority of heat that escapes the GPU card cooling system is either blown by the CPU fan towards the rear exhaust or is sucked directly TO the rear and top rear exhaust in between the back of the CPU cooler and rear exhaust fan without passing THROUGH the CPU cooler. Some heat will make it's way to the CPU cooler simply by way of being in the mix at all, but it will be much less.

Front to back cooling is more efficient regardless of whether you have an Intel or AMD system. Thermal dynamics don't change simply because there is a different manufacturer. The only time the bottom to top CPU cooler configuration is recommended is if there is a clearance or mounting issue using the standard configuration.

 

[Bacono10]

I have a question about the clean Windows install.

If I do the clean install, and it doesn't fix the problem, is there a way I can revert back to my old Windows setup? or do I have to permanently delete all data?

 

[Darkbreeze]

Did you back up your previous installation by creating a disk image, before you upgraded? If not, I doubt you can go back to your previous version at all. The rollback feature seems to not work on most systems, and ends up resulting in having to do a clean install of the old OS or Windows 10 anyhow. If you don't still have an OEM recovery partition from your old OS or installation media and your old product key, going back is pretty much not going to happen. If you do have any of those things, you can clean install the old OS. If you want to save your previous installation, and didn't back up the image first, then about the only thing you can do is try to rollback, THEN make an image of it, then do a clean install of 10.

Doing a "clean" install entails wiping ALL the existing partitions from the physical disk the OS is to be installed on, and starting fresh with no system, OEM or boot partitions to crap things up.

 

[Britton]

I'm not sure that even makes sense. Fast boot is controlled from the bios on every system I've ever seen or worked on. That isn't even an option on a desktop so I don't see how it's applicable in this situation. For laptops or tablets that option exists but not on desktops, to my knowledge.


And, I've no idea how fast boot would be related to in game performance since it only relates to what is and is not loaded during the boot process. USB initialization and UEFI hardware are the main factors with fast boot. I don't see how it affects GPU performance whatsoever.

I was just trying to offer the OP a solution that didn't involve reinstalling Windows. It doubtful that the guys power supply or hardware is the problem. Especially if it was working fine prior to upgrading to Windows10. I don't know why turning off the "fast boot" option fixed the issue in my case but I can speculate. The options (all 4 of them) are present on both my desktop and laptop. (screen shot from desktop below)



The point of fast startup is to save data about the current state of the system and cache it on the harddrive for faster bootup the next time the system is started. Who's to say MS didn't make a mistake on that feature and the fast startup is saving gpu data that must be reloaded from scratch each time the system is started. Instead the cached data it loads is possibly wrong or contains incorrect values, considering Windows tries to keep the gpu in a low power state all the time when not under load. Windows 10 is still very new so there are bound to be unforeseen bugs in parts of the operating system.

I've given my two cents on this topic and my own issue, which was similar to the OP's, and was resolved by doing what I've stated already. I was simply trying to offer the OP a solution but if my answer seems incorrect or the readers of the thread simply refuse to try it based on their own ideologies then there is nothing more I can say here.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Huh. My applogies then. I wonder why that option is not present on any of my desktops. Only my mobile devices. I'll have to look into that.

It still doesn't logically withstand scrutiny that boot speed would affect GPU performance though. Perhaps there IS something related, but I can't speculate on or imagine what it would be since the two are unrelated. I've seen crazier things, but I think I'd need to see it have a positive outcome on more than one system to feel confident it was somewhow related. If your theory was correct, this would instead be a power issue, and assigning a performance power profile as well as NOT using any Microsoft graphics drivers, and turning off the automatic driver updating, ought to correct that issue and is the preferred configuration for a gaming machine in any case.

It's certainly worth a try, anything is worth a try including sacrificing chickens and waving incense, when nothing else is working. I'd say there's nothing to lose by at least trying your recommendation.

 

[Bacono10]

I finally got around to doing a clean install, but it did not fix the problem.

I guess It's RMA time.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think that would be the next step.

 

[Bacono10]

I don't know if you still follow this thread Darkbreeze, but after finally receiving my new motherboard, I installed it and it seems to have fixed the problem.

Thank you for all the replies and help.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nice. Sorry you had to go through all the trouble, but at least you're in the clear now. Good luck to you Bacono.