Question Poor frame rate but no bottleneck

[rnguyen513]

Hi, about a year ago I broke my motherboard from an electronics project where I accidentally shot voltage backwards and had to switch it out. I put it off for a while, but eventually installed the Gigabyte B250m-DS3H as a replacement since it was cheap and was compatible with my processor.

Pre-accident, my build was capable of running smooth frames at medium to high settings for modern games. Now, after replacement (same components except motherboard is new and only 16 gig ram vs 32 before), I run the same in-game benchmarks and settings to see that I'm only getting 30-40 fps, which is borderline playable. There are absolutely no bottlenecks and I should not be getting this kind of performance, I just can't figure out why. I've made sure that my ram is configured dual-channel, virtualization enabled (if that matters?), bios at default settings, nvidia control panel defaults, drivers updated, all windows security and performance updates, checked integrity of all game files,

The only things left that I can think of are:

1. I was forced to run a pcie riser cable (extension) because my gpu, 1080 founders edition, wouldn't fit onto the motherboard (headers were blocking and slot didn't align with the cutouts on my case) so maybe this is affecting performance but I made sure to get a pcie 3.0 riser which should be the same bandwidth/fidelity as if the gpu were slotted directly, right?
2. System fan headers on motherboard don't work, so no running case fans (only cpu/gpu but I monitored temps and they're ok at like 80C max cuz im running an open case rn)
3. No CMOS battery, every time I've tried to boot with the battery installed then it wouldn't post for some reason

-the computer power cycles 3 times at first boot after power is completely disconnected, is this normal?

PRE-replacement build:

ASUS ROG STRIX B250F GAMING
Intel Core i7-7700
32 gig ram (2 different brand sets of 16 gig)
3 disk total: crucial m.2 SSD 1TB, 2x 1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
EVGA 500W bronze power supply
Windows 10


AFTER:

GIGABYTE B250m-DS3H
Intel Core i7-7700
16 gig ram (gskill)
3 disk: crucial m.2 SSD 1TB, 2x 1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition (but with extension cable)
EVGA 500W bronze power supply
Windows 10

Let me know if there are missing details and please ask clarifying questions, thank you

 

[boju]

Hard to say what else this mishap extended to but;

the computer power cycles 3 times at first boot after power is completely disconnected, is this normal?

No cmos battery would cause that because settings aren't being saved in bios so system has to reconfigure ram and everything else every time it's turned on. Xmp would have to be reconfigured as well. Battery shouldn't prevent system from working unless there's something wrong with it or it's not being put in + side up.

As for changing motherboard vendors, did you install chipset drivers from Gigabyte?

You're not using automatic driver install programs? These programs can cause issues, best not use them and get drivers from manufacturers website.

Reinstall graphics card drivers from Geforce.com.

If Windows hasn't been reinstalled yet this should also be on the cards to try.

 

[rnguyen513]

Thanks for your insight. I've already done a clean install for my graphics drivers but I'll try the chipset ones now.

A full Windows reset would be a last resort, something that I've been putting off because of the sheer size of my drives and the data I'd be losing.

 

[boju]

Then try reset but keep your files. You should also do backups of your data anyway.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Don’t count on windows reset. Go ahead and try it but I doubt it’s going to work.

 

[DSzymborski]

Thanks for your insight. I've already done a clean install for my graphics drivers but I'll try the chipset ones now.

A full Windows reset would be a last resort, something that I've been putting off because of the sheer size of my drives and the data I'd be losing.

Why would you lose data? You don't need to wipe secondary drives (and they should be disconnected while installing Windows on your primary drive) and any important data on your primary drive should be backed up at all times. If it isn't, you have a problem far more pressing than lower fps in games; when you have data that isn't backed up properly, the question is when, not if you'll lose the data forever. Making proper backups is basic PC ownership, no difference than changing the oil in your car or the air filter in your furnace. If this is your problem, this is the first priority.

And a full, fresh install of Windows is the first resort and is always the best practice when making a motherboard change. In this hobby, cutting corners frequently leads to unhappy results.

 

[TerryLaze]

Hi, about a year ago I broke my motherboard from an electronics project where I accidentally shot voltage backwards and had to switch it out.

There are absolutely no bottlenecks and I should not be getting this kind of performance, I just can't figure out why.

This spike could have reach any of the other components...
Did you run a bench on the CPU GPU RAM to see if they perform as expected?!

 

[rnguyen513]

Thank you everyone for your comments and suggestions. I did a fresh install of Windows and installed the new chipset drivers, now everything works OK.