Poor Performance In Borderlands the Pre Sequel, What Gives?

[Schwartzinator]

The first game ran flawlessly on even my MacBook and aside from a few hitches so did the second. But this game, ohh boy do I have problems. There shouldn't be any reason for my computer to suffer extreme slow downs to the low 30s during combat and a wildly fluctuating range at the top end even when staring at a wall. Something is seriously wrong with this game on my desktop as it seems to run relatively well on my Razer Blade (970M 6GB).
I've tried:
- Changing resolutions
- Windowed mode
- Placing settings on low
- Preference for maximum performance in Nvidia control panel
- Dedicating GPU 2 to PhysX
- Removing overclock
- Verifying game cache
- Reinstalling game
Any thoughts on what else to try?

 

[17seconds]

What are your PC specs? I'm going to make a wild guess that you're running an AMD processor?

 

[Schwartzinator]

What are your PC specs? I'm going to make a wild guess that you're running an AMD processor?

It's listed in the linked CPUZ signature: i7 5960X at 4.0GHz, 32GB Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400, and Titan XP SLI.

 

[Carnaxus]

So many Titan Xp SLI users here...I feel insignificant with my single 980Ti.

The CPU-Z listing appears to have missed your PSU. I sincerely doubt you cheaped out on the PSU after getting two Titans, but it never hurts to have more information.

 

[17seconds]

I doubt it will make a difference for you, but I was able to smooth out those intense battle scenes by putting a little overclock on my processor. I think that those scenes with a lot of PhysX debris, particularly outdoors and in vehicles are just very demanding, even for a top of the line system.

 

[Schwartzinator]

So many Titan Xp SLI users here...I feel insignificant with my single 980Ti.

The CPU-Z listing appears to have missed your PSU. I sincerely doubt you cheaped out on the PSU after getting two Titans, but it never hurts to have more information.

I "cheaped out" and went with Corsair HX 1200i over the AX. Plenty of headroom left there. Thermals also arent an issue as nothing exceeds 50c during gaming.

 

[Schwartzinator]

I doubt it will make a difference for you, but I was able to smooth out those intense battle scenes by putting a little overclock on my processor. I think that those scenes with a lot of PhysX debris, particularly outdoors and in vehicles are just very demanding, even for a top of the line system.

That's actually a great suggestion. However, even with the second card dedicated to PhysX I still experience heavy drops during combat.

 

[Carnaxus]

Yep, just as I expected, you didn't cheap out at all. 80+ Platinum 1200W, that definitely isn't the issue here.

It probably is what 17seconds said. Try OC'ing your CPU a bit if you haven't already, and see if that helps.

 

[Schwartzinator]

Yep, just as I expected, you didn't cheap out at all. 80+ Platinum 1200W, that definitely isn't the issue here.

It probably is what 17seconds said. Try OC'ing your CPU a bit if you haven't already, and see if that helps.

I've boosted clocks to 4.5GHz, but the issue persists. I'm stumped on this.

 

[Carnaxus]

This is gonna sound odd, but try removing the SLI bridge. Some games actually have so much trouble understanding how2SLI that they run worse with the bridge in place than they do without.

 

[Schwartzinator]

This is gonna sound odd, but try removing the SLI bridge. Some games actually have so much trouble understanding how2SLI that they run worse with the bridge in place than they do without.

Now this provided an interesting new piece of information. At 1440p without the bridge in place, I still experience erratic frame rates between 30fps and 165, but when run at 5k through DSR the frame rate is a completely stable 60fps. Something that did not occur before. Perhaps it is then a CPU limitation as higher frame rates require additional processing power.

 

[Carnaxus]

I'm actually starting to wonder if maybe Win10 Pro is a tiny bit of a bottleneck; I started out with Home, but upgraded to Pro while doing some networking classes so I could run HyperV at home; ever since then, some of my more demanding games have seemed slightly slower.

 

[Schwartzinator]

Could be, my Partner's machine runs 8.1 Pro and my Blade has 10 home and there's little hiccups to report there. I have a copy of Windos 7 Ultimate, but I don't really want to go through the hassle of reinstalling the OS and all of my programs. Don't like Borderlands enough for that headache.