Question RTX 3070 Ti performance under 75% and keeps dropping to 0% and causing freezes

[OutOui]

Hello, I recently build my first pc and have had trouble with my graphics card underperforming at 60-70% and randomly dropping to 0%, freezing my games. I've updated every chipset driver, tried different Nvidia drivers, tried changing in-game and Nvidia settings, etc., to no avail. Could someone help me troubleshoot the issue?

Specs:
Zotac Trinity RTX 3070 Ti
i7 12700KF
32gb 3600MHz DDR4 Corsair Vengeance (XMP enabled)
Corsair PSU 850W 80+ gold
be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 CPU cooler
1TB SSD NVMe
1440p 144Hz monitor

 

[Nine Layer Nige]

Specs look good but can you run UserBenchMark and post link to results like in my sig. Then we can see how it's performing.

 

[OutOui]

Specs look good but can you run UserBenchMark and post link to results like in my sig. Then we can see how it's performing.

UserBenchmarks: Game 202%, Desk 118%, Work 227%
CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF - 117.9%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3070-Ti - 173.7%
SSD: WD Blue SN570 1TB - 301.4%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 118.1%
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3600 C18 2x16GB - 125.9%
MBD: MSI PRO Z690-A DDR4

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/52038044

 

[Nine Layer Nige]

UserBenchMark does not show anything of concern of your main performance components, but if your games are stored on the old HDD or something else is accessing the HDD occasionally, that could be a problem.

 

[KyaraM]

Hmmm, that system is almost the exact same I got, except I got the SN850 SSD, non-F processor, different GPU brand, and different PSU, lol.

Speaking of, which Corsair PSU is that? Model and condition *new, used, refurbished, etc). Do I understand it correctly that the HDD is model 2018, not bought 2018?

 

[OutOui]

UserBenchMark does not show anything of concern of your main performance components, but if your games are stored on the old HDD or something else is accessing the HDD occasionally, that could be a problem.

I'm not using the HDD yet, I have everything installed on my SSD. Could that affect performance? It's brand new.
However, I have noticed that my GPU isn't receiving a lot of watts (around 80W) and my power consumption while playing at max performance is around 25%, is that what's causing problems? If so, could you please redirect me to some tutorial on how to fix it? Thanks

 

[OutOui]

Hmmm, that system is almost the exact same I got, except I got the SN850 SSD, non-F processor, different GPU brand, and different PSU, lol.

Speaking of, which Corsair PSU is that? Model and condition *new, used, refurbished, etc). Do I understand it correctly that the HDD is model 2018, not bought 2018?

Corsair RMx Series RM850x 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular (brand new)
I bought the HDD a month ago, brand new. I don't think it's causing any problems since I don't have anything in it yet

 

[dotas1]

Corsair RMx Series RM850x 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular (brand new)
I bought the HDD a month ago, brand new. I don't think it's causing any problems since I don't have anything in it yet

Restart your PC, let it idle for 5 mins and then with everything else closed, run thee userbenchmark again.
Your 94% background CPU usage is VERY high and unless you were doing something VERY CPU heavy, you need to scan your system for malware.

 

[OutOui]

Restart your PC, let it idle for 5 mins and then with everything else closed, run thee userbenchmark again.
Your 94% background CPU usage is VERY high and unless you were doing something VERY CPU heavy, you need to scan your system for malware.

I'm confused. I think you misread it, doesn't it say the background CPU is at 1%? And that it's being throttled by windows at 94%?

 

[dotas1]

I'm confused. I think you misread it, doesn't it say the background CPU is at 1%? And that it's being throttled by windows at 94%?

You are correct, I misread.

Did you enable the settings suggested by the userbenchmark?

Are you able to try a different GPU to your system or your GPU in another system to see if it is the issue?

 

[OutOui]

You are correct, I misread.

Did you enable the settings suggested by the userbenchmark?

Are you able to try a different GPU to your system or your GPU in another system to see if it is the issue?

I did, nothing seemed to change. The CPU usage is always under 15% so I'm guessing the throttling isn't the problem. My components aren't getting enough power (a RTX 3070 Ti getting 80W is kind of sketchy) and I don't know whether it's a software or hardware problem. At this point I'm clueless

 

[KyaraM]

Corsair RMx Series RM850x 850W 80 Plus Gold Modular (brand new)
I bought the HDD a month ago, brand new. I don't think it's causing any problems since I don't have anything in it yet

Hmmm. Kinda as I thought. Do you have a way to test the PSU, eg in a different system? It's generally a reliable one, but that doesn't mean that there cannot be any "Monday products".

About the UserBenchmark tests, no, throttling at 94% isn't the issue, my 12700K is also getting throttled by Windows at around that point, no idea why. Getting slightly higher scores than you, about 118.5-119% which should be inside the normal quality variance. However, you are correct that 80W is very unlikely for that GPU. I undervolted mine and it still clocks in at around 230W usage, though with slight OC. Still, 80W is so far below that, that it cannot be normal. Did you check your Windows power plan settings? Sometimes, deep diving there might reveal some weird setting that might cause power issues. Or, again, it's the PSU not delivering for some reason... I would check those two things.

 

[OutOui]

Hmmm. Kinda as I thought. Do you have a way to test the PSU, eg in a different system? It's generally a reliable one, but that doesn't mean that there cannot be any "Monday products".

About the UserBenchmark tests, no, throttling at 94% isn't the issue, my 12700K is also getting throttled by Windows at around that point, no idea why. Getting slightly higher scores than you, about 118.5-119% which should be inside the normal quality variance. However, you are correct that 80W is very unlikely for that GPU. I undervolted mine and it still clocks in at around 230W usage, though with slight OC. Still, 80W is so far below that, that it cannot be normal. Did you check your Windows power plan settings? Sometimes, deep diving there might reveal some weird setting that might cause power issues. Or, again, it's the PSU not delivering for some reason... I would check those two things.

I cannot test the PSU, I might have to hire a professional to take a look at the pc and see what's wrong.

The windows power settings is set to maximum performance, I changed it from the default when troubleshooting, nothing changed. It's very weird. I genuinely don't understand why my power supply is being capped at 30-35% considering it's only giving my GPU 80W

 

[dotas1]

I cannot test the PSU, I might have to hire a professional to take a look at the pc and see what's wrong.

The windows power settings is set to maximum performance, I changed it from the default when troubleshooting, nothing changed. It's very weird. I genuinely don't understand why my power supply is being capped at 30-35% considering it's only giving my GPU 80W

It's not deciding to give less power, the GPU asks for less. That is where the problem lies. Why does the GPU asks for less? Maybe a bad driver installation, maybe windows, maybe the CPU, GPU, RAM, motherboard is faulty.

You need to start troubleshooting hardware like I said in my previous post, your GPU in another system or another GPU in yours.

After that with 1 stick of ram or both in the other slots, scanning with memtest and see if any errors appear. None should.

Can you also try a clean windows installation with just the SSD connected to the system?

 

[GhostSensei]

Hello, I have exactly the same problem I tried everything, clean windows installation, I updated my chipset driver and tried older driver but nothing works, I think I'm just going to return my graphics card to Nvidia hoping that the problem comes from the card so that they send me another one.

Here are my specs:
rtx 3070ti FE
Z690 rog strix gaming a pro d4
i7 12700k
2x8gb of ram 2666mhz
aorus PW750 80+ gold
nzxt X73 cooler
Samsung 980 1tb
samsung 850 250gb ( Windows 11 )
1440p 170hz monitor ( M27Q )

 

[Phaaze88]

@OutOui
Hi.
What do cpu and graphics scores and charts look like after you run 3D Mark Timespy? Imgur.com is friend.

That 'throttling' reminds me of this: https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/cpu-throttling.3752565/post-22628023

 

[OutOui]

Hmmm. Kinda as I thought. Do you have a way to test the PSU, eg in a different system? It's generally a reliable one, but that doesn't mean that there cannot be any "Monday products".

About the UserBenchmark tests, no, throttling at 94% isn't the issue, my 12700K is also getting throttled by Windows at around that point, no idea why. Getting slightly higher scores than you, about 118.5-119% which should be inside the normal quality variance. However, you are correct that 80W is very unlikely for that GPU. I undervolted mine and it still clocks in at around 230W usage, though with slight OC. Still, 80W is so far below that, that it cannot be normal. Did you check your Windows power plan settings? Sometimes, deep diving there might reveal some weird setting that might cause power issues. Or, again, it's the PSU not delivering for some reason... I would check those two things.

I've done pretty much all troubleshooting I could (except for the PSU) and I can't seem to find the issue