Question RTX 3070 Upgrade Causing FPS Drops

[DarkWolf985]

Good evening everyone,

I have just recently got my hands on a Founder's Edition RTX 3070 and upgrading to it (from a GTX 1070 OC) has actually caused my games to run at a signficantly lower FPS. Due to my monitor's 75Hz, and most games I play being on the mid-2010s area, I tend to lock them to 60FPS. Thus, when playing Madden 21 and Sims 4 I immediately noticed a significant lag in frames. The GPU consumption seems to hover around 5% while playing Sims, for example. Temperatures are low, 25-35C when idling, and never anywhere near the limits while gaming. The CPU sits at a 22C idling and seems to have a regular consumption 50%+ while playing that same game. At the beginning of the Sims 4 playrun, it is playing smoothly, but, around 10 seconds in, it just starts to really slow down and screen tear a bit. Sometimes it does the regular 44-58% usage while on Madden, but the FPS still spike up and down below 60 noticeably.

I used DDU on safe mode to uninstall previous drivers and re-installed the drivers from NVIDIA's website as I installed the GPU. I have tweaked the NVIDIA control panel monitor options from the HD 1920 to the PC 1920 options back and forth to see if it changed anything. I matched the refresh rate to 75Hz and then back to 60Hz. Nothing came of any of that. Could anyone lend a hand? Here is a screenshot of the CPUID read (I have noticed that the Memory Max/Min/Value change entire decimal places and don't match the specifications of the card) and GPU-Z data. Also, here is a link from UserBenchmark of the PC.

Specs: i7-6700 (3.4Ghz)
NVIDIA RTX 3070
ASUS H170-PRO MOBO
ASUS ROG Strix 850w PSU
16GB 2400Mhz RAM
2TB HDD, 1TB HDD, and 120GB SSD

Appreciate any help, thank you for your time.

 

[Phaaze88]

Probably hard cpu limited here - assuming you have dual channel ram. At just 1080p 60, you could've kept running with the 1070 for another year or 2.
That card is the equivalent of a 2080Ti, and I know that one's overkill for 1080p.

 

[HWOC]

Hmmm, interesting issue. I also have an RTX 3070 (Gainward Phantom) with an even older CPU, a Core i7-4770k running at 4.29GHz. I've had no framerate issues, and even though my CPU is probably a sliver faster than yours because of the higher clocks, I doubt yours would be a significant bottleneck. I am also running mine at 60 fps, with vertical sync enabled on my 60hz screen.
Have you installed MSI Afterburner? The reason I ask because that or similar software (like Gainward's EXPERTool) can be used to check how the GPU is running in terms of actual clocks, fan speeds, power limit etc. You didn't specify what kind of PSU you have?
It sounds to me that the card isn't running as it should, we just need to identify why, could be a power issue.

 

[InfurnoHD]

Probably hard cpu limited here - assuming you have dual channel ram. At just 1080p 60, you could've kept running with the 1070 for another year or 2.
That card is the equivalent of a 2080Ti, and I know that one's overkill for 1080p.

I object... There are plenty new games that, if maxed out, struggle to meet 60 fps on even a 1070 at 1080p. The new call of duty games, metro exodus, deus ex and even forza. And not to mention raytracing if you are into that stuff which the older cards dont support.

 

[Fiorezy]

That card is the equivalent of a 2080Ti, and I know that one's overkill for 1080p.

No it is not overkill for 1080p.

OP, would you please try to render your games at 1440p or 4K using Nvidia DSR and report back? Your CPU could be struggling to keep up with the 3070 at 1080p. Also, are you using 2 separate power cables or daisy chain for connecting the GPU to the PSU?

 

[7medd]

Probably hard cpu limited here - assuming you have dual channel ram. At just 1080p 60, you could've kept running with the 1070 for another year or 2.
That card is the equivalent of a 2080Ti, and I know that one's overkill for 1080p.

My 3070 + 10600k run cyberpunk at 70 FPS all maxed out at 1080p.. It cant be overkill for this resolution, and games will be more demanding so it might fall short soon

 

[HWOC]

I play Cyberpunk with the 3070 and i7-4770k at triple monitor 5760 x 1080p. Close to maxed out, get 60+ fps indoors and 40'ish while driving. Comfortably playable for me.

Point being, that the 3070 is still a great card even with a fairly crappy CPU, unless you're trying to hit very high framerates at 1080p for competitive gaming etc.

 

[Skaikruu]

Do you have Dragon Center? If so, please try this. Set everything as shown.

https://ibb.co/VVJTQ46

 

[Phaaze88]

The OP has a 1080p 75hz monitor, which likely doesn't have any kind of adaptive refresh rate, so if they're not applying V-sync, it probably tears like mad.
Plus, the Sims 4 and Madden 21 are not new. Sims 4 is just over 6 years old, and Madden 21 is a recycle that's just as old - they just updated the rosters and not much else.
They didn't mention any new titles, which doesn't help here.
@Fiorezy @7medd
Way to cut off the 60 part of my post, as if it didn't matter, because I agree that the card isn't overkill for 1080p, but the refresh, and whether or not adaptive refresh is present, does matter.


I'll just sit back and watch everyone else fix it.

 

[DarkWolf985]

Hmmm, interesting issue. I also have an RTX 3070 (Gainward Phantom) with an even older CPU, a Core i7-4770k running at 4.29GHz. I've had no framerate issues, and even though my CPU is probably a sliver faster than yours because of the higher clocks, I doubt yours would be a significant bottleneck. I am also running mine at 60 fps, with vertical sync enabled on my 60hz screen.
Have you installed MSI Afterburner? The reason I ask because that or similar software (like Gainward's EXPERTool) can be used to check how the GPU is running in terms of actual clocks, fan speeds, power limit etc. You didn't specify what kind of PSU you have?
It sounds to me that the card isn't running as it should, we just need to identify why, could be a power issue.

Thank you for the answer. My PSU should be in the original post, it is a 850w ASUS ROG Strix. It was upgraded rather recently, and it never caused issues with the old GPU. Here is the Afterburner screen, I even ran the Heaven benchmark and could see, on GPU-Z that the boost clock, power draw, and usage seemed to be using the card's capabilities well. I tested it with Watch_Dogs 2 and saw it perform just fine. When it came to some specific games, however, GPU-Z showed that performance was limited because the card considered itself "idle", even in a game as graphically demanding as Ultra-settings Frostbite engine on Madden 21 (which were the same settings I could run on the 1070 OC), hence my confusion. I'm thinking that maybe the card isn't being used or detected by some of the games?

No it is not overkill for 1080p.

OP, would you please try to render your games at 1440p or 4K using Nvidia DSR and report back? Your CPU could be struggling to keep up with the 3070 at 1080p. Also, are you using 2 separate power cables or daisy chain for connecting the GPU to the PSU?

Thank you for taking the time. I am using one single PCI-E straight from the PSU that is connected to NVIDIA's provided adapter from the 12-pin thing to the 6+2/8-pin standard power cable. I can report that the DSR seems to have made it a bit better, but it hasn't brought the performance up to what it was with the older GPU (at the exact same graphics settings). It seems to struggle a bit more rendering at fullscreen than windowed mode, for some reason. Here (Bottom pic) is a picture of what sensors and all were saying while playtesting. I have even tried using the settings of the game to lock it to 60 FPS, but it still has a lot of screen lag and seems to be rendering at 30 FPS or below. My big thing is that if all the graphics settigns are the same, and the GPU is just better hardware, I see no reason why the CPU would be struggling now, especially when it's upgraded with a better air cooler that keeps it idling at 22C. But, obviously, I'm no expert.

 

[HWOC]

@DarkWolf985, that is very strange. In your screenshot your clocks are what one would expect, but the temp of the GPU is only 32 degrees, as if it was almost idling. When I play games with my RTX 3070 my temps are at least 60, with a triple fan cooler on the GPU and at least above average case cooling (2 x 120mm Noctua NF-P12 front intake, 1 x 140mm Noctua NF-P14 bottom intake, 1 x Noctua NF-A12x25 exhaust). This requires further meditation and possibly sacrifice to the GPU gods....

 

[Fiorezy]

Thank you for taking the time. I am using one single PCI-E straight from the PSU that is connected to NVIDIA's provided adapter from the 12-pin thing to the 6+2/8-pin standard power cable. I can report that the DSR seems to have made it a bit better, but it hasn't brought the performance up to what it was with the older GPU (at the exact same graphics settings). It seems to struggle a bit more rendering at fullscreen than windowed mode, for some reason. Here (Bottom pic) is a picture of what sensors and all were saying while playtesting. I have even tried using the settings of the game to lock it to 60 FPS, but it still has a lot of screen lag and seems to be rendering at 30 FPS or below. My big thing is that if all the graphics settigns are the same, and the GPU is just better hardware, I see no reason why the CPU would be struggling now, especially when it's upgraded with a better air cooler that keeps it idling at 22C. But, obviously, I'm no expert.

Please use 2 PCI-E cables coming from the PSU and plug them without the adapter, also make sure that the monitor is plugged into the GPU and not the motherboard.

Btw, use RTSS to monitor your hardware in real-time

 

[HWOC]

Please use 2 PCI-E cables coming from the PSU and plug them without the adapter, also make sure that the monitor is plugged into the GPU and not the motherboard.

Btw, use RTSS to monitor your hardware in real-time

It's a Founder's Edition card, he has to use the adapter and a single 8-pin connector. From Tomshardware review of it: "The RTX 3070 Founder Edition also uses Nvidia's new 12-pin power connector, but this time, instead of a y-combiner that takes dual 8-pin PEG connectors, it's just a single 8-pin port that's converted to a 12-pin port. "