Question Stable FPS drop

[desh09]

Hello everyone,
a few days ago while playing (HITMAN 3) my pc had a massive fps loss, in certain areas the game was unplayable. Then it got back to a kinda acceptable level but remained a constant fps loss in many games.
It happened from one day to another, I already had the latest drivers for 2 weeks, the only thing I don't know is if windows installed updates in that day.

MY PC:
GIGABYTE Z370P D3
i5 8400
GTX 1060 6GB
16GB DDR4 2133mhz
PSU: be queit! System power 7 600W (bought new in 2016)

Here are a few examples, obviously i never changed any graphical setting.

Spider-Man remastered - finished the main story with 0 issues and then it became unplayable in many areas (combat, wide open areas, parks with trees) with fps down to 30 or so
Batman arkham knight - noticed a drop in max and avg fps (never under 60) while running the benchmark, based on my memories
MOTOGP22 - noticed fps loss (below 60) in certain crowded areas
Far cry 5 - noticed a drop in max, avg and min fps, based on saved benchmarks that I have, here is an example:

using msi afterburner i didn't notice any high temperature, gpu around 70 Cand cpu around 60 C. GPU was always 99% usage


Things I tried that but didn't work:

• reinstall older gpu drivers
• reinstall latest gpu drivers
• restore windows to previous point
• reinstall windows option (local installation, keeping personal data)
• reinstall windows option (download from cloud and wipe all drives)
• uninstall gpu drivers with DDU and reinstall

I really don't know what to do at this point, any idea?
Thanks

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

You forgot to mention the make and model of your PSU. Please include the age of the unit as well. Motherboard's make and model? BIOS version for motherboard?

 

[desh09]

updated the post

 

[desh09]

Hello everyone
recently, from one day to another many games on my pc started dropping fps, in general they all lost 10-20 fps and some games also have sudden fps drops below 60.
This started randomly, i didn't touch anything in my pc, I just don't know if windows installed updates that day.


MY PC:
GIGABYTE Z370P D3 (bios version from 2019)
i5 8400
GTX 1060 6GB
16GB DDR4 2133mhz
PSU: be queit! System power 7 600W (bought new in 2016)

I thought it was the gpu but it's running always on 99% on 65-70 C° so doesn't seem the case.
On the other hand I noticed that the cpu is running 10 C° cooler than some weeks ago.

At one point i was playing MOTOGP22 and i could get fps drops rotating the camera, so i opened msi afterburner and noticed that when the fps dropped the cpu frequency went from 3800 down to 800 or less.
Is this normal?
Then i left msi afterburner opened for a bit while i was normally playing MOTOGP22.Here is a screenshot (last part of the graphs was just me on desktop)
Is this a normal behaviour? you can clearly see sudden drops in the CPU frequency

thing i tried that didn't work:

• reinstall older gpu drivers
• reinstall latest gpu drivers
• restore windows to previous point
• reinstall windows option (local installation, keeping personal data)
• reinstall windows option (download from cloud and wipe all drives)
• uninstall gpu drivers with DDU and reinstall

 

[Lutfij]

stick to one thread please

GIGABYTE Z370P D3 (bios version from 2019)
Which BIOS version are you on?

reinstall windows option (download from cloud and wipe all drives)
Cloud?

 

[desh09]

stick to one thread please

GIGABYTE Z370P D3 (bios version from 2019)
Which BIOS version are you on?

reinstall windows option (download from cloud and wipe all drives)
Cloud?

sorry for the thread confusion.
BIOS version is F11

"download from cloud" i used the reinstall option provided by windows, choosing to download windows instead of using the files i already had.
these were the 2 options
https://www.minitool.com/images/upl...tsall/cloud-download-vs-local-reintsall-1.png

 

[Lutfij]

Per your BIOS, you have BIOS updates pending. You've gone that far, why not just create a bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools?

 

[Rdslw]

Per your BIOS, you have BIOS updates pending. You've gone that far, why not just create a bootable USB installer using Windows Media Creation Tools?

I would start with that as it might be some kind of security mitigation, for stuff like meltdown, as they said we might see 15% performance hit in extremes. Windows wipe did not help, because its firmware on cpu, and it was written through Windows update.
I believe you would have to do some wired magic to get it out, and it's not easy to do.

Do bios update first, try setting defaults, or maybe you had memory timings/speed changed by that update.
You can try setting ram higher, as I have a sneaking suspicion that it's not on 2133 anymore. Problem with crowded areas can suggest either CPU or memory issues.
if it's running 1866 that might be it, as I see hitman is very sensitive to memory speeds.

Update your bios and check it for anything suspicious, power limits set, take pics of any settings before you start messing in there.
Maybe reset to defaults or try setting your ram manually, maybe even to 2400 or 2666, (if it won't boot you can always reset bios to defaults again, and your CPU should support 2666 ram, your sticks might work at higher than advertised speeds, make sure to take pics of current settings, and never play with power manually)

 

[desh09]

i updated the BIOS with the latest F15 version and I only changed the XPM setting (disabled / profile 1) to profile 1 like i had before these problems. Never touched any other setting.
My rams are at 2133mhz as always, that's the maximum frequency of this model.

I tried the far cry 5 benchmark and nothing changed
I tried spider-man and the problems described are still present

What else can it be at this point? windows? faulty cpu? faulty rams? PSU issues? a malware able to survive all the previous steps?

EDIT:
I have my 2 ram sticks on slot 2 and 4. I tried using only one on the first slot.
I tried again the far cry 5 benchmark. With the first try nothing changed so I tested the other stick and with this one the fps went back to normal.
But when the benchmark was almost over everything freezed on that image and I couldn't do anything so i shut down the pc.
Tried again the benchmark and the problem reappered, while before the freeze it was all ok.

can a freeze damage the ram stick? are my ram slots damaged? the motherboard?
or still a greater problem from the cpu or psu?

i ran the windows memory diagnostics and 0 problems were found, however I don't really know how reliable this is

 

[desh09]

any idea?
I bought new rams and the problem seemed gone, but after a few days i noticed that it was still present.


It seems that the first time in the day I start up my pc everything is ok
after some hours (gaming) the problem comes back

 

[Wayfall]

What your usages?

Is your CPU boosting up from 2.8 to the 4.0GHZ?

I would guess its the low speed per core if the boost isn't kicking in.

If your getting low GPU usage it could be getting bottlenecked by the CPU, RAM, Storage or game engine.

 

[desh09]

yes my cpu is boosting to 3800-3900 mhz, sometimes there are some drops for a split second, maybe caused by what happens in the game
my gpu is always 99%

in the far cry 5 benchmark:
gpu usage = 99%
gpu core frequency = 1873mhz
gpu power % = 75-85%
gpu watts = 85-105
cpu usage = from 50 to 80%
cpu frequency = 3811mhz
cpu watts = 30

 

[desh09]

i also tried a different psu, nothing...
so what could it be? the power strip? the motherboard? can the motherboard give such problems?