Why are my frames dropping?

[SpookyJohnRambo]

Alright, so I've had this issue for a while where my frames are dropping below where they should be. I know that they should be higher because my friend has almost the exact same build as I do, except his GPU is slightly worse. I've tried cleaning my PC, checking temps and performance rates, deleting and clearing unwanted files (like .tmp's). I don't really know what else to do. If anybody can help please let me know what I may be able to do.

EVGA GTX 970 OC
Intel I5 4690K
MSI H97 PC Mate Military Class IV
16GB DDR4 RAM

 

[FabioXN7]

Okay.. you tried one of those things you said but you didn't post the results.

1 - What are your temps exactly when gaming ? CPU and GPU
2 - Have you tried DDU to a complete uninstall of your graphics card driver? If you didn't tried that, please do. And install the Graphics Card driver through Gforce Experience.
3 - What is your Disk usage while gaming? You can see that in Windows Task Manager.
4 - Have you messed anything in NVIDIAs control panel? Try restoring to default settings and see if it works, I had same spec in past and could run most everything.
5 - Also where is this drop happening? Any game you play? Examples?

 

[SpookyJohnRambo]

Okay.. you tried one of those things you said but you didn't post the results.

1 - What are your temps exactly when gaming ? CPU and GPU
2 - Have you tried DDU to a complete uninstall of your graphics card driver? If you didn't tried that, please do. And install the Graphics Card driver through Gforce Experience.
3 - What is your Disk usage while gaming? You can see that in Windows Task Manager.
4 - Have you messed anything in NVIDIAs control panel? Try restoring to default settings and see if it works, I had same spec in past and could run most everything.
5 - Also where is this drop happening? Any game you play? Examples?

1. My temps for both my processor and GPU hang around 60C, although my processor can fluxuate between 50C and 60C.
2. I didn't try uninstalling my display driver, so I did so and I reinstalled the latest driver version from GeForce Experience and nothing has changed.
3. I checked my disk usage and it is staying at a constant 5% usage.
4. I did mess with stuff in the NVIDIA control panel, but it was just with things like gamma and brightness.
5. These drops are happening whenever "things are happening." I put this in quotations because if something happens, like an explosion, I might get frame drops. If there are enough people shooting or just running around, I'll slowly see my frames go from 70 or 60 to around 48 or below. The games I generally have seen this on are Planetside 2 and BF1. Some games like R6 Siege I can run on max settings without lag.

So far none of these have helped out. Is there anything else I could try?

 

[FabioXN7]

Ok so I've noticed something here "The games I generally have seen this on are Planetside 2 and BF1. Some games like R6 Siege I can run on max settings without lag." So that differs a little from the question asked initially in this thread.. If I got it right, you are only facing drops in some games but others you run maxed out? I thought you were facing this in every game.

Now regarding the results -

1 - BF1 I can relate myself I have similar specs I5 4690K but a GTX 1080 and I still get frame drops... actually there's nothing much you can do about BF1. Unfortunately the game is heavy on CPU for real.. I get almost 100% of CPU usage all the time, and everytime a explosion happens or there's too much stuff going on around It just drops from like 80 to 50 or 112 to 60 and so on... it seems that since the new DICE's updates have messed the game performance way too much for me and so for the others.. have seem a lot of people complaining about the game performance lately with high CPU usage and FPS Drop issues in most of the maps, I know we shouldn't be having such issues with these specs but it's a game problem not hardware..

You can do this if you feel like it --

1 - Open Windows notepad.
2 - Type RenderDevice.RenderAheadLimit 2
3 - Close and Save the file with the name "user.cfg"
4 - Paste the file in "C:\YourUser\Origin\Games\Battlefield 1

This basically decreases a little the High CPU Usage ingame, it worked for me.. you should try and tell me how it goes. Everytime you start the game it will automatically load this cfg. file, if you don't want to use it anymore just delete it.

As for PlanetSide 2 I can't really help since I don't play it... but both are games with very Big Maps, Intensive Battles with lots of players and so many things going around.

There are any other games that you might be facing these issues?

 

[SpookyJohnRambo]

Ok so I've noticed something here "The games I generally have seen this on are Planetside 2 and BF1. Some games like R6 Siege I can run on max settings without lag." So that differs a little from the question asked initially in this thread.. If I got it right, you are only facing drops in some games but others you run maxed out? I thought you were facing this in every game.

Now regarding the results -

1 - BF1 I can relate myself I have similar specs I5 4690K but a GTX 1080 and I still get frame drops... actually there's nothing much you can do about BF1. Unfortunately the game is heavy on CPU for real.. I get almost 100% of CPU usage all the time, and everytime a explosion happens or there's too much stuff going on around It just drops from like 80 to 50 or 112 to 60 and so on... it seems that since the new DICE's updates have messed the game performance way too much for me and so for the others.. have seem a lot of people complaining about the game performance lately with high CPU usage and FPS Drop issues in most of the maps, I know we shouldn't be having such issues with these specs but it's a game problem not hardware..

You can do this if you feel like it --

1 - Open Windows notepad.
2 - Type RenderDevice.RenderAheadLimit 2
3 - Close and Save the file with the name "user.cfg"
4 - Paste the file in "C:\YourUser\Origin\Games\Battlefield 1

This basically decreases a little the High CPU Usage ingame, it worked for me.. you should try and tell me how it goes. Everytime you start the game it will automatically load this cfg. file, if you don't want to use it anymore just delete it.

As for PlanetSide 2 I can't really help since I don't play it... but both are games with very Big Maps, Intensive Battles with lots of players and so many things going around.

There are any other games that you might be facing these issues?

I think that makes me feel better about my situation. I was just curious since my friend (as I stated before) has had his computer with similar specs for longer than I have, but he gets better frames on higher setting than I do. I'm guessing it could be that he overclocks his GPU and he has an SSD. Would you think that the overclocking and SSD contributes?

 

[FabioXN7]

The overclock he did on his GPU could be the cause since it forces the GPU to work at higher clocks / rates hence it causes the performance to boost depending on which game... as for SSD it won't have any impact on peformance regarding FPS, many confuse this. A SSD will make your game and applications to load faster, for example a game that takes 2 to 3 minutes to load on a normal HD will only take 30 seconds on a SSD as persay (keep in mind that this is just an example, the time may vary from game to game ok?) but as for FPS it won't do such a thing.. you won't get 10+ fps just because you've replaced your HD with a SSD if the rest of your computer can't keep up with the game. The SSD will contribute on how the game access the HD files or write files in disk at higher speed rates. Also what FPS does your friend gets on these games? What comparison can you make like what's difference between your fps and his? 5+ fps ? 10+ fps? Would you please post those?

 

[SpookyJohnRambo]

The overclock he did on his GPU could be the cause since it forces the GPU to work at higher clocks / rates hence it causes the performance to boost depending on which game... as for SSD it won't have any impact on peformance regarding FPS, many confuse this. A SSD will make your game and applications to load faster, for example a game that takes 2 to 3 minutes to load on a normal HD will only take 30 seconds on a SSD as persay (keep in mind that this is just an example, the time may vary from game to game ok?) but as for FPS it won't do such a thing.. you won't get 10+ fps just because you've replaced your HD with a SSD if the rest of your computer can't keep up with the game. The SSD will contribute on how the game access the HD files or write files in disk at higher speed rates. Also what FPS does your friend gets on these games? What comparison can you make like what's difference between your fps and his? 5+ fps ? 10+ fps? Would you please post those?

My friend can get a solid 60 on BF1 without any drops (except maybe hitting 58 or 59). As for Planetside 2, he can get between 60-80 frames on max settings. There are also a few other games where he can get higher frames than me like Squad, or Escape From Tarkov, but his tend to not be consistent so I'm not gonna worry about those.

Also, I just realized I don't have DDR4 RAM. I have 16GB of DDR3. From what I read, that might make a difference.

 

[FabioXN7]

I also have 16 GB DDR3 and haven't faced any problems due memory ram being slower or anything like that.. most of the games I run like PUBG, GTA V, Warframe, The Division etc run without any problems, except for BF1 with drops here and then.. but I'm pretty sure in case of BF1 it's something game related and not hardware have you seem lately how many people are posting similar problems with BF1 here on Toms Hardware? You would be surprised. Also some BF1 servers that I've noticed tend to run with worse performance than the others, don't ask me why... but why it happens in some and not in others at least for me? I'm not sure where are you from but I mostly play at South America servers or DICE Official US servers and they usually run with good performance most of the time.

 

[SpookyJohnRambo]

I also have 16 GB DDR3 and haven't faced any problems due memory ram being slower or anything like that.. most of the games I run like PUBG, GTA V, Warframe, The Division etc run without any problems, except for BF1 with drops here and then.. but I'm pretty sure in case of BF1 it's something game related and not hardware have you seem lately how many people are posting similar problems with BF1 here on Toms Hardware? You would be surprised. Also some BF1 servers that I've noticed tend to run with worse performance than the others, don't ask me why... but why it happens in some and not in others at least for me? I'm not sure where are you from but I mostly play at South America servers or DICE Official US servers and they usually run with good performance most of the time.

I always play on US servers, but now that I see all the problems BF1 has I guess it's not me.

I've also been thinking about upgrading my PC since I think I may be doing some video editing in the future. Hopefully getting a new processor and potentially a motherboard would help my PC as well.

 

[FabioXN7]

A new CPU like I7 would definetely boost your performance in BF1, the game doesn't seem to like I5s at all cause of high CPU usage ingame, but yeah suit yourself Also did you tried the temporary fix I mentioned above?