Question Will upgrading a graphics card with more memory alleviate GPU bound games?

[Deleted member 2783327]

My son has a fairly new MSI GTX 1660 Ti 6G OC Gaming X
He plays Runescape, generally 2 clients at a time, and likes to watch you tube and/or twitch, browse facebook and talk on discord all at the same time on a system with an I5-8600K and 16GB DDR4-3200 CL16. He has a 750W PSU and 2x32" 2K monitors connected via HDMI. he also watches netflix and other content from our server.

Over the last month or so things have gotten pretty bad. The GPU is hammering at 100% with fans going full blast. His CPU averages 60%-90% and memory @ about 50%. The system is so noisy I can hear it from downstairs.

I can't seem to get it across to him that while his system was high end when it was new, games and technology have surpassed it. He would rather just blame my turning off privacy settings as the cause to all his issues. Just to get some piece and quiet I'm tempted to just go and buy a bigger graphics card.

So, what I really want to know is;, will a card with 25% more VRAM and a faster overall performance reduce the GPU load, noise and CPU load?

Tech here has increased by 20%-30% over the last 4 weeks. So a decent RTX 2060S is going to set me back about A$800. For comparison, US prices seem to be about $450 - $550 USD.

Will the extra performance and VRAM make much of a difference? The system seems to be totally GPU bound at present. The research I've done suggests that a CPU upgrade would be pointless.

EDIT: I should add that the Runescape client is what is overloading the GPU @ 100%. Stop running Runescape and everything is fine. But he's been playing that since it was released in 2001 and I suspect, when his time comes he'll still be playing it

The result is that video stutters and discord audio breaks up. Browsing is also slower (He uses FireFox ESR)

 

[rgd1101]

what the cpu/gpu temp during the game?
malware scan the system?

 

[Iniaskle]

My son has a fairly new MSI GTX 1660 Ti 6G OC Gaming X
He plays Runescape, generally 2 clients at a time, and likes to watch you tube and/or twitch, browse facebook and talk on discord all at the same time on a system with an I5-8600K and 16GB DDR4-3200 CL16. He has a 750W PSU and 2x32" 2K monitors connected via HDMI. he also watches netflix and other content from our server.

Over the last month or so things have gotten pretty bad. The GPU is hammering at 100% with fans going full blast. His CPU averages 60%-90% and memory @ about 50%. The system is so noisy I can hear it from downstairs.

I can't seem to get it across to him that while his system was high end when it was new, games and technology have surpassed it. He would rather just blame my turning off privacy settings as the cause to all his issues. Just to get some piece and quiet I'm tempted to just go and buy a bigger graphics card.

So, what I really want to know is;, will a card with 25% more VRAM and a faster overall performance reduce the GPU load, noise and CPU load?

Tech here has increased by 20%-30% over the last 4 weeks. So a decent RTX 2060S is going to set me back about A$800. For comparison, US prices seem to be about $450 - $550 USD.

Will the extra performance and VRAM make much of a difference? The system seems to be totally GPU bound at present. The research I've done suggests that a CPU upgrade would be pointless.

EDIT: I should add that the Runescape client is what is overloading the GPU @ 100%. Stop running Runescape and everything is fine. But he's been playing that since it was released in 2001 and I suspect, when his time comes he'll still be playing it

The result is that video stutters and discord audio breaks up. Browsing is also slower (He uses FireFox ESR)

To be honest, I think that most games can run with 6GB VRAM. The thing is that how higher the graphics settings in a game, the more VRAM it needs, some games show how much it is using. So what you can try if you haven't try that yet is locking the FPS to his monitor's resolution. This will make it so that his GPU does not have to do that much work, you say that the GPU Usage is at 100% in runescape and that's probably because the FPS is unlocked and gets an insanely high ammount because the game is so old. Locking the FPS will decrease the temps of the GPU by a huge amount so your GPU does not have to cool that much anymore. I would give it a shot, I always do this in non competitive games. And also 800 dollars for an RTX 2060S is way too much. With those 800 dollars you would be able to pick an RTX 2080, I would not do that if I was you.

 

[Gzr]

... and 2x32" 2K monitors connected via HDMI...

There's your problem.

Is he running all the aforementioned, all the time across those two monitors?

By the way, more vram doesn't necessarily equal better overall performance, at least with everything else being equal. Vram's used to "store" textures. The more you have available, the higher res textures you can "store" and load. Still, you could have 24 gigs of vram on a 580, it's still going to get choked by the clocks.

In any case, if by 2k you mean 1440p, the 1660ti is just ok on that front. Nothing spectacular. Still, if he's only running runescape, I doubt that's the problem. I'm going to take a guess and say he's running everything at once and the system's starved for resources and that's certainly not something you can solve with a 2060 or any other gpu, really.

Another thing. Whatever game you might be running, GPU usage at 100% is normal. Desirable, even. Unless it's a way older game that's REALLY light on the GPU, if you're not seeing 100% gpu usage you've probably ran into a bottleneck.

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

@Iniaskle Runsecape may have been around for a long time but it is not "old". The game is actively developed. The original version, which ran on Java, is still around and is called Old School Runescape. The game is current, and is regularly patched. It's like World of Warcraft as a comparison. Like any game, over time it gets bigger, but he doesn't understand that concept. He thinks even though the graphics have improved and the Runescape world has grown that the game is static in size and resource needs.

if I understand it correctly, vsync (apart from preventing tearing), locks the FPS at the monitors refresh rate? We've already tried that.

@Gzr He runs his Runescape clients in snapped mode on one monitor, both taking half a monitor each. His browser is open on the other monitor. Discord runs in the system tray. His browser will typically have twitch, Youtube, facebook and maybe one or two other sites open.

Yes, I mean 1440p. I've asked him to try running the game in 1080p to see if that helps.

He's saying a month ago he could run exactly what he was running now and the GPU was not over heating, was not running at 100% all the time, twitch and youtube did not stutter, nor did anything else for that matter, and his PC fans were not running full tilt. I can attest to the fans issue, because a month ago I could not hear the PC from downstairs.

His answer; Despite me not touching his PC (except to run a disk cleanup), in over 2 months, Windows is the issue because I tweaked it a long time ago when I installed it. The argument makes no sense, but he's implying it takes time for the tweaking I did to have an effect on the performance.

I already cleaned out the PC and re-applied thermal paste to the CPU. It's liquid cooled with a H110i.

My suspicion is that the things he wants to run have outgrown his PC. I'm trying to find a solution. To run two copies of Runescape and Firefox watching youtube videos at the same time, you're saying a RTX 2060 wouldn't really help much, the GTX 1660 Ti is a barely adequate card (seems likes it's inadequate to me), but upgrading might not help either.

@Iniaskle An RTX 2080 will set us back between A$1500 - A$2000 depending on brand and model, and the RTX 2080 Ti could be as much as A$3000. Prices are very inflated here. Laws changed in 2018/2019 to hinder Australians buying from overseas by forcing overseas resellers to charge GST and trade typically 4c below the current exchange rate. With shipping costing around $100 and then customs duty of another 10% purchasing outside Australia is no longer viable.

In contrast, my GTX 1080 Ti Duke cost A$999

 

[Gzr]

@IceQueen0607 capping the framerate will probably help, as @Iniaskle suggested. You can do that with vsync or in the nvidia control panel. If I remember correctly, there's a setting where you can manually limit fps in individual applications.

The fact that a month ago things were different doesn't make sense to me, if he was running the same stuff. My initial assumption was that it was probably a resource issue, considering ram usage can skyrocket while running multiple things at once. Still, if you're running multiple things, hardware is bound to get hot, sooner or later.

If it were me, I'd start troubleshooting before going for a new gpu. First try capping the fps and see if that makes any difference. I'd probably also remove one monitor from the equation and see if it gets better. Do you have another 16gb ram kit you can borrow from another pc? Perhaps try that, too and see if it makes a difference.

As for the gpu, I'm not saying that it absolutely won't help. A new, better gpu can always help but a 2060 is a very slight step up from a 1660ti and I'm still doubtful that the gpu is the sole issue here.

Also, that price is just plain terrible for a 2060. I'd certainly not even consider buying that, at that price.

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

The fact that a month ago things were different doesn't make sense to me,

I've seen many times a game will start off small and simple, and over time it grows. The same thing happened with fortnite. Would play on my laptop, then afer they released a patch the laptop would no longer cope.

Do you have another 16gb ram kit you can borrow from another pc?

Yes. There are 10 PCs here. But I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I've already run memtest across the memory and it passed.

I was considering taking my GTX 1080 Ti out and putting it in his computer and see how that goes. He'd probably never let me take it back

if you're running multiple things, hardware is bound to get hot, sooner or later.

True. Which is why all PCs have too many fans. All have liquid cooling, and none are heavily overclocked. All are big cases with good airflow. None of this RGB bling and glass cases with no airflow.

Also, that price is just plain terrible for a 2060. I'd certainly not even consider buying that, at that price.

We don't have a lot of choice. Pay the prices or go without. In February the RTX 2060 Super could be purchased for A$589. It's a massive hike that hit all graphics cards, and pretty much all computer components at the end of March.

 

[Gzr]

I'm not talking about replacing ram, just add another 16gb and see if it gets better.

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

I'm not talking about replacing ram, just add another 16gb and see if it gets better.

Ok, ,that didn't change anything.

However, putting in my GTX 1080 Ti did make a significant difference. The game still hammers the GPU, but 50% - 70% is better than 80% - 100%. Overall temps were lower and of course, fans quieter as a result.

 

[Pken94]

Ok, ,that didn't change anything.

However, putting in my GTX 1080 Ti did make a significant difference. The game still hammers the GPU, but 50% - 70% is better than 80% - 100%. Overall temps were lower and of course, fans quieter as a result.

I believe browser games like runescape shouldn't be too taxing on high performing GPU like to around 50% - 70%.

Maybe you have done this but I just suggest a possible workaround. Possibly you can update Nvidia driver and pay a visit on good old Nvidia control panel by right click on the desktop screen and do a manual check on every settings.

in these settings, would preferably to crank the settings to max performance rather than max quality just to make sure you gained better fps.

in Adjust image settings with preview
set to use advanced 3d image settings
click apply

in manage 3d settings
Preferred graphics processor - high performance nvidia processor

Image sharpening - off
ambient occlusion - off
anisotropic filtering - app controlled

anti alias fxaa - off
anti alias mode - app controlled
anti alias transparency - off

cuda gpu - all
max framerate - set to 60fps or off according to your preference
opengl rendering gpu - geforce gtx 1080ti
optimize for compute performance - off
power management mode - max performance
shader cache - on

texture filtering anisotropic sample optimize - on
texture filtering negative lod bias - allow
texture filtering quality - high performance
texture filtering trilinear optimize - on

threaded optimize - auto
triple buffer - off
vertical sync - use 3d app settings
virtual reality pre rendered frames - use 3d app settings

click apply

in set physX config
set to auto or CPU (might overwork gpu if set to gpu) but this setting is up to your preference in differing situations

click apply

 

[Deleted member 2783327]

Thanks for getting back to me.

We are on the latest graphics drivers. This is typically the go to answer for all problems, but is rarely the real cause. We've tried the last three versions of drivers. We use the standard drivers, not the DCH drivers which are a major PITA, since no PC here has access to the Microsoft Store.

I also found a few gaming tweaks for Windows (registry tweaks mostly). I understand the tweaks and the potential impact on the systems that I test them on. I'm comfortable with the resgistry, and the systems are imaged twice a day.

It took more than two weeks but I finally got a response from Jagex. They've given us a lot of things to try, some of which you've provided above.

BTW: Runescape is not a browser game. Old School Runescape is. The Java dependency has gone too. Runescape is now a full blown system-thrashing game. Like most games of it's genre, it takes up about 40GB of space, hammers CPU, GPU and RAM. It's in the same class as Witcher, Fortnite and Pubg. Even Doom Internal has got nothing on Runescape.

Just out of interest, I put a power meter across the PC when running Runescape. It's using almost $0.80 per hour. So now I know why my electricity bills are so high