Other FPS drop in games/Possibly RAM issue?

My comp has a massive Gfx lag, but i do not think its the GPU.

Basically i started a game a few days ago and the gfx were lagging, like 30FPS compared to the 60+ i normally got, but it wasnt a playable 30fps it was jerking (in the game reduced settings to lowest and still same result).

I try closing all sorts of programs (Steam and other non essentials in the system tray) but to no affect, sometimes the CPU meter on my keyboard shows that the cores are not being fully used.

out of 4 cores showing occasionally one will not be used at all, with the other 3 working hard, which im sure never used to happen. (Its dual core with Hyperthreading).

Some mates thinks its my RAM as the CPU-Z dump (seen below but please note the speed at the moment is 3066MHz as i have the OC turned off.) shows im below the correct speed.

Timings in BIOS seem correct (9-9-9-24) but im not sure about setting clock speed, as its dual channel i was told it should be set to 800MHz somewhere (800*2 = 1600 the rated speed) but when i tried this it did not boot an reset to default which appear to give a mem frequency of 1333MHz.

Help please!!!!

If you need more information please let me know and i will provide

Thanks

 

What GPU do you have?

What game were you playing? And is it a new game or one you've played before?

Few games use four full cores properly, so even fewer will utilise 2P+2L cores efficiently so that's more than likely why one core is doing nothing.

On the RAM front, just about everything you said was wrong Clock speed should be 800MHz but it isn't because it's dual channel, it's because it's Double Data Rate memory. In BIOS you should set it to 1600.

 

Does your GPU actually switch to 3D mode? Some of the nvidia cards have tendency to get stuck in power saving mode (405mhz core).

 

Its all games so far i have tried EVE online, ARMAII and BF3 same with all 3 Textures etc are fine, just very jerky.

GPU Type : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
GPU Clocks : Core 1020 MHz / RAM 2250 MHz
DirectX Version : 11.0

I dont think its the GPU, the RAM, ill need to go home recheck the BIOS settings.

Sorry the thing with the cores happens at any point the comp is running, even in windows etc.

I did turn on the OC settings and it seemed fine, i havent played around with this too much since however. It is a little intermittent, one time after i had shut some programs it loaded eve ok etc, came back an hour later and tried BF3 and it was back again.

These problems happened before and after i updated GPU drivers.

Not sure if related but the core temps are wildly different at times, normally they hover around -+3oc dif between, but since this started happening they can be sometime +-15 difference.

AFAIK the GPU is in normal 3D mode, i havent touched any settings.

 

Have you checked your computer for viruses and spyware? You computer could be using alot of its resources due to this....

Try running pandacloud anti virus which is a cloud based anti virus and free. Also try Spybot search and destroy which is also free.

This is just a long shot btw but definately worth checking.

 

Have Antivirus already and spybot is already running. Task Manager does not show much activity normally, it only seems to be games.

Ill maybe do some deep scans to be sure.

 

Grab a program called PlayClaw (the trial version will be fine) and use it to check your GPU usage and temperatures during gaming - I'm wondering if the GPU could be throttling.

 

Got play claw, i have been fiddling with BIOS and appear to have found settings that work....for the moment, so ill keep an eye on it.

RAM is now at correct speed.

 

Spoke too soon, its doing it again.

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/05/27/gdr.png

Is a screenie of the GPU whilst ARMA II was open in windowed mode, the spikes is where the game was loaded.

Any thoughts?

Addition-

http://gpuz.techpowerup.com/12/05/27/v4.png

This was a screenie taken when arma started after a reeboot (this time the game was already running) As you can see the Core clock is not right? What could cause this?

 

New one



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Figures on the right are the OC settings, EVE is running in the background at half its normal FPS.

Whats causing this?

 

I assume CPU temps are fine? Could be CPU throttling due to high temps Though unlikely as CPU meter shows them at 100%.

Beyond that seems a bit of a mystery could try re installing graphics drivers\Direct X but that would normally cause a crash not a slow down. Could also be worth returning graphics card to stock speeds see if that fixes it assuming you haven't done so already.

Can also try having only two sticks of RAM in and try in different channels incase memory controller is playing up.

 

It's unlikely to be the ram in your system

CPU or gpu throttling due to temps is the most likely issue

 

Temps are fine, cpu rarely goes beyond 45oc I have a Raven 2 case. I have major system stability problems also at the moment. Not sure if its all related.

I have pulled back OC on the GPU and didnt seem to change anything. Ill try fiddling with the RAM.

 

gpu load 38% ? seems rather low

 

That was my thought too, and why I suggested monitoring it with PlayClaw. In any GPU-bound scenario, I'd hope for at least 80% usage, as close to 100% as possible really. It simply isn't using the potential rendering power of the graphics card. But as for why that is, I'm afraid I cannot tell.

Try something that we know should certainly stress the GPU to the max - run Heaven benchmark and monitor GPU usage % during that. I know Arma II for example can often be CPU bound.

 

I did use playclaw, GPU load shows same either way wen its lagging and wen its not. Right now i have eve on, no lag, 60fps, 46oc and 32% load and it seems fine.

Its not being pushed but i think the load does not change. as you can see in the screenshot the load is the same when laggin or not.

Ill double check next time it plays up.

 

So it was ok all nite yesterday, stable, no GFX lag, and that was after a few reboots for other reasons.

This was with the MOBOS Optimised Default BIOS settings running.

Thing is now my RAM is annoying me, im not sure if it was me acidentally changing a bios setting (im 99% certain i have not touched the ram speeds before now) or ARIA have put the wrong ones on.

But the only way i can get RAM to the rated speed is using some sort of "Profile 1" in the bios, but normally when this is on things go awry, it mentions XMP on CPU-Z to get to the 800MHz.

I can post some screenies of my BIOS settings with it on/off if it helps?

 

Did you do the driver update to 301.42 (I think that is correct)? I had issues following that update and had to uninstall / driver sweep / clean install.

 

I have latest (see screenshot above) but the issue occured before the update anyway.

Previous drivers hadnt changed for quite a while.

 

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Sorry forgot FPS but it was about 7.....

Anyway crucial breakthru here. When this happened i decided to try something, stopped the OC on the GFX.....BOOM GPU core back upto 800MHz.

So its something to do with the GPU it seems.....

Should my GPU Clock show 800MHz if its set to higher?