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Underperforming GTX770 driving me bonkers

goodvibes

goodvibes

goodvibes

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17 Jul 2012
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13
Just picked up a Gigabyte GTX 770 WindForce 3x to replace my struggling 2x560ti's and I'm having real problems with it scaling the GPU at exactly the wrong time and rarely performing to where it needs to be.

Example of what I'm talking about from a few minutes of playing BF3:



GPU clock is fine, not shown but mem clock is fine, voltage is fine, CPU is 65% across all threads, power is fine, temp is fine, but for some reason the ****ing GPU decides to drop to 60% usage and 60fps :mad:

What I think is happening: GPU scaling is turning down the GPU in low load areas, then when I turn a corner or whatever the GPU suddenly gets more load on it but GPU2.0 takes 100ms to respond, so in that time I get low frames. This is Not Good. Even if I sit looking at a large area for a prolonged period, it just sits there on low frames derping around at 85%.

What I want to happen: Any time my frames are less than 120 (I've actually got a 144hz monitor but let's aim for 120 first, and I think the card should be able to realistically achieve 120fps 90% of the time), that GPU should be at 100% unless it's over 75c.

Vital statistics:

CPU: i7 3770k
RAM: 16gb
MB: MSI Z77A G45
PSU: Akasa Venom 750w
HDD: 6gb/s SSD

NVidia settings (other than default w/ slider set to Quality):
Driver: 326.19 (same issue on 320)
Multi-display performance mode (have two monitors)
Prefer maximum performance

BF3 settings for the interested:
Res: 1920x1080
Refresh rate: 120
V-Sync: Off (was getting screen tearing with it on)
FOV: 80
Texture: Ultra
Shadow: Low
Effects: Low
Mesh: Ultra
Terrain: Low
Terrain Decoration: Low
AA deferred: Off
AA post: Off
Motion blur: I would rip this setting out if I could
Anisotropic filtering: 8x
Ambient Occlusion: Off

I think I got everything but let me know if you need any more info.

I'm honestly at the point of RTM'ing the bloody thing and going back to my 560's. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.




Edit: If I set EVGA to monitor at 100ms, I can see the lag time between low GPU use and low frames to high GPU use and high frames. I've also read an article on GPU2.0 scaling for the Titan that specifically talks about it's response time being 100ms. Hence my 100ms assertion.
 
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This happens with 320.49 too?

Edit: just read it does. Well why don't you set the power target to 106%. It is possible the card is throttling?
 
Will give the 106% a try tomorrow and let you know. How could the card be throttling? I can monitor the BUS and so forth but have no idea what it means >.<
 
Found it. The card is reserving / has 15% ish dedicated to MSAA.

Run with my usual settings (MSAA Off):



Run with MSAAx4:



Toggled all the settings back and forth, the ONLY setting that made a significant difference was MSAA. This would explain why it didn't show up as a problem in the benchmarks, since they always test everything on max.

Now I need to go find out if that's true for every game or just BF3.

As an aside, there was only a 15% ish fps drop-off between low and ultra, which is pretty damned impressive. Don't think I went below 60fps, so if you've got a 60fps monitor, thumbs up all round.


Edit: Cranking the power target up to 110% and the temp target up to 90c yielded maybe a 5fps (~6%) increase. Considering the card's overclocked out the box and that's a potential card-killer if you forget and go play a poorly optimised game / have bad cooling, I don't think it's worth it. Was worth a try though ;)
 
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Stranger and stranger.

Farcry 3 and Grid 2 both behave similarly to BF3, with AA / postfx on they'll use 100%, with them off they'll use 70-80%.

War Thunder, Bioshock:Infinite and Skyrim will happily run at 100% no matter the settings, although getting Bioshock to run at all was a PITA.

SW:TOR wouldn't run at above 65% no matter the settings.

With the exception of TOR, I haven't seen under 60fps in any game.

I have no idea if this is an issue with nvidia shooting for 60fps and forgetting about 120fps, a driver issue, a coding issue with the games, a legacy issue with how the games use the card's resources, or what.
 
goodvibes said:
Stranger and stranger.

Farcry 3 and Grid 2 both behave similarly to BF3, with AA / postfx on they'll use 100%, with them off they'll use 70-80%.

War Thunder, Bioshock:Infinite and Skyrim will happily run at 100% no matter the settings, although getting Bioshock to run at all was a PITA.

SW:TOR wouldn't run at above 65% no matter the settings.

With the exception of TOR, I haven't seen under 60fps in any game.

I have no idea if this is an issue with nvidia shooting for 60fps and forgetting about 120fps, a driver issue, a coding issue with the games, a legacy issue with how the games use the card's resources, or what.
Click to expand...
*Look to your signature*

Is your 3770K overclocked? It's normal to get higher GPU usage when AA is use, but if you disable AA and has GPU usage not at 99%, it usually points to the CPU not keeping up.

For example, SW:TOR is fairly CPU intensive. For the sake of giving you an idea, let's say you are only getting 60fps at 60% GPU usage with your 770...what this mean is your 770 could potentially deliver up to 80-100fps, but it is only able to deliver 60fps due to that's what the CPU able to push. The reason why you see 100% usage in some games is because they are more graphic demanding than CPU, so basically the frame rate which the 770 can push is lower than what the CPU can push, thus it is why they can get 99% GPU usage.

Try overclocking you CPU, and you should see some immediate improvement on the frame rate and increase in GPU usage for games which you are currently not close to having GPU usage at 100%.
 
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The 3770 scales automatically (and does it a damned sight better than the GPU, I might add). I've seen it bop up to 4ghz but usually it runs somewhere in the 3.6 - 3.7 range. The only game that managed to max out the CPU was farcry, and that was only on one thread (always the third thread though O.o).

I think TOR was an anomaly tbh, it may have been more dependent on the speed it was getting stuff from the server. CPU usage was sub 50%. Honestly, I should probably throw out the results from Skyrim and TOR, the former is cranky over 60fps and the latter is too dependent on server response.

In the spirit of adventure I'll try fixing it at 4ghz tomorrow and report back - it's too sodding hot today to even think about playing games! I'm going to go lie down in the shade and drink something cold :)

I've posted a set of all the various tests here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xgoodvibesx/sets/72157634875580941/
 
I get something like that on bf3 whenever using mesh quality on ultra. I set that to low and the frame rate flies. I read the cpu bottlenecks with that setting and it doesn't matter what cpu you have. Just like hitman absolution and the reflections setting in that game too.
 
I have the same card as yourself and in BF3 with GPUz my usage fluctuates from say 60-98%
I have a 144Hz monitor FPS could be anywhere from 60-200 (game play always feels smooth) I have the settings in Nvidia control set to, Monitor set to Single performance mode, and highest refreash rate, Maximum performance for GPU.

Now i think you are talking about GPU usage? excuse my ignorance :( i thought with a single card running with a 2500K @ 4.4Ghz i should be seeing 100% usage all the time? as i said gameplay is smooth so i'm thinking it's normal, or is it not??

I don't see any short pausing of the image while gaming unless it's a lagging server, If you can tell me I'm on the right path with this?
 
With my old cards, they'd always be running at 100% GPU usage unless they were at 144hz.

With the new cards, GPU usage seems arbitrary and never rises above 85%. What's narking me off is when I'm getting 60fps and the card is running at 65% GPU usage. It doesn't seem to put a priority on maximum frame rate at all.
 
sounds kinda like you have a v-sync like option turned on somewhere which is limiting the frames :S

another thing to possibly try for testing purposes is to select "prefer maximum power" in the nvidia control panel settings..?

I mean, it's quite usual for a card to not be running at 100% GPU usage for games which don't need it, but if it's not hitting the frame rates you are expecting, it definitely sounds like you have a program running with an option switched on which is limiting frame rate for some reason :S
 
I do have various options for limiting frame rate, but they're all off!

In-game: off
Precision-X: off
nVidia: off
Screen refresh rate is definitely set to 144hz.

Looking around the internet, looks like I'm not alone either. Seems like under-utilisation is a common problem with the 7 series.
 
"Under-utilisation" is fine if you are getting the frame rate that you are expecting.

For instance if you have a 60 Hz monitor and you are getting 60 fps, and card is running at 10% capacity, that is working as intended.

There should be options in the nvidia graphics card control panel which allow you to set it to "prefer maximum performance at all times" somewhere in the power settings, which may or may not help you out. Have you tried that?

So what you are saying is that in game, you are expecting 120 fps (or 144) and you are getting nowhere near that, and the gfx card is not working at 100%?

If all frame rate limiters are all off, then all I got left is a) something in your system is causing a bottleneck or b) shotting coding from the game / shodding drivers from nvidia.


also, maybe it's something to do with the EVGA program?
maybe try using something like GPU-Z and / or MSI Afterburner to monitor it instead..?
 
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ShakeNBake said:
"Under-utilisation" is fine if you are getting the frame rate that you are expecting.

For instance if you have a 60 Hz monitor and you are getting 60 fps, and card is running at 10% capacity, that is working as intended.
I think I mentioned above I never drop below 60fps - I really think the current drivers are aimed at 60fps and someone dropped the ball for 120hz+ users, or just plain forgot, or we're an insignificant enough minority to be ignored (or at least not catered for in the rush to production for the new cards).

There should be options in the nvidia graphics card control panel which allow you to set it to "prefer maximum performance at all times" somewhere in the power settings, which may or may not help you out. Have you tried that?
I have tried prefer maximum performance and tried setting priority on power, temp, frames... nada :(

So what you are saying is that in game, you are expecting 120 fps (or 144) and you are getting nowhere near that, and the gfx card is not working at 100%?
Correct!

If all frame rate limiters are all off, then all I got left is a) something in your system is causing a bottleneck or b) shotting coding from the game / shodding drivers from nvidia.
a) Nothing I can find! Definitely not a CPU bottleneck or PCI-E speed issue.
b) I suspect a bit of both.


Also, maybe it's something to do with the EVGA program?
Maybe try using something like GPU-Z and / or MSI Afterburner to monitor it instead..?
Tried all three! All independently installed with the others uninstalled etc. Afterburner and EVGA are essentially the same back-end (written by the same guy), with the exception of a couple of widgets and options. GPU-Z was good for confirming some things though, like PCI-E speed and scaling.
Click to expand...
 
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Davanius said:
I get something like that on bf3 whenever using mesh quality on ultra. I set that to low and the frame rate flies. I read the cpu bottlenecks with that setting and it doesn't matter what cpu you have. Just like hitman absolution and the reflections setting in that game too.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I missed this. I'll go check it out! Mesh quality equates directly to draw distance though, so turning it down isn't really an option if you fly :( Still, if I can get the GPU up to 100%, would be interesting.

Edit: mesh quality does have a significant effect on frames, but with a corresponding drop in GPU utilisation. I couldn't get the GPU up higher on low mesh than it was on ultra.

Something else to bake your noodle: it's different on different maps. Noshar is the main offender, with silly stuff like 65% GPU @ 60fps. Given that the majority of TDM maps are bloody Noshar now, that's why I'm noticing so much. Karkand, Wake, Monolith and most others go up to 85% (that seems to be the norm), but Operation Riverside and Gulf of Oman go up to the high 90's. I still haven't seen 100%, but they were occasionally hitting 95-98% GPU. So wtf are those maps doing differently? I'm wondering if they weren't written by a different team using a different methodology.
 
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Sometimes i feel for people with these issues :( I read the post and im stumped as well.I have read chiphells BF3 six core thread about how even 6 cores cannot get 120fps all the time and im not sure if its worth suggesting or not.


You would think even a 5ghz could give 100% usage on 770.This IS a single 770 right? Then again i have saw that to get 120fps and 100% usage you need a six core with HT disabled.And yes HT can cause weird issues too.


Give it a try with HT on and HT off and make sure the bios is not reading wrong like my old asus bios and you are at 5ghz.Run a benchmark like 3D Mark 11 to verify u even get the correct scores also and that overclocking matters.If nothing works your going to have to do a clean format, pick just the one tool and run a clean install,wipe the bios and try again.
 
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