BF4 Sudden huge framerate drop and then normal again

Nuclear Fusion · 29 Jan 2015 at 00:37

So I've been playing BF4 and found an annoying issue that has only recently started happening (I hadn't changed anything prior to this). I'm playing normally for about 30-40 minutes or so and then all of a sudden the frame rate drops massively and the game becomes a slide show for maybe 20 seconds, then it goes back to normal for about 20 seconds and so on. Upon checking GPU usage I found that it was wildly fluctuating between 0 and 50% while the frame rate was low. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm on the latest 14.12 Omega drivers.

Jarrastafari · 29 Jan 2015 at 01:11

I've experienced this many times before and remember clearly that it was due to overheating. The usual cause was dust; cleaning out the GPU fan often resolved it but sometimes it was the temperature of the room or position of the PC causing bad air flor. Other than that I had one occasion when dailing back the GPU overclock resolved it. Good luck!

BS Dave · 29 Jan 2015 at 17:37

i had this with the perf graphs open and suspected my cpu of going back to idle clocks...also have you been tabbing out at all? mine sometimes happened when i did that...

Swagger187 · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:10

As post #2 is it temps?

I know I had this on my 970 when it throttled so had to create a custom fan profile. Perhaps give that a whirl?

r7slayer · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:24

Well ive experienced a issue like this with Diablo 3 tbh. i run the game at 120FPS no probs with all settings at the max. Only time i experience drops is when i get like 30-50 monsters on screen at once attacking me. But it never drops below 100 FPS tbh not usually below 110 FPS.

However recently since i updated my drivers to omega drivers on some occasions i notice massive FPS spikes where my FPS drops to anywhere between 40-70FPS for couple seconds then back to 120FPS. Usually when i get a huge buildup of monsters. Now this is frustrating as its almost like the screen is freezing with the drops and i know my system can more than well cope with this game. I see my GPU usuage going for 30% to 70% fluctuating even with the spikes so i cant understand it. Even restarting the game dosnt fix it. I have to restart the pc which makes me think maybe its something in the drivers?

Anyways big post sorry but seemed a similar problem just doesn't last as long and different game.

Nuclear Fusion · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:32

I don't think it's temps as I haven't noticed it going above 70C before. I haven't been tabbing out either. :confused:

It's just strange because it takes about 40 minutes to start happening so doesn't actually make a difference on short games but it gets annoying towards the end of conquest where I basically can't play

r7slayer · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:34

Nuclear Fusion said:
I don't think it's temps as I haven't noticed it going above 70C before. I haven't been tabbing out either. It's just strange because it takes about 40 minutes to start happening so doesn't actually make a difference on short games but it gets annoying towards the end of conquest where I basically can't play

Yea same tbh my temps never really reach over 70 degrees also forgot to mention it usually takes about same length of time for it to happen to me too in diablo 3.

futang17 · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:43

Same problem here. i5 2500k 4.6 ghz OC, pcs+ 290x, 16gb ram, 500 gb ssd. cpu temp 60 degrees, vid card temp 68 degrees so it's not temp.

perfoverlay.drawgraph shows I'm getting massive CPU spikes during my frame drops. running afterburner i notice those spikes coincide with dips in gpu voltages and dips in gpu useage...i've unparked my cores and all so that leads me to believe bad PSU (antec green 650 bronze rated)

installing new 750 corsair psu bronze rated over the weekend and hopefully that takes care of that problem.

setter · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:47

What about disabling UPLS on the card? I could understand if it was temps on an nvidia card, as they drop the core clock by 13mhz when they hit their temp limit. No such limit on AMD cards iirc. But even then ive yet to see drops that low in fps, and tbh my top card regularly hits the temp threshhold.

andy_mk3 · 29 Jan 2015 at 18:54

I had an issue like this, it was being caused by having Chrome open in the background.

futang17 · 29 Jan 2015 at 19:15

have you tried switching to dx11, if you're on mantle?

Gregster · 29 Jan 2015 at 19:41

Not a memory leak? That sounds like excessive VRAM usage.

setter · 29 Jan 2015 at 19:44

Gregster said:
Not a memory leak? That sounds like excessive VRAM usage.

There was a memory leak issue under mantle a while back. But im positive that it was sorted in a driver update. Not very familair with the workings/settings of AMD cards here tbh.

Nuclear Fusion · 29 Jan 2015 at 20:26

I'm using DX11, might give mantle a go just to see if it makes any difference :/

Gregster · 29 Jan 2015 at 22:35

Nuclear Fusion said:
I'm using DX11, might give mantle a go just to see if it makes any difference :/

You should be using Mantle really, It is supposed to give the best performance and Should be stable now

BS Dave · 29 Jan 2015 at 23:25

Yes mantle on my 2 290 tri-Xs is awesome - ridiculously good frame times.

Nuclear Fusion · 29 Jan 2015 at 23:38

Gregster said:
You should be using Mantle really, It is supposed to give the best performance and Should be stable now

I'll try it out, I used it when it first came out and I found it to be a bit stuttery so I sort of forgot about it. If it's working well now I'll give it a go

setter · 30 Jan 2015 at 01:19

Im an sli nvidia user myself guys, and a big bf4 fan. As much as i like my 780 sli setup. Mantle in bf4 is incredibly good, very smooth, better minmium fps even with old cpu's. Hope you get it sorted op, AMD Matt is a very active and knowledgable member of the forums here with regards to bf4 and how it plays on AMD cards. Played theese games with him for a while now. Top guy if you need advice/help.

bearman3784 · 30 Jan 2015 at 08:47

I started getting this problem last night after it playing perfectly for the last month on my 970, really low gpu usage with around 5 fps then back up to normal again on and off. Disabling Origin in game fixed the problem for me. Although it would have been fashionable for me to immediately jump to the conclusion that it was some kind of vram problem causing it

nitram100 · 30 Jan 2015 at 09:11

I've had this problem with my 290 using Mantle, the game will just crawl to like 5-10 fps then go back to 100+. Restarting the game is the only thing that solves it.