RTX 2060 Super Upgrade Issue

[B088Y]

Hi All.

So I have replaced my old GTX 760 with an RTX 2060 Super as the GTX was getting well out of its depth. It would run AC Odyssey on lowest settings and that was all. I installed the RTX 2060 super, did a clean install of drivers using GeForce Experience but I am really struggling to get any performance out of the card. It won’t play AC Odyssey on anything other that Low (on medium it stutters all over the place) and I tried to run benchmarking and the whole game crashes (same result on AC Valhalla but it won’t even play that on low). I am wondering if it’s being held back by the rest of the PC as it’s a 5-6 year old build now.

Specs are as follows.
Intel i7 4790K 4GHz
Gigabyte GA-Z97X Motherboard
8GB DDR3 @ 1600MHz Ram
Corsair CSM 650W Semi-Modular Gold PSU 128GB SSD Boot Drive
1TB WD Blue 3.5 HDD (Games Installed on this drive)
Windows 10 OS

Any ideas on likely issue, my first guess was RAM but it’s started crashing on Medieval Dynasty with the error “video card out of memory” surely this can’t be the case as it has 8GB of GPU memory. And RAM required for Dynasty is 8GB and it’s been running that game fine for three days or so with one or two crashes I put down to it being an Alpha Stage game.

 

[Chrisc]

I’d say RAM is the contributing factor.

 

[pp111]

I am not sure but I had an almost identical system ( in fact I still do but it's a media PC now ), and first I wonder when the last time you updated the BIOS? The reason I say this is because I clearly remember when I plugged in a new graphics card in to that motherboard, now some years ago, it completely freaked out. When I updated the BIOS though it has worked with every new graphics card since. I currently have a 960 in there and its just fine but I have had a 1660ti in there without problems. So I would check the BIOS version and see if it is F7.

Please bear in mind you should only attempt a BIOS update if you are confident, and check the dual BIOS capability of that board so you know what happens if you get it wrong. I think that board just switches to the backup if there is an error but please check, if you mess it up you brick your PC. I would honestly speak to Gigabyte Tech if you are uncertain.

 

[ci_newman]

8GB RAM and using a HDD (not SSD) will definitely be massive bottlenecks for games.

That CPU should be more than comfortable though (I have one myself) assuming that its not thermal throttling / overheating.

Can you run HWinfo / GPU-Z and monitor your system resources whilst running benchmarks / games

 

[donpyro]

are you useing a riser cable?

 

[B088Y]

So the Bios hasn't been updated since the computer was built, I have just checked and its on F5. It's not too much of an issue to update but as the RAM is low against AC Valhalla specs anyway (They say min 16GB Dual channel and mine is 8GB Single Channel) I would guess some RAM would be a good start.

I just got it to run benchmarking on Ac Valhalla at Low and Medium and the CPU Utilization was around 70-80% but I'm not really sure if that's terrible or not if I'm honest.

Would a HDD hold back the game to the point where it crashes a lot? I know the speed may be an issue but surely it would run the game on lower settings at least?

Cheers for all the help thus far!

 

[Aretak]

If you're running just 8GB in single channel mode, that's probably 90% of your problem right there. Get another 8GB stick, ideally a matching one. A hard drive is still absolutely fine to keep your games on for the vast majority of titles. Loading times will be slower, but it shouldn't affect things much once you're in-game, unless it's a really slow drive (but I believe WD Blues are 7200RPM, which is fine). Also keep in mind that the modern AC games are a worst-case scenario for your CPU. They like lots of threads and struggle a bit on any quad-core. They should still be playable though, and other games won't be quite as heavy on the CPU. A 4790K should still be fine for most games. Overclocking it a bit wouldn't be a bad idea though, since you have a Z97 motherboard. A mild push to 4.5GHz or something shouldn't be too much to ask, assuming you're not using the stock cooler.

 

[B088Y]

are you useing a riser cable?

I have no idea what that is tbh, a quick google looks like to me it’s used for some voodoo mounting for the card? My card is plugged directly into the PCI-E slot and has the secondary power 8 pin connector in as well.

 

[B088Y]

If you're running just 8GB in single channel mode, that's probably 90% of your problem right there. Get another 8GB stick, ideally a matching one. A hard drive is still absolutely fine to keep your games on for the vast majority of titles. Loading times will be slower, but it shouldn't affect things much once you're in-game, unless it's a really slow drive (but I believe WD Blues are 7200RPM, which is fine). Also keep in mind that the modern AC games are a worst-case scenario for your CPU. They like lots of threads and struggle a bit on any quad-core. They should still be playable though, and other games won't be quite as heavy on the CPU. A 4790K should still be fine for most games. Overclocking it a bit wouldn't be a bad idea though, since you have a Z97 motherboard. A mild push to 4.5GHz or something shouldn't be too much to ask, assuming you're not using the stock cooler.

I’ll get another 8GB ordered and see if it solves it. The HDD is 7200RPM as you say. I haven’t done any overclocking before so would have to do a bit of research before I try that. It isn’t on the stock cooler (that went the day after it was built as it couldn’t cool anything in the Arctic) it has a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 4 for CPU cooling.