980 issue

[peter tron]

hi,

i have a 980 with an i3 2130 and 8gb of ram.

i am using a 2560 144hz g-sync monitor.

i was playing dishonored at 144fps, and i see frame drops down to 80fps, usually in outdoor areas with lots of detail and distance.
this isn't random, as it is always the same objects or group of buildings.

i was told by someone that has the same gear (apart from owning an i5 not an i3) that dishonored should run consistently smooth at 144fps on a 980.

i though it might be bottlenecked by the cpu, so i ran hwmonitor in the backgound after playing for about 30mins.

the cpu temp seems to peak at around 56c and the gpu at 69c.

this does not appear to be bottlenecking, does it?

 

[greatash]

Yeah its a bottleneck which is more noticeable above 60hz/60fps.

My 2500k @ 4.6 bottlenecks my 980 in some games i.e. Battlefield 1 70-80fps, whereas an i7 with the same setup would see 100+

 

[Orcvader]

Temps won't show you if it's a bottleneck. You need to check the CPU usage on all cores to get a better picture. Most likely the i3's dual HT cores at 3.4GHz aren't enough for the game.

 

[subbytna]

The core temps arent an indicator of bottle necking squire, core USAGE is the indicator. If you're playing a game and notice the CPU running at 100% then you know it's going as fast as it can and if the graphics isnt 100% then the CPU is bottlenecking the GPU.

 

[peter tron]

cpu total looks around 75-80.
cpu 0:
around 90
cpu 1:
80
cpu 2:
50
cpu 3:
75.

this was before i took a screenshot.
i don't know why these where so high.
i had the game loaded up in windowed mode with the menu screen.

i took two pictures, one menu screen and the other in-game.

menu screen


in-game [5mins]

 

[J.D]

Install Afterburner as you can check GPU/CPU/RAM usage, fan speed, CPU/GPU/RAM temperature while you're playing displayed in top left hand of your monitor.

If GPU is being used at 100% then it maybe another problem. Possibly new drivers or a conflict somewhere. I don't have Dishonoured 2 to know how it plays so I can't help much with expected performance.

 

[peter tron]

it doesn't really give an accurate representation, this screenshot.

cpu usage on cores 2 and 4 can deviate from 10 to 60.

1:

2:

 

[J.D]

From those pics it's the GPU utilisation that says the most to me. That looks like a bottleneck with CPU usage being so high and GPU usage under 50%.

Are you using Maximum Performance in NVidia control panel?. Also is it just this one game this happens?. Maybe try a few other titles and monitor GPU and CPU usage alongside game performance.

 

[peter tron]

i have maximum performance set in the dishonored program settings.

btw, this is the first dishonored, so a 980 should, from talking to other people who have similar gear, run it it maxed out at 144fps no problem.

i played bioshock infinite a few weeks back, and i was getting similar frame drops (144 down to 80).

again, this 980 should be able to run that game without any frame drops, as far as i know.

 

[J.D]

If it's happening in other titles then it's most likely a CPU bottleneck. I'm not saying it is, just that it looks that way. There may be something else doing this.

You were advised that this problem may arise in August.

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18745271

Possibly wipe the drivers and do a clean install, at most an OS install on a spare drive or partition. If nothing works then it's possibly time to think about getting a new CPU.

 

[peter tron]

i realise i was advised. i just though my 980 would be able to handle four year old games, maybe not your witcher 3 and fallout 4 titles.

i was just trying to find out for sure.

i have just recently used ddu to wipe and reinstall the most recent nvidia driver.

i do have a new pc ready to build. the cpu is an i7 6700.

maybe i should use this as my backup pc?
i could put back my 660 into it, as that is more suited to the i3?

 

[J.D]

I was only using that thread to back up what I think might be the problem. It does seem that way though.

How did you get on with the new drivers?. Any change at all?.

If you have a new PC to put the 980 in then go ahead. If all the problems disappear then you know what the cause was. The 660 would be nice in that system but again, any CPU heavy title may cause similar problems. I'm only saying that as a precaution due to what appears to be happening now but it might be perfectly fine.

 

[peter tron]

the issue remained.

i'll find out this saturday when i build the new one [fingers crossed].