Low FPS in games but not on every boot

ichbinashh · 29 Mar 2018 at 17:56

So as the title says, I've been having issues with my PC having inconsistent boots.

To start with, here's my system:
- i5 4690k
- Gigabyte GTX 1060 Gaming G1 6GB (Used to be MSI GTX 970 ((Failed card))
- Gigabyte z97x Gaming 5
- Seasonic 1000w PSU (Can't remember exact one)
- WD Black 1TB HDD
- Intel 730 240GB SSD (Boot Drive)
- 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance
- Noctua NH-L12 CPU Cooler

Here's a little backstory;

I had issues with my PC in the past where it wouldn't always boot, but I'd either get 0 beeps, no display etc but the PC powers on OR the Gigabyte beeps to say my GPU is busted. With that, I recently purchased a Gigabyte GTX 1060 G1 6GB to put in my machine hoping that it'd fix the issue.

So it seems to have fixed the beeping error, it no longer tells me that my GPU is the issue (which is nice) but instead, I still either get no beeps and no display (still powers on, fans/lights etc) or I get a single beep and everything runs fine. Now I could live with the occasional failed boot, but what I can't understand is that my system is well equipped to run most modern games, and I know that it will because, well, it has. So with that being said, when it beeps once and all seems good, most of the time I load up a game - in this scenario let's use Grim Dawn - and my performance is horrible.

Sometimes it is perfectly fine, it'll boot and load right up and run at 60fps without any hiccups. But most of the time, it'll run at 40-50, sometimes 20-30. Now I've noticed that when it does happen to run slow, my GPU is completely maxed out at 100% while it's open, but my CPU is at 20-30% usage, and this seems very odd seing as my GPU should not be that stressed playing that game if my CPU is only being tickled.

I'm wondering if it may be my CPU not running at full potential for some reason, could it be broken? Maybe the motherboard is on the way out or something?

Any insight would be very much appreciated at this stage - and answers that'll give me a free fix would be absolutely perfect!

Thank you!

PiKe · 29 Mar 2018 at 18:06

That would indicate to me a gpu issue, what clock speed is the GPU running at when you get the bouts of slowness?

You can check this with MSI afterburner's OSD.

DarkHorizon472 · 29 Mar 2018 at 18:06

Have you got anything overclocked ?
If you have set everything back to stock speeds to test for a while.

It could be as simple as you just need a BIOS update is needed.

ichbinashh · 29 Mar 2018 at 18:12

That's what I thought hence why I bought the new card but still have the same issue.

Just checked, running at 1962Mhz Core and 4007Mhz Memory.

My CPU used to be OC'd but I put it back to stock and reset my bios settings to default when the new card came.

How would I know if the bios needs updating and how do I do it?

BongoHunter · 29 Mar 2018 at 20:08

Something poorly seated maybe? Ambient temperature could play a role of this is the case. If you get everything running well and reboot while everythings still warm do you think your equally likely or less likely to see the issue?

Got any wierd or old peripherals plugged in?

DarkHorizon472 · 29 Mar 2018 at 21:06

The motherboards website would explain how to update and provide the latest BIOS.

ichbinashh · 29 Mar 2018 at 21:58

BongoHunter said:
Something poorly seated maybe? Ambient temperature could play a role of this is the case. If you get everything running well and reboot while everythings still warm do you think your equally likely or less likely to see the issue?

Got any wierd or old peripherals plugged in?

Everything seems to be in order, gpu has been reseated a good few times, tried different slots etc. but no use.

That's a good point, next time I get it running okay I'll be sure to check that out. As for temperatures in general, everything sits nice and low. CPU sits in the 50s, haven't properly watched the new GPU but I know it's not high as the fans never have to kick in.

No weird peripherals that I'm aware of, Logitech G502 mouse, Razer Blackwidow Chroma, Razer Leviathan soundbar and then ethernet and monitor.

DarkHorizon472 said:
The motherboards website would explain how to update and provide the latest BIOS.

I'll try and Q-Flash the BIOS at some point, thank you

Habakkuk · 2 Apr 2018 at 18:26

You've covered the basics - making sure the GPU has enough power, then that the CPU isn't cooking.

I'd recommend making a partition & making a clean install of Windows to it for testing gaming, once the bare minimum of driver updates are installed - Windows 7 should work fine for this.

ichbinashh · 4 Apr 2018 at 22:02

Habakkuk said:
You've covered the basics - making sure the GPU has enough power, then that the CPU isn't cooking.

I'd recommend making a partition & making a clean install of Windows to it for testing gaming, once the bare minimum of driver updates are installed - Windows 7 should work fine for this.

Any chance you could walk me through how to do this?

Thank you!

Habakkuk · 5 Apr 2018 at 02:18

I've used easeus partition manager & the windows dvd before.

ichbinashh · 5 Apr 2018 at 14:46

Habakkuk said:
I've used easeus partition manager & the windows dvd before.

I noticed last night that my BIOS keeps resetting itself to the Welcome screen, so I went out today and changed the CMOS Battery but it's still doing it. Could all my issues be down to a faulty Motherboard do you reckon?

Habakkuk · 5 Apr 2018 at 17:07

Yes, if that's an intermittent fault then that could cause these problems, especially with power supply behaving.

ichbinashh · 5 Apr 2018 at 17:12

Habakkuk said:
Yes, if that's an intermittent fault then that could cause these problems, especially with power supply behaving.

Yeah I think I'm putting it down to that tbh, it doesn't reset itself all the time, but I'm guessing that when it does is when I have my bad boots but I just can't see it?