MSI Afterburner reports 50% drop in "GPU Usage" on certain games.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 13:24

I've trawled for an answer to this but without success and it appears this affects various models of cards primarily nvidia.

I've recently noticed after installing MSI Afterburner that certain games will instantly demand around 50% less "GPU Usage" which is represented in gameplay as a significant drop in performance (fps). Initial thoughts are that the GPU is throttling back at a certain temperature however this behaviour seems to occur at any point between 70-80c and then only certain games (TF2, BC2 and RAGE as examples). When running furmark I can push the GPU without any obvious throttling or drop on any of the core clocks well over the 100c mark. I've also tried underclocking, running and/or disabling powermizer, anything to ensure that a software trigger isn't the cause.

Has anyone else experienced this type of behaviour (and only on certain games)?

Any thoughts/comments most welcome.

Cheers, Paul.

barmyllama · 31 Oct 2011 at 14:24

Low GPU usage is either a CPU bottleneck or running at low resolutions.

I see you have a dual core CPU in your sig so CPU bottleneck would be my guess, especially with BFBC2.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 14:52

Well in this case it's using the m11x i7 quad -

It does seem random though. For instance in tf2 it will run 100+fps for 5/10mins and then according to MSIA GPU Usage drops instantly 50% which in effect turns that 100+fps into sub 30.

Mass Effect works likewise, 60+ for 5/10mins and then it simply drops. Bearing in mind this is not during any actual firefights or where I would imagine the cpu or gpu are being stretched.

waso_dude · 31 Oct 2011 at 15:02

Uninstalled drivers? Used driver clean and then reinstalled?

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 15:09

Yep, tried various _recent_ drivers (BF3 and RAGE friendly) yet still the same behaviour on some games (this drop does not occur on BF3 for example).

It's as almost the gpu simply decides it does not need to commit 100% and simply drops by half blowing my fps.

Think I'll roll back to 6month+ old drivers and try that.

Ravenger · 31 Oct 2011 at 15:29

I had this problem and it turned out my graphics card was demanding too much juice from my PSU, and clocking down to reduce power load. A new PSU sorted it.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 16:08

Hmmmmmm Holy moly don't tell me that's it (checks I have the correct PSU brick with me)! Although why do other games, like BF3 which surely must be more demanding than TF2, not exhibit this behaviour?!

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 16:44

barmyllama said:
Low GPU usage is either a CPU bottleneck or running at low resolutions.

Well as a test I hooked up an external monitor and ran TF2 at full 1080p and lo and behold it did not exhibit the GPU usage drop and was getting between 40-60fps which is acceptable.

However RAGE and Mass Effect will still drop 50% running at higher resolutions.

Now the frustration here is that the whole point of the m11x was to play on the move at it's native 1366x768. So the question is how on earth do you force the gpu to _not_ throttle back or whatever at the lower resolutions.

Bearing in mind there does not appear to be any actual throttling in clock speeds (core, shader or mem) just the indication from the MSIA monitor with usage %.

Scougar · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:31

Can't see it, what's the graphics card? Nvidia have an option under the 3d settings, the power settings to select 'prefer maximum performance', that will stop throttling. Not sure about AMD.

barmyllama · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:35

darkgen said:
Well as a test I hooked up an external monitor and ran TF2 at full 1080p and lo and behold it did not exhibit the GPU usage drop and was getting between 40-60fps which is acceptable.

However RAGE and Mass Effect will still drop 50% running at higher resolutions.

Now the frustration here is that the whole point of the m11x was to play on the move at it's native 1366x768. So the question is how on earth do you force the gpu to _not_ throttle back or whatever at the lower resolutions.

Bearing in mind there does not appear to be any actual throttling in clock speeds (core, shader or mem) just the indication from the MSIA monitor with usage %.

Rage doesn't use more than 40% of my GTX 470 but still runs at 60 FPS, which the game is capped at anyway. So if you're getting 60 FPS with Rage then don't worry about low GPU usage. Mass Effect is capped at 62 FPS because it uses the Unreal 3 engine. Plus it's an older game so won't require 99% GPU usage to get to 62 FPS, especially at 1366x768.

BF3 will max out any card to 99% GPU usage at the moment.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 17:58

335m on the m11x -Already set the global setting to use MAX performance rather than adaptive.

Both Mass Effect and Rage initially run around the 60fps mark but after 5/10mins then drop to sub 20fps.

barmyllama · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:11

darkgen said:
335m on the m11x -Already set the global setting to use MAX performance rather than adaptive.

Both Mass Effect and Rage initially run around the 60fps mark but after 5/10mins then drop to sub 20fps.

If that's the case the GPU must be dropping clock speeds to reduce heat or it's performance is being throttled because of a juice from your PSU. I can't really see it being anything else.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:17

And that's what is confusing me.
MSIA indicates no drop in any clock speed.
Temperature isn't consistent during this behaviour, it appears to happen anywhere between 70 - 85c.
Only some games are impacted, others do not exhibit this behaviour and temperatures are hitting 85+c.
I can run furmark and the gpu has hit 100+c without behaviour occuring.

Frustrating isn't the word.

barmyllama · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:28

100 degrees C and above is hotter than I would want to run any card.

darkgen · 31 Oct 2011 at 18:37

Entirely agree, I let it run to see what, if any trigger (temp or otherwise) would occur. Suffice to say no throttling occurred it just kept going.