New build unexplainable FPS drops

Cinimod3

Cinimod3

Cinimod3

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Joined
17 Feb 2016
Posts
7
After spending the last 2 weeks trying to troubleshoot this myself and getting nowhere I was pointed in the direction of you guys. Hopefully you can suggest something I've not found by googling and poking things!

PC spec:
BeQuiet 800W Straight 10 Modular PSU
Cooler Master Closed Loop Liquid Cooler 120mm Radiator
480GB SanDisk SSD
EVGA Z170 Stinger DDR4 Mini ITX Motherboard
2 x 16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR4 Ram
Intel Core i5-6600K Skylake Processor
Deepcool Tristellar Case
AMD Radeon Hd 7970 - Sapphire

Nothing overclocked.
Running clean install of Windows10

The issue:
I recently built the above PC and when I open up Far Cry 4 I get a fairly stable 60FPS, but then after between 5-15 minutes all of a sudden the FPS drops to around 2-3FPS, I checked other games and even just watching a YouTube video where exactly the same issue occurs.

With Open Hardware Monitor running it shows that the GPU load spikes to >95% and stays there whilst the FPS drop occurs. Running Process Explorer shows that in the case of YouTube videos chrome is using all of the >95% GPU load when it spikes.

None of the temperature sensors ever read >45C with the exception of the GPU playing FC4 which still never exceeds 75C.

My current workaround is when the FPS spike hits I unplug the monitor from the GPU and plug it straight back into the GPU and all is instantly well for the next 5-15 mins before it all happens again!


Things I have tried already none of which made any difference:
All Windows updates.
Update the GPU drivers.
AMD Legacy drivers.
AMD Beta drivers.
Updated the BIOS.
Checked Windows Power settings.
Removed half the Ram (down to 1 x 16 GB).
Full format and reinstall of Windows 10.
Running with a friends Radeon 7950 which is known to work in his setup.
Putting my old 750W Corsair PSU back in.
Forced the GPU to run at max clock speed. (https://community.amd.com/thread/191820)
Ran Antivirus and Malwarebytes (both clean - not surprising on clean install)

The only thing I could find that 'fixed' this is running from the CPU through integrated Graphics...

I can provide any version numbers and any logs that you think would be useful when I get home later today!

Thanks in advance.
 
Thanks for replying so quickly, It's not just Far Cry 4 that has the issues, every game I've tried (FC4, Rocket League, League of Legends & Hearthstone) and even just watching a video on YouTube gives the same FPS drop & GPU spikes.
 
Cinimod3 said:
My current workaround is when the FPS spike hits I unplug the monitor from the GPU and plug it straight back into the GPU and all is instantly well for the next 5-15 mins before it all happens again!
Click to expand...

Have you tried another monitor / lead ?? just to rule out the monitor not agreeing with some setting,, also make sure the ress / refresh rate is ok for the monitor.
 
Last edited:
Tried it with both of my monitors 1 at a time and both at once, neither combination seemed to make a difference. Both resolutions and refresh rates seemed sensible too!
 
Unlikely to be a faulty card when he states he gets the same issue with a known working card.

Cinimod3 said:
Tried it with both of my monitors 1 at a time and both at once, neither combination seemed to make a difference. Both resolutions and refresh rates seemed sensible too!
Click to expand...

But are they both the same monitors? Try a friend's monitor. What monitor do you have?

I would definitely try a different HDMI / DP lead too. It wasn't clear if you'd done this following joedeath332's suggestion, you just said that you'd tried both monitors.

I'd also be tempted to try the other stick of RAM, or even an entirely different DIMM, just in case there's some compatability issue there.
 
Cinimod3 said:
Tried it with both of my monitors 1 at a time and both at once, neither combination seemed to make a difference. Both resolutions and refresh rates seemed sensible too!
Click to expand...
I take it you also tried a different lead,, and also try switchching the way you connect the monitor from say dvi to hdmi if that is possibe
 
Participant said:
Unlikely to be a faulty card when he states he gets the same issue with a known working card.



But are they both the same monitors? Try a friend's monitor. What monitor do you have?

I would definitely try a different HDMI / DP lead too. It wasn't clear if you'd done this following joedeath332's suggestion, you just said that you'd tried both monitors.

I'd also be tempted to try the other stick of RAM, or even an entirely different DIMM, just in case there's some compatability issue there.
Click to expand...

On the monitor side, both are different (AOC E2343F 1920x1080 & a random old HKC 1360x768) tried both with DVI and Displayport -> DVI adapter. I'll try it with my HDMI projector and let you know if it works any better!
 
joedeath332 said:
The op could rule this out by removing the side from the pc and manually feeling the temps of the GPU & CPU ( incase a faulty sensor could be at play )
Click to expand...

I can't actually feel the CPU but the pump is running and the radiator feels about right for it running at a reported 30C.
GPU also feels about right for 60C so I doubt it is a heating issue although it does sound like one!

The HDMI cable/projector also didn't fix it.

Are there any strange hidden power settings that could cause something like this? I checked in windows power settings and set it all the individual settings to high/don't power save, also nothing jumped out at me in the BIOS but i'm not 100% sure what I'm looking at in there!
 
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