Why is my PC performing so badly, when I've spent so much money on it?

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 15:50

Firstly, here's my specs
http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/8531045

I have 2x Acer Predator XB271UH 165Hz G-Sync Monitors.

This is a newly built rig, all parts were bought within the last 2 weeks (around £2,500 including monitors and all peripherals). However since I've built it it has been the worst piece of garbage I've ever spent money on so far, I'm really angry, upset and shocked by this experience.

So, what are my problems?

I get stutter in every app that uses Hardware Acceleration, whether that's Spotify app, Discord app, Firefox, Chrome etc etc, scrolling looks like I'm getting 20FPS or something, its like a slide show, also looks like the page is tearing whilst scrolling. It also does the same when scrolling on the start menu, settings, etc.
Games are just as bad as above, frames are about right, but even a drop from 140 to 139 causes the biggest judder/stutter.

I just don't know what to do next, short of sending everything back for a full refund, as it's clearly not working as it should.

What have I tried?

I've reinstalled numerous versions of Windows 10 from 1607 right the way to 1803 (I'm currently on 1803 as they all performed the same)
I've tried using onboard graphics, however I can only obtain a max of 60hz because my monitors only allow 60hz under HDMI and my mobo doesn't have a DP - This test is pointless.
Installed nvidia drivers ranging from 388.00 all the way to 397.55
Ran numerous benchmarking tests (such as the one above) and they all come back as "working normally" or within the range that they should be.
Tried putting "prefer max performance" in nvidia control panel and also "High Performance" in windows Power settings
Tried disabling all C-States in bios
Tried turning HPET off in Bios AND Windows
Updates Bios + all chipset drivers
Tried using debug mode in NVCP
Re-seated GPU and RAM
Reset bios to factory settings numerous times
Ran MEMTEST which came back with no errors
Turned hardware acceleration off on apps that use it, but scrolling becomes far far worse

After all of the above I still cannot get this resolved, do I have a faulty piece of hardware? Did I buy an incompatible piece of hardware? I really need to get this fixed. I'm practically begging for help here!

Thanks in advanced for any replies that come, I appreciate any single bit of help regarding getting this issue solved!

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 16:03

Rroff said:
You've a cocktail of things that can cause poor performance and stutter with hardware acceleration:

One of the recent updates to Spotify has done some strange things to hardware acceleration and some of the recent nVidia drivers + Firefox in combination have some issues as well - Spotify with Firefox and recent nVidia drivers all with hardware acceleration enabled = LOL for a good number of setups

Multimonitor especially with G-Sync in the mix can cause stutter (try with only one monitor) - playing with the multi-display/mixed-gpu acceleration settings in the nVidia control panel and using another setting other than optimal power management in the nVidia control panel can help there.

Thanks for the reply. Its not just spotify/firefox that I get such problems, I pretty much get the bad scrolling/stutter in every app on my PC.

I've just unplugged my 2nd monitor to check performance, but before I did that I looked in nvidia control panel at the multi-display settings but couldn't find such an option? Did I miss something?

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 16:09

Rroff said:
In nVidia Control Panel under Manage 3D Settings there should be an option about half way down the list for "Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration" you will have to try all 3 settings though as depending on what is causing the issue it might not be as simple as just enabling one of them.

(Single display performance mode option is relevant to multi-monitor - in multi-monitor it means that the primary display will be the priority for performance while the secondary display will only update if it won't affect the primary one).

Yeah, I definitely don't have that option.

https://imgur.com/a/0V1bOsf

I also get the weird scrolling/stuttering with my 2nd display disconnected.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 16:16

Rroff said:
https://www.reddit.com/r/nvidia/comments/6kefgj/multidisplaymixed_gpu_acceleration_not_in_3d/

Possible it is obsolete with those drivers dunno I've not really had a reason to play with it in awhile. Your screenshots seems to indicate G-Sync is off as well - was that intentional?

Yeah, I've turned that off during troubleshooting, just incase that's being problematic, but it appears its not the number one cause, as it still happens without it being on.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 16:49

Mysterae_ said:
Covering the basics here, what video cable are you using? HDMI is terrible on my X34 gsync monitor (gsync only works over DP, I use it as a stop-gap for switching between onboard graphics and the 1080Ti's).

Using both the DisplayPort cables that came in the boxes to my XB271UH Monitors.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 17:28

I'm starting to wonder if my GPU is maybe bad.

I get the same performance without the 2nd monitor connected.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 19:20

pastymuncher said:
What make and model psu do you have?

CX 750M - Corsair

VaderDSL said:
Can we grab a screenshot of device manager by any chance? with most of the categories expanded? Not running RAID or anything like that? Also does the same thing happen when only using 1 monitor?

https://imgur.com/a/PO5gXME

Same performance on single monitor, no RAID.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 19:27

I don't have Samsung Magician.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 19:33

Rroff said:
Oh random thought and probably not it but just in case if you have Samsung Magician running try completely stopping the UI for it - it used to have some bugs with the way it used DirectX that would cause issues with hardware acceleration and some games.

TBH though sounds like you are one of the people like in that reddit thread I linked to affected by the mess that seems to be Windows 10 + more recent nVidia drivers though another reason I stuck with Windows 7 on my gaming PC.

8700K doesn't work in W7 though?

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 21:30

VaderDSL said:
As above, wonder why Montor Technology isn;t showing as GSYNC.

What does the setup GSYNC option, setup multiple displays and configure surround all show?

I turned gsync off as a test to see if gsync was the problem. The problem remains.

JL94x4 · 13 May 2018 at 22:19

jsmoke said:
Check cpu and gpu temps. Google cpuz I think it's called and download the hardware monitor.

Temps are fine, 60c CPU max and 72 GPU max. I get browser scrolling stutter even at idle.

JL94x4 · 14 May 2018 at 13:54

BongoHunter said:
Can you post a screenshot of the different tabs from CPU-Z

And what are you currently monitoring temps with?

Got all your power connectors plugged in correctly? E.G GFX has PCIE Power connectors - mobo has 8pin EPS and 24 Pin ATX connected?

Got your graphics card in correct PCIE slot?

https://imgur.com/a/PEbdIsi

Scaling on CPUz is pretty bad at 1440p lol.

Hwmonitor/hwinfo and coretemp, they all state the same. Yes all power connectors are plugged in correctly.

jsmoke said:
72 is a bit high so is 60 for that matter.

60c is too hot at full load on a 8700K?

These are full load temps.

bbbearrr said:
is that at idle ?

Full load.

Lartyconshayo said:
Is xmp profile enabled for RAM ? Needs to be done in Mobo BIOS. Default is disabled just set it to XMP profile 1

Yes, profile 1 XMP is enabled, 2666MHZ

JL94x4 · 14 May 2018 at 17:39

VaderDSL said:
Does the issue occur when running the boot SSD only, SATA disconnected and running only 2 sticks of RAM and one monitor with displayport?

Exactly the same.

JL94x4 · 14 May 2018 at 22:51

I've found the problem I believe, but I can't fix it.

Frametimes in games is unreal. Here's some frametimes in Conan Exiles.

JL94x4 · 16 May 2018 at 18:07

fadingfool said:
That jump in pagefile usage would indicate a lack of ram - so definitely check the ram usage (both main-board and GPU). With a spike like that and corresponding dip in frame rates I suspect the ram on the GPU may be faulty.

This may be relevant. Its funny you mention that, when I try to OC the memory on Afterburner, as soon as I click apply I get a split second of artifacting, even underclocking memory gives the same result, overclocking the core clock on GPU doesn't give artifacts. Did a memtest on my onboard RAM and that returned no issues.

Would you say its definitely VRAM based on this?

JL94x4 · 16 May 2018 at 19:34

BongoHunter said:
I think you can get a mem tester for vram, e.g

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/memtestcl.html

Just ran it, 0 errors.

JL94x4 · 16 May 2018 at 20:26

VaderDSL said:
It's nothing to do with something like shadowplay etc?

I don't have that installed, I never install geforce experience.

JL94x4 · 17 May 2018 at 19:45

andshrew said:
Although you've dismissed this as pointless, was Windows still stuttery when running from the onboard graphics at 60hz?

Unless Afterburner is reading it incorrectly, your page file usage seems insane at a minimum of 7GB used and max of 15GB. It's possible that a driver or similar is causing a memory leak. What's your page file actually set to?

Page file is set to windows automatically set, around 3GB I believe.

JL94x4 · 17 May 2018 at 19:51

JL94x4 · 18 May 2018 at 01:01

David Bisset said:
Yeah was the huge pagefile while physical ram was below 8GB that made me wonder about the ram sticks. If they are not tested individually you can get odd results so might be worth some time.

Could Afterburner be doing VRAM + RAM = Combined amount?