TR Forums

Hi folks,

I've gone over this problem a few times, and it confounds me. About 50% of the time I'll switch on my gaming PC and launch a game, only to find that the frame rate is down in the region of 30-40 fps, whereas it had been running flawlessly the day before at 60 fps. The solution to this problem is always to just restart my PC, but I really want to figure out what is causing the problem.

I've talked to my GPU manufacturer, and been through all of their helpful advise of updating drivers, flashing the motherboard, resetting components ect, but none of it worked. As is often the case with PC problems, I assume that the power supply is somehow responsible, but it's running really well, even under load. It never crashes my PC as I expect a faulty PSU to do.

I've run some comparison tests using Asus GPU Tweak, and the only differences that I can see is that the power target status is 20% lower at 60% when the PC is under performing and GPU usage is running at almost 100%; whereas normally the power target is running at 80% and the GPU usage is at 70%.

Is it possible that some BIOS setting, or a conflict in windows is causing my PC to under clock itself at startup? I've looked at the usual power settings in windows and the Nvidia control panel, but both are set to 'max performance'. I'm reluctant to start messing about with BIOS settings, but maybe someone here could give me some guidance?

My PC specs are as follows:

Windows 10
Asus Gtx 970
Intel i7 4790k @ 4.0 GHz
Asus Z-97-A
Corsair HX750i 750W

Thanks a lot!

styxie_22 wrote:

Hi folks,

I've gone over this problem a few times, and it confounds me. About 50% of the time I'll switch on my gaming PC and launch a game, only to find that the frame rate is down in the region of 30-40 fps, whereas it had been running flawlessly the day before at 60 fps. The solution to this problem is always to just restart my PC, but I really want to figure out what is causing the problem.

I've talked to my GPU manufacturer, and been through all of their helpful advise of updating drivers, flashing the motherboard, resetting components ect, but none of it worked. As is often the case with PC problems, I assume that the power supply is somehow responsible, but it's running really well, even under load. It never crashes my PC as I expect a faulty PSU to do.

I've run some comparison tests using Asus GPU Tweak, and the only differences that I can see is that the power target status is 20% lower at 60% when the PC is under performing and GPU usage is running at almost 100%; whereas normally the power target is running at 80% and the GPU usage is at 70%.

Is it possible that some BIOS setting, or a conflict in windows is causing my PC to under clock itself at startup? I've looked at the usual power settings in windows and the Nvidia control panel, but both are set to 'max performance'. I'm reluctant to start messing about with BIOS settings, but maybe someone here could give me some guidance?

My PC specs are as follows:

Windows 10
Asus Gtx 970
Intel i7 4790k @ 4.0 GHz
Asus Z-97-A
Corsair HX750i 750W

Thanks a lot!

Hmm, if I'm thinking what I'm thinking...

Set the power target to 100% manually in GPU Tweak, or the highest allowed value. Apply changes, and make sure that "apply overclocking on startup" option is enabled. Dunno if that might help, but I'm thinking your video card is probably accidentally limiting itself. (And have it start on Windows boot. Are you using GPU Tweak II, by the way? If not, change to that version.)

Hmm, if I'm thinking what I'm thinking...

Set the power target to 100% manually in GPU Tweak, or the highest allowed value. Apply changes, and make sure that "apply overclocking on startup" option is enabled. Dunno if that might help, but I'm thinking your video card is probably accidentally limiting itself. (And have it start on Windows boot. Are you using GPU Tweak II, by the way? If not, change to that version.)

I'll give that a try. I'm using the most recent version of GPU Tweak II, but I can't find any option for "apply overclocking on startup" only one saying "automatically start GPU Tweak on startup" which I've enabled. Is that the one you meant?

styxie_22 wrote:

Hmm, if I'm thinking what I'm thinking...

Set the power target to 100% manually in GPU Tweak, or the highest allowed value. Apply changes, and make sure that "apply overclocking on startup" option is enabled. Dunno if that might help, but I'm thinking your video card is probably accidentally limiting itself. (And have it start on Windows boot. Are you using GPU Tweak II, by the way? If not, change to that version.)

I'll give that a try. I'm using the most recent version of GPU Tweak II, but I can't find any option for "apply overclocking on startup" only one saying "automatically start GPU Tweak on startup" which I've enabled. Is that the one you meant?

First: go to Professional mode, set power limit to 100% or as high as it goes, make a new profile (+ button, type in name) and apply that newly-created profile. If the values were changed, when you press the + button there, the new profile will have the new settings.

Options > Main > GPU Tweak II Startup > Automatically start GPU Tweak II when I log on to Windows
Options > Tuning Settings > Apply settings each time GPU Tweak II starts

Make sure both are checked.

To verify, try running MSI Kombustor's default benchmark (not the furry toruses!), or anything that you were using already that can run right up to the power limits at 100% load.

If there doesn't seem to be any power-limiting, then try using the "default" Gaming profile the app provides for the video card. Do not use the Silent profile, as that limits TDP to 90%.

I'm not sure this is what's happening to your machine, but back when I had a Sapphire Radeon HD5670, I noticed ~2 years into ownership that games just started to run choppily. A reformat didn't fix the issue and I was using the same old drivers and same old games that ran fine for so long. I noticed that replacing the 5670 with an older and less powerful HD4670 fixed the problem, which made me 99% sure it was the video card. After some investigation I've found that the 5670 was not 'boosting' its clock speed in-game, and just sticks with its 'power saving' clock. As you know, modern CPUs and GPUs have multiple power states: a 'low clock' state, a 'normal' clock state (which is what's usually advertised as the base clock, IIRC) and a boost state (Turbo™). Of course there could be intermediate clocks between these but these are the 'main' power states.

Oh, and one more thing:

Even if you aren't going to use MSI Kombustor's stress-testing tools, you should at the very least run the contained GPU Shark monitoring utility (it might be also available separately). I find it much easier to read than any "graph" monitoring tools. Remember that you can stress test just fine in a window if it's single-GPU - I'd probably run these tests at 1280x720. It should tell you what the expected base and boost speeds currently are, and what the clock speeds actually are at the moment, and reasons for limiting, if any.

permanent solution.

1st method:
I have the same system. z97-a and 4790k. This board have this issue and solution is to change bios setting to "asus optimal" mode. It overclocks the cpu a little bit. if you have a good fan did it.

2nd method:
Bios - Advanced menu - systme agent configuration - NB PCI configuration. Change Slot-1 setting to GEN2. only%3 perfonmance you will see but not recognize. This motherboard doesn't allow GPU to run at full speed with AUTO or GEN3 enabled on slot-1 for some reason.

3rd. method
Making your overclok manually.
the key here is to overclock first core aboce stock speed. So if you have 4790k(4.4 stock speed) You can make first core 4.5ghz and leave others at 4.4ghz. and make myour vcore 1.200v, this setting will propably solve your issue.

what o reccomend is 1st method. Activate Asus optimal mode in bios if you dont know how to overclock.