Lag Spikes, Slutters And Low Usage Issue From New Graphics Card While Gaming!

[Taimoor Baig]

Hello everyone.... I hope all my brothers here on Pakgamers are fine..... So lets jump towards the topic without wasting time

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MY BUILD:
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Intel Xeon E3-1245 V3
Cooler Mater Hyper 212 LED TURBO Cooler
Asus Q87M-E
8GB RAM
500GB Seagte HDD ##########NOTE########## HDD's health is 0% and performance on 100%
Msi Gaming X GTX 1060 6GB
Antec VP450 PSU
Cooler master MB600L Case

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Issue:
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I recently purchased a MSI GAMING X GTX 1060 6GB without box and with one week checking warranty for 28500PKR. I got back home and placed the card in my build and noticed that my PSU don't have a 8-pin connector! So i purchased a 6 to 8-pin LEGIT connector. Ran the card and everything was fine

next day which is today when i turned my pc on, i noticed a very unusual behaviour from my GPU! I am going to express this in points.

1. I started getting slutters while gaming and sudden lag spikes

2. Downloaded MSI Afterburner Monitored my GPU and CPU usage and found that whenever there are fast moves or heavy vegetation the GPU Usage drops down to 46% or even less!

3. GPU and CPU usage continously keep fluctuating.... get stable sometimes like when driving on an open highway with less things around

4. Temps never exceed 61*C

Check out this detailed experiment conducted by me. So I tested FEW GAMES and SUPERPOSITION BENCHAMRK. Here are the results: Please go through them thoroughly

NOTE: All games were running on 1280x1024 resolution (my native)


##########VAMPYR ON MAXED OUT GRAPHICS SETTING#############

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1949.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 52.0
Memory Used [MB] =2213
GPU Load [%]=25
Memory Controller Load [%]= 12
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=1
Power Consumption [W]=55.3
Power Consumption [% TDP]=27.7
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0620
CPU Temperature [°C]= 58.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 4433






##########Need for Speed Most Wanted 2012 ON MAXED OUT GRAPHICS SETTINGS #############

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1936.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 54.0
Memory Used [MB] =1438
GPU Load [%]=51
Memory Controller Load [%]= 21
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=0
Power Consumption [W]=91.2
Power Consumption [% TDP]=53.0
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0500
CPU Temperature [°C]= 50.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 2741







########################CSGO OFFLINE WITH BOTS MAXED OUT SETTINGS###############

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1949.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 48.0
Memory Used [MB] =716
GPU Load [%]=31
Memory Controller Load [%]= 16
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=3
Power Consumption [W]=57.5
Power Consumption [% TDP]=28.7
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0500
CPU Temperature [°C]= 56.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 3889

#####################BATMAN ARKHAM ORIGINS MAXED OUT#################[b

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1936.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 54.0
Memory Used [MB] =992
GPU Load [%]=13
Memory Controller Load [%]= 6
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=0
Power Consumption [W]=44.5
Power Consumption [% TDP]=22.2
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0500
CPU Temperature [°C]= 52.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 2873


#####################UNIGINE SUPERPOSITION 1080P HIGH###############

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1923.5
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 61.0
Memory Used [MB] =3112
GPU Load [%]=99
Memory Controller Load [%]= 50
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=0
Power Consumption [W]=125.6
Power Consumption [% TDP]=62.8
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0500
CPU Temperature [°C]= 54.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 4946


#####################UNIGINE SUPERPOSTION CUSTOM 720P LOWEST################

GPU-Z Logs:
GPU Core Clock [MHz] =1949.0
GPU Memory Clock [MHz]= 2003.4
GPU Temperature [°C] = 52.0
Memory Used [MB] =788
GPU Load [%]=52
Memory Controller Load [%]= 32
Video Engine Load [%]=0
Bus Interface Load [%]=1
Power Consumption [W]=74.7
Power Consumption [% TDP]=33.6
PerfCap Reason []=4
VDDC [V]=1.0620
CPU Temperature [°C]= 52.0
System Memory Used [MB]= 4869


any help will be very appreciated!

 

[beret21]

@Taimoor Baig
I have somewhat similar PC and i have recently upgraded to RX 480.

The first thing that can help u is. In MSI afterburner move the power limit (%) slider all the way up and try running the game again. I hope it will solve it and dont worry its totally safe. You are just allowing your GPU to use more power IF required under SAFE limit.

If that doesnt work !

Your CPU might be the limiting it. IF m not mistaken the E3-1245 V3 is 4 core 8 thread CPU. The thing with 8 thread is they make it look like the CPU is not being 100% used and u have headroom but in reality running a 4 core 8 threaded CPU @ 70-80% means its being utilized pretty much fully. Games mostly cant suck full power from 8 threads. Long story short if u can overclock it by any means it will help a lot. Like i have my i7 2600 non k oced at 3.9GHz on all cores instead of default 3.5GHz.

One other reason is Grass in GTAV is very hard on GPUs. I set it at High and i have resolution scaling at 1.5x. So when i drive on grass i go as low as 45FPS rest i have 60fps capped stable.

Third thing is sudden spikes can also depend on RAM and HDD filled capacity (I hope u know as the HDD starts to reach its max capacity it slows down significantly). Now (RAM) most of the people say that 8GB is enough for today's gaming but i think 12GB is enough. Although in game u might be seeing usage around 5.5GB still if u had more RAM this usage would have gone to 6 or maybe 7. So the games previously working fine with lower GPU might give u some spikes after sometime of play as u have higher game settings and you are putting more stuff on RAM than before.

A thing to note on the PSU. You have a good PSU and it is enough for your system as well BUT if not mistaken that PSU is pretty old model. So if u bought it used or if that thing is used for years it might not be that reliable anymore. CAPs age fast in heat and under heavy load.

Why should you up the powerlimit% in MSI afterburner.
Your max clock is not stable as you can see in most of the games its fluctuating. BY moving that slider your GPU will take more power in games to keep that clock at max instead of dropping clock when it doesnt have enough juice to keep it.

 

[frac]

Okay, for starters I suggest you remove all GPU drivers and do a fresh install. Sometimes drivers can cause these issues. Keep in mind that you'll probably need to use a third-party tool to remove all of it.

Second, I suggest you buy molex to 8-pin instead and see if that helps. It may be some weird issue from the PSU not being able to provide enough juice from that rail. Make sure your RAM is properly configured in dual channel if you're running two sticks of 4GB.

If nothing works, take your GPU out and unscrew the coolers. Make sure it is not physically damaged or burnt anywhere.

 

[Taimoor Baig]

Okay, for starters I suggest you remove all GPU drivers and do a fresh install. Sometimes drivers can cause these issues. Keep in mind that you'll probably need to use a third-party tool to remove all of it.

Already did that using DDU

- - - Updated - - -

Second, I suggest you buy molex to 8-pin instead and see if that helps. It may be some weird issue from the PSU not being able to provide enough juice from that rail.

Then why UNIGINE SUPERPOSITION runs fine?

- - - Updated - - -

If nothing works, take your GPU out and unscrew the coolers. Make sure it is not physically damaged or burnt anywhere.

Already did that

- - - Updated - - -

see this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-3808845/lag-spikes-slutters-gaming.html

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/fo...issue-from-new-graphics-card-while-gaming-pl/

 

[haroonshaikh]

you are playing at 1200 resolution with 1060.
Your processor is the major limiting factor here..

 

[frac]

you are playing at 1200 resolution with 1060.
Your processor is the major limiting factor here..

Oh yeah, that's probably it. Your CPU is a bottleneck.

 

[SaQfi]

Well, thats why many people on kitguru and tomshardware suggest not to use xeon as a gaming processor, well many people in Pakistan do sell it by calling it a gaming machine, and it gives similar or better performance in daily, and cpu intense tasks but still it is not optimized for gaming in any ways, you can just play games on it. Well as above comments, i will also say the culprit is your CPU that is bottlenecking your GPU.

 

[Zer0]

First thing first; I'm not an expert but I think I know what your problem is.

Your GPU runs on 180W and the fact is; The PCIe x16 slots provides upto a maximum of 75w, and the 6-Pin power connector provides an additional 75w. Whereas an 8-Pin power connector provides a whooping 150W.

So as you can see; 75W + 75W = 150W. Your GPU is 'only' getting 150W out of 180 and no adapter in the world is going to solve that problem, I'm afraid. You need a new PSU with an 8-Pin power connector, preferably 500W+, if you've multiple HDD/SSDs or a power hungry CPU (80-100W).

I hope it helps.

 

[frac]

PSU doesn't seem to be the issue here. He's playing on a low-resolution that's taxing on the CPU. If he plays at 1080p and maybe locks framerate at 60 he can get better performance.