Having problems with my GTX 680

[Metric Tensor]

This is how things go down for me:

1. Start a game, say.....Crysis 2. I get 60fps. Wait for 1 minute, and my fps dips to 55fps, and jiggles back and forth anywhere between 55fps to 60fps. Wait another 30 seconds, and the fps dips to 48fps, and jiggles back and forth from 48fps to 55fps. All this happens when I'm not moving and no enemies around. I'm just standing in a stationary position staring in one direction.

2. When the fps dips down like that and jiggles around, I get a 'jerky' feeling, instead of buttery smooth

3. If I alt-tab to my desktop and wait a while, and maximize back the game, the fps will improve, only to dip back down again after 30 seconds.

I'm pretty desperate here, can anyone help me?

[dnottis]

whats running in the background? is vsync enabled? OS?

[Metric Tensor]

Yes, vsync is enabled, but it isn't the problem. Even if I turn off vsync, the same performance dip happens, but at a slightly higher fps.

I'm using Windows 7. And I use fraps

[SSJBillClinton]

Driver version?

[Darren Hodgson]

@ Metric Tensor - The issue you're describing seems to be the infamous v-sync stutter bug which was fixed (mostly!) with the v302.80 drivers. Try installing one of the v304.xx drivers or the latest v305.53 drivers to see if that fixes your issue.

[Metric Tensor]

Originally Posted by Darren Hodgson

@ Metric Tensor - The issue you're describing seems to be the infamous v-sync stutter bug which was fixed (mostly!) with the v302.80 drivers. Try installing one of the v304.xx drivers or the latest v305.53 drivers to see if that fixes your issue.

I have tried updating to 304.48, and i have tried rolling back to 301.10. It doesn't work. And the problem persists despite turning off the vsync.

[Metric Tensor]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5320152...ream/lightbox/

Just take a look at it. Is the GPU meant to be that erratic? What is the cause of this?

[Nono06]

With Unigine yes. There are intensive scenes and some which are not. (on my side max FPS is at 233 and min at 14)

Do you have d3doverride runing? Is triple buffering enabled?

Do you have any antivirus that is running in background?
if yes, maybe you can try to turn it off to see the impact.

When you say you are using Fraps. It is only for monitoring the FPS. You are not recording with it, right?

[Metric Tensor]

Originally Posted by Nono06

With Unigine yes. There are intensive scenes and some which are not. (on my side max FPS is at 233 and min at 14)

Do you have d3doverride runing? Is triple buffering enabled?

Do you have any antivirus that is running in background?
if yes, maybe you can try to turn it off to see the impact.

When you say you are using Fraps. It is only for monitoring the FPS. You are not recording with it, right?

I have enabled triple buffering. It can't be an antivirus problem. I never had a problem with it. I'm not recording with fraps.

[Nono06]

Can you monitor the GPU and CPU usage when this is happening?

Have you noticed any unsual HDD/SSD activity?

[-Tj-]

alt+tab and check in taskmanager its priority class.


Mine was set to below normal and I/O at lowest..

I set it back to above normal and I/O to high (with process lasso) and its a little better, but not much and its mostly in MP. It kinda reminds me of BF2BC MP & low gpu usage - PunkBuaster compatibility fault, Nvidia made a hack to by pass this issue with newer drivers.

SP is ok with high gpu usage all the time, even by small streaming stutters..


I mentioned this at nvidia forums a couple of times, but there was no real response. I guess i'll have to fill a form and send directly to driver support team.

[Lane]

Originally Posted by Metric Tensor

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5320152...ream/lightbox/

Just take a look at it. Is the GPU meant to be that erratic? What is the cause of this?

Can you monitor your core speed with gpu-z ? the usage should not fluctuate so much at all.. Or try increase the power limit

Even with 2 cards, the usage is really steady there in Unigine.. ( i have just let it run 30sec )

[NeoandGeo]

That GPU usage all over the place in Unigine is worrying. You should be topped out at 99% the vast majority of the time, at least my 680 is.

[Metric Tensor]

I know. At one point of time, it was constant at 99%. I really don't know what is making my gpu fluctuate like that, and that's what i really need to find out.

[Metric Tensor]

Okay, I noticed something. When looking at afterburner and task manager side by side, I noticed 1 thing. Everytime my gpu % dips down, my CPU % spikes up. Is this normal?

[Nono06]

Well, it is expected. Maybe something in the background is taking CPU resources therefore the GPU is not receiving enough data.

You can check with Process explorer which one (or more) is doing that:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

[Metric Tensor]

Originally Posted by Nono06

Well, it is expected. Maybe something in the background is taking CPU resources therefore the GPU is not receiving enough data.

You can check with Process explorer which one (or more) is doing that:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/s.../bb896653.aspx

Not really, when the gpu % dips down, the CPU % goes up for Heaven. All the extra CPU is under SystemIdleProcess. So i guess that means that no other program is taking up the CPU. If there is, I would be able to see the CPU utilization of other processes. All of them except Heaven & SystemIdleProcess are practically zero

[defaultname365]

Originally Posted by Metric Tensor

This is how things go down for me:

1. Start a game, say.....Crysis 2. I get 60fps. Wait for 1 minute, and my fps dips to 55fps, and jiggles back and forth anywhere between 55fps to 60fps. Wait another 30 seconds, and the fps dips to 48fps, and jiggles back and forth from 48fps to 55fps. All this happens when I'm not moving and no enemies around. I'm just standing in a stationary position staring in one direction.

2. When the fps dips down like that and jiggles around, I get a 'jerky' feeling, instead of buttery smooth

3. If I alt-tab to my desktop and wait a while, and maximize back the game, the fps will improve, only to dip back down again after 30 seconds.

I'm pretty desperate here, can anyone help me?

Hi. I was scouring the web when I came across the EXACT same issue I once faced with my new GTX 680.

After ditching my GTX 460 and replacing it with an awesome (and huge) 2.5 slot Palit Jetstream GTX 680 2G, I ran into the exact same problem.

Games like "Battlefield 3" ran superbly smooth. But games like "Crysis 2" had noticeable slowdowns. I spent a few days online trying to find a solution and it ultimately came down to this - - CPU bottleneck.

For some odd reason, games that are GPU intensive ran smoothly (e.g "Battlefield 3"). Games that are CPU intensive didn't quite do so well. The idea is something along the lines of ... games that are GPU intensive scale linearly with the CPU while games that are CPU intensive do not scale linearly with the CPU. Not quite sure what it means, but my solution worked.

My solution was simple - overclocking my i7 870 from 2.93GHz to a nice (and stable) 3.8GHz. Ditched my lousy Intel stock coolers for a relatively cheap CM 412S. It wasn't difficult at all to overclock. Having had zero experience in OC'ing a processor, I simply increased by BLCK while increasing my VTT until Intel Burn Test ran very well without crashing. Had to lower my memory speed but that's fine. I had my machine turned on for 24 hours and no problems at all. Oh, and do disable HT - - this will really prevent you from reaching nice OC speeds.

That's it. After reaching 3.8GHz on my i7 870, every game I ran with my GTX 680 ran buttery smooth, including "Crysis 2" (1920x1080, DX11, High Res Texture Patch, err... Xbox 360 Controller for Windows). And every game I threw at it afterwards played really smooth ("Metro 2033", "Max Payne 3", "Arkham City").

[psyside]

Smell like CPU bottleneck.