gtx 1080 underperforming

I mainly play Overwatch and for some reason i'm dropping frames like crazy with the lowest settings(i should easily get 250+ stable)
I play at 1600x900 or even lower res and 75% render scale plus lowest settings and still, my frames fluctuate like crazy. (from 300 down to 200 and so on)
The thing is if i up the settings or resolution the frames stabilize a little bit but stay in the same range, which is kind of weird cause usually the lower your settings etc. the higher your frames or not?

I just want my game to run smooth without any problems, since i'm used to play on lower settings, it just feels bad and the unusual low frame rates do worry me a little bit.

If there is anything i can do/test, please let me know.

 

@BlackNova92 I bet you're CPU bottlenecked. My understanding is that the "Reduce Buffering" option set to ON in Overwatch isn't the greatest idea if you're CPU bound (since it reduces the size of the flip queue/max prerendered frames which larger sizes for help out the CPU from what I understand).

What I would try if I were you is:

1) Go into Nvidia Control Panel and go to program settings (not global -- you don't want this set globally), then find Overwatch and set the Power Mode to "Prefer Max Performance". For me this appears to have reduced stuttering in OW.

2) First try turning reduce buffering OFF in-game (video settings)

3) Set Max Prerendered Frames to default (Let the 3D app decide) in the nvidia control panel.

First I'd see if that helps -- for myself, I use a .reg script to force games to default to "High" cpu priority but that may not be necessary these days.

Notably for Reduce Buffering in the video options, Blizzard's official support in their threads only recommends turning it ON if you're consistently at or above your monitors refresh rate (not frequently dipping beneath or having frametime spikes far below it).

If what you're experiencing is "hitching/stuttering" (short "freezing") than hopefully the above can help to alleviate that a bit. I'm not certain if Overwatch uses 2 or 3 for its default Flip Queue size -- if it's 2 and you're really CPU bound, you may want to force the value to 3 in the control panel if the above steps don't fully alleviate your issue. Notably the "default" value for the flip queue / max prerendered frames is 3 in windows, for AMD cards, and for Nvidia cards too prior to the introduction of "Use the 3d app setting" on Nvidia cards. CaptaPraelium has a great write-up on how FFR (future frame rendering) works here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BattlefieldV/comments/9vte98/future_frame_rendering_an_explanation/ The TL;DR as I understand it is that higher values can help out the CPU+ensure the GPU is always kept fed with stuff to do/provide better hardware utilization/less CPU + GPU idling and smooth out frametimes/reduce stutter while lower values though can provide lower input lag, but a balanced approach is likely preferred overall generally speaking where there are reasons why all games don't simply default to using a Max Pre Rendered Frames value of 1 (FFR disabled). The Witcher 3 for example turns into a stuttering nightmare with uncapped fps if I force FFR/MPRF to 1 (and that's with an 8700K + 1080 Ti).

Oh, finally if you're on one of the gaming laptops that has a 1080 in it, be sure that your laptop is plugged into the wall -- otherwise games will run like complete shite.

EDIT:

You might also try capping your framerate to a value that is consistently achievable since in certain titles, uncapped fps can have a lot of discernible microstutter has been my experience.

 

The lower the resolution, the more CPU bound you become. If you're running Overwatch at 1600x900, a GTX1080 is being completely wasted....

 

Cant you just bump the resulution up? Use dsr/vsr if you must to move some of the load to gpu. Like sykozis said 1080gtx at 900p is wasted.

 

I've tried the nvidia settings before, back and forth tbh, about the reduce buffering thing(when enabled, it doesn't lower my input lag when i check it ingame), for example i lock my frames at 144 and get a ms of 6.9 on all 3 SIM's, with or without reduce buffering.
The only time it did something or usually does, when i limit my frames outside of the game with rtss for example, without it it would bump up to 8-9ms and so on.
i mean i can get over my 144hz/fps easily but as soon as i lock the frames it sometimes dips under it.

about your witcher game, this is basically what happens in OW for me, uncapped or 200 feels and looks like 60hz, absolutely disgusting, i dont know why.

but yeah, i'll try to do the things you mentioned again and see if it does anything, all i want is to have a good time in this game and fighting to optimize it for over a year is just... you know.

 

yeah this is what i did but the game feels so much better on a lower res for some reason.
i mean i can try it again, also, do you know what ingame settings are mainly used by the gpu? so i can force my gpu to do some more work?

 

At 1600x900, there is no "in game setting" that is going to increase the load enough for the game not to be CPU bound. That is your entire problem. You're forcing the game to be CPU bound. Either replace the 1080 with something slower....or increase the resolution and play the game how it was intended to be. If you're going to game at 1600x900, a budget card is a better choice than a high-end or enthusiast card. The 1080 simply can not process the data slow enough....as strange as that feels to type....

 

I'm seeing a lot of bullshit advice in this thread. Your CPU (according to your profile is an I7) has absolutely nothing to do with it. You say you're getting 300-200fps in Overwatch which is totally normal, once you hit 60+ fps can you really tell the difference? Crank up your resolution and in-game settings and enjoy, your 1080 is not underperforming.

 

@jbscotchman If he's running at 900p with a 1080 then he is almost certainly CPU bound and the flip queue not being forced to "1" (leave it at default or 3) can help reduce stuttering (AMD themselves say this in their note to users for the Flip Queue) -- the link I included to CaptaPraelium's thread goes into more detail about how exactly all of that works.

As for the other suggestion regarding "Prefer Max Perf" this is because "Optimal Power" (the default) is known to cause some issues in specific games -- namely stuttering in my experience since sometimes the GPU can randomly clock down or won't reach it's highest clocks for some reason. It's not common that this is an issue is my understanding, but it is something that's rather harmless to give a shot in the game's profile.

My comment regarding reduce buffering is directly from Blizzard support -- they've said it in several of their official forum threads in response to questions regarding the setting.

The framerates he's describing overall seem fine to me/inline with expectations, but the problem we're trying to solve here is the frequent "Hitching/Stuttering".

 

Oh for crying out loud: Who runs their games like this? Being 100% CPU limited is asking for trouble.
Your CPU is giving all it has, and you;re saying to him: NOT GOOD ENOUGH, NEED MOAR!
Meanwhile the poor thing has to do all kinds of things, irrespective of spitting out hundreds of FPS within the game. So when it goes 300fps,200fps,300fps,200fps, ofc it wont feel smooth.

Tell me you're hitching/stuttering when limiting at 144 or 120 FPS.

If not, it's working as intended. Jesus Christ this is PC gaming 101.

 

Wow, you can spend all day tweaking unnecessary settings. I'm gonna play games without messing with all that bull crap.

 

@jbscotchman If you're not experiencing any issues, than "Leave it at default and forget it" is a perfectly fine approach -- totally agree. OP said they are experiencing issues and asked for suggestions that might improve their experience though. If I or somebody else in the thread is mistaken about something we've said, it would be helpful if you could correct whatever we got wrong.

 

1080 is more of a 720p card tbh, 1600x900 is getting a bit greedy. Defo a problem on the CPU end though, something ain't right there. This game tends to like fewer and lower clocked cores. I would suggest a Pentium 4 @1.3 ghz if your struggling to keep above 300 fps. Good night.

 

Yeah that is obviously correct, but what about, lets say 1440p, sometimes the card sits at 40% usage, sometimes it goes up with 1440p, i gave up using 1080p because the only thing that cranks up my usage is setting my fps limit to 300, which is bad as i've mentioned above, it fluctuates a lot and the overall feel is super stuttery.

so if i can manage to use a higher res with gpu-bound settings, i might be able to keep a high usage and almost no dips, that's what my main goal is.

also i just discovered the nvidia inspector fps limiter mode settings that people use in csgo, stuff like PS_FRAMERATE_LIMITER_2_CONTROL_DELAY_FLIP_BY_FLIPMETERING,
would that do anything in overwatch?
just mentioned that because people say it helps to fight against stuttering etc.

 

you my friend need to chill, i am here to ask for help, to "improve/change" my settings accordingly alright?

 

Normally you fps limit with

1. Ingame FPS limit
2. RTSS
3. Nvidia Inspector.

In that order.

1st post by EerieEgg,
after that wall of text he wrote and which might have worked in 1979. he wrote you teh ultimate tip. Have you read it , have you tried it?

 

I admit freely... what gets me is ppl doing exotic sh1t, tweaking, having mystic configs, and then going all bewildered OH IT"S NOT WROKING SO HOT, HWO COME??

 

My sarcasm meter just blew up.

 

i understand that, i have nothing "exotic" going on or whatever, so yeah, i get what you mean though.

 

yeah i'm testing it atm, frame limit is via rtss because OW's limiter is not as accurate, also would rtss overwrite the inspector fps mode btw(the flip by flip thing?)