Benchmarks are OK, But Sudden Drop in Gaming FPS

Hello,

I will try to make this as short as possible so I won't lose your kind attention.

I have an MSI GT62vr laptop: CPU i7-6700HQ, GPU Nvidia 1070, 16GB RAM.
Vsync is turned off in Nvidia control panel and in all games setting.
In all scenarios, Sports mode is activated in MSI Dragon center which brings the GPU and CPU to their max native clocks without any Overclocking.

Problem: My system has been running perfectly for 10 months up until last week where it can no longer achieve the regular high fps in the same games I used to play.
In Ryse son of Rome on ultra, I used to get steady 80-100fps, now it cannot go above 64fps max, while dipping to 22fps.
In Crysis 3 on very high, used to get 70-80fps, now 35-65fps.
In Battlefield 3 on max settings, used to get above 150fps, but now down to 70-110fps.
The degree of jitter or throttling of FPS is high in all these games. The FPS ranges significantly while gaming. I tested for overheating and it is not a temperature problem.

Investigated causes of the problem so far: (5 and 6 are the most interesting)

1. Drivers: I updated to the latest nvidia 388 driver using DDU clean install. Problem not solved. I reverted to the factory stock nvidia drivers using DDU. Problem still not solved. I did not "remove the present and nonpresent monitors" (under options of DDU) which is recommended to do, so I will try that again soon although I doubt it.

2. Temperature: I monitored the GPU and CPU using MSI Afterburner and their temps range between 64C and 80C at maximum during Gameplay. Correct me if I am wrong, these are not considered as high temps which might cause voltage throttling.

3. Utilization: This bothers me as MSI Afterburner shows that neither the GPU nor the CPU are being fully utilized up to 100% in any of the games at max settings. They go up to 70%. The CPU is always more relaxed at 40%-60%. I saw recordings on youtube of identical systems playing same games with GPU always on 99% and much higher FPS than my current performance. My GPU does get clocked to around 1700Mhz during gaming while on Sports mode. It can reach a max of 1919Mhz native. Never OC'ed anything.

4. Malware and Cryptomining: Some theories on the web state that malware can cause what i am experiencing so i am running a deep system scan while typing this.

5. Benchmarks: This is the tricky part. All synthetic benchmarks such as Unigine Heaven, Valley, and PC Mark 7 resulted in competitive scores which are comparable to similar systems. My Low FPS problem is only in games.

6. Lowering Settings: I lowered graphics to lowest settings in all the above games and I still got the low fps problem. This is very perplexing. Ryse Son of War wouldn't go above 64fps again even on lowest settings same as on ultra settings! It went over 100fps before this problem started. Same for other games. Lowering settings does not change FPS. What does this tell you?

I am lost, out of options, and appreciate your guidance on how to restore my original FPS power.

EDIT: Added a recording of the insane GPU throttling that is happening and attached the corresponding GPU-Z sensor log.



Thank you

 

Sounds like some kind of power management issue or Nvidia drivers being a jerk to you. Did you go to NVIDIA control panel and set the power from optimal power to maxiumum performance?

 

Yes. But it has always been on optimal before with no issues and very high in-game fps.

 

Just make it high performance and see what happens. Also you can go into afterburner and check on power and voltage limit on, so you can see if this is indeed a power management issue. If the power and voltage lim don't show up while gaming, then you might have some sort of malware etc.

 

I checked the voltage and power limit boxes in MSI Afterburner as you can see in the attached image at the bottom of this post, but I cannot see the respective readings while in game. Everything else shows. Does that mean my system is infected?

EDIT: I used GPU-Z to monitor voltage in-game and it peaked briefly to 1.05V. Screenshot inserted below. Idle volt is 0.575V. The peaks are in-game, I then took the screenshot after quitting the game.

 

Odd, so if there is no power lim and voltage lim showing up, then it's unlikely that this is caused by power management either then. Can you upload the log file as well?

 

Here is the GPU-Z log file. The sensor readings will peak briefly for a couple of minutes, that is when I launched the game and then quit it shortly after playing. The FPS in-game was terrible for GTX1070 (20fps to 50fps on crysis 3), much lower that its previous performance (70fps to 80fps)

 

What version of Windows are you using? Maybe a cancerous Windows Update screwed things up. If you have a good drive image, restore that and see if it helps. If you did not take time to create one, try using System Restore and restore everything to a time before your problems started. If neither of those options are available or do not resolve the problem, make an image of what you have now, even though it does not function correctly, and do a clean OS install. If that doesn't fix the problem you can restore the image you made before the clean OS install.

If a clean install fixes it, delete the image of the screwed up OS and start installing your software and stuff. Once that is done, make an image and keep it safe for recovery.

 

Windows 10 Pro, Build 15063 all up to date.

A clean OS install is my last resort, and will cost me a 4TB Passport from Costco and a lot of time backing up my data and then re-tweaking the clean copy of windows. Huge hassle. I will try all these recovery options as a last resort, but first i though I need to figure out what is actually going on so I can avoid the problem in the future. A sudden, inexplicable drop in FPS down to unplayable levels in old games on a brand new laptop! All while clock and temperature readings are normal, and while benchmarks are perfect! It is very puzzling.

 

Have you already tried using System Restore? If not, try that and select a restore point known to be good before your problems started. It could still be something with the OS if that doesn't work, but it might save you a lot of wasted troubleshooting time and effort if it works.

If it is 10 months old it is no longer brand new and that is more than enough time for something to get buggered up with the OS. It takes less than 5 minutes for an update or other corruption to mess things up.

 

No I haven't and I will try system restore tomorrow morning Thank you, Fox. You make it sound easy Will report back once I am done.

If anyone has any ideas please share them with me and help me develop my investigation around the 6 points which I listed in the original post, or additional points which i might be unaware of regarding this problem. Quick summary of the problem:

A sudden, inexplicable drop in FPS down to unplayable levels in old games on a brand new laptop! All while clock and temperature readings are normal, and while benchmarks are perfect! It is very puzzling.

Could any of these "Potentially Unwanted Programs" detected by Malwarebytes be causing the problem?

PUP.Optional.Bytefence
PUP.Optional.InstallCore
PUP.Optional.Productsetup.A

Could it be a hardware malfunction in motherboard? But why is the problem only in games and not reproduced in stress tests and benchmarks?

Could it be a very well hidden cryptomining agent that is leaching my processing power?

 

I see a lot of PerfCap Reason 16 in your log file, even when the GPU is trying to use boost clocks. Was the log file created running a game, or just working on the desktop? Might be relevant. And, it might be something that System Restore can correct if it involves corruption.

If System Restore does not help you can try running SFC /scannow as well.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/...16-quot-util-quot-while-actively-playing-gam/

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/perfcap-reason.184859/

 

Alright, can you take geforce experience, turn MSI afterburner on and record a gameplay footage of around 2-3mins? Something in your GPU-Z Log kinda throws me off guard and I don't know how I should take it.

 

Thank you gentlemen. Very insightful feedback from you.

In the log file, gaming is from 00:42:29 to 00:44:10. I do find that the GPU is limiting itself when I need more out of it. It never reaches 99% utilization like it should in some games. Overheating cant be the problem when it only reaches 80C max. I will try your suggestions in the next 12 hours.

Ok will do asap in the next 30mins.

 

I uploaded a short gaming session with temperature, fps, clock, and usage readings. Notice how the FPS keeps varying between 30fps and 70fps all the time, plus it never goes up to its normal levels which i used to experience between 80fps and 100fps. The corresponding GPU-Z logfile for this session is attached.
Better quality video uploaded.

 

Turn off Windows Game Mode and Windows Game DVR. That has caused headaches for many, including me. It is on by default and borked with the Windows Fall Creators Update.

 

HTWingNut, it means so much you passed by here

Unfortunately I already turned those off but they had no effect. My GPU is throttling, FPS is throttling at low ranges, no longer able to achieve maximum performance out of apps which I have used successfully all year. Temps seem fine though. The video above says it all. I am slowly heading towards a clean windows install which I am trying to avoid.

EDIT: When you lower all video setting to the lowest and the FPS does not improve and the GTX1070 keeps throttling, what does that mean? CPU bottleneck?

 

No, there is no bottleneck or such. There is something causing the GPU boost to act weird, probably software based. You have normal temps, no voltage or power limit issues, so it has to be something that either the games or your OS is doing, since the games ran already good, it's likely that it's somthing that your OS is doing right now.

I have an idea what might be causing your issue.
Do this:
- X + Windows button
- System
- On the left side Advanced system settings
- Select the Advanced tab and then the Performance radio button
- Select the Change box under Virtual memory
- Un-check Automatically manage paging file size for all drives
- Select No paging file, and click the Set button
- Select OK to allow and restart.

Tell us how ur performance is now.

Also can you post a link of your 3dmark benchmark btw?

 

Thank you for your continuous support. I will check all the above and report back.

 

Gents,

During high load, HWinfo sensor's report shows CPU throttling during gaming (Core 0 and Core 1 at the bottom of the sensor screenshot). CPU Core temps go above 85C too. Does this explain the wild fluctuation in FPS in my previously uploaded gaming video? I am interested in your ideas for solutions: Is a simple dust cleaning and repaste enough? Or shall I just return the laptop? Because it is only 10 months old and this is a deal breaking problem that can keep on happening.

Will a clean format fix this? Unlikely right?

 

I want to know what should be my strategy when communicating this to MSI RMA department.

Should I simply ask for a fix where they clean up the dust and reapply the thermal paste? What should be the IDLE temps in best conditions after repairs? Right now my Idle temps are mid-40s for CPU and GPU. It has always been like that since purchase.

Should I ask for a full return? an exchange?...

 

Cleaning it up and repasting might take care of it. Should at least give it a shot. I doubt the CPU alone would cause huge drops in FPS, but it is possible the GPU is also having thermal throttling. Thermal throttling occurs at abnormally low temperatures with Pascal GPUs. If that doesn't help the problem, then you could return it.

 

Furmark bench results:



Observations:
-Under limits, I had Power:1, voltage:0, temp:0, OV:0 (does that mean i have power limitation?)
-GPU Clock: stayed at ~1290Mhz whereas it does go up to 1900MHz in games as seen by MSI AB
-Voltage: ~0.7V whereas it does go up to 1.05V in Games as seen by MSI AB
-Temperature: 70C at the end, benchmark ended faster than I thought. Less than 5mins.
-FPS: min 113, avg 119

Given all the above, does that mean I only have CPU thermal throttling and nothing wrong with the GPU? Except for that power limit observation in furmark?

 

Guys, from a technical perspective, something is not right. I understand that many of you are diagnosing this as thermal throttling which requires repasting the CPU\GPU and cleaning the fans but here's what is actually happening: (nvidia GTX1070, i7 6700HQ)

When I bring the fans up to max RPM using Cooler Boost, the CPU cores do not go beyond 69C and the GPU is stable at 63C. However, the games are not running at their max possible framerate like they used to and the framerate keeps fluctuating severely in the lower range (30 to 70 fps on old games that should ideally run at stable 90-100fps).

How do you explain that? Yes, thermal throttling is happening at normal fan mode, but not at max fan mode, yet the drop in framerate is still there. Even if I send it to MSI for repasting I do not think the problem will be solved. Yes I tried a clean install of many nvidia drivers including the one which was working fine all year long but that did not fix the problem. I can't find a reasonable explanation. And no it is not a creator's update issue because i was gaming fine after the update. This started to happen only 1 week ago.

 

Anyone can help me analyze these results from 3DMark?

 

UPDATE: Things are back to normal, framerates are restored to original high levels. Here's how:

1. I got sick of this laptop last morning because of all the inexplicable issues described in this thread.
2. Decided to go for a walk, held SHIFT key+clicked on shutdown button in start menu
3. Unplugged the laptop from AC power
4. Plugged it back in 8 hours later, and all games run optimally again.

I changed absolutely nothing in software settings, drivers, and of course never opened the case.

What was that all about?!

 

Ghosts in the machine.

 

Pressing the Shift key and the shutdown button tells the PC to do a full shutdown rather than a hybrid shutdow. Get rid of the Hybrid Junk aka Windoze Fast Boot. It’s trash and has screwed a lot of computer users. Today we use ssd’s. Not slow old spinning hdd’s for OS.

I know... The pastel colored Tile Windoze Ghostware