Upgraded cpu/mobo, now I'm getting low gpu usage in most of the games

[ForgottenB]

Hello everyone!

I've been reading these forums for years, and I always had my question answered before I even attempted to ask one.
But now I have some serious problem with my pc, I tried everything, and I just can't figure it out what's wrong with it.
Whom I'm going to ask for help, if not the best pc experts community.

I recently got a cpu and mobo from a friend, i5 4670 & Gigabyte Z87M-D3H.
Since I already had gtx 1060 3gb, also got it from him few months ago, because he bought 1080ti.
Previously I had an old athlon 760k paired with a88x-d3h mobo, and to eliminate bottleneck, me with 1060, and he with 1080ti, he moved to ryzen platfrom, and I took his z87 mobo i5 4670.

With old athlon 760k which is a major bottleneck for anything above gtx960, I was still getting a good fps in most of the games I play. Not perfect, but acceptable.
Then I saw an opportunuity to get more from the gtx 1060 3gb, and that is why I decided to get rid of old athlon.

Before you ask, yes I've done this a 1000 times, took my pc apart, cleaned in detail, re-apply paste, clean windows install.
Tried different releases of nvidia drivers, as well as the power managment modes, optimal, adaptive, max performance.
No overcloking, all at stock.

Here are some results from ''Rise of the Tomb Raider'' (Geothermal Valley level)

1. Athlon 760k & Gigabyte a88x-d3h & gtx 1060 3gb (2x4gb Ram in dc 1866mhz)
Benchmark Statistics (Run No. 1):
Min FPS: 6.2
Max FPS: 95.1
Average FPS: 46.9
Num Frames: 1386

2. i5 4670 & Gigabyte z87-d3h & gtx 1060 3gb (2x4gb Ram in dc 1600mhz XMP not enabled)
Benchmark Statistics (Run No. 1):
Min FPS: 4.6
Max FPS: 42.6
Average FPS: 23.5
Num Frames: 721

For example in AC Syndicate with 760k, I was getting a solid 40 fps. Resolution 2560x1080.
With i5 I get a slideshow of 5fps. Even though the cpu usage with i5 never goes above 80% of usage in most games.
Unlike 760k which works at 100% in most of the games, still kept a 1060 3gb working at higher usage than i5.
With I5 I get some major fps drops where gpu usage goes below 30%, again in most of the games I play.

The only game that seems to be working perfectly fine is Metro LL Redux.



I know that a gtx 1060 3gb is not ideal for my current monitor resolution, but still capable enough to run everything with some settings reduced, here and there, depends on a game.
Also none of the 2 cpus I have aren't top of the line, but what I just can't understand how in world is i5 4670 performing worse than old athlon 760k, especially in games.
It is like comparing a bmw m5 with a mini cooper, you watch the race, mini cooper wins, and you wonder how?
Everything else works fine though, browsing, media, blender.... only problem are games, from dx9-dx11, most of them.

Sorry if I neglected to provide more information, it is my first post here, so go easy on a new guy.
Much thanks in advance, to everyone!

 

[Mussels]

I feel like you might be running out of RAM, 8GB and a 3GB card is not a good match for 1440p at all


I can only assume a software change is whats behind your lag issues, somethings using more system resources (RAM or VRAM) and thats causing the lower FPS

 

[ForgottenB]

Mussels, I do agree that more ram and vram will do better, but can't understand why the sudden performance drop, with something that is definitely better than old athlon.
Gpu seems like is being barely utilized in most games. And it is not a 1440p, it is a 2560x1080 ultra wide 1080p. I terms of performance it closer to 1920x1080 than 2560x1440p.

 

[Mussels]

my bad, i see 2560 and auto correct to 1440p in my head

turn textures down, quit all the background programs and tasks you can... do what you can to reduce the background load on the PC and see if it helps

 

[basco]

athlon system never overclocked?

the gtx 960 had 4gb ram?

all the comparisons i looked at had better cpu like 4790k or 7700k and 1060 3gb should be like 30% ahead

if not that is really odd

what happens when ya overclock the 4670--500mhz + should be easy

 

[Waldorf]

Does something like 3DMark11 run results where they should be?
Did you clean install the Nv drivers with profiles wiped?
Did you install gfe/shadowplay?
Since one game performs proper, i suspect problem on sw/setting side rather than cpu/gpu.
Did you load bios defaults, then tweaked for your rig?

 

[ForgottenB]

Fry178 & basco.
I know it is odd, but yes, athlon 760k was running at stock, despite the fact it was struggling to deal with 1060 3gb, always kept it at 60-90% of usage.
With i5, the usage of 1060 went down to 30% , sometimes goes a little higher, except in Metro LL, almost all the time gpu usage never goes below 90%.
Yes I always do clean install/re-installs when it comes to drivers. Shadowplay, gfe not installed, I don't need them. Just a graphics driver, physx, including physx (legacy) in order to run some older titles.
The mobo is using latest F11 bios. Loaded all defaults, and disabled intel graphics as well.

I'm going to run 3dmark11 in a sec, posting results as soon as I can.

For some reason, I can't finish install of 3dmark11 v1.0.179. ''the timestamp signature and/or certificate could not be verified or is malformed''
Had an older version, ran it earlier and the gpu clock looks odd... not to mention the final score, cpu seems ok though.

I scored P8 518 in 3DMark 11 Performance

Intel Core i5-4670 Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060-3GB x 1, 8192 MB, 64-bit Windows 7}

www.3dmark.com

 

[Waldorf]

then something else is going on.
retest with xtreme profile.

physx set to the 1060 (not on auto), switch graphic settings to max/ultra for all games (not metro)
to put more load towards the gpu, switch power profile (temporary) for those titles to max perf to prevent the chip to down clock.
set low latency to ON, vsync to app controlled (turn on in-game).

 

[biffzinker]

Could it be the thread count, 4 cores/4 threads holding up select games that need more than four threads? All of the recent exploit mitigations Intel has patched Windows is applying might be hurting CPU performance. An i5-4670 is from the Haswell generation.

 

[Mussels]

GPU is in the primary slot?
SSD/primary drive is in sata port 0?
CPU and GPU temps (as well as clock speeds... HWInfo64 should be good for this)
And obviously you've made sure you're running the same in-game and NVCP settings?

 

[Waldorf]

since at least one game mentioned works fine (Metro), i doubt its any of the slot/port/temp related stuff.

 

[Mussels]

since at least one game mentioned works fine (Metro), i doubt its any of the slot/port/temp related stuff.

It certainly could be, with metro as the one exception for whatever reason (lower VRAM usage, less reliant on memory, whatever)

Hell, show us some pics of inside the system as well as Hwinfo, CPU-Z and GPU-Z we might spot something

 

[Caring1]

CPU dependant game? where the slower Processor forced the GPU to pick up the slack.
Disable 2 cores in the Bios to test.

 

[ForgottenB]

Sorry for the delay guys... I was in a nap mode. different time zones.

biffzinker, I agree about the 4c/4t is not enough for latest titles, but so was the 760k, also 4c/4t, and yet managed to keep the card at higher usage than i5, which is what makes me so confused.
Mussels, yes gpu is of course in a pci-e 3.0 x16 slot, as well as my ssd, here are some images of temps, clocks....
Caring1, I'm going to try to disable 2 cores, to see if there is any difference... now that might makes sense, since athlon may be 4c/4t, but it uses 2 modules, each one has 2c/2t.





I even installed one of earlier releases of nv drivers, use to be the one that gave most fps, while I was still running athlon.

 

[Mussels]

That's hardware monitor which is a much inferior program, please run HWinfo64 and leave it in the background when you game, so we can see min/max temperatures.

You may need more than one screenshot to get the clockspeed and temp values, i highly recommend TPUcapture - i use alt-print screen and capture just the hwinfo window itself

What i want/need to see is your min/max clocks and temps for CPU and GPU, so we can tell if somethings throttling or not boosting correctly

 

[ForgottenB]

Yes, those temps were captured on desktop.
Usually in game, cpu goes to 3.6, 3.7, and 3.8.... strange thing about the gpu is that it shows frequency of 1.934-1.936mhz while in game, even though the default turbo clock is 1.797.
When set on optimal/adaptive power management, clocks may differ depening on gpu usage. But again I rarely see it above 50% of usage, in some games it goes even below 30%... The only exception is Metro LL, there the card works at its max.
Temps on cpu never exceed 50c, even when I push it at 100% for an hour. On gpu temps are usually between 60-65c...

 

[Mussels]

please grab the screenshots, we may see something you miss.

Pics of the hardware inside the system would be great too

 

[bubbleawsome]

Y’all it’s not going to be the CPU being too weak. I’ve got a 4670k at home sitting at stock for summer and it clocks along with a 1070 just fine, and the 1070 is still limiting the frames. On what earth is a 4c ~3.5Ghz CPU going to collapse frame rates to averaging 20? Haswell is really only one generation behind the skylake derivatives.

 

[biffzinker]

Haswell is really only one generation behind the skylake derivatives.

Two generations if you count Broadwell.

Broadwell (microarchitecture) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[ForgottenB]

Ok, I've seen everything but this is something that I just can't understand.
Yesterday, I tried different gpu, first with old gtx 950, than I tried 1070, borrowed from a friend, just for a testing purpose. Both cards work flawlessly, but not my gtx 1060 3g.
The most interesting thing, is that my gtx 1060 works perfectly in another system...
So that leaves me no choice but to sell it, and get myself 1070.

Before I go shopping , I'm already looking at:
1. Seasonic Focus Plus 550 gold - 83 euros
2. Cooler Master MWE 550 gold - 80 euros

I may have tested it, but if I'm going to use it for a long run, say 2 or 3 years, better to be safe than sorry.