• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.
  • The forums have been upgraded with support for dark mode. By default it will follow the setting on your system/browser. You may override it by scrolling to the end of the page and clicking the gears icon.

Need help identifying this problem with my GPU please help!!

monkeymanagers

New Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2022
Messages
17 (0.01/day)
My GTX 970 starts to downclock when in high demand areas or in general when playing games sometimes it downclocks very low or just a bit and it never clocks up unless I open like the menu I also never tampered with it no overclocking everything is stock and this starts to create bad fps drops in areas in games or bad stuttering for me I monitored using MSI afterburner and tested on witcher 3 and you'll see what I mean through this video.


Also when monitoring in GPU-Z I don't know if my GPU is supposed to do this but one of my 6 pin connectors isn't drawing the same amount of power as my other one



Just need to know how to fix this or if my GPU is dying or my PSU is




These are also my pc specs:
EVGA GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0
Intel Core i5-10400F
B460M PRO-VDH WIFI
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
Thermaltake 850w
 
Last edited:
Sorry, whats the problem?
Theres nothing wrong in that video. You have your FPS capped at 60, so the GPU simply doesnt need to run at 100% all the time.

Some parts of that video you're at 100% GPU usage, some you're not. In those higher usage areas, you simply have graphics set too high for a 970 to maintain 60FPS.
I feel like you've made a lot of assumptions without verifying things... the second PCI-E power rail doesnt get used until the first ones loaded. They're never even, nor meant to be.


GPU will downclock and save power, if it has no work to do (FPS capped to 60, low demand area)
GPU will run at 100% load and FPS will drop, if you're asking too much from it.


Your FPS raises in the menu because it's easier to render.
 
I mean I don't think my GPU should be downclocking though someone did a witcher 3 benchmark test same GPU and throughout it he stayed at a stable clock speed the whole time don't understand why my GPU is downclocking when we have the same GPU and I'm running the same graphic settings and some settings are at high instead of ultra.

 
I mean I don't think my GPU should be downclocking though someone did a witcher 3 benchmark test same GPU and throughout it he stayed at a stable clock speed the whole time don't understand why my GPU is downclocking when we have the same GPU and I'm running the same graphic settings and some settings are at high instead of ultra.

Why would you not want it to downclock when it isn't being fully utilized? You use less power and generate less heat.
 
Low quality post by Assimilator
My GTX 970 starts to downclock when in high demand areas or in general when playing games sometimes it downclocks very low or just a bit and it never clocks up unless I open like the menu I also never tampered with it no overclocking everything is stock and this starts to create bad fps drops in areas in games or bad stuttering for me I monitored using MSI afterburner and tested on witcher 3 and you'll see what I mean through this video.


Also when monitoring in GPU-Z I don't know if my GPU is supposed to do this but one of my 6 pin connectors isn't drawing the same amount of power as my other one



Just need to know how to fix this or if my GPU is dying or my PSU is




These are also my pc specs:
EVGA GTX 970 FTW ACX 2.0
Intel Core i5-10400F
B460M PRO-VDH WIFI
Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4
Thermaltake 850w
PUNCTUATION EXISTS.

Use it.

So that you don't look like a first-grader.
 
Run 3DMark or other synthetic benchmark so we can compare it to other GTX 970 results.
 
I had a dual 6 pin 970FTW. Nice little card if you didn't try to overclock it. If you did, it would do that. Say I set to run at 1475, it would.. and then it would drop down to 900MHz or so, and kind of sit there and work its way back up a hundred MHz and then back down. Oddly my fix was to power down, pull the card, and clear the cmos and let it sit for a couple of minutes. Sometimes I would have to wipe the driver too, it was kinda funny that way.. but not in a haha kinda way.
 
Hi,
Use msi afterburner and set a core clock curve to maintain the core clock no mater the load.
Use the 970's turbo clock max.
 
I did a benchmark on MSI kombustor and monitored using gpuz and msi afterburner-


at the end it shows my gpuz monitorin
kombuster is a stress test than a benchmark - thats why the power limit was buried;. try time spy, firestrike (3Dmark) or heaven, valley, catzilla . .
 
I mean I don't think my GPU should be downclocking though someone did a witcher 3 benchmark test same GPU and throughout it he stayed at a stable clock speed the whole time don't understand why my GPU is downclocking when we have the same GPU and I'm running the same graphic settings and some settings are at high instead of ultra.


If the GPU is not being used, it will downclock. You have a 60FPS cap so at any time you have spare GPU power, it downclocks. the end.


There is no problem with the hardware here, you just lack some understanding how of how these things work and why. Work up some questions, we'll answer them.
 
3.5GB ram doesn't get you far especially when it has to access that slow ass 512MB left over
 
kombuster is a stress test than a benchmark - thats why the power limit was buried;. try time spy, firestrike (3Dmark) or heaven, valley, catzilla . .
Used unigine heaven and benchmarked when I first started it my display crashed and the benchmark and then we back to normal so I downclocked my gpu by -30mhz core clock and then It never crashed

No downclock


With downclock
 
NVIDIA > Control panel > Manage 3D settings > Power management mode = SET HIGH performance ... re-test
 
Used unigine heaven and benchmarked when I first started it my display crashed and the benchmark and then we back to normal so I downclocked my gpu by -30mhz core clock and then It never crashed

No downclock


With downclock
you can either downclock it -30Mhz or increase the voltage. look in the first bench, it went from 1.21 to 1.012 then crashed. the lower clock (-30) is fine with 1.008.
 
you can either downclock it -30Mhz or increase the voltage. look in the first bench, it went from 1.21 to 1.012 then crashed. the lower clock (-30) is fine with 1.008.
So do you know what the problem could be? is this my GPU dying or my PSU or is there a way I can just fix my GPU from downlocking
 
Last edited:
So do you know what the problem could be? is this my GPU dying or my PSU or is there a way I can just fix my GPU from downlocking
idk, watching the witcher and the heaven benchmark, what i see is the voltage start rather massively throttling ~68c. (temp throttling voltages was a thing on 980tis not sure about 970s tbh) its really hard for me to tell w/o it in my hand, watching it while benching/testing. personally i would max the fans in afterburner and start easing up on that downclocking. if it starts flaking out, try bumping the voltage ~13mv. idk, see how it goes.

though when did this start to happen is a question, no driver updates or is this card new to you?

all things do look like its is an old, tired card. i think it just needs a little more juice over time but yeah, its seen its best, hint.
 
Buy a new gpu.
 
idk, watching the witcher and the heaven benchmark, what i see is the voltage start rather massively throttling ~68c. (temp throttling voltages was a thing on 980tis not sure about 970s tbh) its really hard for me to tell w/o it in my hand, watching it while benching/testing. personally i would max the fans in afterburner and start easing up on that downclocking. if it starts flaking out, try bumping the voltage ~13mv. idk, see how it goes.

though when did this start to happen is a question, no driver updates or is this card new to you?

all things do look like its is an old, tired card. i think it just needs a little more juice over time but yeah, its seen its best, hint.
So I did what you said shown in this video


I was not able to up the voltage on my card and tried using Nvidia inspector too didn't work but I noticed when I downclock my clock speed my voltage goes up when I downclock my mem clock nothing happens my GPU is pretty old had it for a couple of years same with my PSU which is why I don't know which is failing and I don't wanna buy a GPU or a PSU and then find out it didn't fix anything also I did have power management at maximum performance also tried k-boost doesn't work


this is also my GPU-Z sensors while running the heaven benchmark if this helps really wanna know what to fix thanks for the help btw
 
So I did what you said shown in this video


I was not able to up the voltage on my card and tried using Nvidia inspector too didn't work but I noticed when I downclock my clock speed my voltage goes up when I downclock my mem clock nothing happens my GPU is pretty old had it for a couple of years same with my PSU which is why I don't know which is failing and I don't wanna buy a GPU or a PSU and then find out it didn't fix anything also I did have power management at maximum performance also tried k-boost doesn't work


this is also my GPU-Z sensors while running the heaven benchmark if this helps really wanna know what to fix thanks for the help btw
Says power is problem

Time you bin the gpu, 3.5 is absolutely under minimum spec today
 
Hi,
Evga used some really crappy pads and paste back then still do lol
I'd swap it all out and try again pads and paste are as cheap as it gets to see if it helps.
 
this is also my GPU-Z sensors while running the heaven benchmark if this helps really wanna know what to fix thanks for the help btw
Replace immediately the GPU fan, this is half-dead.
 
Hi,
Evga used some really crappy pads and paste back then still do lol
I'd swap it all out and try again pads and paste are as cheap as it gets to see if it helps.
Temps don't get that high though could that still work

Replace immediately the GPU fan, this is half-dead.
My GPU fans spin though even when I put them at 100% but how can that work
 
Temps don't get that high though could that still work


My GPU fans spin though even when I put them at 100% but how can that work
Capture2.PNG

thats your problem - yeah back to the power pin :p the card is power throttling because pin#2 isn't doing anything.

why? good question.

i doubt its the PSU, if you want to, try run prime95 while running heaven, if the PSU doesn't shut down, you're fine. could have a connector/cable problem, try another cable - i am assuming that TT 850 has a few(?).

but i've not seen this before, it like half the vrms/power planes wanna don't work. and that a no fix kinda thing.

btw, adjusting voltage in AB won't show idling, its adding to the boost clocks (P0 power state) but using Kboost (via evga PX not AB!) should have locked you to 1.212v.
 
My GPU fans spin though even when I put them at 100% but how can that work
Use your wallet, buy a new genuine DC fan, mount it and test again.
This is my free-of-charge advice.
Or, give this card so to be serviced from an professional expert.
 
Back
Top