GPU Performance levels - unexpected drops

0

In Speccy I see 4 performance levels of my GPU. Which component is responsible for choosing performance level? Because when I play a game (Heroes of the Storm, Rocket League, NFS 2015) this performance level changes from 4 to 1. In HotS it happens just when the game starts. It is by no means regular and I cannot replicate it. But if I had, I would say every fifth game or once in two hours of game it just changes.

It "fixes" itself after, say, half an hour. When I terminate the game using Alt + F4 and start it again, it is fine again.

It happened to my uncle first. Then we tested it out a little and we switched graphic cards. And now it is malfunctioning for both of us.

My configuration (from Speccy):

Windows 10
Intel Core i5 4460 (Haswell 22nm)
8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz
MSI B85-G43 (MS-7816)
1023MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST (Gigabyte)
Graphics drivers atm: 364.72
  • I am downloading 365.10 right now and will test it this night

My uncle's configuration:

Windows 10
Intel Core i5 3570
GeForce GTX 660

Any help would be appreciated

It might take me some time to test things out as I do not posses huge ammounts of time, but I want to resolve this and am personally interested finding out what is the matter.

We already tried:

  • clean windows install
  • updating drivers
  • completely removing drivers and installing them again
  • not installing the drivers at all(let windows handle it)
  • install older (January 2016) drivers
  • and googling a ton; either I phrase my query really badly, or there is not much to be said about performance levels

Václav Margy Sobotka

Posted 2016-05-02T15:30:43.667

Reputation: 11

I have never heard of "performance levels" you sure this isn't a Speccy only invention? – Ramhound – 2016-05-02T18:00:56.830

Are you running the performance metric while the games are running? If so it is likely that you will score much lower as fewer system resources are available to perform the metric tests. – Burgi – 2016-05-02T20:17:12.263

@Ramhound while i suspect that "performance level" is a speccy phrase, Nvidia p-states are a thing and are essentially the same as CPU self under and overclocking. http://windowedup.blogspot.com/2014/05/how-to-force-specific-p-state-using.html

– Mokubai – 2016-05-02T21:05:39.783

I would suggest using a tool such as GPU-Z to check the temperatures of your graphics card to make sure it is not overheating. https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

– Mokubai – 2016-05-02T21:08:07.107

Guys, thank you for your feedback.

@Burgi The Speccy is not a benchmark by any means. It only shows you stats about your system. Temperatures, frequencies, model numbers and so on. – Václav Margy Sobotka – 2016-05-09T05:42:09.053

@Mokubai We did this too. The temperatures were more than ok, I would say. About 40°C. I checked GPU voltage with GPU-Z when working properly and when misbehaving. The same, looked fine. Thank you for the info on the GPU states. Will read more about it. – Václav Margy Sobotka – 2016-05-09T05:42:13.273

Answers

1

TL;DR New power supply solved the problem.

So the problem is solved. Problems in my PC subsided over two or more days and everything works just fine. In the meantime, my uncle's power supply burned out and after installing a new one, it is all fine. There was a driver update in this time too, but we tried to test it with older drivers and it does not behave any differently.

But I do not get it at all. If it was power supply causing the problems to my uncle, why it was doing the exact same problems in my rig? I thought GPU cannot go to a power supply with a request for more power, when there is none left, saying to itself "Oh, nevermind, I will run on lower clocks". It should colapse and shutdown the whole system, right?

So I do not know. I don't have any means now to find out what the exact cause was. Something in a PS that can "infect" the GPU for a few days and subsequentially fade away.

Václav Margy Sobotka

Posted 2016-05-02T15:30:43.667

Reputation: 11

Asked: 2016-05-02T15:30:43.667

Viewed: 1 540 times

Active: 2016-05-09T05:53:03.840