Gaming FPS drop

[Vanjs06]

Hi All,

So I am a bit new to PC gaming and all surrounding it and I am struggling with a slight issue while gaming.

My setup is as follows:
> MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
> Ryzen 5 5600G
> Corsair Vengeance Pro SL 16GB (2x8GB)
> Crucial NVME M.2
> MSI Geforce RTX 2060 Super Ventus OC/GP edition

60hz Dell Monitor (P2422HE)

I have experienced this issue on MW3 and Forza Motorsport. It is meant to be a budget build also just for some basic gaming so hopefully I am not expecting too much.

Basically during gameplay the game runs fine at 60 FPS with minimal drops, after about maybe 10 minutes the game will slow down and like stutter and the frames will drop to 30 - 40 FPS and will fluctuate heavily. When this happens I Alt + Tab and change application and jump back to the game and the frames return to normal and it holds consistent but then this will happen again sooner and again swop application and I am good to go again. This happens on both Forza and MW3. I have run benchmarks in Heaven and this doesn't seem to happen there.

I have done some testing with RivaTuner to monitor during gameplay and with MW3 being my primary game I have some stats.
During Multiplayer games I get the following as peak values:
CPU Temp - 65C
CPU Utilisation - 48%
GPU Temp - 46C
GPU Utilisation - 62%
Ram sits 11 500Mb

During Warzone (Urzikstan Map), also peak values:
CPU Temp - 66C
CPU Utilisation - 72%
GPU Temp - 47C
GPU Utilisation - 75%
Ram 13 800Mb

What I have noticed while testing is that when the frame drop/stutter happens, the CPU jumps to 100% utilisation in both cases and after swopping applications it also returns to normal as per above.

I am not sure if it is worth mentioning I am on a 40 / 10 mbps fibre line which is connected to the PC via cable - I have requested an upgrade as well as my line speed is migrating so I will be on 120 / 60 mbps soon. I have seen in MW3 Multiplayer that it shows packet loss/packet burst when it drops.

I have messed around with settings/Google/Youtube etc and I am really stumped now as to what can be causing this and I am reaching out to the community if anyone has any suggestions or ideas?

Any links to articles that may be helpful would also be appreciated.

Thanks
Vanjs06

 

[8med]

What drivers are you running on you're GPU

 

[alcatraz5953]

Check your temps, sounds like thermal throttling

Edit

Will teach me to read the whole post, had a few PC's in the past with 100% CPU usage, google superfetch fix, I cant for the life of me remember what it is or what to do, but it has sorted out the 100% CPU usage problem for me in a few cases

 

[Dr Evil]

Deleted my previous post instead of editing it🤦🏻‍♂️

What i said was if the cpu is at 100% and the gpu is under utilised it usually points to a cpu bottleneck. Some games like COD and Battlefield etc are more cpu dependent so they require more cpu grunt.

As others have mentioned check your gpu drivers and perhaps download the amd chipset drivers from the amd website and update that as well.

In my opinion I don't think it's thermal throttling because the temp you posted shouldn't be throttling the cpu. I'm leaning towards a cpu bottleneck.

 

[thecurto]

Hi All,

So I am a bit new to PC gaming and all surrounding it and I am struggling with a slight issue while gaming.

My setup is as follows:
> MSI B450 Tomahawk Max
> Ryzen 5 5600G
> Corsair Vengeance Pro SL 16GB (2x8GB)
> Crucial NVME M.2
> MSI Geforce RTX 2060 Super Ventus OC/GP edition

60hz Dell Monitor (P2422HE)

I have experienced this issue on MW3 and Forza Motorsport. It is meant to be a budget build also just for some basic gaming so hopefully I am not expecting too much.

Basically during gameplay the game runs fine at 60 FPS with minimal drops, after about maybe 10 minutes the game will slow down and like stutter and the frames will drop to 30 - 40 FPS and will fluctuate heavily. When this happens I Alt + Tab and change application and jump back to the game and the frames return to normal and it holds consistent but then this will happen again sooner and again swop application and I am good to go again. This happens on both Forza and MW3. I have run benchmarks in Heaven and this doesn't seem to happen there.

I have done some testing with RivaTuner to monitor during gameplay and with MW3 being my primary game I have some stats.
During Multiplayer games I get the following as peak values:
CPU Temp - 65C
CPU Utilisation - 48%
GPU Temp - 46C
GPU Utilisation - 62%
Ram sits 11 500Mb

During Warzone (Urzikstan Map), also peak values:
CPU Temp - 66C
CPU Utilisation - 72%
GPU Temp - 47C
GPU Utilisation - 75%
Ram 13 800Mb

What I have noticed while testing is that when the frame drop/stutter happens, the CPU jumps to 100% utilisation in both cases and after swopping applications it also returns to normal as per above.

I am not sure if it is worth mentioning I am on a 40 / 10 mbps fibre line which is connected to the PC via cable - I have requested an upgrade as well as my line speed is migrating so I will be on 120 / 60 mbps soon. I have seen in MW3 Multiplayer that it shows packet loss/packet burst when it drops.

I have messed around with settings/Google/Youtube etc and I am really stumped now as to what can be causing this and I am reaching out to the community if anyone has any suggestions or ideas?

Any links to articles that may be helpful would also be appreciated.

Thanks
Vanjs06

I can't speak to MW3 but I've played plenty of Forza Motorsport and I'm pretty sure that it's a game problem and not a you problem.

The game is still pretty poorly optimised and I also see drops to 40 fps on about 30% of the tracks. Spa is one of the more egregious examples and the frame rate tanks to 40 fps midway through each lap without fail regardless of the settings used and the weather/track conditions.

If you've got Game Pass, download Forza Horizon 5 for comparison. That should run smooth as butter at a locked 60 fps with close to max settings on your rig. It's also far more fun IMHO, but that's going off topic

 

[charizarding]

Bit of an odd question but do you have a browser open with video playing? i had a odd issue on a AMD & NVIDIA laptop that would display similar behavior if i was watching youtube and playing a game. If i recall correctly, disabling hardware acceleration helped

 

[Vanjs06]

What drivers are you running on you're GPU

Currently running 546.33, checked now and there is an update 546.65 on the GeForce experience app. But even previously updating the drivers has been a routine and no luck.

 

[Vanjs06]

Check your temps, sounds like thermal throttling

Edit

Will teach me to read the whole post, had a few PC's in the past with 100% CPU usage, google superfetch fix, I cant for the life of me remember what it is or what to do, but it has sorted out the 100% CPU usage problem for me in a few cases

Thanks bud, I had a look and it has already been disabled (now called Sysmain I believe) - I don't recall disabling it but I may have through one of the previous forum posts on tips to improve FPS.

 

[Vanjs06]

Deleted my previous post instead of editing it🤦🏻‍♂️

What i said was if the cpu is at 100% and the gpu is under utilised it usually points to a cpu bottleneck. Some games like COD and Battlefield etc are more cpu dependent so they require more cpu grunt.

As others have mentioned check your gpu drivers and perhaps download the amd chipset drivers from the amd website and update that as well.

In my opinion I don't think it's thermal throttling because the temp you posted shouldn't be throttling the cpu. I'm leaning towards a cpu bottleneck.

Thanks bud will have a look into the AMD drivers again, I have previously done it but maybe a month or so back.

Just a question as I am still trying to get to grips with the bottlenecks etc. If the CPU is running well and not fully utilised for most of the game (provided I have to take a 2 second break to switch to desktop and back into the game) would that not mean the CPU is sufficient? I may not be understanding how it works correctly but my thought process is just that it works most of the time but after the stutter it drops unless I switch apps.

 

[Vanjs06]

I can't speak to MW3 but I've played plenty of Forza Motorsport and I'm pretty sure that it's a game problem and not a you problem.

The game is still pretty poorly optimised and I also see drops to 40 fps on about 30% of the tracks. Spa is one of the more egregious examples and the frame rate tanks to 40 fps midway through each lap without fail regardless of the settings used and the weather/track conditions.

If you've got Game Pass, download Forza Horizon 5 for comparison. That should run smooth as butter at a locked 60 fps with close to max settings on your rig. It's also far more fun IMHO, but that's going off topic

Sadly when chatting to another buddy of mine with a Ryzen 7600/RTX 3070/32GB RAM (If I remember correct) he stated the same about MW3, that it is poorly optimised.

I will give Horizon a go, I have never tried it on PC but just to see how it runs on the setup, thanks for the info bud.

 

[Vanjs06]

Bit of an odd question but do you have a browser open with video playing? i had a odd issue on a AMD & NVIDIA laptop that would display similar behavior if i was watching youtube and playing a game. If i recall correctly, disabling hardware acceleration helped

Thanks for the response, generally I don't have any apps or browser open, aside from MSI Afterburner minimised in background but that is about all.

Hardware acceleration has been disabled also already but didn't seem to help.

Also maybe worth mentioning although I am not sure it has any effect, I have also disabled the integrated graphics in BIOS since getting a GPU.

 

[8med]

This may or may not work for you but try uninstalling MSI afterburner and replace it with AMD adrenaline (just for monitoring purposes)

 

[Petester]

What Power Supply do you have?
You haven't listed that.

 

[BlueCrayon]

Did you remember to remove the plastic film on your CPU cooler before installing?

Also you need a higher refresh rate monitor bro it will change your life.

 

[Vanjs06]

This may or may not work for you but try uninstalling MSI afterburner and replace it with AMD adrenaline (just for monitoring purposes)

Howzit bud will have a look into this, I tried to install the drivers and AMD adrenaline last night but I think the wrong version as it wouldn't launch on my PC saying the hardware not detected or something to that effect. Thanks

 

[Vanjs06]

What Power Supply do you have?
You haven't listed that.

It is a 600w.

link: Raidmax Cobra Pro 600W Gold Modular PSU | Best Prices | Shop Online New Media Technologies

 

[Petester]

It is a 600w.

link: Raidmax Cobra Pro 600W Gold Modular PSU | Best Prices | Shop Online New Media Technologies

Ok . Raidmax sucks even their fake Gold range but it should still be sufficient for your system, unless its damaged in some way

 

[Vanjs06]

Did you remember to remove the plastic film on your CPU cooler before installing?

Also you need a higher refresh rate monitor bro it will change your life.

If the plastic was still on would it not have an impact on temps? Tbh I really cant recall but sure I would have.

I built the PC around last year April or so and ran with the onboard graphics until December when I purchased my GPU.

Monitor I do want to upgrade definitely but for now I cant seem to hold 60 FPS so a better monitor wouldn't help right now haha.

 

[Vanjs06]

Ok . Raidmax sucks even their fake Gold range but it should still be sufficient for your system, unless its damaged in some way

Thanks for the info, eish I was not aware of that.

I bought it new and can't see any evidence or anything that it's damaged.

 

[Petester]

Thanks for the info, eish I was not aware of that.

I bought it new and can't see any evidence or anything that it's damaged.

Check the power draw on your card while gaming. If its dipping that could explain your frame drops

 

[BearZA]

Check your temps, sounds like thermal throttling

Edit

Will teach me to read the whole post, had a few PC's in the past with 100% CPU usage, google superfetch fix, I cant for the life of me remember what it is or what to do, but it has sorted out the 100% CPU usage problem for me in a few cases

Superfetch usually will tax hdds at 100%, rarely CPUs, it preloads kak into memory that it thinks you might use. I disable it, ssds are fast enough.

What Power Supply do you have?
You haven't listed that.

This... Maybe it's starting to struggle as fans spin up.

Do GPU temps seem low? Or does the 20xx series just run cold?
Utilization also seems low, on Warzone especially, would you not be wanting to max your framerate at that stage?

Here is what I am thinking, the drivers are not kicking the GPU into its higher power levels? It would explain the cool temps, the <95% utilization, etc.

Try this:
Turn off VSYNC, make sure it's not enabled globally in the driver too, and check frame rates and utilization then. This should force the driver to kick the card up to its maximum power level.

 

[BearZA]

Run HWINFO and check if you get thermal throrrling (It has a specific section for that), on the CPU, if so, you need to check your cooler, paste and seating.

 

[goldfritter]

Superfetch usually will tax hdds at 100%, rarely CPUs, it preloads kak into memory that it thinks you might use. I disable it, ssds are fast enough.

This... Maybe it's starting to struggle as fans spin up.

Do GPU temps seem low? Or does the 20xx series just run cold?
Utilization also seems low, on Warzone especially, would you not be wanting to max your framerate at that stage?

Here is what I am thinking, the drivers are not kicking the GPU into its higher power levels? It would explain the cool temps, the <95% utilization, etc.

Try this:
Turn off VSYNC, make sure it's not enabled globally in the driver too, and check frame rates and utilization then. This should force the driver to kick the card up to its maximum power level.

60Hz monitor is probably why the GPU isn't being taxed.

GPU under-utilisation also wouldn't cause the spike in CPU usage to 100%? In fact it would be the other way around.

@Vanjs06 it sounds like a software issue to me. I'd reinstall graphics drivers with DDU, reinstall AMD chipset drivers, and reinstall both games from scratch (important). And do a careful check if there isn't some app or something that turns on in the background, try disable all background apps and see if that helps. Might ultimately be worth a clean install of Windows .

 

[BearZA]

60Hz monitor is probably why the GPU isn't being taxed.

GPU under-utilisation also wouldn't cause the spike in CPU usage to 100%? In fact it would be the other way around.

@Vanjs06 it sounds like a software issue to me. I'd reinstall graphics drivers with DDU, reinstall AMD chipset drivers, and reinstall both games from scratch (important). And do a careful check if there isn't some app or something that turns on in the background, try disable all background apps and see if that helps. Might ultimately be worth a clean install of Windows .

Hence why I said to disable vsync...

I'm still rocking 60Hz but run around 120fps with competitive shooters. But I agree, probably a software issue. The 100% CPU Spike is unusual.

I was playing something less demanding and had the frames capped, this caused my driver to keep my GPU memory at its lowest state, causing heavy stutters, I disabled the lower states and the game ran fine, re-enabled the lower states and capped the framerate a bit higher and the problem was solved, I'm on AMD yes, but NVIDIA has similar "performance" or power levels, I could imagine that some bug is causing it to stay in the lower levels instead of maxing out the core and memory clock speeds. As for the spikes in CPU usage, switching apps can have that effect sometimes.

One last thing @Vanjs06 I know you said you disabled the iGPU, but it may still be allocating RAM for it, go into your BIOS and check that the iGPU memory is set as low as it can go, you probably had it set to 2GB before you got the discrete GPU, that means your available system memory would be 14 and not 16.

Hope you get things sorted ey.

 

[Vanjs06]

Check the power draw on your card while gaming. If its dipping that could explain your frame drops

I had RivaTuner open while gaming and the average power draw is around 80w - 100w (not sure if RivaTuner is accurate in this regard or if I should use another app) - Before I undervolted it was running around 170w power draw.

Thanks will pay more attention to it when I test this evening again.

 

[goldfritter]

I had RivaTuner open while gaming and the average power draw is around 80w - 100w (not sure if RivaTuner is accurate in this regard or if I should use another app) - Before I undervolted it was running around 170w power draw.

Thanks will pay more attention to it when I test this evening again.

Oh lol. Have you tried removing the undervolt? Some games don't respond very well to adjusting frequencies and voltages on the GPU.

 

[Vanjs06]

Superfetch usually will tax hdds at 100%, rarely CPUs, it preloads kak into memory that it thinks you might use. I disable it, ssds are fast enough.

This... Maybe it's starting to struggle as fans spin up.

Do GPU temps seem low? Or does the 20xx series just run cold?
Utilization also seems low, on Warzone especially, would you not be wanting to max your framerate at that stage?

Here is what I am thinking, the drivers are not kicking the GPU into its higher power levels? It would explain the cool temps, the <95% utilization, etc.

Try this:
Turn off VSYNC, make sure it's not enabled globally in the driver too, and check frame rates and utilization then. This should force the driver to kick the card up to its maximum power level.

Thanks bud, I have disabled Superfetch as I am using SSD - Both the games and windows are installed on the SSD.

When I googled average temps of the card it does seem low in comparison to what other people have recorded online.

I haven't looked too much into VSYNC but yesterday I actually turned it on and I see it also locks the FPS to 60 - It actually seemed a bit smoother but I have been advised to turn it off before so was just testing it out. On MW3 I see FPS can be locked in the menus, in game etc so I locked it to 85 FPS initially but down to 60 FPS to match the monitor. Forza when playing online locks to 60 FPS due to the game, offline it sits around 100 FPS but does drop here and there not too badly though, only once it trips itself out and jumps to 100% utilisation then it drops to 40 FPS until I switch apps.

I will have a look regarding VSYNC globally as I am not sure if it is disabled there tbh, thanks will test this tonight.

 

[Priingles]

The 2060 Super and 5600G are both still very capable, it more so seems like a software related to me as well.
DDU to get rid of all drivers and reinstall everything maybe.

Id also consider a windows reinstall and checking task manager for anything else that could be taxing your CPU.

 

[Vanjs06]

Run HWINFO and check if you get thermal throrrling (It has a specific section for that), on the CPU, if so, you need to check your cooler, paste and seating.

Thanks bud will run and check it out and see if maybe thats the issue.

I have the stock cooler also, but a CPU cooler is on the to do list also just to be safe. My old PC I used to have always had temp issues so with this one I really didn't want to struggle with temps.

 

[Vanjs06]

60Hz monitor is probably why the GPU isn't being taxed.

GPU under-utilisation also wouldn't cause the spike in CPU usage to 100%? In fact it would be the other way around.

@Vanjs06 it sounds like a software issue to me. I'd reinstall graphics drivers with DDU, reinstall AMD chipset drivers, and reinstall both games from scratch (important). And do a careful check if there isn't some app or something that turns on in the background, try disable all background apps and see if that helps. Might ultimately be worth a clean install of Windows .

Howzit bud, that is worth a shot, I actually had issues with MW3 initially with the map not loading correctly when dropping in on big maps and a reinstall solved that also. Will give it a go if the other suggestions don't work, thanks man.