Nvidia GPU Intermittent Performance Issue...

[Vice]

Some of you probably already know about this, but it was something I ran into personally recently and wanted to share the information with any other Nvidia users in case they run into the same problem.

On a desktop, I run a Nvidia GTX 770 and for the most part, it's always worked pretty well. However, the framerate would sometimes not be consistent. While playing a game, the framerate might drop 10 FPS or even as much as 20-30 FPS, then stay there for a while. There was no reason such a change should have occurred, so no increase in scene detail nor change in environment. The framerate would sometimes just drop for a while. Then it may go up again after a brief time, or it may not for a long time. This kind of behavior might normally be attributed to a game itself, and in some cases, that may be true. However, because others have reported it in multiple games and across multiple NVidia GPU's, that didn't seem to be the case. And indeed, for me and my system, it turned out to be something else.

The problem traced back to the GPU and its driver automatically underclocking itself. With the help of the MSI Afterburner monitoring tool, I could see when the GPU clock and memory clock rates underclocked themselves. It appeared they would do this whenever they detected conditions that (apparently inaccurately) justified a decrease in performance. The temperature was fine, so it was not a heat issue. It just seemed that there was some kind of arbitrary decision by the driver as to when to lower clock rates and the result was significantly lower performance.

The automatic underclocking system didn't appear to 'adapt' very quickly at all either, so the framerate might drop and stay there for a while before the driver decided it was time to increase performance back up to where it needed to be, which could take several seconds or more as I observed in MSI Afterburner.

I tried simply updating the driver to see if that might help. The driver I was using was from Sept. 2014 and there was a new one available. It did help, but did not solve the problem entirely. Clock rates would still underclock arbitrarily for no apparent reason, but not as severely as with the older driver. So I then changed the 'Power management mode' in the Nvidia control panel to 'Prefer maximum performance' and the problem went away entirely. It appears the default mode may be 'Adaptive', which caused the automatic and unwanted underclocking to occur.

With the 'Prefer maximum performance' mode selected, the driver would still correctly underclock the GPU when not used in a game (ie when running other programs or just idling on the desktop), but performance was properly maximized all the time when playing games.

The automatic underclocking issue may surface in particular games or be intermittent. It may also vary from driver to driver and GPU to GPU or perhaps even certain hardware configurations in conjunction with certain GPU and driver combinations. For example, two other test machines I use have Nvidia GPUs and they did not encounter the problem.

So if you encounter unwanted changes in performance in some of the games you play, where the framerate bounces around and isn't consistent when/where it should be, this might be something to help eliminate the problem.

[Marvin]

While checking to see if Space Engine had released its joystick version (it hasn't), I noticed some of the same comments about nVidia causing problems with the current version of SE. I'm not sure if it's also due to underclocking but, if they ever get the joystick working, I might test it out. (Ironically, on my desktop, I've installed Charter's Security Suite and one of its options is "Gaming Mode" ... the option is supposed to shut down anything running in the background which might interfere with the game's performance.)

[Nigel_Strange]

Thanks for the tip, Vice. The Hi Power option was hidden under the little twisty that MS has become in the habit of using to discourage us from finding the things that we are after.

I changed from "balanced" to "High Performance" mode. I hope to see some benefits. I had not previously noticed the framerate drop precipitously, but I have on occasion experienced less than max desired performance. Maybe this will help.

[Ohsirus]

Thanks Vice, I think I have the same issue.

[PaulB]

I think I readd something similar in my serching and readng reviews for new laptops - I've restricted my cinsideration to intal i5 & i7 with nvidia gpus.
And the consensus seems to be to set the power savings mode to Performance.
After Io got the old Dell M65 that was one fo the 1st things I did was set the Power more to Performance - and I also never run on Battery anyway.
I know you said you were using a Desktop but I'm sure the same thing applies for similar reasons. Microsoft and all the manufacturers are so het up on energy savings and what "they" consider the "best" mode to run in.
That's one reason I hate "progress" and "new OS version".
Just get something working well and leave the hell it alone!!!
And perhaps have a Button on the Taskbar to click powersagins mode On and Off so it's there in front of you and well documented someplace and obvious to the user.
That's how I look at it.
My Gosh - no one buys a nvidia based system to get "energy efficiency".

[Marvin]

And perhaps have a Button on the Taskbar to click powersagins mode On and Off....

My ASUS laptop has the button on the keyboard ... with a repeat software button on desktop. Making it easy to switch modes while in game.