PC Graphics Card Help

[Steven103]

Download MSI afterburner, absolutely invaluable for this sort of stuff. Log CPU & GPU temps/utilisation/clock frequency/memory usage, FPS, GPU power/voltage limit. First check for obvious albeit unlikely issues (temps, VRAM leak) then make sure that the 1% lows don't correspond with the GPU core or memory reverting to it's base clock ...then spend £300 on a 5000 series with confidence!

XMP, think you mentioned above.

You didn't mention OS. If windows 10, make sure you've got the Ryzen-specific windows power plan installed. Ryzen 2000 was notorious for not recognising load/demand and sitting there at idle when it should be using it's boost clock.

Can also apply a mild OC (R5 2600 has an unlocked multiplier!) and watch the 1% lows increase (or not!).

B450s had extremely limited BIOS memory so early boards shipped with a UEFI BIOS supporting 1000/2000/maybe-3000 and laterly they came with (or you can flash, super easy, not as daunting as it once sounded) a non-UEFI BIOS which free'd up space for 3000/5000 series profiles.

 

[Martin_172]

If the PSU wasn’t providing enough power it would restart the PC when it hits its power limit.

not always i had a look at a machine for someone that was having stuttering frame rate issues in GTA5, couldn't for the life of me get to the bottom of it and discovered it was unstable voltage causing it to have issues under load, but not enough to cause the machine to crash or restart.

 

[Daz...]

I was referring to when the PSU is overloaded, if it spikes and hits the power limit then it’ll restart.

 

[Norris_309]

Download MSI afterburner, absolutely invaluable for this sort of stuff. Log CPU & GPU temps/utilisation/clock frequency/memory usage, FPS, GPU power/voltage limit. First check for obvious albeit unlikely issues (temps, VRAM leak) then make sure that the 1% lows don't correspond with the GPU core or memory reverting to it's base clock ...then spend £300 on a 5000 series with confidence!

XMP, think you mentioned above.

You didn't mention OS. If windows 10, make sure you've got the Ryzen-specific windows power plan installed. Ryzen 2000 was notorious for not recognising load/demand and sitting there at idle when it should be using it's boost clock.

Can also apply a mild OC (R5 2600 has an unlocked multiplier!) and watch the 1% lows increase (or not!).

B450s had extremely limited BIOS memory so early boards shipped with a UEFI BIOS supporting 1000/2000/maybe-3000 and laterly they came with (or you can flash, super easy, not as daunting as it once sounded) a non-UEFI BIOS which free'd up space for 3000/5000 series profiles.

I have actually downloaded Afterburner now, so will have a look at that.
OS is windows 10, so might be worth looking into the ryzen power plan then regardless of this issue. wasn't aware of that. But then never had an issue with the PC in the past few years. It's only been highlighted now this 3060ti isn't performing much/any better than the old one.

The B450 we have here has 2000 & 3000 listed on the box as being compatible so guess the bios update will be needed if/when he gets a 5600.
He's going to order a new m.2 in the next couple of days I think, (sn770 or fork out for sn850x?... I'm guessing the 850x won't get to full potential because of the older motherboard? but might be worth it for for future proofing)

 

[Ph1 Tom]

I have actually downloaded Afterburner now, so will have a look at that.
OS is windows 10, so might be worth looking into the ryzen power plan then regardless of this issue. wasn't aware of that. But then never had an issue with the PC in the past few years. It's only been highlighted now this 3060ti isn't performing much/any better than the old one.

The B450 we have here has 2000 & 3000 listed on the box as being compatible so guess the bios update will be needed if/when he gets a 5600.
He's going to order a new m.2 in the next couple of days I think, (sn770 or fork out for sn850x?... I'm guessing the 850x won't get to full potential because of the older motherboard? but might be worth it for for future proofing)

Whether you get a gen 3 or 4 M.2 it won't make much difference at all to most applications, especially games. If you were shifting numerous terabytes then it would be different.

 

[He B TeMy]

Fortnite is a crap game to test a GPU, it's CPU-BOUND, and you would not see a massive improvement in performance upgrading the GPU ONLY.
GTA-V is also not a good example to test, but you should get around 100fps or so, although if it's GTA-V online there has been reports of massive FPS-DIPPING which would skew the results.

Forget the PSU, forget the HDD/SSD upgrade, either it's a SATA-bottleneck system-wide which would cause stutter randomly, specially in high-workloads, you can check this in the performance tab in task manager, check the disks usage, all of them, if one of them is maxed to 100% (constantly) it could bottleneck SATA and CAN cause system-wide stutter "randomly":

Is the GPU installed in the correct slot on the motherboard? What MOBO does he have? are the VRM's temps ok ?
Does he have a free-sync or g-sync capable monitor? Is it enabled if yes? (not directly related, but freesync is a GODSEND in gameplay)
Does the CPU have any overclock / undervolt?

Can you test the GTA-V and fortnite performance if you disable SMT via Process Lasso? (after testing the above), https://bitsum.com/
Right click the process and disable SMT, it has to be launched first, although you can save settings for "permanent" usage.

Was the overall system stable before? No issues?

There's a multitude of things you can test before spending more money, and those 2 games are not examples of GPU performance-only.
Also, r5 2600 is perfectly good cpu, yes, 3600 was a nice jump in performance, but i have a 1600 myself and although i don't game much besides LoL & csgo i did not have any issues with fps-dips like ever, disregarding LoL bullshit incompatibility with SMT in some games, although i run Linux now and no problem exists here.

Is he playing the game via wifi? Change to ethernet if so.

Nothing abovve working, i'd try formatting the computer first before spending any more money.

My bet is on SATA-bottleneck of sorts system-wide since you said he had 5400rpm drives (which are probably old) and maybe 4-5 drives in the whole system.

 

[Norris_309]

Just to give an update.
He was a lucky boy & Santa delivered a 5600x cpu & I also got him the sn770 1Tb M.2

I updated the bios & installed the CPU today and Fortnite is a lot better and doesn't seem to have the issue anymore.
As has been mentioned, certain games are more cpu than gpu it seems (which was a new one on me, shows how much i don't know!).
He seemed to get on ok playing COD and some others but fortnite and I think GTA seemed to suffer from the CPU.

So, all is well & I have a happy child again.
Next job is to put the m.2 in & remove the 3 hard drives currently there & install windows/all his games again! then it should be a lot better to carry on with.
So, he'll be moaning about that as it will involve gaming downtime for the install!

He's now talking of a new case/AIO & some light up cables!! lol never ending!

 

[GiT]

Just to give an update.
He was a lucky boy & Santa delivered a 5600x cpu & I also got him the sn770 1Tb M.2

I updated the bios & installed the CPU today and Fortnite is a lot better and doesn't seem to have the issue anymore.
As has been mentioned, certain games are more cpu than gpu it seems (which was a new one on me, shows how much i don't know!).
He seemed to get on ok playing COD and some others but fortnite and I think GTA seemed to suffer from the CPU.

So, all is well & I have a happy child again.
Next job is to put the m.2 in & remove the 3 hard drives currently there & install windows/all his games again! then it should be a lot better to carry on with.
So, he'll be moaning about that as it will involve gaming downtime for the install!

He's now talking of a new case/AIO & some light up cables!! lol never ending!

I'm still going to headshot him from a bush if I see him.

I'm on an old CPU - i7 4770K from 1967-ish and Fortnite is fine on mine (GTX 1070 on a triple monitor config).

Nice little trick though, tell him to stop chasing FPS and to either cap the FPS to match the Hz of the monitor, or double the Hz of the monitor. No screen tear and still minty mint.

 

[Norris_309]

Try telling these kids to not chase FPS numbers... seems to be a competition!
Although i have got through to him now that the monitor is 144Hz so he can limit the games to 144 & it sticks there no matter what which is good.
He still has to try it on unlimited fps to see what the numbers show though lol!..

He's now got himself a new keyboard too!!.. who knew you could spend not far off £200 on a keyboard! wish i had money to burn like him when I was 15! (or even now!)
He's lucky his grandparents are pretty generous! and to be fair to him, if there is something he wants he does save his paper round money so can't knock it too much I guess

 

[GiT]

Try telling these kids to not chase FPS numbers... seems to be a competition!
Although i have got through to him now that the monitor is 144Hz so he can limit the games to 144 & it sticks there no matter what which is good.
He still has to try it on unlimited fps to see what the numbers show though lol!..

He's now got himself a new keyboard too!!.. who knew you could spend not far off £200 on a keyboard! wish i had money to burn like him when I was 15! (or even now!)
He's lucky his grandparents are pretty generous! and to be fair to him, if there is something he wants he does save his paper round money so can't knock it too much I guess

My Nephew is the same. He's got some pretty decent kit on his PC now for someone who is 9. His PC would walk all over mine, but as he also wants FPS out his ears, he's missing so many tricks - but he won't listen.

Check the monitor is set to 144hz itself AND that the Graphics properties are too. You may find 144Hz is only triggered at a certain aspect ratio and at 1080, it may well be just set at 50/60hz.

 

[Jonnio]

Stop chasing FPS?

 

[SharkyUK]

FPS is such a bad performance metric. But, well, you can't tell 'em.

 

[Darren S]

FPS is such a bad performance metric. But, well, you can't tell 'em.

It really is. At best, it's an indicator of the expected throughput of a game, but little else.

It's like the drag efficiency of a supercar. It's important to its performance - but would you really be arsed if a special slippery version upped the top speed from 189mph to 193mph?

I wouldn't.