Is there something wrong with my GTX 670?(poor performance)

[wombinator04]

I've been getting some pretty poor performance on my 670 IMO. In WoW on ultra 1080p(DX9 and shadows on high) I'm getting 50-70 fps in twilight highlands. Now to most, this is great performance. But I use a 120HZ monitor and I need at least 100+ fps(for me anyways).
I've seen benchmarks on WoW with a gtx 670, and their getting 2x more fps then I'm getting. http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/G...dforce/23.html
Now on that review, their getting 2x more fps then I'm getting. I also tried Skyrim, and yet again they get 10-20 more fps.
I've tried different drivers, but that didn't work. Is there something wrong with my card?

My setup:
Intel 2500k(not overclocked)
Gigabyte 670 GTX windforce
Mushkin 1600 DDR3 8G RAM

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 06:19 PM ----------

Here's another review that takes place in twilight highlands: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ew,3200-9.html

Their getting a lot more fps then I'm getting.

[Xl House lX]

Have you tried DX11?

I don't really know much about the 120Hz monitors, but maybe they require more GPU power, and perhaps the benches you are seeing are performed on a 60Hz monitor. I get around the same FPS as you with same settings (except on a 60Hz monitor, and using DX11) and I'm using a wimpy GTX 550 Ti, so yes something is wrong.

[wombinator04]

With DX11 I get even lower fps.

[Pickynerd]

outdated addons?

[wombinator04]

outdated addons?

All my addons are up to date. All I use is atlasloot, mapster, and outfitter.

[Drakoes]

Hmm, this is very strange. Have you ticked 'Prefer Maximum Performance' in the NVIDIA control panel as opposed to 'Prefer Adaptive Performance'? You'll find it under global settings one of the first tabs.
I would also recommend downloading MSI Afterburner to overclock the card a bit, since the Gigabyte Windforce overclocks well due to its non-ref design. I would give it +100mhz on the core, as that should be doable. It should be safe to do so, since the cooling on the Windforce is pretty amazing, and a lot of reference cards can handle such an overclock also.

Also, what drivers did you use? I've personally found the 301.42 to be the best so far in all my games (I'm running on a MSI GTX 680 Lightning at 1382mhz on the core). Did you also uninstall the previous ones you were using correctly?

[wombinator04]

Hmm, this is very strange. Have you ticked 'Prefer Maximum Performance' in the NVIDIA control panel? You'll find it under global settings one of the first tabs. I would also recommend downloading MSI Afterburner to overclock the card a bit, since the Gigabyte Windforce overclocks well due to its non-ref design. I would give it +100mhz on the core, as that should be doable.

Also, what drivers did you use? I've personally found the 301.42 to be the best so far in all my games (I'm running on a MSI GTX 680 Lightning at 1382mhz on the core). Did you also uninstall the previous ones you were using correctly?

My image setting is set to let 3d app decide. I'm using 304.79 right now, and yes I uninstalled previous drivers correctly. I use control panel uninstall and use driver sweeper to clean up what's left.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 06:30 PM ----------

I've tried 301.42 also, and I still get the same performance.

[Drakoes]

Just to clarify, ops, double check this setting please:

Go into NVIDIA Control Panel --> Manage 3d Settings --> Global Settings Tab ---> Power Management Mode ---> Prefer maximum performance

Also, what programs do you have in the background? There is a known problem with the older versions of flash player that can reduce your core clock speeds if there's something like a browser video or stream running in the background. Could you also post a pic of CPU-Z? I want to check on another thing too.

[n0cturnal]

My image setting is set to let 3d app decide. I'm using 304.79 right now, and yes I uninstalled previous drivers correctly. I use control panel uninstall and use driver sweeper to clean up what's left.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 06:30 PM ----------

I've tried 301.42 also, and I still get the same performance.

Can you download Unigine heaven benchmark and post the results here?

[wombinator04]

CPUZ: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2476747
My power management mode is set to adaptive.

Running unigine now.

[Drakoes]

Aha, Bingo, CPU-Z ftw! I *think* I know why - your CPU might be downclocking itself, and somehow it's still recognizing the onboard graphics (just disable it completely in the BIOS). This is evident because CPU-Z is reporting 1.6Ghz on the CPU, which is pretty abysmal, particularly for WoW, as the game is very dependent on the CPU.

Also, change the power management mode for the GPU please, you could always set it back after a while if you want.

So you might think the CPU shouldn't downclock whilst in games, but it probably gets spikey when it detects low stress, this is just a guess though as I've always disabled this setting in order to maintain a more consistent speed. There's a power saving feature called Intel Speedstep that is responsible for downclocking the CPU's clock speed, and this can also be found in the BIOS - you'll want to disable that.

[Ofire]

CPUZ: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2476747
My power management mode is set to adaptive.

Running unigine now.

Based off that CPUZ I notice your cpu is downclocking itself pretty far, you should go into the bios and disable power saving functions, that way it runs maximum speed, at 1.5 GHz your cpu is bottlenecking the GPU pretty hard, and the card probably is not recovering the performance once the CPU starts running max speed.

Would be my guess.

[wombinator04]

Ok I ran heaven and I was getting 100+fps constantly. Some shadows were flickering for some reason.

[Drakoes]

Ok I ran heaven and I was getting 100+fps constantly. Some shadows were flickering for some reason.

Was it minor or was those flickering very noticeable all the way through?

If they kept coming up in most of the scenes, then it's called 'artifacting' and indicates a faulty card, an unstable overclock or the card just not playing nicely with your drivers. Heaven also gives me minor flickering a few times, but it's nothing too major.

[wombinator04]

How do I turn off onboard graphics completly in bios? I see no option for that. It's just primary graphics setting, pci or onboard.

Also I took that cpuz test when I was on my desktop, I wasnt running anything.

[Drakoes]

It kind of varies for each mobo vendor. Which motherboard do you have?

Could you also look for a setting called Intel Speedstep and turn it off. Your computer is automatically downclocking when it's under little or no stress, which could potentially occur in-game. You should be able to find this setting under a page dedicated for the CPU in the BIOS. Also, could you also turn off the 'C1E states' - you should find these settings on a page that deals with the power settings for the board, as they can also be downclocking your CPU clock speeds.

[wombinator04]

It kind of varies for each mobo vendor. Which motherboard do you have?

Could you also look for a setting called Intel Speedstep and turn it off. Your computer is automatically downclocking when it's under little or no stress, which could potentially occur in-game. You should be able to find this setting under a page dedicated for the CPU. Also, could you also turn off the 'C1E states' - you should find these settings on a page that deals with the power settings for the board.

I have an asrock.

I didn't find any intel speedstep option. I just raised cpu minimum to 100%. That has done nothing.

---------- Post added 2012-08-15 at 07:06 PM ----------

As I said before, when I ran cpuz I was running nothing.
Heres when Im running WoW: http://valid.canardpc.com/show_oc.php?id=2476772

[n0cturnal]

Ok I ran heaven and I was getting 100+fps constantly. Some shadows were flickering for some reason.

Could u run the benchmark in it and report how many points you got and at what settings? A screenshot of the results is enough.

[Drakoes]

Okay, so back to the card.
When you ran the Heaven benchmark, how significant was the flickering that you experienced? Mind posting us the score?

Heaven is a really good measurement for card stability as it puts a lot of stress on the CPU, especially if you set it to its max settings. It's a lot more intensive on the GPU than WoW and I've found it to be as good or if not better than BF3 at full ultra. If the flickering was very consistent and visible, then it could potentially indicate a faulty card, as artifacting isn't a good sign.

[wombinator04]

Ok how long do I need to run that freaking thing. The camera has gone around the city 4 times now and It still has not ended.