GPU (GeForce GTX 980) not performing as it should

[Deleted]

Hi,

Problem:
My GPU is not using more than 35% of it's capabilities in WoW according to MSI Afterburner (not tested in other applications). There are occasional spikes to 40 or even 50 percent, but never above it.

Girlfriend has a 970 and its performing way better (about 3 times the FPS, since I'm stuck at 40 to 50), using around 60 to 70% of the 970's capabilities.

Setup:

Case Fans: 3x Corsair Air Series SP120
Processor: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz (overclocked at 4.2GHz)
Processor cooling: Corsair H100i Waterkoeler + 2x Corsair SP120 Fans
Motherboard: ASUS X99 Rampage V Extreme
RAM: 16GB Corsair DDR4 2800MHz
Storage 1: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB
Storage 2 (WOW Location): Seagate 1TB HDD 7200RPM
GFX Card 1: Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 [Inno3D] - (I believe its overclocked, not sure)
Power supply: Corsair 1000RM Watt

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Wiztik

[Deleted]

Rhm i suppose ure Samsung 840 EVO 250gb is the boot drive, put it on this drive.
Look at your drivers?
Maybe look in your bios for GPU settings...

Just guessing some things

- - - Updated - - -

Also put it in the first slot of your motherboard maybe? Google here for some advice, i can't link it since i am a low rank

[Deleted]

It is already in the first slot. Drivers are up to date (10/11/2014 drivers), GPU in BIOS looks okay-ish, to me atleast.

[Pungchow]

What brand 980 is it and do you have a limit set for how many fps you cap at?I am running a x79 system with a gtx 980 superclock evga and getting 120 fps down to 110 fps which is over kill.Evga precision x has a limit you can set your fps to cap at.My card is also overclocked to 1387 from factory.

[Deleted]

980 is from Inno3D. Specificly: http://www.inno3d.com/products_detail.php?refid=121

No idea if there is a limit set, If I look to a plain wall, I managed to reach 282 fps. Pretty sure there is no limit.

[MMKing]

The GPU has very little impact on performance in WOW. Due to the nature of MMOs, the sheer amount of players in your close vicinity has a much greater impact on your CPU than the game could ever have graphically. In what situations does your girlfriend reach over 100FPS? For it sure ain't in capital cities and in 25 raids, or even 10 man raids.

[Deleted]

In the buggy Garrisons. Where tens of players stand because of phasing failures. Yes, really. In the exact same spot, next to her, the differences are as mentioned. The CPU should have no problem whatsoever with these circumstances...

[Deleted]

Max out the FPS settings in WoW?

[Zerroth]

Are you on the same server as her? A 5930K should have absolutely no issues...my 3770K at 4.2ghz keeps me capped at 60 90% of the time, most of the other times being when vsync gets messed up and temporarily caps me at 30 (annoying.)

Are all of your addons up to date since 6.0? A few offenders for me was an old recount and Atlasloot, and I'm not sure about DBM but I updated it anyway. My performance was sub-par until I updated them.

[Deleted]

with WOD pre patch, wow was made to be more GPU central instead of CPU central.
The main hogs are AA and shadows.. what are they set too?

[Deleted]

Are you on the same server as her? A 5930K should have absolutely no issues...my 3770K at 4.2ghz keeps me capped at 60 90% of the time, most of the other times being when vsync gets messed up and temporarily caps me at 30 (annoying.)

Are all of your addons up to date since 6.0? A few offenders for me was an old recount and Atlasloot, and I'm not sure about DBM but I updated it anyway. My performance was sub-par until I updated them.

Yes, exact same location, same realm, same everything. Same performance issues happen when I disabled all plugins..

with WOD pre patch, wow was made to be more GPU central instead of CPU central.
The main hogs are AA and shadows.. what are they set too?

Both systems set to ultra.

[Zerroth]

I would do some benchmarking using one of those tools and compare numbers. If they are lower than others with the same card, time to RMA.

I forgot to mention. I'm getting 60fps with a GTX 760. Something's up. A good way to indicate a CPU bottleneck or issue is to take all of the settings to the lowest and see if the fps stays the same or goes up.

[Deleted]

Zerroth,

FPS goes up, from ~30 to ~50. Same spot, just all ingame 'System' settings on the lowest. GPU usage stays the same at around 30%. Earlier today I managed somehow (no idea how exactly) to force my GPU usage to 45%, FPS kept stable at around 80 to 100 that way. No idea how I did it, sadly.

Any idea's?

[Deleted]

Download some Benchmark (Unigine Heaven 4.0 for example) and test both cards there. WoW in its current state isn't too reliable and might just be acting up due to a plethora of bugs and issues.

Also, please install WoW on SSD if you have one t.t

[Krasuss]

Power management in Windows is set to Max Performance ? This might cause some underperfoming if its not set on Max Performance.

Also how are the temps? I guess they are allright else you would mention them in the OP. If nothing helps i would try to switch those GPUs with your GF for some testing if thats possible and if she starts to lag and you will get better fps i would RMA, cause your PC should run WoW on 60fps(vsync) all the time since 6.0.2 even in raids IMO.

[Deleted]

Download some Benchmark (Unigine Heaven 4.0 for example) and test both cards there. WoW in its current state isn't too reliable and might just be acting up due to a plethora of bugs and issues.

Also, please install WoW on SSD if you have one t.t

Yeah this, it won't improve FPS but it will smooth out loading of textures.

[Zerroth]

Zerroth,

FPS goes up, from ~30 to ~50. Same spot, just all ingame 'System' settings on the lowest. GPU usage stays the same at around 30%. Earlier today I managed somehow (no idea how exactly) to force my GPU usage to 45%, FPS kept stable at around 80 to 100 that way. No idea how I did it, sadly.

Any idea's?

It's puzzling. When you tell me that you set the settings to lowest and still got 30 to 50fps, I think CPU bottleneck, which obviously is not the case...it could just be a server issue with everyone phasing around you in your Garrison space and stressing the shit out of your CPU. Without benchmarking from Unigine or anything like that, there's too many variables, impossible to tell.

[Sicarius87]

You should definately be getting more than 50 FPS on LOW settings. Id test the PSU to make sure it isnt faulty using a PSU tester you can find at best buy or other like retailer. Or even take it into a PC repair shop and have them test.

If the PSU checks out fine, then id probably reinstall the drivers, use CCleaner registry cleaner and remove anything it finds reboot, reinstall absolute latest driver fresh from the website, defrag the HDD wow is installed on, and if that still doesnt help, put your g/fs GPU into your computer, test it, if it's the same thing, it's local to your machine and NOT the video card. Possibly even OS related in which case Id reformat and start fresh.

[Deleted]

Went for a slightly different approach (not involving a hammer):
http://www.3dmark.com/fs/3225709

3D Mark benchmark, scoring 96% better than other PC's and way above 'High-end gaming PC'. Think my computer "aced" that test, so I'll have to conclude WoW itself is the bottleneck, unfortunately?

My girlfriend did the same test and scored around 9400; a significant difference.

Excerpts:
MINE:

SCORE 11582
with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980(1x) and Intel Core i7-5930K
Graphics Score 13108
Physics Score 16550
Combined Score 4985

GF:

SCORE 9375
with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970(1x) and Intel Core i5-4690K
Graphics Score 11562
Physics Score 8106
Combined Score 4293

Any thoughts or idea's?

[Deleted]

Yes. Everything is fine with your PC; move your WoW to SSD, and hold tight until they fix all the launch issues. If it's still that bad in a week, it'll be time for further troubleshooting.