GTX 1080 dropping down to 30fps in WoW at 1080p. What gives?

[Buildapanda]

take a look at the fps on the bottom right side during the fight in this video.
https://www.twitch.tv/mushy2000/v/76462036?t=12m04s

Here is the full VoD https://www.twitch.tv/mushy2000/v/76462036 FPS counter is at the bottom. I know it's not much but I can run more tests if anyone is willing to help.

Very disappointed with the performance of my gtx 1080

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($19.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme4 ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($139.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($59.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 840 Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($249.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition Video Card ($698.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($129.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1298.83
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Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-07-08 09:59 EDT-0400

[Kratoslól]

WoW is a heavily CPU bound game which means CPU will always be your bottleneck. In situations like the one shown in the video with so much stuff going around I would bet your CPU cant keep up with the calculations hence the GPU has barely anything to do.

[Deleted]

I havent played wow in ages, but it is still very CPU dependant. Even more so during raid encounters.

The 1080 is not the problem, it is the CPU. ALthough problem... No CPU will ever give you 60+ FPS during raiding at high settings.

Also, I hope you are playing something else besides wow A 1080 is massive overkill for WoW...

[Soisoisoi]

Pretty much what they said above.

Considering:
you were also streaming at the time
You had Render Scale set to 200% which is pretty much the only thing that will tax or even use the GPU (my 980 Ti sits at like 30% usage without it on)
If I'm reading it right, you were using 3k+ bitrate
and I assume you were streaming at 60 FPS

That will all be using your CPU a lot.

If you haven't already, OC your CPU for better WoW/Streaming performance.

[Shihao]

It shouldn't drop to 30fps with this kind of hardware. This CPU should be enough to hold a 60fps+ anyway, and streaming using a software that encodes using NVenc should barely impact performance.

What renderscale and anti-aliasing are you using?

[Deleted]

Are you running with the recommended settings from the Geforce experience? if so change the AA away from the custom one as that taxes pretty much every card.

The setting is in GFX and top right change it to the 4XMSAA+CMAA or whatever it says can't remember off the top of my head and i am at work XD

[Soisoisoi]

It shouldn't drop to 30fps with this kind of hardware. This CPU should be enough to hold a 60fps+ anyway, and streaming using a software that encodes using NVenc should barely impact performance.

What renderscale and anti-aliasing are you using?

That makes no difference for WoW. It's terribly optimised and will still get massive drops on the best hardware.

[papajohn4]

Its not only because it is CPU heavy (many games are). Is because their engine is old and is not very well optimize either. I have a GTX 970 and can play modern MMOs (ESO, FFXIV) with ultra settings with always top FPS, but I cant do that in wow...

[Morgaith]

I would say that addons is the issue here.

My 980 ti and 6700k very rarely drops below 60 fps in raids (often sitting around 90 fps) running absolute max settings on 1080p (200 res scale etc)

I run with just 5-6 light addons.

[Hottage]

No CPU will ever give you 60+ FPS during raiding at high settings.

My i5 6600K at 4,1Ghz never drops below 90FPS, regardless what I'm doing.
I play on the Nvidia Geforce Experience optimised settings at 2560 x 1440 down sampled to 1920x1080, max shadows, anti-aliasing is customised above max.

OP: You might want to check your add ons, you'll probably find you have two frames stacked on top of each other which are z-index thrashing during raid combat.

[Zenfoldor]

I can't check your video right now.

Do you have vsync on because you don't like screen tearing(get a vscyn or gsync monitor)? You really need to have vsync off in any game, imho. Software based vsync so important to gaming but it also can lock you at 30fps in a lot of conditions and it is just bad, bad bad. If you have a proper monitor then you don't have to worry about that. To be a computer gamer, imho, the first thing you should buy is a freesync/gsync monitor(depending on your video card) that has at least 120hz. Then build your rig around that.

If you've managed to already know and have taken the above advice, then your problem is probably related to wow itself. A user wrote it perfectly in this thread:

That makes no difference for WoW. It's terribly optimised and will still get massive drops on the best hardware.

Even with better hardware than yours for the game(a overclocked CPU), and proper settings(don't use the Nvidia optimized ones like recommended in this thread, imho, adjust your settings to your specific performance requirement and monitor), and WITHOUT streaming, there are some areas of the game that just have a hard time reaching 60fps, on ANY rig. Higher populated areas like the WOD auction house towns, will still have bad frame rates, so that's just a game problem.

If you want to test your new rig, run some benchmarks.

[Soisoisoi]

I would say that addons is the issue here.

My 980 ti and 6700k very rarely drops below 60 fps in raids (often sitting around 90 fps) running absolute max settings on 1080p (200 res scale etc)

I run with just 5-6 light addons.

Addons make basically zero difference unless they are just broken.

[h8stylist]

Most likely this issue is occurring due to the fact that the graphics card list in WoW has not been included with the 1080 card. My gf went from a 970 to a 980ti in her new computer, and saw that the "recommended" settings in WoW were lower than the 970 card. After doing some searching, there are a couple thread topics where wow gives generic recommendations on newer cards, making it seem that the game is not properly utilitizing the newest cards.

Also, while WoW is historically a CPU intensive game, if you watch the graphics card load (not temp) when running WoW, it hits the graphics card pretty hard at higher settings.

[Priority]

I don't think it's the gtx 1080, and I don't think it's your cpu either since you are running a i7. It's an older i7 but it should still be more than good enough. I know there are some buggy drivers for gtx atm. My drivers just updated last night but I didn't see if they fixed any bugs, and I didn't raid this week. I run a i7 4890k and 2 gtx 970's in sli. I am not boasting but my framerate only drops in warspear, and that goes to about 60fps when a lot of people are there. In raids I am well over 120fps on ultra. The only setting I change is render scale. I keep it at 100%. I like the way it looks better.

I would check other games and see what your fps is, or even run some benchmark software. Maybe it's only wow, or even a addon.

Also check what you have your refresh rate set too. If you have a 60hz monitor with vertical-sync on you should only see 60fps. Honestly if you have a 60hz monitor, it doesn't matter what your framerates are over 60fps, you will still only see 60fps since that's all the monitor can show you.

[Golfire]

It's not your card, I've been streaming DOOM at 1080p at max settings for hours and it runs between 160 and 200 fps with an MSI Gaming X 1080

[Shihao]

That makes no difference for WoW. It's terribly optimised and will still get massive drops on the best hardware.

What makes no difference? His CPU or the render scale and anti aliasing?

If it's the CPU I agree that the optimization in WoW isn't the best thing, but his CPU should be able to handle high framerates during raiding. If it's the render scale and anti-aliasing, you can absolutely kill any hardware with a high render scale + SSAA. And that's in any game.

[Heavens Night]

LOL 200% render scale and you're bitching about 30fps.

Come on dude.

[Soisoisoi]

What makes no difference? His CPU or the render scale and anti aliasing?

If it's the CPU I agree that the optimization in WoW isn't the best thing, but his CPU should be able to handle high framerates during raiding. If it's the render scale and anti-aliasing, you can absolutely kill any hardware with a high render scale + SSAA. And that's in any game.

The hardware in general. It doesn't matter what hardware you have, you will always get drops far below what it *should* run out for the hardware due to it being old/badly optimised.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

I've found anti aliasing in most games to kill my FPS in most games. WoW is no exception.

[Buildapanda]

I don't think it's the gtx 1080, and I don't think it's your cpu either since you are running a i7. It's an older i7 but it should still be more than good enough. I know there are some buggy drivers for gtx atm. My drivers just updated last night but I didn't see if they fixed any bugs, and I didn't raid this week. I run a i7 4890k and 2 gtx 970's in sli. I am not boasting but my framerate only drops in warspear, and that goes to about 60fps when a lot of people are there. In raids I am well over 120fps on ultra. The only setting I change is render scale. I keep it at 100%. I like the way it looks better.

I would check other games and see what your fps is, or even run some benchmark software. Maybe it's only wow, or even a addon.

Also check what you have your refresh rate set too. If you have a 60hz monitor with vertical-sync on you should only see 60fps. Honestly if you have a 60hz monitor, it doesn't matter what your framerates are over 60fps, you will still only see 60fps since that's all the monitor can show you.

These are the kinds of things that worry me, I know there are people with comparable specs getting way about me. could my psu be dying and it's failing to supply power to my system? could my motherboard be bad?

Here is my 3d mark score

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8770849