New build, performance is rather underwhelming

[Siyko]

I put together this system a couple months ago:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/6bGBYJ

I haven't had any technical issues jump out at me, but I've had fairly crummy performance in a lot of games. Cities in Motion, Skyrim, Borderlands 2, most recently Fallout 4, and a few others have just run like trash. At 4k resolution with AA disabled, my FPS is rather low (30ish), and I get a whole lot of stuttering.

Even at 1080p, it's terrible. Even in Windows, just dragging windows around, I sometimes get what I'm sure is less than 30fps.

When I got my PC, i read that 4k resolution has trouble with video memory, and I was assured this video card has enough 'fast' memory to support it. I was also recommended to get this displayport cable:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812793546

because allegedly some do not support the bandwidth that 4k resolution needs.

I've lived with it for a while, but it's disappointing that I got such a powerful gaming rig, and I'm left to run at 1080p with AA disabled which doesn't look great on such a large monitor, and I still get stuttering.

Any advice on what I should check?

Thanks

 

[Ketchup]

What video card driver are you using? Does your video card clock up to full speed when playing games? What temperatures are your cpu cores and video card hitting?

 

[Burpo]

Have you found the tiny switch that the video card has on the side? You can't see it until you really look for it, but it's a dual bios switch that switches from Power Saving mode to Performance mode. It lets you use the card to the full 1018mhz core speed, else it uses 800-950mhz on both cores. You can flick the switch any time, but settings take effect on next boot.

 

[LTC8K6]

Set up some monitoring so you can see what the video card and CPU are doing under load.

Throttle Stop and GPU-Z perhaps?

You can run Intel Burn Test and maybe Furmark to see what each does under load.

 

[Siyko]

Thank you all so much for the fast responses. It means a lot to me.

What video card driver are you using? Does your video card clock up to full speed when playing games? What temperatures are your cpu cores and video card hitting?

I'm using Catalyst 15.11 Beta. Just yesterday I ran the Guru3d DDU to clean out the drivers and installed this beta driver. Before that, I've been staying up to date on the general release of Catalyst drivers.

Answers to your other questions are in detail below.

Have you found the tiny switch that the video card has on the side? You can't see it until you really look for it, but it's a dual bios switch that switches from Power Saving mode to Performance mode. It lets you use the card to the full 1018mhz core speed, else it uses 800-950mhz on both cores. You can flick the switch any time, but settings take effect on next boot.

I looked at my card but couldn't find this switch. As soon as I finish writing this post, I'll try to look online and find out where to look. However I don't think it's an issue, because my GPU-Z sensor is showing 1018 mhz.

Set up some monitoring so you can see what the video card and CPU are doing under load.

Throttle Stop and GPU-Z perhaps?

You can run Intel Burn Test and maybe Furmark to see what each does under load.

I am still downloading FurMark, but I ran Borderlands 2 for a few minutes with these utilities running.

GPU-Z Log (disable word wrapping to make it readable)

Throttlestop Log

CPU looks like fine to me, but it looks strange that the GPU keeps flapping between 0 and 100.

I'll post again once I get Furmark up and running, and can get some better logs.

 

[Siyko]

FurMark v1.17.0.0 running at 4K/UHD preset
Furmark at 1080 preset

GPU-Z log
(I think this is only capturing one of my GPUs - the r295x2 has two. I captured a log of just the second, but I can't figure out how to capture both at the same time)

Throttlestop Log

I also played around a bit and, in Windows, Furmark, or any game, I get a very slight stutter about every 1 second. It looks like just one or two frames being dropped, but it's very consistent - even when the game's FPS is reporting as 60 or above. I can see this stutter when moving windows around, scrolling down a webpage, watching a cutscene in a game, everything.

 

[Smoove910]

While I'm not too familiar with newer stuff, there's a couple things that popped in my head.

- Is your onboard graphics disabled? I do know the 4790k has onboard, and your motherboard supports it, so curious if this has been disabled in the BIOS
- Does your videocard have enough juice? (Proper pwr supply requirements and correct connections?)

 

[VirtualLarry]

I also played around a bit and, in Windows, Furmark, or any game, I get a very slight stutter about every 1 second. It looks like just one or two frames being dropped, but it's very consistent - even when the game's FPS is reporting as 60 or above. I can see this stutter when moving windows around, scrolling down a webpage, watching a cutscene in a game, everything.

Has Windows detected your monitor refresh rate as 59Hz or 60Hz? Sometimes, on my rigs, Windows detects 59Hz for some reason, and I have to change it to 60Hz to match my monitor.