GPU performance declining during gameplay
GPU performance declining during gameplay
Recently I've experienced significant frame drops, specifically around 300-400fps. The game that triggers this most often is Valorant. Even in the practice mode, there are areas where my performance hits 500+ fps with over 90% GPU usage, after which it plummets to 100-130 fps with only 30-40% GPU load. I've also observed that opening more background applications worsens the situation. For instance, having Twitch running in the background causes a drop of about 20 FPS.
I've already eliminated several potential causes: temperatures are normal (GPU runs between 60-70°C), my CPU stays at 60-65°C during games, the new motherboard I installed is functioning properly (the issue persisted with the old one too), and even after a clean driver install, the problem remains. I've also tried a different PSU as backup, but it doesn't fix the issue. My control panel settings are optimized for performance.
My RAM usage rarely exceeds 33-34%, which makes me wonder if this is unusual. This problem began a few months ago and has been worsening steadily. I've seen frames drop to 30 FPS while playing Valorant. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Edit 1: After about an hour of writing, I encountered a blue screen of death. Additionally, strange behavior occurred when trying to launch Apex on Steam—it repeatedly failed and restarted itself. My Chrome browser also crashes frequently, displaying the "aw snap!" error. Despite monitoring temperatures, everything seems normal.
Edit 2: Prior testing revealed my RAM clocked at 2133MHz. I attempted to overclock it to 3600MHz, which led to blue screens appearing and disappearing. After this, I ran a Windows memory diagnostic via the command prompt, indicating a hardware issue. It warned of an error code post-restart but never triggered, suggesting a possible RAM problem. I'm unsure how this could be causing low GPU usage and reduced FPS. With two monitors set up, I've noticed synchronization issues when one is turned off, sometimes resulting in crashes while Apex was open.
PC specifications:
GPU: RTX 3070Ti Super
CPU: Intel 12th Gen i7 -12700F
PSU: Corsair RM750x
Motherboard: MSI Mag Tomahawk Wifi DDR4 Socket 1700
RAM: Corsair Vengeance RBG Pro SL DDR4 32GB (2x16GB) 3600 MHz CL18
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In this shot, my FPS range is 500-600 while playing.
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In another frame, FPS sits between 160-170 during gameplay.
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In a third capture, FPS drops to 160-170 with the monitor off.
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It began with blue screens appearing. I reset it to 2133mhz, but performance problems persist.
I've been experiencing difficulties updating the BIOS. When I enter flash mode, the BIOS reads the USB with the BIOS update, but it doesn't display the actual update. I've formatted the USB to FAT32 and tried other formats as well, but it still can't read it. I've also used three different USB drives. It seems a BIOS update probably won't solve this, since similar problems occurred on my old motherboard.