I just upgraded my 1060 to a 3060 but it feels like a downgrade.
I just upgraded my 1060 to a 3060 but it feels like a downgrade.
I’m facing persistent random stutters that drop my FPS drastically, from 144 to 6 frames in short bursts (4-6 seconds). I’ve tried testing and adjusting settings, but it only occurs when the game’s frame limiter exceeds what my computer can produce. This hasn’t happened on my 1060. I’ve reinstalled drivers using DDU and disabled overclocking and graphics settings. The issue disappears when I cap the frames in the game below what my PC generates. I’m unsure if this is normal or if I’m hitting a bottleneck. Could this be related to the new GPU I just bought, or is there a defect? I just want clarity on what’s happening.
If you request the GPU to achieve maximum FPS, any system issues will likely cause stutters. It's often advised to establish a frame rate cap below what your hardware can handle for better stability. A more powerful GPU increases demand on your CPU and overall system, so verify you're not exceeding CPU core limits.
Regarding the older card performing better, it might be due to new features now available on the newer model. Ensure you've adjusted settings and consider clearing the shader cache if applicable. This could simply be a mismatch between the old architecture and the current hardware.
A 120GB SSD appears unusual—especially if it's not intended for use as a boot drive. It's possible this new GPU, with higher resource usage, is interfering with your chipset's storage data flow into the CPU.
Defective products can occur; benchmarking helps identify problems. Use standard, repeatable tests and keep monitoring tools like GPU-Z or Hardware Monitor to detect any irregularities.
The 120 gb ssd was my previous boot drive. It starts up using NVMe, but I attempted to remove it which led to some booting problems, so I still keep it installed. It seems to be connected via a SATA interface, though there’s no visible label on the SSD. Is it possible that keeping the frame size is below what newer cards need? I’ve never encountered anything this advanced in terms of GPU before. Regarding the CPU, I’ve been keeping an eye on its usage and it never exceeds 40%. As for new features, what should I look for in the Nvidia app? The game settings I use are identical to those I’ve relied on for years in Overwatch, and the Marvel Rivals settings match the ones I used with the 1060. I’m just curious about why stutters occur. I’ll try a benchmark on Heaven using GPU-Z.
Well you have a 12 core, 40% isn't really the answer. You need to look at the cores individually to see if any are getting maxed out. Games still aren't that multithreaded generally.
Not so much a thing with newer GPUs. Just in general. If you can briefly do 300 FPS, but your average is 180 or something, then games will feel very inconsistent as the FPS ramps up and down. With your older GPU, the max FPS you could achieve would have been less, so less load on everything.
As always while testing and troubleshooting, keep an eye on temperatures.
Ah, you probably still have your boot sector on the SSD. That is actually something of mild concern. If that drive dies the system won't know where to locate the OS. Here is a step by step guide:
View: https://youtu.be/oaH20g1kypA
Once done you should be able to remove the SATA SSD, and set your boot order directly to the NVMe drive and boot successfully.
Cant help on the GPU but.
If you had windows installed on the 120GB drive then attached the 4TB drive and installed windows on it. The windows install sees that there is a boot loader on the old 120Gb drive and doesnt install a new one on the 4TB drive. That is way if you remove the 120GB drive windows will not boot.
There is a good
walk through in here
to add a boot loader to your existing windows install
Heaven feels a bit outdated for the year 3060, and I won't be using the tensor or ray tracing components at all.
9.6 causes noticeable stuttering, which shouldn't happen in Heaven once it's loaded into memory. Usually I'd investigate software issues, but since you didn't encounter this problem with your previous GPU, that should help eliminate that possibility.
What are your spinning drives configured for? Do you use them frequently? A hard drive waking up from sleep can definitely lead to system-wide stutters. You can adjust it in performance settings so it doesn't shut down, but this means they spin continuously, gradually wearing out the bearings.
Regarding the CPUs, there are many tools available. I mentioned Hardware Monitor earlier; MSI Afterburner also displays CPU core information for GPUs. Windows Task Manager lets you view processors individually rather than overall. Ryzen Master provides detailed CPU insights.