Unusual decline in performance during the 2-year-old stage?
Unusual decline in performance during the 2-year-old stage?
The build remains largely unchanged over the past two years. Previously, I played many graphically demanding titles (such as FFXIV, Elden Ring, and Monster Hunter World) and they performed well at around 120 FPS, except for Elden Ring which averaged about 60. Now, after a break from such games, I’ve shifted to roguelikes and still experience significant drops in performance. Elden Ring no longer maintains a steady 60 FPS, Monster Hunter World only reaches 120 FPS during menus and loading, and FFXIV falls to roughly 45 FPS in open areas. Despite these changes, I haven’t adjusted any game or hardware settings. My current specs suggest the performance should be much better. I’ve shared screenshots from my recent Elden Ring session (left) and Monster Hunter World test (right), where the only noticeable issues appear when booting into the games or loading hubs.
I’ve tried several troubleshooting steps without success:
- Installed the latest NVIDIA drivers
- Performed a clean installation of NVIDIA drivers
- Updated BIOS
- Updated chipset drivers (failed to locate them)
- Adjusted CPU voltage (reset after failure)
- Reset BIOS settings
- Reset CMOS
- Tested with a different DP cable on the GPU
- Used a 1080p monitor (helped slightly, but I prefer 1440p for gaming)
- Freed up space on the OS drive (about 50% used)
- Adjusted system performance settings: set virtual memory to 4096 MB
I also cleaned the computer and dusted it thoroughly. Unfortunately, nothing has resolved the ongoing issues. I’m still unable to run games at the previous levels of performance. Are there any additional details or steps you could suggest to help with this?
Welcome to the forums, new member!
Have you performed a fresh installation of NVIDIA drivers?
Did you use DDU before updating the newest GPU driver through an elevated command?
You have 2 SSDs and 1 HDD—can you explain how they are configured?
Regarding DDU, I haven't tried it yet. I can attempt it again and send you the outcomes! One SSD contains my operating system along with some programs that were installed by default. The second SSD holds my other applications, including Steam and Steam games. The HDD stores all of my non-application files like photos and documents.
It would make sense to install MSI Afterburner to observe performance details during gaming. You can utilize the RTSS overlay or review performance graphs. A 3DMark test might also be useful to identify if CPU or GPU is affecting results.
I'll attempt those actions and share the outcomes. Thanks to all for your feedback!
A quick update, here's after like 20 minutes attempting to play Elden Ring. I'm not sure if my GPU usage is the 99% or the 39%, the only GPU-related things I have turned on in Afterburner is GPU Usage and GPU Temperature. Here's also a list of the statistics I have enabled.
And then the rest of the "in OSD" statistics I have are the Core Usages and FPS. Is there anything I should be looking out for in terms of points of failure? Any patterns?
If the GPU clock matches what you're seeing in-game, it indicates a significant issue since that's the idle clock speed for the 3080. The power level displayed by MSI Afterburner should be checked; if it shows 100%, disconnecting and reconnecting all power connectors on the card is recommended.