New build, terrible performance and benchmarks

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19 Nov 2008
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Specs -

3700x (Stock cooler as I am having to RMA the H100i Plat SE)
MSI Tomahawk Max
Corsair Vengeance 3600 32gb
RTX2080 Super
Sabrent Rocket
RM750x
1440p 165hz Monitor

I was feeling like my new system wasn't running to its potential so I started turning on FPS counters to check it out. Battlefield 5 on full low settings at 1440p is barely over 100fps. For comparison, my old 4790k 980 combo did this at 1080p. My friend's i5 1070 beats this at 1440p low. So I went to benchmarks.

Heaven 1080p extreme scored 5848 - not even close to the pack with 3700x/2080 Super, instead it's at the lower end of the regular 2070s, 1080tTIs, and older CPUs. Really poor performance.

3DMark Timespy (DX12) got a total score of 10281 (GPU 10402, CPU 9646) putting it in the bottom 3% of all results with this CPU/GPU combo.

3DMark Firestrike (DX11) got a total score of 18459 (19119 GPU, Physics 23896) putting it in the bottom 1% of all results with this CPU/GPU combo.

For comparison, my 4790k/980 machine achieved 12000 in Firestrike. A Ryzen 3700x, 2080 Super rig is barely outperforming that.

So I have no idea what is going on - temps are sub-60 at full load, Windows power plan is Ryzen balanced, Nvidia is set to favour maximum power/performance. It's a completely new build, all fresh so no old drivers hanging around ruining things.

Did I just get super, super unlucky, or is there anything I can do? Everything seems to be working fine, it's just doing it badly.
 
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This screams RAM misconfiguration to me.

1: Go into BIOS and make sure XMP (DOCP) is enabled for the RAM

2: If 1 is configured properly, make sure RAM is in the correct slots so dual channel is enabled. Check this in CPU-Z or consult the manual for correct slots to use. RAM should be in slots 2 and 4.
 
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Just out of interest, and I know it's not considered accurate, run the passmark test https://www.cpubenchmark.net/ It might show a bottleneck

I'll run that in a bit

Have you checked your system specs in BIOS or CPU-Z? Could be something is not detected (ie some RAM sticks).

CPU Z and GPU Z report everything as normal as far as I can see. GPU Core and Memory clocks are running as expected and it's definitely seeing all my RAM.

This screams RAM misconfiguration to me.

1: Go into BIOS and make sure XMP (DOCP) is enabled for the RAM

2: If 1 is configured properly, make sure RAM is in the correct slots so dual channel is enabled. Check this in CPU-Z or consult the manual for correct slots to use. RAM should be in slots 2 and 4.

XMP is definitely on, I only got 50% of my RAM speed before I enabled that. CPU Z reports the timings to be as advertised for these sticks. They are in slots 2 and 4. I have some dummy RAM in 1 and 3 I can remove for testing. Is it worth trying with 1 stick at a time?
 
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VnVJafR

Memory controller always works at the speed of slowest DIMM, so remove any garbage memory sticks from slots.

It seems my BIOS doesn't even detect anything in those slots but I'll put it on the list to try.

I might be overthinking this, but it kinda looks like my GPU doesn't sit in the slot all the way. It's definitely pushed in as far as it can go before being blocked by the expansion slot brackets, and the locking lever will close, but you can see in this image https://imgur.com/a/VnVJafR that there is a gap.

I would have thought if it wasn't in the slot correctly it just wouldn't work at all though.
 
Soldato
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Contacts are already inside slot when locking lever catches card.
If there isn't proper contact GPU-Z would show that as less than x16 bandwidth.
Month or so ago in Finnish PC forum there was a case of one user having slot broken from lock end in second hand mobo and it worked as x8.
(looked like someone had forcibly pulled card out of slot by bending slot and breaking locking lever)
 
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Contacts are already inside slot when locking lever catches card.
If there isn't proper contact GPU-Z would show that as less than x16 bandwidth.
Month or so ago in Finnish PC forum there was a case of one user having slot broken from lock end in second hand mobo and it worked as x8.
(looked like someone had forcibly pulled card out of slot by bending slot and breaking locking lever)

My locking lever doesn't actually click into place when I push the card in, I have to push it into place myself. I have swapped from a vertical mount to direct into the board and I don't remember if the vertical mount locked itself or not, i'll check in a bit.

GPU-Z reports that the Bus Interface is PCIe x 16 3.0 @ 16 3.0, and CPU-Z reports link width at x16, so I think it's ok?

What are your monitoring tools telling you about CPU and GPU usage?

The last benchmark I ran they were mostly sitting around 80%. The next set of benchmarks I'll get GPU-Z to log it.

That GPU looks to be VERY close to the CPU cooler. Try putting it in the x8 slot.

That's the angle of the photo, this is straight on https://imgur.com/a/Cbsb4bl
 
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Ok, MASSIVE sigh of relief over here. These are the steps I took -

Reset BIOS to default settings. Flashed BIOS to latest (I was on default out-of-box)
Enabled XMP in BIOS. Touched nothing else.
Moved GPU from vertical bracket to straight into board.
Reseated and reconnected all components/cables etc.
Complete format.
Fully updated Windows.
Installed MB Chipset, LAN, Audio Drivers.
Installed Nvidia Drivers (No GFE)
Installed Chrome, GPU-Z, CPU-Z, Steam, 3D Mark.

First 3DMark run on Firestrike absolutely obliterated my original score with a result of 24275, way ahead of the bell curve for this CPU/GPU combo.

Not sure what went wrong yet. I had to remove my H100i yesterday to RMA it so it's possible I botched something inside the machine. I guess it's also possible that the old BIOS was causing issues. I'll get everything back to how I want it and see how it goes from there.
 
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Necro-ing this as the same issue has shown up again.

What clued me in was a game (Factorio) that normally runs fine in windowed-borderless mode, was suddenly resetting the signal to the monitor when alt-tabbed - basically monitor just blanks off and on as if it's had to regain the signal.

On a whim I ran a 3D Mark benchmark again, and my score has completely tanked.

Additionally, my second monitor has been finicky for a long time (Occasionally needs the power cord pulled out for 5 minutes before it decides to work). It completely packed in last week by freezing my whole computer when plugged in. When unplugged everything unfreezes.

I'm now thinking it might not be the monitor that is done, but the GPU might be faulty in some way. Seems like it can't power both monitors, and certain tasks like alt-tab cause it to reset.

BIOS, drivers, windows etc up to date.

It's under warranty, but is there anything else I can do to test?
 
Soldato
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Do you frequent dodgy websites that’s ladened with malware? Do you have any cracked or hacked DLL programmes? Do you have any pre-activated programmes or even windows? Do you have Av and malware scanner? Might be worth a scan to root out any crap.

performance degradation overtime sounds like malware to me. But could also be driver related as NVidia updates their driver very frequently so might worth an update with clean install option.
 
Soldato
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Specs -

3700x (Stock cooler as I am having to RMA the H100i Plat SE)
MSI Tomahawk Max
Corsair Vengeance 3600 32gb
RTX2080 Super
Sabrent Rocket
RM750x
1440p 165hz Monitor



3DMark Firestrike (DX11) got a total score of 18459 (19119 GPU, Physics 23896) putting it in the bottom 1% of all results with this CPU/GPU combo.

For comparison, my 4790k/980 machine achieved 12000 in Firestrike. A Ryzen 3700x, 2080 Super rig is barely outperforming that.

12 000 >>>> to 18500 is a big jump, not sure what you were expecting?

The CPU score is 100% fine, my 3900 got 29400.
GPU however is a bit on the low side, my Vega64 is on 25k, even my 56 OCed was getting 22k+.

Are you sure u're not running the test at 1440p by mistake?
I'd open up GPU-Z and check if GPU clocks are boosting right and it gets all the required wattage and is actually loading up.

Also, even the score you've mentioned IS NOT IN BOTTOM 1%, you must have looked at wrong table or something happened there, that's just not right and you can see laptops with lower SCORES are not bottom 1% ... that's just a mistake, could just be error on software part.

EDIT: Ignore me didn't see the part where this was fixed :D
 
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