Valve based games - FPS drops

[Nichrome]

Hi

Specs first:
i7 6700HQ max 75C
16GB DDR4 2133MHz
GTX970m 3GB 1037MHz core and 6000MHz Memory. Max 72C
Windows 10 Pro 64bit with all updates installed

Win10 installed on 128GB M.2 SSD. Games and steam are on 500GB 2.5" SSD.

The issue:
Any game that is based on valve engine, I am getting random fps drops. I can play the game, lets say CS:GO, on ULTRA at 1920x1080 or on minimum possible (same resolution), and my FPS will never go over 100 (max_fps is set to 300) at any times, but also randomly drops down to 20-40fps for a second or two making it terrible experience.

I can play BF4 on Ultra (AA off) on this resolution, GTA V on medium/high, League of Legends maxed out, RUST maxed out and many other games, but anything that is made by Valve, it gets random fps drops.

So far happens in the same way on:
CS:GO, Insurgency, Garry's Mod, Left 4 Dead (2 too). Single player/offline mode or multiplayer, same crap happening.

Does not happen on ANY other game.

Nvidia settings made to get highest performance on these games. Running my laptop on power brick+battery. Overclocking, underclocking and stock clocks for GPU does not change anything. Steam was reinstalled already, just like games.

It is using dedicated GPU (not iGPU of i7-6700HQ).

Anyone, anything? I don't think it's hardware issue, because anything else works perfectly fine.

[[☥] - CJ -]

Try with Vsync enabled, see how it goes.
Just a thought

[Nichrome]

Originally posted by ☥ - CJ -:

Try with Vsync enabled, see how it goes.
Just a thought

Nope, drops still occur.
Also tried few different drivers versions, including BETA, newest and 3 versions backwards. Each installation as "Clean", and beforehand used DDU to uninstall current driver.

[rojimboo]

It's an intriguing problem.

Have you ever checked your Global Base Profile nvidia settings in Nvidia Inspector? Try to see something odd there, especially Frame Rate Limiter set to anything other than off, but I doubt that's it if you get 100fps.

Likely not network related, even though all are multiplayer games, but some non-valve ones seem to be working (are you positive only Source games are affected)?

Likely not throttling due to overheating as it works step-wise and doesn't just go from 100fps to 20fps.

Intriguing. xd

[Nichrome]

Originally posted by rojimboo:

It's an intriguing problem.

Have you ever checked your Global Base Profile nvidia settings in Nvidia Inspector? Try to see something odd there, especially Frame Rate Limiter set to anything other than off, but I doubt that's it if you get 100fps.

Yes! Everything is set to performance mode, prefer max performance etc.

Originally posted by rojimboo:

Likely not network related, even though all are multiplayer games, but some non-valve ones seem to be working (are you positive only Source games are affected)?

Yes, only Source games. And as I said, other games (including GTA V, Witcher 3, BF4) have stable FPS. BF4 is stable in both campaign and multiplayer.

I can't tell why it's limited to 100FPS, in main menu of CS:GO, it fluctuates between 90 and 119FPS, even though VSynch is off. Even CoD4 runs at 333FPS (quake engine :) ).

Throttling does not occur, as other games run fine. Temps are fine. Benchmark and stress tests for CPU and GPU run fine too.

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by Nichrome:

Originally posted by rojimboo:

It's an intriguing problem.

Have you ever checked your Global Base Profile nvidia settings in Nvidia Inspector? Try to see something odd there, especially Frame Rate Limiter set to anything other than off, but I doubt that's it if you get 100fps.

Yes! Everything is set to performance mode, prefer max performance etc.

Originally posted by rojimboo:

Likely not network related, even though all are multiplayer games, but some non-valve ones seem to be working (are you positive only Source games are affected)?

Yes, only Source games. And as I said, other games (including GTA V, Witcher 3, BF4) have stable FPS. BF4 is stable in both campaign and multiplayer.

I can't tell why it's limited to 100FPS, in main menu of CS:GO, it fluctuates between 90 and 119FPS, even though VSynch is off. Even CoD4 runs at 333FPS (quake engine :) ).

Throttling does not occur, as other games run fine. Temps are fine. Benchmark and stress tests for CPU and GPU run fine too.

Take a few snapshots of the Nvidia inspector settings. For Global.

[Nichrome]

http://puu.sh/pyo3f/e9aeb0d40c.png
http://puu.sh/pyo4l/f78efad3f5.png

The worst, in fact, is in Insurgency and CS:GO. Garry's Mod is somewhat playable, and L4D are fairly ok (should be better but playable). Also, L4D is the only game that has FPS going above even 150 and it uses Global nvidia settings.

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by Nichrome:

http://puu.sh/pyo3f/e9aeb0d40c.png
http://puu.sh/pyo4l/f78efad3f5.png

The worst, in fact, is in Insurgency and CS:GO. Garry's Mod is somewhat playable, and L4D are fairly ok (should be better but playable). Also, L4D is the only game that has FPS going above even 150 and it uses Global nvidia settings.

Check those individual game profiles just in case there is something weird there.

And Frame Rate Limiter was set to 'Off', or?

[Nichrome]

Originally posted by rojimboo:

Check those individual game profiles just in case there is something weird there.

I did check them. Even manually set to whatever Global says. Same behaviour.

Originally posted by rojimboo:

And Frame Rate Limiter was set to 'Off', or?

Frame rate limited is set to 300FPS, but tried different values, and never really above 100FPS. However when set below 100FPS, it was limiting the FPS.

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by Nichrome:

Originally posted by rojimboo:

And Frame Rate Limiter was set to 'Off', or?

Frame rate limited is set to 300FPS, but tried different values, and never really above 100FPS. However when set below 100FPS, it was limiting the FPS.

I mean in Nvidia Inspector, right? You should leave it off.

[Nichrome]

Wait, no! I don't have nvidia inspector installed. That was within games max_fps.

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by Nichrome:

Wait, no! I don't have nvidia inspector installed. That was within games max_fps.

But um, you posted pics of it, sure you have it xd

I'm so confused.

[Nichrome]

Um, yes, control panel.
http://puu.sh/pyoZK/0ee834888d.png

[rojimboo]

Originally posted by Nichrome:

Um, yes, control panel.
http://puu.sh/pyoZK/0ee834888d.png

Ahhh, they almost look the same.

Get the free Nvidia Inspector, and open nvidiaProfileInspector.exe in the folder.

[_I_]

how are the temps?

cpu and gpu will throttle at around 90-100c

check temps while gaming
use hwmonitor, it logs min/max temps
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/hwmonitor.html
alt+tab takes long enough for the cpu/gpu to drop 20+c

if its running hot, clean its vents with cans of compressed air or an aircompressor
and get a laptop cooling pad

[Nichrome]

Read the initial post. Not even 80C for GPU and CPU
Just to make things clear, PCs is my hobby. I know more than most players about PCs, and I usually solve such myself. But this with Source games got me stumped.