Excessive Frame Issues/PC Resources Not Being Utilized

[Ryrii]

 Operating System: Windows 10

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-8700K Processor (6x 3.70GHz/12MB L3 Cache) 

Motherboard: MSI MAG Z390 TOMAHAWK

 RAM: XPG 16 GB [8 GB x2] DDR4-3200 

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 - 8GB GDDR6 (VR-Ready)

120GB WD Green SSD (7 Days Install Location)

Playing on 2560x1440 resolution - will give more detail on settings after explaining the general issue. 

So I was running the game fine for the first in game week, didn't think much of low frames as it was a co-op game on a friends P2P host. On the second horde I noticed a drastic change in frames ( I mean as low as 5-10 frames) at the time I was running a custom set of settings between High and Ultra, reducing the intensity of shadows, grass, and objects. I've played at least 100-200 hours on Alpha 20, this hadn't happened before and usually I am the host this was a rare occasion that I didn't. Normally my frames were steady around 30-60 range at any given time while hosting.

 

I've noticed a distinct difference between resources used by my machine since this problem has started which is only within the last 2-3 weeks. I've not seen my GPU use more than 30% on its average with occasional spikes to 40% for less than a second. CPU seems to only be clocking 20-30% as well, also only reading out a maximum of 2.20GHz averaging 1.20-1.80GHz, and the GPU seems to only be using around 3GB of its available memory. The only thing that seems to actually being used properly is the RAM at around 60-80% on average.

As a preface, Windows is up to date, and so are my Nvidia Drivers even did a clean install of the Nvidia Driver. I've uninstalled all mods, reinstalled 7days to die, and deleted the mod folder in the 7days directory. I've double checked my friends Window & Nvidia control panel settings on a similar but not quite identical system (Slightly better CPU, GPU, and RAM I believe); this friend is the host and his game is running fine with the same settings.  I've also tried turning off frame rate savers, such as AA, V-sync, reflected shadows, Sun Shafts, ect. I've even lowered the Texture size to Quarter. However, I still seem to have a top out frame rate of 40 -50 (it does go higher in some best case scenarios but excluding that as outlier). As soon as I rejoin the MP server the frames cap at about 45 even just standing in front of the base doing absolutely nothing with not zombies around. Just at a general loss for why it seems like my PC is suddenly refusing to pump the proper resources towards the game. 

 

Edit: My friend's resources for CPU/GPU are clocking 20% or double mine so I feel like this area is the definitive problem. 

 

I think that is the best I can describe my issue and the circumstances at this moment, I can try to elaborate on specific questions if they might help me find a solution.  Hoping someone might be able to help me figure out the issue here. I believe the issue started after 20.6 patch but not sure if that has anything to do with the problem.

[Naz]

what are cpu temps at 1.2-1.8ghz on that cpu has me thinking there is a thermal issue.

[SylenThunder]

11 hours ago, Ryrii said:

CPU seems to only be clocking 20-30% as well, also only reading out a maximum of 2.20GHz averaging 1.20-1.80GHz

^^ This right here.  I know what this is.

Over a year ago there was a Windows update that had a CPU chipset driver in it. This driver targeted overclocked CPU's and severely underclocked them. (May have been intentional, but I don't recall the truth ever being found.) Even if you don't intentionly OC your CPU, your motherboard has a "Gaming mode" built into it, and in the bloatware that gets installed with it that will auto-OC your CPU a small amount.

 

The fix is pretty easy. Just pull the latest chipset drivers from MSI and Intel. Install them and reboot. Ensure your RAM is set to the XMP profile as well.

[Ryrii]

Quote

Over a year ago there was a Windows update that had a CPU chipset driver in it. This driver targeted overclocked CPU's and severely underclocked them. (May have been intentional, but I don't recall the truth ever being found.) Even if you don't intentionly OC your CPU, your motherboard has a "Gaming mode" built into it, and in the bloatware that gets installed with it that will auto-OC your CPU a small amount.

 

The fix is pretty easy. Just pull the latest chipset drivers from MSI and Intel. Install them and reboot. Ensure your RAM is set to the XMP profile as well.

Thanks a ton SylenThunder, I had already updated my BIOS and some other things but your solution and switching to the Vulcan version has fixed my problem and increased my overall FPS! Was tearing my hair out trying to figure this out think it was affecting other games but I wasn't able to tell in some cases until recently as I finally upgraded to a second monitor making it easier to track resources and such.  Edit: To clarify I can now run Ultra if I dare at no less than 40-50 frames when its struggling excluding hordes and such so large improvement.

Edited December 3, 2022 by Ryrii
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