Graphic card GTX 570 but low FPS

[Viviandcodes Clary]

Hi,

I recently changed my graphic card to EVGA GTX 570 because my old 9800 died. However, since then, the FPS is unreasonably low. I normally get below 15 FPS and never have above 20FPS, while with my old card, it can easily goes over 30FPS. I am sure it is not a SL place issue, because I tested in my own place. I couldn't figure out the problem. I thought GTX570 should be better than my old card, but now I cannot even have a normal experience with SL. I installed the newest driver and also try monitoring the graphic card. The GPU usage is average between 15-30 when I run SL. How can I increase it? I use newest official SL viewer. Below is information about my computer. Thank you for helping.

 

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz (2833.27 MHz)
Memory: 8191 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit Service Pack 2 (Build 6002)
Graphics Card Vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 570/PCIe/SSE2

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.17.0012.9610
OpenGL Version: 4.2.0

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.21.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8q zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.7.1
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v6.4.1
Audio Driver Version: FMOD version 3.750000
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Vivox 3.2.0002.10426

Built with MSVC version 1600
Packets Lost: 7/9,005 (0.1%)

[Dora Gustafson]

With that setup there is no reason you should have low frame rate
If I were you I would clear the cache and restart the computer
If that doesn't help make a clean install of the viewer
If you have not done it already get the newest Nvidia driver and clean install it:)

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I knew there was something I read about, at least, one of the 500 series cards that was different than my 200 series card (which is also different than the older 9800 cards).  It requires two PCI-e power connectors where the other cards only require one.  You need one 6 pin PCI-e power connector and one 8 pin PCI-e power connector.  If you installed the card yourself and installed the same power connector to your card without connecting the 8 pin PCI-e connector (which is not required on the 9800 card) your GTX570 is not going to run at it's full potential. 

Check that power connector.

[Dilbert Dilweg]

Is it possible your viewer is running on the old settings for the old card? try deleting your settings file and start all over. Let sl re-recognize the hardware and set up settings

[Dilbert Dilweg]

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Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

I knew there was something I read about, at least, one of the 500 series cards that was different than my 200 series card (which is also different than the older 9800 cards).  It requires two PCI-e power connectors where the other cards only require one.  You need one 6 pin PCI-e power connector and one 8 pin PCI-e power connector.  If you installed the card yourself and installed the same power connector to your card without connecting the 8 pin PCI-e connector (which is not required on the 9800 card) your GTX570 is not going to run at it's full potential. 

Check that power connector.

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Interesting. I actually have a 4 pin main power connecter right above my PCI slot on the motherboard for that secondary power for my vid card.

 

[Peggy Paperdoll]

I might be mistaken about the 8 pin connector (I checked an independant review site and if said one each 6 pin and 8 pin).  I just checked EVGA's site for the GTX570 and it says two 6 pin connectors.  But my point is that it requires two power connectors instead of the one that my GTS250 requires and the one that my old 9800GTX required before I replaced it with the 250 a year and a half ago.  I don't know what your 4 pin connector is for..........but I do remember an older card that had a 4 pin connector (I believe it was an 8600GT.......the one I replaced with the 9800).  If memory serves me correctly that connection was for optical disk drive (it was an optional connection).

Here's EVGA's specs:

http://www.evga.com/products/moreinfo.asp?pn=012-P3-1570-AR&pwindow=specs&family=&sw=

[Teagan Tobias]

I also have very low FPS with V3.  I just went from an 8800 GTS 512 to a GTX 550 Ti w/1G DDR5 (last month).  I was expecting to go WOW when I started SL but it was more like, what is going on, I know I installed the new card.  The drivers removed prior to taking the old card out and the latest drivers installed with the new card installed, and only one power connector on my card, 6 pin as I recall.  Imprudence is running better with the new card, but V3 has little change from the 8800 to the 550 to the way it runs.  I really like the direction V3 is heading but it would be nice to actually be able to use the new bright shiny pieces.  I use Imprudence to do things, I use V3 when it is updated to see if my in world experience has gotten any better.  Still waiting...

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Well, I just got back from Best Buy about an hour ago.  I want to replace my GTS250 card that is in this machine and put it in my other computer that only has an Intel intergrated graphic card (IGP).  Since this machine doesn't have an IGP, I need to replace the GTS250 with another card.  I just happened to purchase a PNY GTX550Ti with 1 GB DDR5 VRAM.  Identical to yours except maybe the manufacturer.  I'll let you know once I get it installed later today.

[Emil Praga]

all GTX video cards need 2 power connectors with 6 pins each coming from the power supply, indeed if u dont connect bouth of them, your video card will work half or maybe less then its full potential ...

[Peggy Paperdoll]

"all GTX video cards need 2 power connectors with 6 pins each coming from the power supply..."

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That is not true.  I just installed a GTX550Ti card in this computer about an hour and a half ago.  It has one PCI E power connector receptical on the card........only one can be connected to the card.  The requiremenst listed both on the package and in the instructions mention only one PCI E, 6 pin connector that needs to be connected for the video card to run at it's optimal performance.  I'm sure there are cards that do require two PCI E connectors ( just read the requirements for the GTX570 earlier today when I looked it up for the OP's question.  What makes the second connector necessary is unknown to me........but I imagine it's due to the added performance for the 570 over the 550 card (the card I purchased has 1 gig of DDR5 VRAM so I guess the additional VRAM could be the reason for the second power connector, but I really doubt it).  The GTX570 card has a minimum power supply requirement of 550 watts where the GTX550Ti has a 400 watt minimum power supply requirement...........so a good guess is that the second power connection to the card has something to do with that (like it's a bigger comsumer of power).

You're probably correct about the card not performing as expected without both connectors connected.  Though I'm sure the card would run.......just at a lower performance.  That's why I said to check that second connection in my first post to this thread.

[Nalates Urriah]

My Asus GTX560Ti OC has two 6 pin PCI power connectors. 

My performance is very dependent on which version of a viewer I run as to how SL performs.

The current Dev Viewer runs at 8 to 15 FPS and probably averages 10. The main and Beta viewers are the same.

The current Pathfinding Project viewer runs at 20 to 28 FPS in ADITI and the sandboxes in AGNI. Admittedly those areas are empty and deserted. 

Some thrid party viewers have run on the 560 at 40 to 50 FPS. But, none of the current versions do.

I never see my 560 get much over 30% when running SL. My CPU (Core2 Quad) putts along at 40 to 60%. So, I'm at a loss at to where the bottle neck is. One can use GPU-Z and CPU-Z to check performance and temperature of the CPU and GPU while running SL. Both are free and easy to use.

I have 4gb on a 32-bit Vista Ultra. I seldom see the SL memory use over 1gb... unless I go into crash mode. Anything over 1.2 to 1.5 and the viewer is probably on its way down.

My previous 8800 ran at an average 25 to 35 FPS but without L&S, Ambient Occlusion, or Shadows. With shadows I was lucky to get 5 or 6 FPS.

I run all the current viewers on HIGH with L&S, AO, and Sun/Moon enabled. So, I am getting more performance from my 560, but not what I expected.

I spent some time learning the graphics settings and figuring out what works best for SL. See: Graphics Tweaking for Second Life. With my 8800 getting the setting right got me about a 30% boost.

I've also learned that if Flash anything is running on my computer, I will take a performance hit in SL. If a Facebook game has crashed, I sometimes need to reboot to get perfromance back in SL.

But all that said, SL is a dog with OpenGL. The Lindens are working hard on stability and upgrading the compatibility with OpenGL. I'm not sure they are optimizing for performance yet. I'll try to remember to ask next time I see Oz somewhere.

I saw a couple of days ago that they merged in compatibility changes for GLSL 1.30. (Open Graphics Language Shader Language) Also, the Shinning branch of developement has been changing things. They have made lots of memory pool managment and VRAM compression things. I suspect the Pathfinding has some of those new changes, I hope since it seems faster.

At some point I expect as they get the viewer stability they want, they will shift to performance issues. The server team is working on performance issues in several places. So, I expect the viewer teams will too.

Peggy what FPS rate are you seeing with your 550?

[Teagan Tobias]

@ Emil
Only one 6 pin connection to hook up on the Asus GTX550Ti.

FPS are always very high with Imprudence (use it most of the time, don't care about mesh) but V3 gets stinky low in busy places, and almost all I do is go to live events.  I have been trying to use V3 but not very happy with its performance, even with this new card.  It is better than my 8800 but not by as much as I expected.  My FPS still at 10 or so in busy places.

Well I just tried to go to a show and I am getting 4 to 7 FPS.  
At another show now, 2.5 then up to 6 FPS and less people.  
One thing for sure, this is not how you get people to stay in SL, I just have to much money invested to walk away.  Thank God for Imprudence.

[Emil Praga]

ok then, my bad, i thought GTX's use  2 connectors due to being the best of its series (GT, GTS, GTX) and due to my previous GTX's, i have a MSI GTX460 1GB Ram OC Edition and i play always with Shadows On no matter its a crowded place or not, i never go under 15 FPS, and usually i stay only in clubs

[Peggy Paperdoll]

What am I getting on my brand new GTX550Ti 1GB?  About what I expected.........5 FPS or so more than what I got on my GTS250.  And I even set the graphics preferences to the same so it's a fair comparison in my opinion.  The 550 is not that much more of a performer than the 250 card.........both are mid-range for their series (the second number being 5 puts both cards smack dab in the middle).  A new card is not always a higher performing card (in fact, more often than not, the sales pitch will mislead you greatly.........you need to understand how nVidia (and ATI/AMD, too) number their card models to know what the performance level is for the card (a new series, the first number, is just that.......a new series and says little about the performance).  You're 560 should out perform my card by a little bit.........but that depends on both computers have other, similar, hardware devices. 

I get just about 95 FPS on my sky platform at 4000 meters on the 550.......about 90 with the old 250

I get just about 35 FPS on an intitial landing at ground level on my land (it increases as thing load and rezz around me) with the 550........about 30 on the old 250.

I haven't visited any heavily populated places yet.......but I expect about 20 to 30 FPS with the new 550 when I used to get 15 to 25 with the 250.

I don't use shadows and depth of field.........I think those features enabled makes for an ugly surroundings.  It causes ab out the same hit on FPS as my old 250 suffered..........5 to 10 FPS less on both cards no matter where I am.  It's not worth the hit so I haven't even tried to tweak the settings to see of I could get the shadows and depth of field to look better (I'm serious...........it's ugly as sin in my opinion).

The rest of my computer is a little above average.  i5 quad CPU at 2.4 gigs.  8 GB 1333 DDR3 system RAM and a couple of 500 GB hard drives where I keep my caches on the "data" drive instead of on the OS drive (that helps a lot for objects rezzing).  My cable connection is pretty fast too..........I pay for 30 gigs and test out at 27 gigs consistantly (tested to both San Francisco and Dallas.......Dallas is a little slower, like 25 gigs or so).  I live in Southern California so that might be an advantage.    My operating system is Windows 7 x64.  When I setup a computer I always turn off all that I can turn off that is not absolutely necessary to run in the background..........all those bells and whistles that Microsoft wants me be be impressed with are wasted efforts on their part (if it don't make my computer run better I won't enable it......pretty and glitzy is not making my computer run better).

I think maybe my x64 Windows 7 and the 8 GB of RAM (plus, maybe, my nearness to the SL servers) are probably most responsible for my better performance over your's.  My system setup may be part too........and my expectations were reasonable too.  Now if I had spent the nearly $500 for a GTX580 card I would have expected some impressive numbers to relay to you.

I'm happy with the card I bought today.  Now I just need to get it installed in my second computer and see how that beast runs...........it's an older and lesser spec'd machine than this one.  But it has no discrete card either.........not yet. 

[Triple Peccable]

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Nalates Urriah wrote:

My CPU (Core2 Quad) putts along at 40 to 60%.

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That is a major misconception about hyper-threaded processors. Your Core 2 Quad has 4 cores, but the operating system thinks it has 8. So anytime you see it at 50%, it is actually running at 100%. Anything above 50% is showing the small benefit that hyper-threading gives you, but you will never see it at 100% unless you disable hyper-threading.

I have a feeling most who buy today's high powered video cards and expect to see massive improvements are getting dissapointed because it is their CPU, not GPU, that is maxed out.

ETA: I get over 150fps from my GTX260 when I first log in (LL's Viewer 3 is all I use), but that is with a super fast Intel i7 @ 3.06Ghz with triple channel 1600 Mhz memory. That shows just how processor bound the viewer is.

ETA2: Here is a great website for geeks like us to A/B compare video card specs: http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php

 

[Danny Nolan]

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Triple Peccable wrote:

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Nalates Urriah wrote:

My CPU (Core2 Quad) putts along at 40 to 60%.

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That is a major misconception about hyper-threaded processors. Your Core 2 Quad has 4 cores, but the operating system thinks it has 8. So anytime you see it at 50%, it is actually running at 100%.

 

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Pretty sure the CPU is still actually running at 50%. A thread can't occupy 100% of one core. Thusso, running your CPU with hyperthreading turned off is actually better for gaming, since it'll at most use 2-3 threads.

 

In relation to the original post. SL relies on your CPU/ram. Second Life's main thread is horribly coded, and literally waits for certain things to happen. Thus, it's a engine bottleneck. Not necessarily a CPU, nor a GPU bottle neck. 

[Triple Peccable]

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Danny Nolan wrote:

 

Pretty sure the CPU is still actually running at 50%. A thread can't occupy 100% of one core. Thusso, running your CPU with hyperthreading turned off is actually better for gaming, since it'll at most use 2-3 threads.

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I have to disagree with you, because we aren't talking about cores, we are talking about the total load on all the cores, which is what most utilities report when telling you the overall CPU load. Anytime the OS thinks the CPU has twice as many cores as it really has (which happens on any hyper-threaded CPU) then there is no way the reported CPU load could reach 100%.

So, with hyper-threading turned off it's easy, 4 cores running 100% = 100% load.

But with hyper-threading turned on, 4 cores running 100% looks like 50% to the OS, because the OS expects all *8* cores to be able to deliver 100% each (which of course isn't possible because there really is only 4 cores).

Try it yourself. Load a CPU intensive program, like Prime95, so that one instance of Prime95 is running on each core. Even though that completely maxes out your CPU, with hyper-threading turned on you will see most utility programs report approximately 50% CPU load.

 

[Nala Spires]

well you both realise that core 2 quad and core 2 duo cpus  have no hyperthreading right ?

the hyperthreading was first used on pentium 4 cpus and then again reintroduced on the i3/i5/7 family of cpus 1st /2nd and now 3rd generation of em

 

my system righ is phenom x3 720 at 3,3 ghz  gtx 460 1gb clocked at 800 mhz and 1900mhz on the ram 24/7 4 gb ddr2 at 800 mhz    my fps are not that great but normally on very crowed places i can keep up with 15ish  fps witch is ok for sl or i got used to it at least    now a friend of mine  have same vga with me same manifacturer ((gainward)) same clocks if i recal correctly  but an i7 920 clocked to 3,6 with ddr3 memory  on the side and she was constantly getting 50%+ fps than me on almost every place we where so our conclusion was more or less sl like fast cpus like i7  and possibly  fast ram i saw on some old posts that sl uses a lot of systems ram for the graphics so that will  support our theory that sl likes fast ram also ....... also my vga runs at 400 mhz when i play sl .... more or less sleeping i have to find the screenshot i got and post it ... why that happens ... well  my guesses are a) terrible terrible codding   b) if indeed the sl using extensively the systems memory instead of the vga's dedicated memmory the slower the ram the tighter the bottleneck  c) sl likes cores and threads even if not utilising em fully ..... i plan to change my cpu to a 3770 with ddr3 memmory soon so i will really have to test lots of things