1080/4930K Load Drop in Smite

Master_Pain

Master_Pain

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 13, 2007
Messages
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So I am experiencing a weird issue in Smite. From time to time my fps will drop to almost nothing, and I look over and my GPU load is 0%. I have noticed some skills trigger this happening, but sometimes it seems random. Sometimes it settles down and picks back up to 20%, sometimes it doesn't.I have tried different drivers, different graphics settings, all to no avail. Anyone have some ideas for me to try?
 
Either the graphics driver is trying to do some sort of "recovery" internally, or your CPU is doing something other than thinking about the game, causing it to pause. Any CPU usage history that you can look at when you notice the FPS drop and 0% GPU usage? Assuming you're using Windows, anything in the Event Viewer around the time of these events? Other than that, has it always done this, or is this a new behavior? Did anything change in your setup (hardware/software) that might account for it? A new PCIe card? A new hard drive/SSD? Something new plugged into a USB port? Grasping at straws here...
 
New behavior. Recently formatted and did a fresh install of W10. Installed the 1080 when I did that.

I'll have to check on the CPU tonight.
 
Ok, so I did some testing tonight. My CPU load is also dropping when it's happening, so both the CPU and GPU load drops to nothing. I would be more inclined to suspect the CPU than the GPU causing the issue. But I have no clue what it might be. I tested various overclocks tonight on the CPU, as well as used defaults, all to the same result. So, I am all out of ideas.
 
A problem with the GPU driver (which uses the CPU), or more specifically communication between the GPU driver and GPU hardware, could result in a short "hang" inside the driver which would effectively look like both the CPU load dropped and GPU load dropped because the driver is pausing waiting for data that may never arrive. During this pause, the game effectively "hangs" while the driver times out waiting to recover from the problem.
I forgot to ask: How long does the FPS drop last? 1 second? 2 seconds? Longer? Is it always the same length of time when it happens?

Lastly, from your sig you appear to be overclocking. Have you tried going back to stock speeds just to see if it still happens? Did you alter the BCLK speed above 100MHz for the overclock? Sometimes this can cause PCIe issues. Did you mess with the Pagefile settings in Windows? Best to leave them at default.
 
I just wiped a little bit ago on my lunch. Reset bios to default. I will try it out again tonight after work and report back.
 
No dice, problem still persists in Windows 7.
Troubleshooting
Fresh install of W10, no change
Wiped, fresh install of W7, no change
Removed 1080, ran on my secondary 750ti, no change
Removed raid array, ran off of O/S SSD, no change
Removed all but 1 stick of RAM, no change
Changed for a different stick of RAM and a different slot, no change

That leaves PSU, CPU, or mobo as the culprit. And I have no good way of testing any of them short of taking the PSU from my server, which isn't happening... Or the O/S SSD could be fucked, I have seen strange things happen when an SSD decides to die.

Gonna have a mod move this to the Intel forum, see if it gets some more light there. Tis a very strange issue.
 
Narrowed down to either the SSD or mobo dying. I doubt the Marvell and Intel chipsets would go out at the same time and exhibit the same exact behavior (tried both with the SSD). So a shiny new 850 Pro for my O/S will be here Monday.
 
Well, it wasn't the SSD, but I wasn't far off. It looks as though Windows 10 didn't install the correct Intel chipset drivers, or they were just bad, one of the two. I did a fresh install of Windows 7 and then installed chipset drivers, problem gone. Going to have to do some thinking on if I want to try and go back to Windows 10, because it may be a pain in the ass.
 
I'm sorry but reading this thread I knew it would end up being chipset drivers. Drivers are almost always responsible for this type of hang.

As for windows 10, it will allow for the latest chipset drivers to be installed. It just won't do it automatically. Because it installs a bunch right after install it can give the impression that you do not have to. But always install the latest drivers from your manufacturer after installing an OS. Chipset is probably the most important driver install in the system as it usually contains additional drivers for various hardware ranging from USB to sata controllers. Also if you haven't, get the latest drivers from Nvidia as well. They are absolutely not the latest if you are using whatever windows 10 installed for you.
 
That's the thing, I did install the latest chipset drivers from Intel, but apparently Windows didn't update anything with them. It was a fun journey...
 
So, after a long and grueling battle with this issue, a brand new Ryzen rig, and still having the same issue on Ryzen. I finally figured it out. I change the location of my "My Documents" folder to shared network storage so I don't ever have to back it up when I wipe. I disconnected the redirect and boom, no more frame time issues, stuttering, or load drop. I find that both hilarious and sad at the same time.

Anyone want to buy a 4930k rig? It's a footrest currently lol
 
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