Can you help me improve the performance of my system? RTX 3090

Jbourque

Hi All,

I recently got some great replies to this question essentially assuring me that it is likely not a hardware limitation based on components and temps while gaming so I am now trying to work my way through any software or bios related settings that may be reducing fps performance in game . 

I am hoping some folks here might have some suggestions of common settings or issues that I could look into to see if they may be the culprit.

When I watch most gaming benchmarks online that have the same core components as my system I noticed I am usually getting about 20-30 less frames than the demo or vid is showing I should be getting with similar specs. 

For example: I can run The Ascent at 1440p ultra settings, ray tracing and dlss on (quality) and I between 105-115 fps. Online demos consistently show 140-150 fps.

There's a bunch of games where this is the trend for me. I get good performance for sure, just always seems to underperform for what I have compared to others.

My system:

MSI Aegis RS 11 TE 089 (mine isn't stock but that's the pre built)

I have:
i7 11900k
MSI RTX 3090 suprim 
32gb 3600 Corsair vengeance RAM

Z590 mobo

1000w PSU (Corsair , gold can't remember) 

240mm liquid AIO 

If there are other components that need to be started lmk but everything else is pretty much stock with that pre built

So far I have adjusted the following :

Increased ram speed in bios as I noticed it was set slow by default.

And obsessively checked to make sure Nvidia driver is up to date. Lol

I don't really know what else I could have that's hindering performance. 

Thoughts or suggestions ?

Thanks so much for taking the time!

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Jbourque

You mentioned you increased the RAM speed in the BIOS. Make sure you loaded the XMP profile, so that it changes the timings and voltage, rather than just increasing the frequency. Otherwise you're going to be unstable. It could be BSOD's, or it could just be drastically increased hard faults that impact performance.

Aside from that, I would use a tool like HWINFO64. Monitor your GPU power consumption, temperature and frequency. Compare the frequency against the base and boost frequency specified by the manufacturer. It should at minimum stay at the base clock. If it's dropping below that, it's throttling.

Jbourque

Ok thanks for that. I'll enable the xmp profile as well. I did adjust manually but I only adjusted it up to 3600hz which is the advertised speed as well as supported by the mobo etc. So I didn't think that was that risky. It was running way below that out of the box for some reason.


I'll monitor the hardware. I mean I do now, but I'll pay attention to that base clock and the GPU performance. I was mostly just looking at temps before and noticed the GPU has never gone above 82C know matter how long I've played or if settings are maxed out graphically.

CPU stays even cooler at around 70-75 max in long sessions of graphically demanding games. 


I know those aren't low temps but I'm sure they aren't awful either, right?


That's what led me to think it was something software related I guess.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Jbourque

What brand and model is your card? It varies based on the cooler design. 82C sounds a little high, but it shouldn't result in throttling.

So when you buy RAM and I'm guessing your kit is 3600 C18 1.35v. That's the XMP profile. The JEDEC profile is probably 2133 C15 1.2V. So to hit that XMP profile and remain stable the manufacturer sets a profile that will increase the voltage and loosen the timings. In this case from C15 to C18. It's actually pretty impressive you weren't crashing running 3600 C15 at 1.2V.

Jbourque

Hi!

Ok I double checked the purchase and you are correct it is 3600 , c18, 1.35v

Can you please walk me through how to adjust that properly? 

Simply clicking enable on xmp or clicking on the xmp1 profile button didn't seem to do anything. Wasn't sure of the exact steps in order to properly increase speed. I guess I don't get what I need to do to create that proper profile. I generally get super nervous about anything related to voltage based on how little experience I have so have avoided ever trying to things that look related to that.


Sorry for the clueless questions! Definitely want to get it right now though.

Edited: my gpu is an MSI RTX 3090 Suprim . It was given to me after a series of broken 3080s we're sent to me under warranty and eventually MSI could not source another 3080 and maybe wanted to be nice? Anyway they instead, after months and months of waiting , sent me this GPU. Not really a gift exactly as it forced me to swap my PSU for something more powerful but that's all history now I guess.

PowerSpec_MikeW

@Jbourque

That should be all you need to do. After that hit F10 to save and exit. You can use a program like CPU-Z: https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Check the Memory/SPD tabs, it'll verify your frequency, timings and voltage.

Never tested the Suprim 3090. I did test the Suprim 3080 early on and it ran about 80C in a 75F environment for our testing. That's in a chassis. The 3090 running about 82C, depending on your ambient sounds about right. That card does have a dual BIOS setup. Make sure you're on the performance BIOS, not silent. It's a switch on the actual card.

Jbourque

Ok. I apparently did it the correct way because it shows it enabled. And it shows this below the xmp line :

DDR4 3600mhz 18-22-22-42 1.350V   is that "18" referencing CL 18 as you mentioned?

Dram frequency still set to auto so I guess I never adjusted manually? My bad. 

Jbourque

Is there a way to switch to performance in BIOS or only this physical switch on the card? Do you think that would account for 2o-30 frame drop in some games? Trying to go slow here and only change things carefully.

By the way, thank you very much for the xmp profile point. Glad I double checked that!

Jbourque

Just an update there, I have it set to performance mode already. Checked last night to make sure.

I'm just lost here as to why the performance hit. I ran the pass mark test on my system and everything scores well above the average for my specs. So it performed well there and yet every single game I  have run it on gives me solid fps but not near what it should be with that beast of a card. 

Temps are ok as is everything else related to usage and voltage for CPU/GPU in hwmonitor which I'm running while gaming.

Driver is up to date.

No clue.