GTX 660, iGPU and, apparently, performances issues

[MagnusThorek]

When I bought my computer, I couldn't afford a dedicated GPU. Now I bought a Zotac GTX 660 (and a stronger Seasonic PSU) mainly for, but not restricted to, gaming.

But one thing I noticed is that the overall performance, sometimes, seems to be slower than my previous iGPU, from my Intel i5 3570.

As an example I could say the "fade" transition to and back from a lock screen (Windows+L). With this new GTX 660 I see a black screen for a brief moment, 1~2 seconds, while the transition is happening. And with the iGPU it was less perceptible.

As in gaming, I really enjoyed Skyrim, which is a fantastic game, but ugly and bugged as hell. So even with the modest power of an iGPU I always ran it full of mods, several related to graphical improvements. The same mods I'm using with this new GPU and the game is lagging where the iGPU wasn't.

It wasn't perfect, I was aware of restrictions (so sacrifices were made) but it ran decently.

For instance, as you may know, interiors are less intense than exteriors, so the probability of lagging would be lower while inside a building. Currently, I tested just in one building, and the FPS dropped considerably while turning the camera (from 60 to 15). I stopped it (the camera) and good again.

In case of Skyrim especifically, I played around with settings, removed shadows, added multi-thread instructions and even the loads seems to be slower.

Another reason I spent money in a new card was to used post-processing like ENB in older games, Skyrim included. But with these... oddities, I just can't and before decided about this card, I've read several articles, user experiences, user specs and some of them had at least this card.

To be honest, I never had a good GPU, I don't know if there is something else I should be configuring, maybe. This was my first and I paid a lot for it (in my country due excessive taxes and exchange rates, the prices tripled from the average $250 we find around Internet) and I don't have even a clue what could possibly going on.

My HD is defragmented, my registry clean, no viruses, I don't have lots of RAM but I think 8GB is not something trivial, drivers updated everything I could think about I did and I still think something is hanging up the processing power.

Any ideas?

[VileTouch]

no integrated gpu will ever be better than a dedicated one. specially if we are talking about a GTX. the reason for it has nothing to do with speed really. but with bandwidth. there is only so much data you can pipe though a single bus, and the PCIe bus is optimized for just that.

 

now about the problem, check your EFI and see the configuration of the pci express slots if there's no such option, then update your EFI.

 

lastly, you have to know your tools. a gtx660 is a great piece of hardware, but it can't render EVERYTHING on max specs and 4k resolution!

so first make sure you're playing in 1080p or less and get rid of AntiAlias. also there's uGridsToLoad... that one doesn't even care what GPU you have. set it too high and it's going to bring your computer to it's proverbial knees. just keep it on default and you should be ok.

 

edit: oh and if you do have a 4k display, well... you're going to need a GTX Titan or two to play at that resolution. there's no way around it.

Edited December 28, 2014 by VileTouch

[MagnusThorek]

What exactly would be this configuration I should search in my EFI? And of course, what value it should be set?

 

And I know I would not be able to run everything, but I did know I could at least not run on low/medium quality. And uGridsToLoad... I would NEVER touch that thing again. I almost lost my entire playthrough once by messing with it. My current display is Samsung T24B350, running at 1920x1080. I tried to not run Skyrim in fullscreen, but apparently OneTweak is forcing it.

[VileTouch]

What exactly would be this configuration I should search in my EFI? And of course, what value it should be set?

thing is, it varies wildly from one motherboard to the next, so you basically must know what you're looking for.

 

in short, setting the bandwidth of the pcie bus to match your card's. some mobos have specific optimizations for it, etc. some show it as 8x 16x etc, others show the values in Gb./s, others have power saving features for it.. thing is, go there and see what's available to you.

[MagnusThorek]

Well... before go nosy in the EFI, I compared both CPU-Z and GPU-Z and as far as I can tell they are both configures as the same:

http://i.imgur.com/pMQSinY.pnghttp://gpuz.techpowerup.com/14/12/28/c5n.png

 

But of course, perhaps there is something else I don't know.

[Aegrus]

Edited to remove post- I had incorrect information. Edited January 24, 2015 by Aegrus