GPU usage gradually drops to 0% while gaming

[Game Over]

Im one the new rig, have played through Crysis warhead, Operation Flash point Red River, Metro 2033, Battlefield Bad Company 2 at full graphics with no problems.

Now have been playing Mafia2 for a couple days (Beautiful game by the way) and today noticed something odd.

I have the game at full graphics with everything at max except my res as I am on a CRT monitor.

So im on a mission in game, shooting it up with some bad guys in a warehouse at about 50 frames per second. Then I notice the game getting slightly lagy and see the FPS is in the 20's, as I play I can see the FPS slowly drop all the way down to 9 fps.

So I pull up MSI afterburner (program that lets you monitor your GPU activities), I see my GPU bar graph and see it has dropped from full use down to 0%, WTF? Im gaming and the GPU is not active?

when I go to the game options to change specs, then come back to the game, it runs normal then gradualy drops off again to 0.

Anyone know what the deal is?

It does not do this all the time, just on that mission and a couple times when I start the game and its just my guy in a house with nothing going on.

I am hoping it is just an issue with only this game, I do not have any of the other games on the PC as I only put one on the PC at a time.

Just curious if anyone has come across this and what the issue may have been.

I have the HIS 6950

 

[sheroo]

What were your temps doing at the time?

 

[Game Over]

What were your temps doing at the time?

I know the temps did not get hot or anything, stayed nice and cool, as far as any changes between the temp and GPU usage, as far as I can remember I think the graph for temps were pretty straight no major ups or downs.

If it happens again I will try to remember to take a screen shot of the Afterburner program and post it here.

 

[Rastalovich]

Do you have opportunity to not use Afterburner ? Either something else or nothing, just AMD's driver package.

 

[Game Over]

Do you have opportunity to not use Afterburner ? Either something else or nothing, just AMD's driver package.

Why do you ask? Do you think its an afterburner issue?

Ya I could shut afterburner down but I like using it to customize my fan speeds.

 

[S_I_N]

I'd use AB and turn on the osd for in game and see whats happening. When I game I monitor temps gpu usage mem uagse as well as fan speeds its small and in the upper right corner of screen so it doesnt detract from the game at all.

 

[Game Over]

It just happened again, Game has been running great with all settings at max, FPS staying in the 70's. Then I got to a part of the game where there are a bunch of us in a line shooting up a building to tear it apart, the FPS instantly dropped down to about 7 and gpu went to zero.

I am thinking maybe it has something to do with the PHYS X.

I believe it is a Nevidia thing and maybe my card is not liking it.

You can see everything is running normal then suddenly GPU usage drops.

UPDATE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Ok so I turned PHYS X off, tried the same mission and there was no drop in FPS or GPU usage at all, I will leave it off and see if the issue stops for good.

 

[S_I_N]

running the latest drivers??? check nvidia's site they have tweaks for most games

 

[Game Over]

My card is an AMD card, The PHYSX is a NVIDIA thing, I think its just not compatible with my card, the physx does work to some extent but it seems to crash the card when the effect gets heavy.. As for the drivers, ya, all up to date.

 

[S_I_N]

lol thought it was AMD but ya said physics so I wasnt sure lol yeah add in a physics card and ur set

 

[KING_OF_SAND]

Give your card love, Wake up every morning and let it know that you love it. it will make it feel better.

 

[Rastalovich]

Why do you ask? Do you think its an afterburner issue?

Ya I could shut afterburner down but I like using it to customize my fan speeds.

Nah, I only mentioned it cos as I mess with alot of cards, a minority of them do weird things with ab.

It's just like a game company to be that inept to have an option selectable when you can't do it.

Be nice if they had the physx cpu using dlls in there.