Help! I'm out of ideas and I just want to game

I'm running an FX 8350 with a mild 4.4GHz oc coupled to an MSI Gaming 780 Ti and can't seem to play demanding games such as Crysis 3, Farcry 3, Metro 2033 Redux, and Crysis 2 Maldo 4.0 mod at a consistent framerate. Framerates are dropping at random while gpu utilization never exceeds 70% while the fps remain below 55fps. At times the gpu usage will drop down to 24% dragging the fps to 18. So my fps stay around 55 while the gpu usage is hung at around 70% unless it stutters at which point it plummets to around 24% dragging the framerate to 18. I am testing with v-sync off in both the game and drivers/Nvidia control panel.

 I have a G10 Kraken hooked to an H90 so the temp never exceeds 55 degrees even with an overclock of 1234MHz so it’s not thermal throttling. I’ve removed all overclocks; along with the Nvidia drivers completely, then rolled back to Windows 7. I also unparked all the cpu cores in the registry as well as disabling power saving features in the bios. I have replaced the Motherboard which was originally an Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 to a (downgrade) ASRock 990FX  Extreme 3. I’ve replaced/tested the ram and cpu. Upgraded the psu from a Rosewell Hive 750 bronze to an Evga gold rated Supernova 1000W and had a friend of mine test the 780 Ti on his rig. He also has a 780 Ti and tested it with Dragon Age and for a few hours over two days longest session being 4 hours and said it was good.

I’ve been in IT for nearly 8 years now but this is my first gaming/homemade tower so you won’t insult me with any fix suggestions. I’ve been in consoles b/c traditionally they have been cheaper. With this new gen of consoles I wasn’t impressed so I decided to build my own budget gaming rig, something we can all agree with.

I’ve had an issue with the front case headers since I’ve mad the system. The Fractal R4 has a three speed fan switch, two usb 2 ports and two usb 3.0 ports. I cannot use the fan switch while the system is running at all, when I do the system freezes (no BSoD just a freeze which won’t respond until a forced power off). Same with the usb ports but are a bit more random. I’ve contacted Fractal about this issue and they have shipped replacement parts but the issue remains through two motherboards and two PSU’s. Originally I had an R9 280X which performed flawlessly even with the weird short issue; it played Crysis 3 better than my 780 Ti is now. I’m not entirely convinced that it’s a case issue. Tonight I will disconnect all the front panel ports except the power button and test again, just weird the 280X worked fine with the front panel issue and the 780 Ti won’t , any other ideas?

System Specs-

OS:Win 8.1 x64 Pro & WMC

Hardware:

Fractal Design Define R4 http://amzn.com/B008HD3CTI

ASRock 990FX Extreme 3 http://amzn.com/B005POPQZA

AMD FX-8350 http://amzn.com/B009O7YUF6

Two G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB DDR3 1866 http://amzn.com/B006L4MRS2

Two CORSAIR Hydro Series H90's http://amzn.com/B00B4OCWDE

Tuniq TX-4 High Performance Thermal Grease (on cpu and gpu) http://amzn.com/B00405DHG0

G10 Kraken GPU cooler http://amzn.com/B00ITTFO8M

MSI GTX 780Ti GAMING GeForce GTX 780 Ti 3GB http://amzn.com/B00HPS4B3M

EVGA SuperNOVA 1000W G2 80 PLUS GOLD http://amzn.com/B00CGYCNG2

Mushkin Enhanced 240GB SSD (os drive) http://amzn.com/B00A0A5SUM

WD 1TB 7200RPM Black (game drive) http://amzn.com/B00FJRS6FU

Seagate 3TB Barracuda (DVR/media drive) http://amzn.com/B005T3GRLY

Some crap DVD drive http://amzn.com/poop

 

could your VRAM be overheating do to the lack being in direct contact with a heatsink? if so get some little stick-on ones form amazon.

something like this

It's not that. The Vram on graphics cards don't get that hot and the 92mm fan that comes with the G10 is more than sufficient to cool the Vram and VRMs. 

I've also run the G10 on my old 7950 (R9 280) and there were no temp issues running with naked Vram modules.

You do, however, want to make sure the VRMs have their own heatsink. Most higher-end cards come with them to begin with and work great with the fan on the G10. 

To the OP: Watch your CPU frequency, voltage and core usage during heavy gaming. Anything unusual? Any voltage/frequency drops or cores being maxed out? 

It could just be that the 8350 is holding back the 780Ti... What CPU does your friend's PC have?

Thanks for the response! 
I like that idea but I left the MSI front plate/heat spreader on the gpu. In other words, it still has the thermal pads connecting to the bracing that came on the card originally. Plus I have a 140mm side fan along with the one that comes with the Kraken. I'm not sure but it sounds like they should be keeping cool enough. IDK who this guy is and it took him forever to get around to it but this is pretty much what I did but I don't have a backplate or the cool header adapter, mine stay on blast.
 
http://youtu.be/weV0FlahyDo

 

Based on the low GPU utilization and the games with which he is having issues with, I tend think the issue is the CPU. 

To the OP, if you run a GPU benchmark (like unigine heaven or valley) do you get a score comparable to what others with a 780 ti get? If so we could probably at least eliminate the GPU as the issue.

My friend has an intel, either an i5 or i7 but idk. For a little while I had an FX 6300 hooked to it and it worked better then than it does now. I had the opportunity to upgrade a my gpu, cpu and motherboard. I went from an ASRock 990FX Extreme 3 to an Asus M5A99FX PRO R2.0 then back to the ASRock after all this went down but kept the 8350. I swapped out the 8350 with a new one today and the psu is new as of this past weekend.  
So originally I had an fx6300 on my old and current ASRock board with a 280X. I upgraded my gpu to the 780 Ti and saw a massive improvement even with the 6300. I decided to do what i could to support my new gpu by getting a new 8350 and motherboard. I got the Asus mobo last and never saw any gains with it as far as overclocking and performance then returned it when I couldn't get the esata to work. 

I am noticing everything drop when my framerate goes down and the cpu is not maxed either when it happens. Also the cpu is not maxed out either, in general. words and stuff. I'm getting scatter brained typing this up and talking to my coworker about it too. He thinks it's something to do with the case fan switch and usb header shorting out and damaging my board. idk, it worked before with that issue. I'll find out tonight when i unplug everything. Let you know how that goes. 

Heaven settings: 1080 2xAA, quality ultra, tessellation normal per a tom's Hardware forum I saw somewhere:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2014-vga-charts/02-Unigine-Heaven-1080p,3594.html

my current score was-

FPS: 103.8

Score: 2614

Min FPS: 28.1

Max FPS: 191.5

 

That is near what a 'Zotac GeForce GTX 980 Amp! Extreme Edition 4GB GTX 980, 4GB GDDR5, 1291 MHz+' got. 

 

This was after 3 consecutive runs. 

103.4 to 103.6  and finally 103.8

So all the settings are turned off that need to be turned off? Thermal throttling? Have you ran a Thread monitoring program? If you don't have all of the settings in the right position then the CPU could throttle down low. My buddies 8120 was OCed to 4.0 but wouldn't hold it because he didn't have all of his bios settings right. Small oversight, but it made ALL the difference

I'll double check my CPU BIOS settings, I'd like to get it to 4.6GHz, but i'm pretty sure they are good as MSI Afterburner has all my cores under 80% usage at most during game. But I get what you are talking about, they need to be stable. I also tested them with AMD's OverDrive stability tester and they check out. 

I believe I've figured out the issue as odd as it sounds. I have to admit I let fear decide my troubleshooting method instead of keeping it simple, ya know fear of loosing a $700 gpu. 

I unplugged everything from the case front i/o except the power, reset, and on light. The GPU usage is now steady thus far in testing. I haven't been able to test it for longer than 30 min as my wife is sick but this weekend is looking promising. 

I've had this issue since building my rig and have opened 3 RMA's with Fractal on this issue but it has never effected the system this badly before. I've replaced the fan switch 2 times and the usb ports (both 2.0 and 3.0) once already.  I am going to rip them a new one. This has caused me tens of hours in troubleshooting along with about $100 worth of returns in shipping cost/restocking fees. Why/how could something as simple as a case i/o cause this much havoc? My co-worker said he had a similar issue with his Cooler Master HAF 922. 

what is the cpu utilization?? that will help me beacuse i had simmilar problems until i upgrated my psu

CPU utilization is now good, never exceeding 80% during games. Before the whole system would just stop, GPU and CPU utilization would plummet together. Even with the 1000W PSU it would. I thought it was the power to the room or the breaker so I took an outdoor heavy duty extension cord to another room that I knew was on another breaker and the issue remained. 

Unplug the case front i/o and it's golden. I also tried other mobo usb headers, same result. I have a 3.5" card reader that has usb 2.0 ports on it and it works fine and is currently plugged in. 

what is the front that is plugged in? if not just unplug it because just get another usb extender from the back and if your are up to it go rma the case yeah that is been done but may be worth it

nothing is plugged into the front. I have two usb drive (one 2.0 the other 3.0) I use between my laptop and the tower from time to time but normally it's empty. I don't have any headphones or mics plugged in either. I replaced the entire case usb header per a previous Fractal RMA. The fan switch probably uses the 12v 5v cross over to achieve 7v instead of using a resistor which is probably why it freaks out my case all the time. Please remember this case has been doing this between two mobos, my old/current/crap ASRock and the Asus one. 

I'm trying to RMA it now. If they refuse I have my eye on the Thermaltake Urban S31. That was the one I was going to get in the first place. It's going to be a pain fitting those H90's in it though. Think those will be for sale- sad face. 

The fan controller should be plugged in via molex 12v from your PSU, so it shouldn't be that causing this issue. But it could very well be the USB header as that is plugged in directly to the motherboard and as you say, the problem goes away once you unplug that header, correct? 

So i played it some this weekend and it worked flawlessly. I have the fan switch plugged into a molex 12v off the power supply. That line also powers the CD drive and 3.5 card reader. I cannot switch fan speed while the system is on or it freezes w/out BSoD. I've had both the 2.0 and 3.0 disconnected from the motherboard. I am awaiting a response from Fractal on this matter... again for the 4th time. I gave them the link to this thread so they can see my troubleshooting steps and suggestions from the community. Such a strange issue. I look forward to hearing back from Fractal. If there are any tricks you guys can think of or anything i can clarify, please let me know. 

Edit: 

Oh, I also have the front audio disconnected too. But tested the system with just usb 2.0 connected and it still failed (even though audio and usb 3.0 were disconnected). 

I'm looking for case suggestions in the event I'm abandoned by Fractal. I'd prefer it to be quiet, minimalist and have support for both my H90's. 

So I want a Fractal, I know. 

 

 

I see you also changed PSUs? (It's different in that last pic). If the issue is still there, regardless of which PSU you used, then it can't be that.

What if you try plugging one thing in on your front panel at a time and see which one causes the issue? You said the only think you had plugged in in your last test was the USB 2.0 header and it failed. Maybe try just the 3.0 header alone, and then just front panel audio alone - see what happens then.

If you're looking to get another case, how much are you willing to spend?

I currently have noting plugged in but the front i/o other than the power button and the power led. I tried just the 2.0 port but that froze the system when i used it. I will try this weekend to unplug all the fans and then use the switch. I'll also retest with the 3.0 installed and see if that freezes it. I should have more time to mess with it this weekend than I did last. It's hard to have it down as it acts as our dvr as well. I have replaced the psu. It was a Hive bronze rated 750 and now it's a supernova gold rated 1000. I almost grabbed an ups for clean but those pure sine wave ones are so expensive. Plus I tested on another outlet so I don't think there are any more power irregularities than average. Fractal just wants to send more parts. I don't want any more parts, That is all I've done lately with manufactures is track down replacement or upgrade parts. I think I'm going to have to replace the case. here are some options I was looking at. I'd like to keep it under $150 but I'm about to just say eff it and get what I want to make myself feel better... 

Thanks again guys for brainstorming with me on this. It's driving me crazy. Here are some cases I've been eyeballing, I'd like it to be big enough to fit my two h90's which are 140mm fan rad janks. 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA68V2CX7307

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112388

I'd like this in black:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163264

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=11-119-303

What I want is an R5 that is not made by fractal. They have been cool enough I guess. Maybe I should just get the R5, or more likely, just leave it the way it is with everything unplugged. 

This may drive me to build my own case. I'm annoyed. I need metal bendy tools, or a bender bot.