Troubleshooting FPS Drops with a 1080 Ti and Ryzen 9 9800X3D: Seeking Solutions

Recently, I acquired a used EVGA 1080 Ti SC graphics card to complement my Ryzen 9 9800X3D processor, and I was eager to dive into some gaming. My primary game of choice has been Dead by Daylight, but there’s a frustrating issue I’ve encountered. After an extended gaming session, my frames per second (FPS) unexpectedly plummet to around 30 and remain there until I completely exit the game. Lowering the graphics settings yields no improvement; in fact, it occasionally exacerbates the problem.

Interestingly, this FPS drop isn’t limited to just gaming; I’ve noticed that even during video calls on Discord, my friends’ cameras appear to be running at about 20 FPS. This leads me to suspect a broader issue with the GPU’s performance, as it seems to be throttling globally rather than just in-game.

What I’ve Investigated

To identify the cause of this performance downturn, I’ve conducted several checks and tests:

Temperatures: CPU and GPU temperatures remain normal, hovering between 50°C and 60°C under load.
VRAM Utilization: I’m observing low VRAM usage, approximately 3 to 5 GB, which should not be a bottleneck.
FurMark Stress Test: The GPU performs admirably in synthetic tests, reaching solid frame rates of 130 to 140 FPS.
Voltage Stability: Voltage levels appear stable and are within the expected range.
No Thermal Throttling: Despite extended use, the GPU isn’t showing signs of thermal throttling.
Power Supply Analysis: My Corsair 750W PSU has previously powered a 980 Ti without any issues, ruling it out as the culprit.
Overlay Disabling: I disabled all overlays from applications like Discord, Steam, and GeForce.
Driver Management: I uninstalled GeForce Experience, retaining only the essential drivers, and established NVIDIA Control Panel settings to “Prefer Maximum Performance.”
NVIDIA Driver Reinstall: I fully uninstalled and reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers (multiple reboots were performed, though I haven’t used DDU yet).
Dead by Daylight Configuration: I attempted to tweak the game’s configuration files, but to no avail.