ANSWERED Possible Slow Speed Cause and Solution.

[bluesjunior 39]

For a few months now my PC has seemed slower in all aspects. I had put it down to it being an 8 years old desktop still running Windows 10. Also my 1G broadband connection although giving 850Mbps when not using AirVPN reduced to between 250-320Mbps when connected to AirVPN.  Last Thursday I happened on this thread https://graphicscardhub.com/low-gpu-usage/ while researching why my graphics card an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1080 had stopped using its max power when using Handbrake and also my game of Elite Dangerous had started stuttering in certain situations. I found the cause and the solution for me in the section in Quotes below. On following the instructions I found my graphics card started working properly again and as an added bonus when I next started AirVPN I found that my download speed had now jumped up to 550-660Mbps and this has remained steady since. At 74 I am not as PC savvy as many so perhaps this can be another cause of slow speeds and wrongly blaming Virgin for bottlenecking etc. As my graphics card worked fine previously I am pretty sure that one of the Windows Updates in the last year or so must have caused this slowdown, likely another example of Microsoft meddling. Anyway hope this helps someone else having slowdowns.

 

Quote

 

Windows Power Management Setting for PCI Express is one of the most common causes of low GPU usage, and this has been reported by many gamers. If this setting (Link State Power Management) is set to maximum power saving mode then it will cause the PCI Express interface to operate at lower clock speeds and cause PCI-E devices i.e. graphics card to under-perform. To turn off this setting in Windows 10 / 8 / 7, follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel->Power Options.

Step 2. Here click on Change plan settings to the plan that is selected here. Below you can see that the default selected plan is Balanced.

Step 3. Now click on Change advanced power settings.

Step 4. The Power Options window will open and here scroll down to expand PCI Express and then Link State Power Management. In the Settings drop-down box, select Off and click Ok to save the changes. You may also have to restart your computer to make sure the changes have been applied.

After this, your graphics card PCI-Express slot will operate at full speed and you may see higher GPU usage and performance in games. Some users have reported at least 10 FPS increase in games after turning OFF Link State Power Management setting in Power Options.

Moreover, Nvidia also has power management settings in their control panel that you can set to maximum performance if you are still having issues with low GPU usage. To set it to maximum performance, go to Nvidia control panel->manage 3d settings->power management mode->prefer maximum performance. This is shown in the image below.

 

 

[Air4141841 23]

before you made that change I would have been checking what clock speed the actual CPU was set too.   windoz power management is absolutely terrible.

then what the clock speed was set to after turning off power management 

I find it hard to believe the graphics card limited internet speeds... 

[bluesjunior 39]

19 hours ago, Air4141841 said:

before you made that change I would have been checking what clock speed the actual CPU was set too.   windoz power management is absolutely terrible.

then what the clock speed was set to after turning off power management 

I find it hard to believe the graphics card limited internet speeds... 

No, the graphics card didn't limit internet speed. I just inadvertently found the solution to that while trying to find out why my graphics card wasn't using its full resources while gaming. In the graphics card help post ( link above) I found the passage on "Windows Power Management Setting for PCI Express"  was what had slowed not just my graphics card but my whole PC down. My CPU very rarely ran at its full 3750MHZ but mostly between 1200-2200MHZ. When I switched the "Link State Power Management" off as shown above suddenly my PC is much faster overall including my internet and broadband connection and my VPN connection goes from 250Mbps to near 600Mbps D/L compared to a regular 800+Mbps D/L without using aVPN.