Couple questions might help us give you some better advice:
First, make sure you have GPUz and maybe HWiNFO64. They can be very helpful debugging tools.
1. Can you tell us some of the temperatures you're seeing while trying to play a game? You indicate that your fan curve change had an impact on things.
2. If you look at GPUz while gaming, can you tell us what it says in the Bus Interface Box? Here's an example.
![](https://tpucdn.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3070-ti-founders-edition/images/gpuz-overclocking.gif)
Notice this screenshot says "PCIe x16 4.0 @ x16 1.1". That means the slot is set at gen 4, x16 (full speed). Your motherboard is older, so I would expect it to probably say "PCIe x16 3.0". When this person took the screenshot they likely weren't playing a game because it says "@ x16 1.1", meaning it slowed down to 1.1 speeds because it was likely inactive. While playing a game the things after the "@" should match those before. So you should see "PCIe x16 3.0 @ x16 3.0" If you're seeing x1, x4, x8, for example, this will be limiting your performance. Also if you're never getting past 1.1 or 2.0 or something, the likely culprit is that your older motherboard isn't recognizing the GPU properly, so it's not setting the right speed. You'd need to change the settings in BIOS to the proper gen and then it might work better.
3. Do you have any other devices installed into PCIe slots? Depending on what they are, this could cause your motherboard to reduce the lanes available to the GPU. CPU Specs: Up to 1x16, 2x8, 1x8+2x4. Motherboard specs:
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16
(The PCI Express x16 slot conforms to PCI Express 3.0 standard.) - 5 x PCI Express x1 slots
(All of the PCI Express x1 slots conform to PCI Express 2.0 standard.)
4. Do you have Precision-X1 installed? This will help make sure you have the latest vBIOS and firmware on your card. This is likely not what's causing a problem, but could help. Also, sometimes drivers get corrupted, so it doesn't hurt to uninstall any graphics card management software (Precision-X1, Afterburner (don't run at the same time as X1 also), GeForce Experience, etc.) then run DDU to clean the driver out and install a fresh one.