FPS slowdown

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Tygron
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FPS slowdown

#1 Post by Tygron »

So i've had this rig built for a couple months but i've run into this problem lately. Ever since I put it into this new case, I seem to be having this problem where my FPS in games will drop from a more than comfortable 60 ish to... i've seen 12 be the highest when i've been able to see the FPS count. The problem seems to be random and it's usually fixed by a computer restart. I thought it might be a motherboard problem so I bought a new motherboard. The problem had gone from tolerable kinda to almost every 5 minutes it would need restarting. Until I put the new board in. Then everything was fine. Until about a week ago when Skyrim all a sudden decided it wasn't going to play smoothly anymore. Knowing Skyrim has problems I closed it and tried something else. Slow still. So I run EVGA's OC scanner (having an EVGA graphics card) to see if the card is running fine. The first stress test I did it seemed to be struggling to even max out the card like it should. So I stopped it and ran it again, this time the graphics card was giving me nothing at all and it was telling me I was getting 1 frame a second. Looking in the task manager my CPU is maxed out (which doesn't happen normally when stressing just the GPU). Trying to see what would happen defaulting Skyrims video settings it went from Ultra (what it normally defaults to) to medium. I'm not so sure it's a GPU problem though, as other things go wrong durring this. Audio is also choppy. And the last time I heard audio choppy like that was when I was on the older computer and the CPU couldn't handle too many things at once AND audio.

So i'm wondering if it's a CPU or GPU problem, and i've been wanting to upgrade both soonish anyway. But if one is giving me problems now I might upgrade sooner than I was thinking.
Someone I was talking to said it might be a driver conflict, but I hadn't had these problems until I put them in the new case. The only change the first time was there was no longer a card reader in the case (wasn't attached to the mobo) and the disk drive was non existant. I also added my beefier heatsink because I could fit it in this case.
Now that I have a new mobo, hard drive, optical drive, and something else that I forget at the moment the problem is less frequent, but it's slowly getting worse. I'm sure it'll reach the point the old mobo did. I don't think this mobo could be having the same problem and it leads me to believe that I didn't have a problem with the old one in the first place.

Comp specs:
Cooler Master Storm Trooper case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811119245
Windows 7 64Bit Professional: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832116717
Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822136533
ASUS combo optical drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6827135247
Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128549
Intel Pentium G620: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116399
Cooler Master TPC 812: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103176
G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820231455
EVGA NVidia 550Ti: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814130652
PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 600W: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817703036
I believe that's it, everything important to the working of the computer anyway.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#2 Post by DariusL »

Iirc powerfractal runs only on the CPU and could be used to try to find the source of your problems.
Otherwise I can't think of much, I don't know a lot about building computers.

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Re: FPS slowdown

#3 Post by Tygron »

I've stress tested the CPU a little with Prime 95. I was told that if there's a problem with the CPU that will tell me. But all seemed to be well, and I did the test while my computer was having the slowdown problem.
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avwolf
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Re: FPS slowdown

#4 Post by avwolf »

Issues like that, I might start thinking temps or power issues, but I'd expect a case that expensive to have decent air flow, and one would imagine 600W would take care of you, unless the PSU developed a fault.

What are ambient air temperatures like for you right now? Does it make a difference to turn the computer off for ten or fifteen minutes after it starts stuttering? Have you checked for dust build up, especially in your video card?
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Re: FPS slowdown

#5 Post by SirSlaughter »

*puts on Nerd Cap* I do believe it would be your GPU. I remember you having a problem with it a while back involving crashing during startup or the windows aero wouldn't even show. You had to replace the heatsinks on that piece If I remember correctly. Chances are your Gpu may be failing. But when you said that it fixed itself when you got the new motherboard but it's slowly doing it again...what about your RAM? I know that a computers graphics render using the GPU and it loads based on your RAM. Which is why HDDs are made the way they are to work with RAM that way.so it could possibly be that. Or maybe it is your heat dispersion. But I doubt that a case like that could give you that kind of trouble. So now I think maybe you need to do a full restoration? (last option though). But Now I think to your processor...dualcore. And likely an older product? Did you transfer that from an old build? But you also said that it only happened when you went to the new case...so: is it possible you accidentally discharged any static during this process? were you away from your build and was there a time window where something, anything could have had contact with your computer?

I do think it's probably your graphics card though, frame rate drops like that happen to me actually. Not often at all and it's a freak occurrence but is also tied into when their is a freak thunderstorm and lightning strikes scarily close to the house...So with that I would say that you should try to find the latest drivers if possible from Nvidia, And then see if you can update your MoBo Bios as well. I know with my Asus suite I can update directly using that meaning almost no hassle with trying to load a file from a USB I can instead run it like a regular program.

Then check about the fans on your CPU cooler. I know coolermaster makes amazing coolers, But the fans that come with it leave a lot to be desired. I had to replace mine with NZXT fans and then from there I swapped to a completely different cooler:The SpinQ

Gah I would just say start troubleshooting one by one and start elimminating what you know is and isn't right. Then from there I am sure Robbie will pop in and rape our knowledge with one answer and the world will be a better place... :potatoes:

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Re: FPS slowdown

#6 Post by Tygron »

The problem doesn't seem to stop if I wait a few minutes after shutting down. Heck if the thing is just locked up I just hit the handy reset button on the case. Sometimes the problem has happened right on startup too after being off for a whole night. I can't seem to point it to any one particular thing and I don't think it could be static discharge unless it's happened to both boards. I was already operating out of that case when I bought the new board. Heat doesn't seem to be an issue because it's not going to be hot starting up from being off all night. I even moved the fans from the side to the front to give me full front to back airflow in the case, and added an extra one underneath for intake (sits on a wooden desk piece so i'm not too worried about dust. Plus there's a filter there). So I dunno. I've thought it might be the ram, but this is all the DDR3 ram I have. Dust might be a problem, i'm not sure. The front mesh is slightly dusty from being intake. But I remember checking the graphics card a lot when I was having the problem before and it didn't seem too dusty.

As for changing the heatsink, i've not changed from the stock cooler on the graphics card. I have gone from the stock CPU cooler to that Coolermaster one when I got this case because it couldn't fit in my old case. The old case was a small Acer stock thing. Nothing fancy, I was just using that computer as a base for everything. I've also wondered if I damaged anything (though can't see it) on the graphics card because on my old motherboard ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813157256 ) the card was touching the plastic fan mounts for the fans and it was really hard to get the card in at all really. Top slot PCI-e 16x? never again. I don't care how good the board is. (or bad)
Also I replaced the fan on the CPU heatsink with two of these ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835103091 ) which is also the fan on the bottom of the case. The two in the front look just like these only a frosted look to the blades as opposed smoke clear. Shouldn't be much of a difference. The lights are also turn offable by button on the case, but that shouldn't be too much a problem. The rear fan is similar but not lighted. Believe it's a 140mm, and the top has a 200mm.

Everything in this rig is new, the only reason I have that CPU is at the time I needed something cheap. Same for the mobo. When I was running off the Acer computer even though I had the graphics card in there it wasn't running at max performance. This was a CPU problem (AMD Athlon X2 Dual on the AM2 socket kind of problem) so I got something I was told should be sufficient enough for now. And because at the time that's what I could afford. I was planning on going with a socket 2011 and a 6 core processor. But I think until they do more with the 2011 socket i'll just stick with 1155 stuff.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#7 Post by RobbieThe1st »

I'd be willing to bet software: Watch the task manager when things aren't working right - what is taking up a bunch of CPU?

I know that on my laptop, I'd get the same issue while playing TF2; turned out to be audiodg.exe, the sound subsystem of Windows Vista/7, causing trouble.

If you aren't sure, take a picture of your task manager when things are really slow. That'll tell us what's going on, most likely.

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Re: FPS slowdown

#8 Post by Tygron »

Alright. Could be soon, could be a few days though.

Another thing i'd like to point out is that when I swapped out for the new motherboard I also put a clean install of windows on the hard drive i'm using. The old hard drive I had was running a copy of Windows Vista 32 bit. If that makes any difference.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#9 Post by Tygron »

Alright I had this happen right as I started up Blacklight: Retribution. I hadn't had any problems earlier, and watching youtube in HD fullscreen didn't seem to be suffering like it does at times. I've taken plenty of pictures so hopefully i've got what you need. Here's a pic of Tribes: Ascend on the menu with the FPS monitor turned on. The text to the right shows it http://cloud-2.steampowered.com/ugc/559 ... AC808C99E/
That's normally right around 53 to 56.

Now before I post the rest of my testing. I opened my computer the other day to add the wireless card that came bundled with my motherboard back in. I had it sent back by itself because while it worked amazingly, that was when it worked. It would randomly just disconnect me from the network. This one seems to be doing perfectly. When I did that I cleaned out every single fan filter this case has, including the little wire mesh that's attached (but removable) to the front panel bay covers. There was no dust to speak of inside the case really, maybe a little on one of the fans I cleaned off. Other than that, everything looked fine everywhere.

So to start here's the list of processes my computer has going: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/Task% ... cesses.png
Here's the whole list of services: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/Task% ... rvices.png
CPU usage while posting this into paint and scrolling for another line: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/Task% ... rmance.png
GPU stress test using EVGA's OC Scanner. This was run before the Tribes picture above: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/GPU%2 ... st%201.png
GPU stress test after: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/GPU%2 ... st%202.png
GPU stress test after I apply the dynamic bgk (assuming that means background) option. While the image isn't moving, the FPS counter seems to match my problem a bit more: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/11066437/GPU%2 ... %20bgk.png

The second stress test was randomly dropping the GPU load to random lower levels randomly. I tried getting pics but wasn't quick enough. Saw it at 0% a lot, 22%, 56ish, 78ish, 35ish, etc. Dunno if that's normal, i'd assume so. But I remember doing this before and having the GPU be completely 0% the entire time I ran the test.

I'm starting to think it's my GPU, but I don't have another to test with. I mean I suppose I can trade with Snow, but I don't want to interrupt his game playability to test this. I should also mention that he had a similar problem after letting the driver update and is fixed now with the older one again, but I remember having this problem even on the older driver. I don't use the beta drivers, only the latest official ones.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#10 Post by SirSlaughter »

I Think it may possibly be your CPU? I mean from what I could see that CPU usage was intense. I looked at my processes and my graph and compared and My usage was so low nearly half the time. It was only high when i did a quick stress test with skyrim on max and even the HD mods and also a mod where spells cast light before you cast them meaning lots and lots of shadows in the snowy night. That was with itunes, steam, skype, my browser, and the cpu usage graph on. It never touched the top of the bar and I look at yours and it's constantly all the way up. I'm at a loss otherwise.I mean you should see if someone has a spare 1155 CPU for your to try out, But then again I'm sure not many people are gonna be very willing to let you play with their CPU like a kitten with a ball of yarn. I'll try to test some more stuff out and compare and see what I can come up with later on though. Or try and check the BIOS and see if your wattageis okay. Then check your RAM wattage if possible. I'm not sure if you have a UEFI BIOS so not sure how in depth you can go. I know I can't do normal BIOS to save my life. I get so lost and confused.

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Re: FPS slowdown

#11 Post by Tygron »

This mobo has UEFI BIOS. It's nice, but kinda confusing. I was talking with someone to get my ram setup properly.

I thought it was rather odd to have my CPU be that used up when doing a GPU test. I mean... i'm testing the GPU NOT the CPU. So I dunno. I don't have a spare 1155 CPU either. I've been wanting to upgrade both, but when I get money to blow. But if I have to replace a part now, i'd like to know which one.
Then again it could not be my problem at all.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#12 Post by DariusL »

Looks like it's the GPU to me. If you stress the GPU while it's failing the CPU will try to process everything on its own...

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Re: FPS slowdown

#13 Post by RobbieThe1st »

Uh, no it won't. It will simply error out/crash, if the GPU fails. However, the GPU can slow down if it gets too hot - Open up the Nvidia control panel, you should be able to see what clock speed it's currently at and the temps.

Also, I need a screen shot of the task manager /while/ you're experiencing the slowdown, /with/ your application running(alt+tab out of it if needed). You should see some CPU going to at least one application(your game), which I don't see in the screenshot you posted.

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Re: FPS slowdown

#14 Post by Tygron »

No I didn't get any pictures of that. But I figured it would be taking a lot of CPU anyway and wouldn't matter too much. But i'll do that next time.

EDIT: I didn't think the GPU failing would cause the CPU to work harder. My mobo does have VirtuMVP on it which allows me to use my GPU and CPU together. But I don't even know how to turn that on. I think it's also mostly for Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge CPU's. I know it's mostly for Ivy, I just can't remember if it also works on Sandy. But I know the CPU isn't doing any graphics when you have a dedicated GPU installed. But if you have you're plugged into the mobo, your dedicated card isn't doing anything but looking pretty in the case. And using power for no reason.
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Re: FPS slowdown

#15 Post by Tygron »

Think I narrowed the problem down now. Maybe. When i'm playing Blacklight anymore it seems like I have to alt tab a few times before the game runs smoothly. But it only runs smoothly on the Siege map. BUT i've also been playing a lot of Siege lately and less TDM than I used to. When I played TDM a lot there were only a few maps that lagged my computer. Now it's everything. I don't think it's a ram issue unless things you use more stay in ram, then it could be a ram issue. But I think it's the graphics card at this point. But then Snow doesn't have any problem he says but he has a newer CPU and I think it's a quad core. So maybe the bottleneck is in my CPU.

Is there anyway to record what's being stressed in the background while i'm playing games and stuff? When the slowdown happens I would assume the part at the most stress is the cause, unless the other is unusually lightly being used. It would probably help me get you guys better information than just try to get as many pictures I can of things when the problem happens. I'll get some shots of the task manager when I play again on TDM, cause that's a constant problem that needs to go away like now.
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