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Sudden FPS Drop across all games at random times until restart

Last response: in Video Games

Please, before you answer, read everything. that way i wont have the same questions asked

Lately over the past month i have been experiencing a sudden drop in FPs to absolutely unacceptable levls while playing games. It has been happening with complete randomness, no particular time.

My computer is an upgraded Gateway DX-4200- 09
AMD phenom 1 9150e 1.8 ghz quad core
EVGA GTS 450 superclocked
ultra LSP 550 watt PSU
640 GB HDD

HERES the information ive pulled together.
The temperatures both on the GPU and CPU remain within PERFECTLY good levels, GPU at 68 celsius while gaming average CPU at 58-60 celsius under load.
voltages stay the same
No particular action at all triggers the event
Only solved by restarting.
One game becomes Suddenly and inexplicably FPS laggy, getting 5 FPS, and then EVERY game become that way.
it is, ABSOLUTELY RANDOM. The only situation that is ever the same is that im gaming. Arma 2, Civ 5, Shogun 2 total war, company of heroes, ect. All have at one point become suddenly laggy and consistently so until i restart my computer. This is what is putting off an explanation. It hasnt happened for 2 days, it happens suddenly today. Im in doubt drivers may be the issue because, again, its not always like this and it happens in intervals with no pattern. ive had this setup for a year and half with no issues like this before.

the computer has been dusted but the temps havent gotten high enough for any problems anyway,

you do know even though you have a quad core its a particularly slow 1 and likely to be the problem.
for a test overclock it to 2ghz i know it aint much but it should show you enough to convince you to get a better cooler and then overclock it to 2.4 minimum.
Related resources

Sunius said:
Sounds like it drops to 2D clocks. Download MSI Afterburner and check clocks when lag starts.

Will Do. I dont know when ill have results for you though, who knows when it will happen again...

I already have MSI afterburner because my GPu was overheating without proper fan control way back when i first got my GPU, so ill check what my normal clock speeds are and get back to you when i get FPS lag again.

My clock speeds while running normally are:
core clock : 882mhz
shader clock : 1764 mhz
memory clock : 1900 mhz

Sunius said:
HEXiT, that doesn't make sense. If it was CPU, it would lag from the beginning.

not necessarily... not everything about computer behavior makes sense. a slow cpu can exaggerate symptoms. speed it up and the symptoms fade to the back things like conditional waits where 1 thread waits for an answer from another b4 continuing will give the appearance of fast then slow then fast operation. so if he adds another couple of hundred mhz to the cpu but sees a dramatic change in performance then when he bumps it to the minimum recommended gaming speed he should see no issues what so ever.

Clock speeds are exactly the same, and its happened again. I still dont know whats causing it to suddenly take a dump like this.

Temperatures are, as said before, perfectly acceptable, ~67 C for the GPU and 60 for the CPU, under load.

Sunius said:
So the clocks don't change? What about CPU and GPU usage during lag?

the CPU Usagestays the same, and i forgot to check GPU usage but it was as if the GPU was hardly doing any work, at about 48 degrees Celsius.

Sunius said:
The same CPU usage? Do you mind being more specific?

The CPU usage after the drop stays roughly constant with the CPU usage before the FPS drop.

Do you also clean your computer, as in - the inside of your computer where dust builds up. I had a similar problem with Minecraft, and I checked on their forums and somebody said to clean out your computer.
Hope this helps.

Yes, ive cleaned out the computer.

From MSI Afterburner ive gotten the loads and information during problems:

Load while doing modest test (Just Cause 2), 99% (dont know why)

Frames are still horrible

GPU temp is steady at about 45 degrees celsius

Right now the load is extremely sporadic, spiking at 99%, then 30, then 55, then 80 ect. Its all over the place, and i have nothing anywhere near intense running, just firefox.

xp51mustangx said:
Bump: It happened again

Im gonna try rolling back my drivers and cleaning out my computer again. any help would be appreciated.

STOP everything your doing.... :bounce: 

Hi, try de-clocking your card to say 650core 775ram and shaders also around the 800-900mhz mark.Instead of running a game,
hit "Windows key" + R and type DXDIAG then hit ok....
any errors? (click throught the top tabs on display, sound and input)

--if no errors, run game.
Crash sooner or longer after start ?

--if longer than before, can you test the gfx card in another pc.? No crash/reset

I think your motherboard cannot supply correct voltages and "cool and quiet" clocks, and declocks your cpu according to recieved voltage(FET's prob damaged or capacitors bulged / bad PSU).

Had similar issue in the past with an Ahtlon64.

Make sure to disconnect the power cord before removing any components.
only way is to take non critical components out, one for one, until it crashes again.Take all ram modules out insert 1 and power on, and test.Try all ram sticks one at a time and try different slots too.Remove extra pci cards(if you have any)Disconnect basically everyting-- extra HDD's , DVDrom's remove sata / pata cables /usb headers/ac97

You should now only have the motherboard and PSU on a table, attach a keyboard and start the pc,( you can short the power pin header on the motherboard if you removed the lead to the button.)

In bootup, go into bios and browse to hardware monitor/status. check the voltages, vcc core, +3.3v +5vsb -5v etc(it is normal for + and - 12 and 5 volt to vary a little), and wait for a few seconds/minutes. Look if any of these voltages take a drop, or rises by 0.5v-1v or more then you have a power problem.

Now switch off. and add (just the power) all HDD's ,if you have spare or old drives or cdroms plug them in aswell.
power on check bios hardware monitor and now look if those voltage drops or spikes are more severe of more often on +12v and +5v and -5v.
If so, its definately the PSU , if not then add the gfx card back after power off and add all ram back, make sure to disconnect the power cord before removing any components.
check readings again ,leave power on and wait like 10 mins and check readings again.

If readings are now very random, try another PSU and do the same again.If the readings are still random you can rule out the PSU, it is the Motherboard. I doubt it is the CPU, a CPU either works or is dead, never both.

Try you PSU on another PC and test everything again boots up properly, if all you ram, hdds, gfx card, psu works in other pc. Take the cpu off and chuck your mobo in the trash :cry:  .(Or if your brave try and fix it) Oh and a fresh install of widows is a good start point.