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I have an entirely new computer SPECS HERE (except for the ram which is ~5 years old) that has been running great.

Today however, every game I play has been experiencing lag that makes them nearly unplayable. I've tried playing 3 different games and all experience similar issues.

The issues I'm experiencing are:

  • Terrible FPS (below 30FPS always and sometimes below 5) on low settings when previously I was getting +60 FPS on ultra settings
  • Lag with in game menus (Click a menu and it takes a few seconds for anything to change)
  • In one of the games I'm experiencing really bad mouse lag, where the in game mouse is jittery and delayed
  • Some games are experiencing sound lag, others are not

Steps I've already tried to fix the issue:

  • Uninstall NVidia graphics drivers and update to newest (353.30) version
  • Update Bios
  • Update Intel Chipset Firmware
  • Run Avast Virus scan
  • Uninstall and reinstall games
  • Ran MSI Kombustor to test GPU and CPU (both appear to be working as expected)
  • Ran MemTest64 on my ram and all tests passed successfuly
  • Downloaded xperf and ran a test while I had one of the games open (BF2 in this case). CPU utilization is jumping to 100% often in the xperf log, but is utilization different then usage? Because Win 8.1 performance via the task manager never showed CPU usage over 20%

Additionally, I tried observing the task manager and AIDA64 while running the games to try and see what might be getting overworked. Everything appears fine on task manger, and the only thing I notice on AIDA64 is it lists CPU at 100% utilization (note that Windows task manager lists it at <20%). I'm not sure if these are measuring the same thing, but I thought I'd mention it.

Can anyone give me ideas on what could be the problem? Or perhaps software I can use to better narrow down the issue? At this point I don't know where to turn as I've done everything I can think of to try and fix the issue on my own.

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  • the 970GTX has 4GB but with 3.5GB + slower 512MB. If the games uses a lot of VRAM, and needs all you may have issues
    – magicandre1981
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 4:14
  • It appears you created two user IDs. You can freely edit your own posts, but it must be done under the original user ID. The additional ID will also interfere with accumulating rep and accepting an answer to your question. Please see superuser.com/help/merging-accounts to get your accounts merged.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 6:14
  • @PSycogeek I added more info on what lag I'm experiencing
    – Rav
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 15:25
  • @magicandre1981 These games ran perfectly fine on ultra settings a few days ago, so it's not that my GPU can't run them normally.
    – Rav
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 15:26
  • @Rav Seems like a long shot, but considering you've done some thorough testing - is your hard drive healthy? Also, when you dial up the settings from low back to ultra, does the performance stay consistently bad, or get even worse?
    – Ben Sampica
    Commented Aug 6, 2015 at 18:04

2 Answers 2

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I just had a similar issue with my rig, and tracked it down to overheating. In my case, it was due to both accumulated dust and poor thermal coupling. The former is obviously unlikely for you but the latter can occur even on a new rig if the compound wasn't applied well between the heatsink and the CPU or GPU. Having too much high powered stuff in too small of a case can also contribute to heat in terms of reduced airflow.

If heat is the problem, the first clue would be your fans. If everything is set up properly, on a cold boot your system should be whisper-quiet, and the fans should not speed up until you start pushing the hardware. But if they're running full speed when the OS is idle, or take a long time to slow down after you're done gaming, you might have inadequate cooling.

You can also use a utility like HWMonitor to get readings on your CPU and GPU temperature sensors, fan speeds, etc. Most hardware runs optimally at or below 70°C, and exceeding 100°C will immediately cause severe performance degradation.

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  • I though this could be the issue to begin with, but my Mobo has a built in CPU temperature display and even when I was benchmarking it, it wasn't getting above 45°C I'm not sure exactly how hot my GPU has been running but I didn't notice anything abnormal when I last checked GPUz. Regardless, thanks for the input!
    – Rav
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 15:42
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Have you tested your old RAM? Might be failing or a bottleneck. Other than that review windows update logs in case something recently came down. Maybe try rolling back to old video card drivers? Alt-tab out of the running game and see what is running at the same time.

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  • I ran memtest64 last night and everything passed fine. What do you mean by "in case something recently came down"? What exactly should I be looking for in the update logs? I've alt-tabbed out of each of the 3 games I'm testing on (or ran them in windowed mode) and I can't find anything else running that's hogging memory/CPU/GPU/HD performance. I'll try rolling back to old video drivers later tonight. This is one thing I haven't tried yet. Thanks!
    – Rav
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 15:45
  • Go to add remove programs and click view installed updates then sort by date to see if any windows updates were installed on the date you started having problems.
    – Matt D
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 19:20
  • Oh and watch out for device drivers provided by MS.
    – Matt D
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 19:21
  • I never knew I could view just installed updates. That's great, Thanks!
    – Rav
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 19:22

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