# [SOLVED] New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.



## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

I built this guy about 3 months ago, and up until this past month it was running great.

All of a sudden all games I've been playing [Smite, Insurgency, Far Cry 3, Shadow of Mordor] have major drops in FPS. For example, Smite has gone from ~50-60 FPS average to drops below in the ~15-20 FPS range. Same story with the rest.

Even opening programs such as Chrome or Spotify seem to stutter compared to before.

This is my first build, and I'm admittatdly new to PC builds, but i am competent enough to have done a lot of research prior to this and here's what I have done so far:

- ran malware bytes (did have 3 but removed them; no changes)
- updated drivers for video card and on motherboard
- updated windows updates
- ran windows defender
- installed and ran full scan with Avira
- opened up the rig and went through all connections and cleaned any dust

At this point I don't know what else to do... Any help will be greatly, greatly, appreciated.

Build can be seen attached: Intel Core i5-4690K, Sapphire Radeon R9 280 - System Build - PCPartPicker

also posted this reddit's tech support: 3 Month Old new PC build is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games as well as misc. programs. No apparent reason for why. : techsupport


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## Bunnyman13 (Mar 25, 2015)

CCleaner or Re-install Windows!
Windows usually gets problem in the registry. Most intuitions with a Windows server, or Windows OS usually gets a image restored on their machines.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

Hey Visksreddit, Welcome to Tech Support Forum :wave:

There are many different things which can cause an issue like what you are experiencing so it is great to see that you have at least eliminated some of them by trying a few different potential fixes.

One of the main causes of slowdowns is Overheating although I am not sure you should be experiencing this with such a new PC. Still, it is worth us checking to see if this is the case.

To do this, I recommend you download PC Wizard by using the link in my signature (make sure to untick the "Install Advanced System Protector" when you get to it).

Once you have it installed and started, you will see a number of icons under the "Hardware" tab, click the one which has the - and + and this will show a screen with Voltages and Temperatures.

Take a screenshot of your temperatures for your Processor and Graphics Card before you open a game. Start a game and play it for a little bit (say 10-30 minutes), Alt-Tab out of the game and then get screenshots of the temperatures again.

Post them here and I should be able to say if this is the issue or not. We tend to take this type of issue step-by-step until we have eliminated all possible causes.

If it is not overheating, it could be an issue with your Windows installation (as stated already by Bunnyman13) so a reinstall of your Operating System might fix your issue (make sure to backup any files you want to keep before trying this option).

CCleaner may also help speed your PC up a bit as it removes temporary files which accumulate over time, although this wouldn't explain the issues you are having as they often have only a minor effect.

We also do not recommend that you use the registry cleaner part of CCleaner or any other software as cleaning the registry doesn't have a huge effect on speed but can cause your Operating System and/or some of your programs to encounter issues.

Hope this has been helpful and I await your reply 

- Redeye -

P.S. It may also be useful to know what case you are using and if you have it located on a carpet (this is not recommended as carpet fibers tend to clog up the fans)


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## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

Thanks guys;

Redeye3323 - I went ahead and got those benchmark images, but aside from the processor activity increasing, everything else stayed pretty steady. 

I played Shadow of Mordor at ultra settings. One big thing I noticed was that this was the first game I got to test out this rig, and having installed it on my SSD, the game used to boot up and go FAST. Since I've noticed this problem now with my PC, I also noticed that it took a lot longer to load up the game, and was glitchy before it sorta smoothed out. 

Anyways I'll let the pictures do the talking;

1 - At start: (System summary http://i.imgur.com/X7wuDr9.png?1 ) & Voltage temps and fans http://i.imgur.com/RUMAIZP.png?1 )
2 - 5 minutes into Shadow of Mordor @ Ultra - ( Voltage temp and fans http://i.imgur.com/lwxcTG4.png?1 )
3 - 15 minutes into same (http://i.imgur.com/uU6zYFq.png?1)

:banghead:

Right now I'm hoping its not a hardware issue, but aside from reinstalling the OS, I can't think of what might be the issue. 

One side note; the only big difference I can think of from when I first built this PC, and any changes to performance since, have been since I got a 1TB WD HD. But even still, its mostly for media and I don't know how it would impact Shadow of Mordor & the 8.1 OS both running off the SSD.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

According to your screenshots, your 12v rail is running at 6v which is really bad if it is true although programs aren't always accurate so you will need to go into your BIOS and check what voltages it shows for each rail (3.3v, 5v, 12v)


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## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

Oh ok, could this be a problem with the power supply then? I'm sorry I don't know exactly what that means or what to look for in bios or a wrong plug somewhere.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

visksreddit said:


> Oh ok, could this be a problem with the power supply then? I'm sorry I don't know exactly what that means or what to look for in bios or a wrong plug somewhere.


It might be but we should do the voltage check first as they may be false readings.

Here is a video on how to access the bios and find out your voltages: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=69QPICpagoc


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## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

Redeye3323 - thanks for sticking through this with me... I went ahead and checked the BIOS and it seems you were right about the false reading. Here's what I got when in BIOS:

CPU Input Voltage: +1.776 V
V Core : +1.009V
+12.00 V : +12.302V
+5.00 V : +5.136V
+3.30 V : +3.376V 

These seem safe within the tolerance, so I am not sure where this leaves us now in terms of finding the error. :sad:

Awaiting your reply.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

They seem reasonable so that rules that out. I did some research on your Power Supply Unit and it came up as a good one (which are few and far between outside the big names of Corsair & Seasonic as far as I know).

I've noticed that you use a Solid State Drive for storage, how full is your hard drive? (you can check this in the "My Computer" screen).

Also, do you have TRIM enabled? If you are not sure, open up the command prompt as an Administrator and use the following command:

fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify

If this returns a "0", then TRIM is enabled and we don't need to worry about that.

On a side note, I would recommend you try to keep games and data files on your mechanical hard drive. The reason being is an SSD has a limited amount of space (less space left means more sluggish drive) and you get no real improvements apart from better load times in games (frame rate etc relies on your Graphics Card, RAM and CPU mainly). 

Your SSD should be used mainly for your Operating System and your Programs (to this end, I have my Steam on the SSD and my games on my 1TB drive personally). Although your SSD is double the size of mine so having some games on it isn't too bad, just not the whole collection.

Other than this, you are likely looking at a reinstall of your operating system as I have a suspicion that it could be some sort of malware. This is a time consuming measure and a drastic one so I want to rule out the SSD angle first.

If you do decide to reinstall your operating system, I suggest you backup all your important files and proceed with the reinstall. Once you have finished reinstalling it, go and download Avast Antivirus (I swear by it after trying AVG, Avira and the rest). Then make sure to get any relevant drivers (especially for your graphics card) and complete any Windows Updates (they may take a while but they are important).

If the reinstall doesn't work then it's likely a hardware fault/issue and we'll see what we can do to find it out so you can get back to your gaming :grin:

With regards to your kind words, I am happy to help and hopefully we can get it sorted soon :smile:


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## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

So prior to your advice, the reddit forum I had posted the same question in also suggested a reinstall; but the method suggested was to partition about 200gb on my 1TB HDD and install windows 8.1 and a few games to test.

I went ahead and did this and the results are pretty promising. For example Far Cry 3 boots up and run much faster with no fps problems. 

Also, in Smite, where I can see the FPS counter I had a much nicer return on data:

On my original SSD, Smite was resting at ~35 FPS (once the problem arose)
On my new OS install on HDD, Smite is resting at ~100-150 FPS.

I think this at least has made the windows to my problem smaller, and I will go ahead an reformat everything and reinstall the OS on my SSD again. 

The good thing is that my PC is relatively barebones with most of my data in the cloud or on an external HD so nothing to lose really. 

Now to wait and see lol. opcorn: 
I will post once updated and tested.


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## greenbrucelee (Apr 24, 2007)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

have you tried updating your ssd firmware?

if your psu 12v voltage was really 6v the system wouldn't boot at all.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

Any updates my friend?

From what you've said, I should think a re-install has fixed your issues but that won't stop it from happening again. I suspect the cause was malware or some rubbish programs/services hogging up your computer resources.

In future, make sure you have an Antivirus (I recommend Avast) and avoid the likes of toolbars and other bloatware that try to install themselves with other programs (you will sometimes see a "I wish to install Ask Toolbar" or similar in the installer of other programs, just untick them).



greenbrucelee said:


> If your psu 12v voltage was really 6v the system wouldn't boot at all.


I did think that would be the case but wasn't 100% sure it couldn't boot with 6 volts on that rail so I decided to make sure.

It definitely backs up the old "Don't trust program's voltage readings as they are usually wrong" rhetoric.


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## visksreddit (Mar 25, 2015)

*Re: New gaming PC is slowing down. Major FPS drops in games and programs.*

Redeye - Everything seems to be running smoothly. Spent about the whole day the other day completely resetting the PC before doing a clean reinstall. 

I am not sure what the problem was, Malware seems most responsible, but I ran malware bytes and removed the few events that popped up. I'm generally very simple and organized with my PC and don't add any toolbars or unneccessary programs, so it's still suspicious. 

I am more inclined to believe that, being my first self-build PC, I installed a driver that possibly conflicted with a newer (or older) driver that I probably also installed when looking for the right ones. I assume this was with my video card, but either way, with the fresh reinstall I went ahead and found all of the most up to date drivers ahead of time so hopefully this wont reoccur anytime soon.

I'm just happy it wasn't a hardware issue that would mean I'd have to deal with customer support and all of that extra work :dance:.

Thanks a lot for your and everyone else's help in helping me cross off potential other errors and zoom in on what the problem was (speculatively lol). 

cheers. :smile:


-P.S. I'm trying to find a flair or notification to show that this has been solved, but cannot seem to find it. If there is one would you please let me know and I can mark this thread.


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## Redeye3323 (Sep 20, 2009)

Glad to hear it's all sorted now :smile:

Any more issues, you know where we are.



visksreddit said:


> -P.S. I'm trying to find a flair or notification to show that this has been solved, but cannot seem to find it. If there is one would you please let me know and I can mark this thread.


As long as you are using the PC version (not the mobile version), you can mark your thread as [Solved] by clicking the "Thread Tools" dropdown at the top and there is an option to mark it so


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