KES7774

I made a video instead of trying to explain in text... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbAQ5IGqjvw Please note the sheer drop in core performance during these downtimes. Audio also gets a syncing issue while this happens, and the inventory scene is quite evident...

I had my PC shipped to me last September, and it was a beefy lad. The first game I downloaded and played was Space Engineers (Steam), and I was ranging in frame rates from 100 to 150. After a few minutes of playing, video would freeze up and audio would still play, forcing me to shut down. After scrounging through other forums, I was recommended to turn down my CPU speed in AMD Catalyst. I bumped the speed down form 4.7 GHz to 4.5, and then put it back to 4.7. Since then, there has been no freezing... quite odd... Thinking that my PC was in top shape, I started playing other games. The SIMS 4, 7 Days to Die, Skyrim, Planetside 2, and Red Orchestra were just a few (at this time, I only had two fans for case cooling and a water cooling unit for my processor). I started to notice a pattern of frame loss; for about twenty seconds or so, I would drop from 60+ FPS to about 5-10 FPS (that being twenty seconds of 5-10 FPS), then go back up to 60+ FPS for about fifteen seconds (that being 60+ FPS constant for fifteen seconds). I had the though of my RAM being too low in speed or amount, considering my memory usage was almost 15% constant at just the desktop and 60-90% while playing games. Crawling through forums again, a lad had recommended I blow a desk fan into my PC to see what happens. I did this, and tested out a few games. I would run 60+ FPS for about thirty seconds now and only have the low time at 10-15 FPS for about ten seconds (in voxel based games, frames are vice versa). So, I went out and bought some 2400 RPM fans, and left it at that (I still had the frame rate issue on the extent described above). Now, some funk... Using task manager during a 7 Days to Die session (running on ultra around 60 FPS) I noticed something odd. During the frame loss, memory was unaffected (70% usage), but CPU usage would drop from 50% to about 15%, and Disk usage would rise from 0% to about 5%. When it was all over and I was back to 60 FPS, the usage would be about 50% CPU, 70% Memory, 0% Disk, and 0% Network. Mind you, the frame drops happen at every graphical level on the affected games, just not on the intensity as Ultra or Very High. Battlefield 4, Skyrim, Red Orchestra, and Mount and Blade are totally unaffected by this frame loss situation... >I believe you can see my PC specs in my profile >I got my PC from Cyberpower >I've not tampered with anything since, except for removing my GPU thinking it was the problem and getting it replaced >A friend had said it could be the lack of thermal paste on my CPU, knowing that the issue at hand is thermal throttling Sorry for the Four-part Epic, but I didn't want to miss out on any detail. Any fix to my situation?

I've done some very redneck tests... After taking the side panel off my case and blowing in cool air from an osculating fan, the frame drops ceased... I will resort to buying new fans...

I've only ever taken the GPU out to be replaced by Cyberpower itself. Do enlighten me on this "thermal throttling"?

Ever since I got my PC from Cyberpower in September of 2014, wonky gobshite has been going down; The PC would freeze up and fans would die down... I had no idea what was happening. I went into Catalyst and dropped down the CPU power by however little. It worked and there was no more problems. Still, the thing that caught my attention was the vicious frame rate drops that I'd get while playing any game. The best example is Space Engineers; I'd get 100+ frames per second for about twenty second bursts. After those twenty seconds, the frame rate would sharply drop to about ~5-10 regardless of graphics settings. It shoots back up to ~60-100 after one or so minutes of the downtime, but it lasts for only twenty seconds. There are no freezes affiliated with this, and it happens to every kind of game online and offline. Did I mention the dying down of the fans during this process? The fans also kick up when the frames return to a higher state. I've done a plethora of thing to fix this, non-monetary that is. The most interesting thing about this situation is the Graphics OverDrive statistics (Catalyst) while this frame-loss happens. The "Activity" during the downtime drops to zero, whereas it would have been at ~90-100%... My RAM is set to XMP Profile 2 or 3, which increases frames during the downtime. My GPU is the second of the rig. The first one, I though, was faulty. Adjusting fan speeds does nothing. For reference: DxDiagLePC.txt (P.S. I'm kind of new to the PC field...)