Astro22

If you have any background programs or processes, close them. Only run the game and see if the issue persists. It could be something in the background hogging up your RAM. Try to monitor your RAM and also VRAM usage. If it's at maximum capacity or close to it, it could cause the lag spikes. Some questions: How much RAM do you have? Does the issue disappear instantly when you reboot the system? For how long do you own this PC and has the issue only recently started appearing? Another tip I could give you is try to monitor your GPU using GPU-Z. When the lag spikes occur, the sensor tab could give you more relevant information on what's happening with the card.

Well then, temperatures are probably not the issue. But keep an eye on it either way while you're gaming. Maybe it keeps rising as time goes on. Edit: Just saw your other comment. Temps are not it.

Graphics cards can start throttling themselves already at about the low 80s. It could be that it's running cool enough but it's always a good thing to make sure. Also make sure your graphics drivers are up to date.

Is this a prebuild machine? You say this lag only occurs a couple hours after I assume a gaming session? What I can think of off the top of my head is perhaps an overheating issue. It could be throttling to keep itself cool.

My PC was underperforming and the reason why is not something I expected. tl;dr: (But I recommend reading everything anyway) Basically, my GPU was running on PCIe x2 speeds even though it was seated in an x16 slot and no other hardware limiting it. The only reason I discovered this was because I noticed this small detail in GPU-Z. I noticed that I wasn't getting the performance that I was used to. My PC has trouble performing like expected ever since I got it, but this time it was really noticeable. In Red Dead Redemption 2 where I usually get above 60 fps at all times and often in the 70s, I was struggling to reach 50. In Planet Coaster, at a reasonably small park where I used to get in the 80s now had trouble reaching even 30. This was the worst case. Generally every game felt more sluggish than I was used to. I tried so much like thinking my in-game setting were reset and trying to tinker with them again, reinstalling drivers and changing settings in Windows... I even did a clean install of Windows entirely and it didn't fix anything. It's this little line in GPU-Z that gave away the issue. While it detected that the card was slotted in an x16 slot, the card was running at x2 which is shown after the @ sign that in the case of this picture is back at x16 since I fixed it. It's possible that the card runs at x2 to save power when not under load but mine was constantly at x2 even under the most heavy loads I could put it in. I decided to reseat the GPU and while I was at it, try to clean out any dust with a PC duster. Sure enough in GPU-Z it stated that I was running at x16 speeds again and guess what.. All my games run perfectly fine again. Way smoother, way faster. Maybe even faster than before. What completely blows me away is how an issue like this can drastically worsen your performance, yet there is not a single sign that there is an underlying problem. I also never heard of this happening before. Only when using software or other means to see what speeds your PCIe slot is running at, would you stumble upon it. An average user would not discover this at all. With average I mean someone that doesn't really know that much about a computer. People on this sub would probably have a way higher chance of discovering this.

I did a clean install of Windows 11 today and after installing most software that I use I noticed general unresponsiveness, mouse jitter or lag and audio glitches. After troubleshooting for hours uninstalling and reinstalling drivers I managed to figure out that when I close MSI Afterburner the issues disappeared. I don't know if it is a specific problem with my hardware or other people are experiencing it. Is anybody experiencing the same issue? I'm no longer able to use MSI Afterburner now. I've been at this for so long I'm too lazy to test any older version. Specs: GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super WINDFORCE OC 8G CPU: i5-9600k RAM: 16GB 2666 C-drive: Samsung 970 EVO plus, 250GB M.2 SSD Power Supply: GIGABYTE B700H Motherboard: AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 Case: Sharkoon VG6-W Red OS: Windows 11

Thought so too, just needed some confirmation. Thank you!

tl;dr: What is the best way to have a fresh windows install; build-in factory reset option or clean install with media creation tool? My PC always has had some weird software quirks but nothing too alarming. I recently upgraded to Windows 11 (I know... probably should have waited) and my gaming performance has dropped considerably. I do not have a Ryzen CPU but an i5-9500K (full specs below). When I try searching for performance differences between Windows 10 and 11 there shouldn't be too much difference, at least for me. I decided to wipe my system to remove any potential software issues. What is the safest and best way to do it? I'm thinking that a factory reset is less thorough than a clean install off of a USB stick. Specs: GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super WINDFORCE OC 8G CPU: i5-9600k RAM: 16GB 2666 C-drive: Samsung 970 EVO plus, 250GB M.2 SSD Power Supply: GIGABYTE B700H Motherboard: AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 Case: Sharkoon VG6-W Red

Just to give an update, I removed the plastic shield in front of the fans and purchased a pc duster. It already arrived today and I cleaned out the entire pc. There was more than I expected. But good news! Temps are under load 10 degrees Celsius lower on the gpu and it's fans aren't running 100% anymore all the time. The temps won't go higher then high 70's and the graphics card memory also no longer reaches dangerously high temps. The issue seems to be fixed! It now runs cooler and quieter in general and I'm very happy with the results. It seems that there was just some dust buildup in the graphics card although I didn't see that much dust get blown out of it. Anyway, thank you very much for your tips they helped very much!

The drying of thermal paste is what I meant but I didn't word it correctly. Dust in the heatsink is something I can easily fix though! Maybe with that new pc duster I'm going to acquire.

I'm probably going to buy a new case entirely. I was doubting to buy one of those but now I'm definitely going to do so. Thank you very much for your tips!

So the problem is with the case, not the graphics card? The strange thing is that only after about two years, the issue really started showing. But that's because the graphics card ability to cool itself degrades either way right? At this point I'm guessing it's probably worth just buying a proper case instead of reapplying thermal paste on the GPU.

The pc never really crashed but more like froze. This only seems to occur when my GPU get's way too hot. Are you familiar with this case in particular? I've always though that the case could be the issue. Yes I do clean my PC as soon as I see some amount of dust buildup, but I've never had any compressed air or anything so I try to clean it by hand with paper towels. I'm definitely going to purchase some compressed air soon to do a proper clean.

I posted the topic early by accident lol. I just edited it with the necessary information.

Specs: GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 2070 Super WINDFORCE OC 8G CPU: i5-9600k RAM: 16GB 2666 Storage: Samsung 970 EVO plus, 250GB M.2 SSD Power Supply: GIGABYTE B700H Motherboard: AsRock Z390 Phantom Gaming 4 Case: Sharkoon VG6-W Red Recently my graphics card started to have overheating issues. It doesn't take long for it to reach the 80's and rising to 85's. The memory in particular is getting to that critical 100 degrees Celsius and is probably the primary reason why my pc almost crashes completely sometimes. For example when I'm playing BFV it could happen that my PC freezes and the screen goes black, then the game crashes and I go back to desktop like nothing happened. My PC was also getting considerably louder over the last few months, presumably because of the graphics card fans having to work harder and harder. When I remove the side panel of my PC the temps are way better. The GPU barely reaches 80 at all and I can play as long as I want without overheating issues. Right now at idle with the side panel off, the GPU is 43 degrees Celsius and the memory is 53. I have two intake fans at the front and one exhaust at the back and all are preinstalled fans that came with the case. The ambient temperature is regular room temperature. Does this mean that I have bad airflow or is my GPU unable to cool itself properly? The card is only two years old. The only thing that could have caused this that comes to mind is that I did some light mining for a month with nicehash but I lost interest in doing that.