Hi everyone,
Long time lurker, first time caller. I'm at my wits' end with this one, and I'm hoping you can help. Let's start with some specs:
Intel i7-7700k
32 GB Corsair Vengeance RAM @ 2400MHz
Asus Strix Z270-F
Asus Strix 2080ti
Sandisk ~100 GB SSD (Boot)
Samsung 970 EVO 500 GB (Games)
Corsair RM650x
Windows 10 Version 1903
Other specs available on request, just ask.
For the past week or perhaps two, I've been experiencing a really frustrating FPS drop in Warframe that lasts a few seconds, but is constant and unpredictable. This takes my game from a stable 120fps all the way down to 4-10fps immediately, linger for a few seconds as a slideshow, and then resume normal refresh rates. This happens sometimes after half an hour, sometimes I'll have it happen multiple times in a few minutes, and it'll happen regardless of if I'm playing alone or with others.
After spending some time with Task Manager open, waiting for it to happen again, I've recorded a few examples here:
Example 1
Example 2
Example 3
What is immediately obvious from the above images is that the dip in CPU and GPU (and potentially network?) corresponds with a sharp rise in Disk 1. However, after spending time with Resource Monitor observing the disk activity, it doesn't seem like that sharp rise is attributed to any process. It's also occurring on the C: drive, my boot drive, though Warframe is installed on the A: drive. Here's an example of a massive rise in disk activity:
Example 4
When I look in the Event Viewer, nothing seems to correspond with a rise in disk activity. I have however gone through all errors I possibly can and cleaned them up over the past couple of days to no avail, no noticeable change. I've also gone through just about everything I've done to the hardware and reset things to stock, so no CPU or GPU overclocks in case they were unstable. Temperatures are good, there's plenty of available memory so I doubt it's a RAM/pagefile issue, both the CPU and GPU are nowhere near capacity either, I'm stumped.
I'd love it if you were able to help, even if it were to point me at a tool that would be able to graph exactly which program/process/image is actually creating the huge spike in activity. Please!
Thanks for your time.