Game FPS Drastically Reduced

[Simon Neale]

Howdy ya'll,

 

I originally sent my self-made gaming pc to a computer technician because my computer would blue-screen occasionally, and especially so when gaming. The technician fixed this issue, but another arose—the computer can hardly push out fps. I'll get around 20 fps on both World of Warcraft and wow classic and around 1-5 fps on Overwatch. Also, on OldSchool Runescape (please don't judge) I average about 8 fps both with and without the gpu. Mind you, this game can run smoothly on a potato. Similar deal with many other games too. On top of this, the os seems to run a little choppy sometimes, much less smooth from how it originally ran.

 

The problem continues whether or not I have the GPU installed. We've tried complete OS reinstalls. Also, the GPU seems to work fine in other computers. So would you guys have any idea what other computer component would reduce the fps by so much? I was hoping the technician would attempt to single out computer parts and identify the issue, but didn't. I might contact him about doing that, but I wanted your guyses opinion before moving on.

 

I have attached the specifications both with and without the GPU installed. PSU is Corsair CX750M.

 

First time poster here, long time LTT watcher btw!

[Bombastinator]

howdy and welcome

 

For what little it’s worth, I support finding out what the technician did.  It is surprising to me that that wasn’t part of the repair. 

[Craftyawesome]

Can you send what cpu/gpu clocks are reached while gaming? You can see cpu clocks with task manager or cpu-z. You can see gpu clocks with gpu-z or msi afterburner.

 

Your ram is also running stock (unless your ram is actually 2133). This isn't helping performance, but isn't the entire problem.

[Simon Neale]

19 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

howdy and welcome

 

For what little it’s worth, I support finding out what the technician did.  It is surprising to me that that wasn’t part of the repair. 

I can ask him what other troubleshooting methods he did. I'll try and let you know tomorrow!

[Simon Neale]

6 minutes ago, Craftyawesome said:

Can you send what cpu/gpu clocks are reached while gaming? You can see cpu clocks with task manager or cpu-z. You can see gpu clocks with gpu-z or msi afterburner.

 

Your ram is also running stock (unless your ram is actually 2133). This isn't helping performance, but isn't the entire problem.

Sure thing. I'll be able to attach the results tomorrow!

[Simon Neale]

19 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

howdy and welcome

 

For what little it’s worth, I support finding out what the technician did.  It is surprising to me that that wasn’t part of the repair. 

So he swapped everything except for the cpu and motherboard since they didn't have those in stock at the time.

[Simon Neale]

19 hours ago, Craftyawesome said:

Can you send what cpu/gpu clocks are reached while gaming? You can see cpu clocks with task manager or cpu-z. You can see gpu clocks with gpu-z or msi afterburner.

 

Your ram is also running stock (unless your ram is actually 2133). This isn't helping performance, but isn't the entire problem.

Here ya go friend. I took some extra screenshots in case you needed more information. I bought the other two sticks of ram (4x4) at a later date. Maybe that could be an issue?

[Simon Neale]

Small update: I ran the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice on low graphics and I averaged a little under 30 fps (I normally got well over 60 on high graphics). I ran Enter the Gungeon and averaged about 45 fps (should run a lot better than that). I have Oldschool Runescape again and got about 6 fps. 

 

The above screenshots I linked were when I was playing Enter the Gungeon. I ran it again after I downloaded Sekiro, and there were no noticeable differences in the stats.

[Craftyawesome]

Spoiler

4 hours ago, Simon Neale said:

Here ya go friend. I took some extra screenshots in case you needed more information. I bought the other two sticks of ram (4x4) at a later date. Maybe that could be an issue?

 

XMP tends to not work if it isn't one kit, but you might get lucky with your mobo. Otherwise you will need to put in higher clocks manually.

 

It looks like the game stopped running when you took the screenshot. GPU usage and clocks went down. Either run the game in windowed mode and check gpu-z while the game is running, or hover the mouse over the history.

Your GPU driver is outdated; you should try updating it. Once the drivers are updated, make sure your graphics card can reach at least the boost block of 1683. Also see if PhysX is now checked in gpu-z.

 

The thing that seems to be the problem is the CPU. Constant 22% at 0.77 GHz? If that's all it reaches ingame, that's your problem.

Try changing your power plan to high performance and resetting high performance to defaults. On high performance, it should stay on at least 3.4 GHz. If it is lower, download HWiNFO64. Run it with sensors only, and scroll down to CPU [#0]: Intel Core i5-6600K: Performance Limit Reasons. Send a screenshot of that.

[Simon Neale]

@Craftyawesome Sorry for the late reply. I took some updated screenshots. The game I used to take them defaults to a menu screen, but hopefully that's not a problem. Let me know if I messed anything up. The first cpu screenshot was after I had selected high performance.

 

The games that appear to have the most trouble are cpu intensive. So if that is the problem, it would make sense.

 

Thanks for the great help so far.

[Bombastinator]

I don’t remember how much memory matters for 6600k and skylake.  For some intel it matters a lot, for some barely at all. 

[Simon Neale]

2 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

I don’t remember how much memory matters for 6600k and skylake.  For some intel it matters a lot, for some barely at all. 

Maybe it'd be best if I remove the two newer sticks and see if there are any meaningful changes? Can't remember if the tech did this or not.

[Craftyawesome]

2 hours ago, Simon Neale said:

@Craftyawesome Sorry for the late reply. I took some updated screenshots. The game I used to take them defaults to a menu screen, but hopefully that's not a problem. Let me know if I messed anything up. The first cpu screenshot was after I had selected high performance.

 

The games that appear to have the most trouble are cpu intensive. So if that is the problem, it would make sense.

 

Thanks for the great help so far.

in hwinfo, increase the size of the sensor bar so you can see which one is Performance Limit Reasons. You could also reset your bios.

[Bombastinator]

7 minutes ago, Simon Neale said:

Maybe it'd be best if I remove the two newer sticks and see if there are any meaningful changes? Can't remember if the tech did this or not.

Sorry should have said “increased memory speed” rather than “memory” inexact of me.  The deal is for some intel CPUs going past minimum memory speed doesn’t make the cpu a lot faster to the point that making memory faster may not do much. I don’t remember which intel CPUs this refers to or why though.

Edited August 17, 2020 by Bombastinator

[Craftyawesome]

5 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

Sorry should have said “increased memory speed” rather than “memory” inexact of me.  The deal is for some intel CPUs going past minimum memory speed doesn’t make the cpu a lot faster to the point that making memory faster may not do much. I don’t remember which intel CPUs this refers to or why though.

AFAIK there hasn't been significant architecture changes recently. Maybe you are just thinking the same RAM bandwidth for ever increasing clocks and thread counts?

 

2133 dual channel is still fine for most games, just not optimal. 

 

[Bombastinator]

On 8/16/2020 at 11:04 PM, Craftyawesome said:

AFAIK there hasn't been significant architecture changes recently. Maybe you are just thinking the same RAM bandwidth for ever increasing clocks and thread counts?

 

2133 dual channel is still fine for most games, just not optimal. 

 

this logic is possibly bad. “Leaving speed on the table” is not wasting money if acquiring those leavings cost more Than getting a bigger part.  It’s a cost/benefit analysis.  If one is already at the top of the range and there is no bigger part to buy it does start to have value again regardless of cost. 

[Craftyawesome]

21 hours ago, Bombastinator said:

Question becomes how recent is the cpu though. I’m seeing 4/4 and cpu name of “intel cor...” It seems to have ddr4 so it’s newer than say, 4th gen.  

If you are talking about Simon's CPU, check the first post. 6600k.

[Bombastinator]

2 minutes ago, Craftyawesome said:

If you are talking about Simon's CPU, check the first post. 6600k.

Ah.  That I think is before the whole memory thing.  Part of the deal was it wasn’t that memory speed increase was worthless, just that it didn’t help like it did with the various ryzen derivations.  Intel then did some memory stuff in some later chips that made memory speed more useful. This is well before that.

[Simon Neale]

Howdy again. Here are the updated screenshots. I included a screenshot of the gpu for safe measure.

 

So we think it's mainly the cpu? Possibly the ram? If it's the cpu, which cpu would you recommend (for gaming and heavy multitasking)?

[Simon Neale]

Oh and not sure I mentioned it. But the previous cpu/gpu screenshots were taken after I updated the windows and the gpu drivers.

[Craftyawesome]

22 hours ago, Simon Neale said:

Howdy again. Here are the updated screenshots. I included a screenshot of the gpu for safe measure.

 

So we think it's mainly the cpu? Possibly the ram? If it's the cpu, which cpu would you recommend (for gaming and heavy multitasking)?

The cpu is the vast majority of the problem. The problem is that the cpu is only reaching 0.8 GHz, when it should reach 3.6-3.9.

 

Can you look for a reset/load defaults setting in your bios? Also, what version is it?

 

[Simon Neale]

Apologies for late reply. I have a massive update, though. I went into the bios, as you said to do, and loaded default settings, saved then booted. And magically, out of know where, everything works perfectly.

 

Thank you so much for recommending to do load default settings. Here's a screenshot of the cpu running sekiro. I'm getting 60+ fps on max graphics. On top of this, everything from chrome, to loading videos, to moving around applications is smooth and seamless.

 

I'm sure this seems like a simply fix for you, but it's massively a big deal for me. I really appreciate you helping me out with this, both @Craftyawesome and @Bombastinator !!

 

I'll keep you updated if anything out of the ordinary happens. In the meantime, thanks so much for your 200 iq gentlemanliness!

 

Best,

Simon.

[Simon Neale]

I have an update, if ya'll are still around. I've been testing some games since everything's been running well, but when I test out world of warcraft retail it occasionally crashes the game and I get the attached message. Seems to do this regardless of graphics detail. I've been playing it on mostly maxed graphics and it runs great (80 fps or more, 200 if on low), but still occasionally crashes.

 

This problem actually happened before this whole ordeal began (before the blue screen pc crashes). One other small problem that is possible related is that sometimes if I'm watching a youtube video my screen with quickly go to black or re-adjust then go back to normal. Then if I move between youtube tabs it will show the last image that appeared on all of them unless I reload the tab.

 

I believe these wow crashes also happened when I had a different graphics card (before the 1070 ti), but can't say for certain (previous gpu was r9 390).

[Simon Neale]

Here's another error message that comes after the last one I attached.

[Craftyawesome]

45 minutes ago, Simon Neale said:

I have an update, if ya'll are still around. I've been testing some games since everything's been running well, but when I test out world of warcraft retail it occasionally crashes the game and I get the attached message. Seems to do this regardless of graphics detail. I've been playing it on mostly maxed graphics and it runs great (80 fps or more, 200 if on low), but still occasionally crashes.

 

This problem actually happened before this whole ordeal began (before the blue screen pc crashes). One other small problem that is possible related is that sometimes if I'm watching a youtube video my screen with quickly go to black or re-adjust then go back to normal. Then if I move between youtube tabs it will show the last image that appeared on all of them unless I reload the tab.

 

I believe these wow crashes also happened when I had a different graphics card (before the 1070 ti), but can't say for certain (previous gpu was r9 390).

Was the 390 used on this same windows install? You could try running ddu.