Fps gradually decreases in games

[KingDuder]

Alright thanks for the help, imma uninstall Norton but I share this computer with someone else and they like Norton (ik wtf?) and i have to talk to them about it.  I already crank up my fans to 63% from 36% and saw little difference, but imma crank it up even further just to test if its the temperature that is the sole problem.  I am currently downloading Titanfall but by the way the game's fps is set up, it might not be a good idea for a test game, but im gonna still try it.

[Mbarton]

I dont have any viruses or anything like that but I do use Norton (cheapest) how the heck do i disable Norton being a resource hog?

like the other guy said just nuke norton its not a bod software but its a resource hog. something like avast thats what i use its free its light weight and is one of the best ones out there.

[michalj82]

I've used Norton on slower processor than this Intel core i5 and I didn't have any problems with performance.

[KingDuder]

I set the fans to the highest and removed the side panel (to test if it was a temp problem) and fps still dropped.  I have 2 Norton softwares and one is much more helpful than the other so I uninstalled the one i dont use.  The norton antivirus was paid for and I at least want to take advantage of the subscription.  I really hope norton is not the problem because I dont want to uninstall it just yet.  I am currently downloading Titanfall to test if the fps drop is just for bf3

[deviant88]

Just so you know 70C is not throtling point for 600 series my 670 can go up to 80C and no throtle in fact i never seen it throtle,tough i have custom video bios overclocked, i play all games with afterburner on.

 

What windows are you using 32 bit or 64 bit? you said usage stays under 4gb you have 8gb of ram i see when i play bf3 or bf4 usage is well over 4gb,hopefully you dont have 32 bit windows.

Also check your cpu temps too,haswell overheats a lot on stock and it throttles a lot.

Last resort that i always use ) reinstall windows,if that doesnt solve it,then it could be some bios issues or something.

[KingDuder]

Just so you know 70C is not throtling point for 600 series my 670 can go up to 80C and no throtle in fact i never seen it throtle,tough i have custom video bios overclocked, i play all games with afterburner on.

 

What windows are you using 32 bit or 64 bit? you said usage stays under 4gb you have 8gb of ram i see when i play bf3 or bf4 usage is well over 4gb,hopefully you dont have 32 bit windows.

Also check your cpu temps too,haswell overheats a lot on stock and it throttles a lot.

Last resort that i always use ) reinstall windows,if that doesnt solve it,then it could be some bios issues or something.

thank god the throttling point isn't 70C for the 600 series.  I am using windows 8 64 bit version.  My card usually stays in the low 60s for degrees.  Is thst a bit much for haswell?  And lastly I havent updated my bios, how can i do this?

[deviant88]

thank god the throttling point isn't 70C for the 600 series.  I am using windows 8 64 bit version.  My card usually stays in the low 60s for degrees.  Is thst a bit much for haswell?  And lastly I havent updated my bios, how can i do this?

So you say your GPU or your haswell CPU stays in the low 60's? for neither is much both the gpu 600 series and cpu intel haswell would have problems above 85-90C. 

Around 60 is fine for both gpu and cpu if that is the max temp's you are getting.

Usually all the bios updates are similar you download the newest you put it on an usb drive reboot and then you need to press 1 key specific for bios flashing for my asrock i think its f6 you should check which one is for msi might be different for sure.Also seems like you never did bios update before,usually this is easy but if you're power goes down or something while flashing new bios you brick the motherboard so unless you really have to,you shouldnt flash new bios.

As i said last resort is to reinstall windows,you say you have win8 64 bit do you also have the win 8.1 patch? you should install that first fixed a lot of stuff.

When i have severe problems that seem unfixable like performance or such i usually reinstall windows clean fixes the problems 90% of the time.

I cant think of anything else really if your temps are 60-70's then your gpu/cpu shouldnt throtle at all,so problem might be somwhere else idk.

[KingDuder]

So you say your GPU or your haswell CPU stays in the low 60's? for neither is much both the gpu 600 series and cpu intel haswell would have problems above 85-90C. 

Around 60 is fine for both gpu and cpu if that is the max temp's you are getting.

Usually all the bios updates are similar you download the newest you put it on an usb drive reboot and then you need to press 1 key specific for bios flashing for my asrock i think its f6 you should check which one is for msi might be different for sure.Also seems like you never did bios update before,usually this is easy but if you're power goes down or something while flashing new bios you brick the motherboard so unless you really have to,you shouldnt flash new bios.

As i said last resort is to reinstall windows,you say you have win8 64 bit do you also have the win 8.1 patch? you should install that first fixed a lot of stuff.

When i have severe problems that seem unfixable like performance or such i usually reinstall windows clean fixes the problems 90% of the time.

I cant think of anything else really if your temps are 60-70's then your gpu/cpu shouldnt throtle at all,so problem might be somwhere else idk.

im pretty sure i have the windows 8.1 patch.  Imma try and update my bios.  Also just played Titanfall, same thing happened.  I was playing at a smooth 60 then became 45 then 30 constant fps.

[SkilledRebuilds]

I've used Norton on slower processor than this Intel core i5 and I didn't have any problems with performance.

Its not about CPU performance.

It's about norton's usage case of checking EVERYTHING Read or Written.

 

Like loading a game level... without norton.. its normal.

With nortons reading/checking that current file in use, slows it down up to over double the loading time,...with un-needed multi access disk checking.

 

Creates a DISK Bottleneck.

[KingDuder]

Its not about CPU performance.

It's about norton's usage case of checking EVERYTHING Read or Written.

 

Like loading a game level... without norton.. its normal.

With nortons reading/checking that current file in use, slows it down up to over double the loading time,...with un-needed multi access disk checking.

 

Creates a DISK Bottleneck.

yea might be a disk bottleneck, im going to uninstall Norton and install another antivirus software and reboot and test my gaming performance

[SkilledRebuilds]

yea might be a disk bottleneck, im going to uninstall Norton and install another antivirus software and reboot and test my gaming performance

^ Excellent.

[KingDuder]

nah still getting fps drops after updating bios and uninstalling Norton,  The drop though has been streched out over a longer period of time so i can play more.  Since im getting fps drops in bf3 and titanfall, I'm going to reinstall BF3 since Titanfall has issues with MSI Afterburner

[deviant88]

Go into bios and search for a CPU setting Thermal throttleing and intel speed step disable them.Altough everything should work just fine on default options.

If that doesnt work take my recomendation backup all your files and games etc and do a clean reinstall of windows from a bootable USB or DVD.I cant guarantee that will solve it but at least you know its not the OS or drivers glitch or something,unless thats too much work for you,it takes me usually 30-60 mins to fully reinstall everything so when my windows screws up or i mess up some settings thats the quickfix i use.

 

By the way its very easy to see if the GPu or CPU is bottlenecking if you know how to use MSI afterburner and gpu-z/cpu-z/task manager,if you use afterburner OSD ingame with gpu clock/usage and FPS if the gpu is throtleling the gpu frequency and voltage will drop, and for cpu the same you will be able to see in cpu-z if the mhz are droping.I have 2 monitors so i usually can monitor everything very very easy in real time as i play might be harder to do with 1 monitor only but you should try.

Edited October 3, 2014 by deviant88

[LOST TALE]

My 670 does not throttle in BF4 or BF3 (havent played BF3 in 1 year though)

also its a golden 1.25ghz sample.

[LOST TALE]

I'd disable pagefile. Linus has a video on it someone

 

make sure ram usage is constant, if its not :(re check)

control panel> system and security-> system-> advanced system options (on the left) -> performance option-> advanced-> modify-> reduce.

 

Now It will only use RAM. that way your Ram qunatity will ont bottleneck unless you actually run out of ram.

[KingDuder]

 

Go into bios and search for a CPU setting Thermal throttleing and intel speed step disable them.Altough everything should work just fine on default options.

If that doesnt work take my recomendation backup all your files and games etc and do a clean reinstall of windows from a bootable USB or DVD.I cant guarantee that will solve it but at least you know its not the OS or drivers glitch or something,unless thats too much work for you,it takes me usually 30-60 mins to fully reinstall everything so when my windows screws up or i mess up some settings thats the quickfix i use.

 

By the way its very easy to see if the GPu or CPU is bottlenecking if you know how to use MSI afterburner and gpu-z/cpu-z/task manager,if you use afterburner OSD ingame with gpu clock/usage and FPS if the gpu is throtleling the gpu frequency and voltage will drop, and for cpu the same you will be able to see in cpu-z if the mhz are droping.I have 2 monitors so i usually can monitor everything very very easy in real time as i play might be harder to do with 1 monitor only but you should try.

 

I cant really find that setting in the BIOS.  I notice when i play and I look at msi afterburner, the CPU usage looks like spikes as the usage is around 80 then 5 seconds later its at 50.  It basically keeps going up and down.  I do now notice that the moment my 660 reaches 70C then the mhz drops from 1172 to 1087, or around there.

 

I'd disable pagefile. Linus has a video on it someone

 

make sure ram usage is constant, if its not :(re check)

control panel> system and security-> system-> advanced system options (on the left) -> performance option-> advanced-> modify-> reduce.

 

Now It will only use RAM. that way your Ram qunatity will ont bottleneck unless you actually run out of ram.

I lowered the pagefile a lot but still not comfortable disabling it but I will run another test with it disabled soon

[deviant88]

I cant really find that setting in the BIOS.  I notice when i play and I look at msi afterburner, the CPU usage looks like spikes as the usage is around 80 then 5 seconds later its at 50.  It basically keeps going up and down.  I do now notice that the moment my 660 reaches 70C then the mhz drops from 1172 to 1087, or around there.

 

I lowered the pagefile a lot but still not comfortable disabling it but I will run another test with it disabled soon

What game was the cpu going up and down all the time? some games do that if they are not good optimized or so,but if its battlefield 4 for example your fps should be stable.Could be a cpu throttle or so,look at the frequency of the cpu too,it should stay around 3.5-3.9ghz look in cpu-z,if its something like ~2ghz while you run the game then something is wrong there.

And about gpu frequency drop 100mhz is not enough to drop your frames like you said 80-60-50 etc look at usage when the frequency drops if its 99% gpu usage while frequency drop then its throtling if its something like 50-60% then its normal for frequency to drop.

[KingDuder]

What game was the cpu going up and down all the time? some games do that if they are not good optimized or so,but if its battlefield 4 for example your fps should be stable.Could be a cpu throttle or so,look at the frequency of the cpu too,it should stay around 3.5-3.9ghz look in cpu-z,if its something like ~2ghz while you run the game then something is wrong there.

And about gpu frequency drop 100mhz is not enough to drop your frames like you said 80-60-50 etc look at usage when the frequency drops if its 99% gpu usage while frequency drop then its throtling if its something like 50-60% then its normal for frequency to drop.

I noticed the unstable cpu usage in both games.  How do i monitor my CPU frequency in real time because I only have 1 monitor?  Also GPU usage stays in the 90s, even during the frequency drop

[michalj82]

Maybe your hard drive got bad sectors.

[deviant88]

I noticed the unstable cpu usage in both games.  How do i monitor my CPU frequency in real time because I only have 1 monitor?  Also GPU usage stays in the 90s, even during the frequency drop

The only way i can think of is running your game windowed to leave some space for cpu-z or hardwareinfo program or aida64.

 

I really cant think of what the problem could be in case its not throttle,unless i get my hand on your pc which i cant.Maybe you know someone who can come and take a look or reinstall windows and/or drivers if you didnt already.

[KingDuder]

The only way i can think of is running your game windowed to leave some space for cpu-z or hardwareinfo program or aida64.

 

I really cant think of what the problem could be in case its not throttle,unless i get my hand on your pc which i cant.Maybe you know someone who can come and take a look or reinstall windows and/or drivers if you didnt already.

My cpu frequency is between 3.5 and 3.9 Ghz.  I really dont want to have to reinstall windows but if I have to then I will.

[KingDuder]

Ugh.  I reinstalled windows and my drivers and bf3.  I immediately lowered pagefile and turned off energy saving mode.  The fps drop is still present and its getting annoying.  I really dont know what to do because everything seems normal, I guess its just my PC.

[KingDuder]

Alright sorry for posting a lot but I solved the problem!  I lowered my GPU to its stock clock speed.  My fps dropped a bit but the gradual drop that made games unplayable is gone!  Now I'm spending all of my time playing.  Thanks for all your help because I'm sure all of those suggestions would be a possible solution to a lot of problems.

[michalj82]

Then you should buy some cooler with 120 mm fan to overclock your CPU again and play comfortable with more FPS. BTW Do you have some fan on the back of your case ?

[KingDuder]

Then you should buy some cooler with 120 mm fan to overclock your CPU again and play comfortable with more FPS. BTW Do you have some fan on the back of your case ?

Im prob not gonna buy a cooler because I can survive with what i have now and be comfortable.  I do have the case exhaust fan on the back (140mm)