Random Performance Hit

[Yanderella]

This has been going on for over a month and a lot has happened.

 

Current Specs:

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790k @ 4.0GHz (not overclocked yet)

Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX

Motherboard: AsRock Z97 Extreme6

GPU: MSI Radeon R9 390: Core Clock @ 1040MHz (not overclocked yet) + Memory Clock @ 1500MHz (not overclocked yet)

RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3-1600

PSU: EVGA SuperNova NEX750G1

HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green 3TB (1TB unallocated) 5900RPM

 

Near the end of December 2015, I bought and built my computer. It was a simple $1,100 machine meant to easily play any game at 1080p ultra settings and get a consistent 60fps. After much RMAing, installing, uninstalling and reinstalling, I got the computer to work. I was breezing through games like Black Ops 2 (200-300 frames) and Skyrim (60 frames consistent), and Spec Ops: The Line (200+ Frames), and loading times took around 5-10 seconds. It was absolutely amazing, since I was coming from a system running a Pentium G4 and a GT 730.

 

However, one Sunday afternoon, my computer randomly received a massive performance hit. My framerates dropped significantly (Black Ops 2: 30-70 frames, Skyrim: 40-50 frames), loading times took at least 30 seconds, applications lagged and crashed often. I tried the simple troubleshooting procedures, turning off my computer, resenting my computer, unplugging and re-plugging the power cable. The problem persisted. I thought "maybe, for some reason, the card is loose". (Keep in mind I'm a first time builder and am only 15, so I don't know much about computers) So I disconnected the PCI-E cables and removed the graphics card and reinserted it, making sure the PCI-E cables were firmly into the graphics card. Still nothing.

 

I downloaded MSI Afterburner and noticed something peculiar about the CPU and GPU usage: they were all over the place. It was especially weird, since the Black Ops 2 is a non demanding game and that I have barely downloaded any mods on it (only character mods, nothing too demanding)

 

I wondered if it might be because of overheating, however the CPU was at 37 degrees load and the GPU was at 67 degrees load with minimal fan usage. I font know if this is a problem, but once the card ran at 73 degrees perfectly fine. However, just in case I turned up my fan usage. First to 50%. Nothing. 75%. Nothing. 100%. Nothing.

 

Noticing the CPU usage, I came to the conclusion that there might be a virus causing this. So me and my father ran 3 separate anti-virus scans, all proving to be ineffective. (The pictures shown are after the anti-virus scans)

 

I also took a picture of the RAM Usage. Don't know if it's normal or not. I have 1.49TB out of 1.99TB free from my Hard Drive.

 

I was getting frustrated. I thought my drivers might be out of date, so I downloaded the latest drivers. Nothing. I decided to call AMD to see what was going on. The man said that I should use the AMD Cleaner Uninstall Utility. I used it three separate times and reinstalled the same drivers. Still nothing. However, I noticed that every single time I did this, I got the same error message regarding OpenCL. Once again I called AMD. The man told me to download Microsoft NET Framework and to make sure I had C++ 2012 and 2015. Then once I installed them, I should uninstall and reinstall the drivers. I did so.

 

I believed that it would fix it and the story would be over. On the contrary, however, my performance got worse. I was no longer getting 60 frames in Black Ops 2 (more like 30-50 frames now). I also received this error message regarding a Qt5Core.dll.

 

I have yet to call AMD back, since I am out of town and far away from my computer. 

 

I'm almost tempted to completely format the hard drive and reinstall everything, and if all else fails, RMA the card.

I'd love to hear any suggestions you might have. I'm willing to do anything at this point. 

 

 

[HPWebcamAble]

99% sure it's not a hardware issue. This problem (GPU usage all over the place) has several causes. The most common is a bottleneck somewhere.

 

How's your HDD and RAM usage look in-game?

(Task Manager is fine for checking these)

[thekeemo]

CPU usage looks standard

GPU usage is very strange. Some kind of driver conflict?

[Yanderella]

17 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

CPU usage looks standard

GPU usage is very strange. Some kind of driver conflict?

I think so. I'm getting error messages left and right.

 

[Yanderella]

21 minutes ago, HPWebcamAble said:

99% sure it's not a hardware issue. This problem (GPU usage all over the place) has several causes. The most common is a bottleneck somewhere.

 

How's your HDD and RAM usage look in-game?

(Task Manager is fine for checking these)

Sorry, I thought I uploaded the RAM usage. Updated. 1.49TB free of 1.99TB.  Is this what you mean by HDD usage?

I can't tell what could be bottlenecking the GPU though. Especially since it's been fine for the past five months.

 

[Yanderella]

3 minutes ago, Yanderella said:

I think so. I'm getting error messages left and right.

 

 

[HPWebcamAble]

2 minutes ago, Yanderella said:

1.49TB free of 1.99TB.  Is this what you mean by HDD usage?

RAM looks good.

 

But for the HDD, I mean like the read/write requests over time. Window's Task Manager shows HDD usage.

[Yanderella]

2 minutes ago, HPWebcamAble said:

RAM looks good.

 

But for the HDD, I mean like the read/write requests over time. Window's Task Manager shows HDD usage.

Yeah a slight problem with that. My parent's installed a parental control software on my computer and it won't allow me to go to task manager,

Don't ask me, it wasn't my choice. 

Any other way I can view the usage?

[HPWebcamAble]

3 minutes ago, Yanderella said:

Yeah a slight problem with that. My parent's installed a parental control software on my computer and it won't allow me to go to task manager,

Don't ask me, it wasn't my choice. 

Any other way I can view the usage?

I don't know of any other way. Ask em to open TM for you.

 

What OS are you using? Windows 7, 8, 10, etc?

[Yanderella]

2 minutes ago, HPWebcamAble said:

I don't know of any other way. Ask em to open TM for you.

 

What OS are you using? Windows 7, 8, 10, etc?

Windows 7 Enterprise, 64-bit.

We'll be back home tomorrow, they'll open it up then.