Random Performance Drop

[princemc]

Hey everyone, 

 

(Originally posted in PC gaming but didn't find a solution)

 

I've been running this build for about 3 years now with minimal hiccups preventing me from playing any games. I recently got into overclocking as I improved the cooling in my PC. I haven't had any issues with my overclock for several months until now, and I'm not even sure if that is the issue.

 

The build I'm running is;

AMD Athlon x4 760k Overclocked to 4.1Ghz (4.5Ghz Turbo)

AMD Radeon Sapphire R7 260x Overclocked with MSI Afterburner (Core Clock: 1200 Memory Clock: 1550 Core Voltage +10)

MSI A78M-E35

8 GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 Ram

 

I haven't had any real issues in games so far until yesterday(9/5/17) after I downloaded Life is Strange on Steam. After opening the game I had absolutely terrible performance and could barely even play the game even on the lowest settings. After that, I launched several other games to test if it was global or simply game optimization issues with that specific game. Gauntlet: Slayer Edition also showed me horrible performance (not a very graphics intense game imo). Finally this brought me to Overwatch, in which I launched the game and was getting 3 FPS on the main screen.

I checked for driver updates, installed the newest one as of yesterday(9/5/17) and it was somewhat better performing on Overwatch but still very choppy with a lot of framerate spikes. I noticed while playing these various games that my GPU usage was high (80%-100%) while my CPU usage remained low in all three games. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but I figured it was something worth noting.

 

Again, I had no issues until yesterday(9/5/17). The only new software I installed was Life is Strange. I've never had a game installation cause problems across the board. I was not having any performance issues three days ago(9/4/17), but since yesterday(9/5/17) I have been having these problems. I've checked for updates on everything I can possibly think of so I know nothing is out of date causing any optimization issues. 

 

((I have uninstalled LiS and I am still having performance issues. I closed as many background applications as possible to no avail.))

 

My thermals are good. CPU is around 30°C under load, GPU is around 50°C under load.

My Cinebench performance is about half of what it used to be on both OpenGL and on the CPU test.

 

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

[Evolution.]

6 minutes ago, princemc said:

Hey everyone, 

 

(Originally posted in PC gaming but didn't find a solution)

 

I've been running this build for about 3 years now with minimal hiccups preventing me from playing any games. I recently got into overclocking as I improved the cooling in my PC. I haven't had any issues with my overclock for several months until now, and I'm not even sure if that is the issue.

 

The build I'm running is;

AMD Athlon x4 760k Overclocked to 4.1Ghz (4.5Ghz Turbo)

AMD Radeon Sapphire R7 260x Overclocked with MSI Afterburner (Core Clock: 1200 Memory Clock: 1550 Core Voltage +10)

MSI A78M-E35

8 GB Ballistix Sport DDR3 Ram

 

I haven't had any real issues in games so far until yesterday(9/5/17) after I downloaded Life is Strange on Steam. After opening the game I had absolutely terrible performance and could barely even play the game even on the lowest settings. After that, I launched several other games to test if it was global or simply game optimization issues with that specific game. Gauntlet: Slayer Edition also showed me horrible performance (not a very graphics intense game imo). Finally this brought me to Overwatch, in which I launched the game and was getting 3 FPS on the main screen.

I checked for driver updates, installed the newest one as of yesterday(9/5/17) and it was somewhat better performing on Overwatch but still very choppy with a lot of framerate spikes. I noticed while playing these various games that my GPU usage was high (80%-100%) while my CPU usage remained low in all three games. Not sure if that has anything to do with it but I figured it was something worth noting.

 

Again, I had no issues until yesterday(9/5/17). The only new software I installed was Life is Strange. I've never had a game installation cause problems across the board. I was not having any performance issues three days ago(9/4/17), but since yesterday(9/5/17) I have been having these problems. I've checked for updates on everything I can possibly think of so I know nothing is out of date causing any optimization issues. 

 

((I have uninstalled LiS and I am still having performance issues. I closed as many background applications as possible to no avail.))

 

My thermals are good. CPU is around 30°C under load, GPU is around 50°C under load.

My Cinebench performance is about half of what it used to be on both OpenGL and on the CPU test.

 

If anyone has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate it.

fixed the bullshit formatting

[MadOverclocker]

Bad OC? Components degrade over time, they get worst. That means, they need more voltage or downclock. My cent here...

[princemc]

1 hour ago, MadOverclocker said:

Bad OC? Components degrade over time, they get worst. That means, they need more voltage or downclock. My cent here...

Would something like this happen so suddenly? Would it be recommended to try to bump my voltage at all? I didn't need to adjust voltage when I originally overclocked, all I did was bump the ratio up.

[MadOverclocker]

Just now, princemc said:

Would something like this happen so suddenly? Would it be recommended to try to bump my voltage at all? I didn't need to adjust voltage when I originally overclocked, all I did was bump the ratio up.

Yes and no. Before overvolting, down your clock. If everything is okay, overvolt.

[princemc]

8 minutes ago, MadOverclocker said:

Yes and no. Before overvolting, down your clock. If everything is okay, overvolt.

I've checked the BIOS for my board and I can't directly turn the voltage up. I can adjust my base MHz and then the multiplier ratio. The only thing I see about voltage is for DRAM.

[MadOverclocker]

14 minutes ago, princemc said:

I've checked the BIOS for my board and I can't directly turn the voltage up. I can adjust my base MHz and then the multiplier ratio. The only thing I see about voltage is for DRAM.

Basically, you cannot change voltage of your cpu on the BIOS. The mobo simply seems to not allow it. You could update the BIOS but I don't think that would unlock it. Seems foolish to create a mobo to OC but without voltage edit...

[princemc]

45 minutes ago, MadOverclocker said:

Basically, you cannot change voltage of your cpu on the BIOS. The mobo simply seems to not allow it. You could update the BIOS but I don't think that would unlock it. Seems foolish to create a mobo to OC but without voltage edit...

I adjusted the base MHz up from 100.00 to 103.00 with the multiplier still at 41 and all my issues seem to have been fixed. No stability issues and my performance is great. Thanks for the help!