PC underperforms and I don't know why

[zerkeros]

Hello linustechtips.

Since Friday, I've been experiencing some unexpected issues with my PC and I weren't able to solve them on my own.

It all started with some low framerates on Black Desert Online, while running it on max graphical settings. At first I thought it was an issue of low internet speed affecting my FPS. After contacting my ISP and confirming that wasn't the case, I started asking the community if they could shed any light. Obviously, they couldn't. Thus googling the issue came next.

 

After a while, I found a reddit megathread on the game's reddit, promising to boost the FPS of the game and I followed to a T. The low framerates remained and I asked around on reddit and on the official customer support. Reddit couldn't help again, blaming my hardware saying it was insufficient to run it at max settings with high FPS. This was totally not the case though, since I've seen players with the same hardware running the game just fine. Customer couldn't help either, but in the end they told me to run a program called HDtunePro (or something like that) and check my disks' read speed. The results were LOW. Infact they were so low, I knew my previous FPS problem was directly linked with this issue.

 

Following that check, I ran a few benchmarks with the userbenchmarks.com tool. The results were uncomfortably low too. The overall score was a lot lower than when I first built the PC. The whole setup is 4 months old, mind you, so it couldn't be an issue of "outdated/old hardware". Since I didn't know what was causing this or even how to fix it, I asked tomshardware, but the few answers I got, got me nowhere.

 

I downloaded the latest drivers for my GPU and HDDs, defragged the PC, performed the optimizations my motherboard's utility software provided me with and still nothing. I also changed the disks' SATA cables to ensure that all of them were SATA III and still nothing. Now I'm writing this reddit posts, with my rig dissected, hoping someone knowledgeable will help me.

 

My setup is:

Windows 10

MSI GTX 1070ti 8GB

Asus Prime Z370-A G.Skill

RipjawsV 16GB DDR4 (2x8GB) 3000MHz

Intel Core i7 8770k

ADATA Premier Pro SP900 128GB

Western Digital Green 500GB

Seagate FireCuda SSHD 2TB

Toshiba MK3255GSX 320GB (the only part that's old af - salvaged from my old laptop)

Corsair 650 W Gold

Corsair Hydro Series H75 water cooler

Cooler Master Haf X Full Tower

Asus VG248 LCD Monitor

Corsair Rapidfire RGB Keyboard

Logitech Proteus Core Mouse

 

Here are the benchmarking results from userbenchmarks.com's tool: 

Tests of 2 Days ago, before switching SATA ports and BIOS update:

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11599790 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11600340

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11601739 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11601904

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11602051 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11609391

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11609478

 

Results of 4 months ago: 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/8978146

 

Today's results: 

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11660229

 

Below I have attached the tests I ran with HDTunePro

[Ansuex]

Seems to me your Toshiba MK3255GSX 320GB is degrading I don't really see how that should slow down your game performance though..

[Ansuex]

Did you check if BDO received some graphical update or something? Are other games also under preforming?

[zerkeros]

The issue now is less about the game and more about the PC's overall performance. At the time I'm currently typing this, the PC struggles to be alive while I'm in a Discard call. The situation is bad, I tell you.

 

Yes, Toshiba is really freaking old and it was a mistake of me to have BDO installed on that piece of junk. Thing is, the other disks are fairly new (with the newest of them all being FireCuda) and still, my PC is slower than a 5 years old laptop...

[Ansuex]

Keep an eye on CPU-Z and see if your CPU is actually not running idle at 800mhz when you notice that slow performance.

Also disconnect that old HDD see if that makes a change.

 

If this does not give you any more hints towards what the issue is maybe there is something wrong with your memory? Could try to just use 1 stick of your memory and maybe your pc runs more smooth?

[boey]

12 minutes ago, zerkeros said:

The issue now is less about the game and more about the PC's overall performance. At the time I'm currently typing this, the PC struggles to be alive while I'm in a Discard call. The situation is bad, I tell you.

 

Yes, Toshiba is really freaking old and it was a mistake of me to have BDO installed on that piece of junk. Thing is, the other disks are fairly new (with the newest of them all being FireCuda) and still, my PC is slower than a 5 years old laptop...

Have you done a virus scan? If not you could back up your important files on an external drive and do a clean install of windows 10.

[zerkeros]

I did one 2 days ago with Kaspersky and it was ok. I'll redo one more a little later, again.

[Ansuex]

1 minute ago, _d0nut said:

Have you done a virus scan? If not you could back up your important files on an external drive and do a clean install of windows 10.

Also this is not a bad suggestion.

You could check your Task Manager and see if there is a absurd amount of usage of your memory / cpu while you are not doing anything.

[boey]

Just now, zerkeros said:

I did one 2 days ago with Kaspersky and it was ok. I'll redo one more a little later, again.

Still possible you have a virus. Usally anti-viruses don’t catch some viruses. I would recommend clean installing windows 10 as a last resort

[Ansuex]

I love myself a fresh windows 10 install for troubleshooting PC's

[zerkeros]

1 minute ago, _d0nut said:

Still possible you have a virus. Usually anti-viruses don’t catch some viruses. I would recommend clean installing windows 10 as a last resort

Reinstalling windows 10 will, indeed, be my last resort for now. I wan't to know the source of the problem, before doing this. Since it's my first time experiencing, it's hard for me try try to identify and/or fix the problem. I have no prior experience with this.

[voiha]

Look at your CPU/GPU/HDD Usage and see when and what is underperforming or getting stressed out or just something fishy happening. I would remove the old HDD. Maybe a check disk in CMD would be a good idea with Malwarebytes scan, and a clean up of %temp%

[zerkeros]

6 minutes ago, voiha said:

Look at your CPU/GPU/HDD Usage and see when and what is underperforming or getting stressed out or just something fishy happening. I would remove the old HDD. Maybe a check disk in CMD would be a good idea with Malwarebytes scan, and a clean up of %temp%

I just did a check disk to all my disks and didn't find any problems and cleaned %temp%.

My HDD and SSD are underperforming all the time and I really don't know why though. Can't even run Terraria, a 2D pixelated survival game without frame drops. #sendhelppls

I did a GPU test a few minutes ago, with GPU-Z and these where the results after a few minutes of running: 

[voiha]

1 minute ago, zerkeros said:

I just did a check disk to all my disks and didn't find any problems and cleaned %temp%.

My HDD and SSD are underperforming all the time and I really don't know why though. Can't even run Terraria, a 2D pixelated survival game without frame drops. #sendhelppls

I did a GPU test a few minutes ago, with GPU-Z and these where the results after a few minutes of running: 

o

Maybe it won't fix your problem, but try starting your PC with 1 stick of RAM, see if the issue will become even worse, if not, then you will know that's 100% HDD fault

[Brent744]

possible cpu problem? Check cpu temps to see if its thermal throttling. I agree with Ansuex that a reinstall solves a lot of issues.

[zerkeros]

48 minutes ago, Brent744 said:

possible cpu problem? Check cpu temps to see if its thermal throttling. I agree with Ansuex that a reinstall solves a lot of issues.

CPU temps are a-ok. 30 Celsius degrees on idle an 62 tops when under heavy load (games on max settings). Water cooling ftw.

I tried to see if it's Windows' fault so I tried this: made a bootable version with Herens' portable Windows 10 and booted up to his version of Windows. I don't think I see any difference, tbh. Yet again, the performance of portable windows could be vastly different from the real thing....

[Brent744]

Which drive do you run your OS from, and which drives do you run your gaming titles from? When troubleshooting a game, a lot of tech's will recommend installing the OS and games to the same drive for the best possible performance. If they're installed to your Western Digital green that may be the issue as they're not recommended for gaming.

[zerkeros]

1 hour ago, Brent744 said:

Which drive do you run your OS from, and which drives do you run your gaming titles from? When troubleshooting a game, a lot of tech's will recommend installing the OS and games to the same drive for the best possible performance. If they're installed to your Western Digital green that may be the issue as they're not recommended for gaming.

The OS is installed on the SSD, which is ADATA SP900.

My games are installed in all the others. Steam and its games are located in the Hybrid one (FireCuda). 

Anyhow, I removed the Toshiba one for now, but the system still underperforms. Just to have a glimpse of things, even the taskbar doesn't appear smoothly from the bottom of the screen, when i put my cursor there. Could be a failing PSU? I really try to think what could cause a HDD to perform bad, but I can't think of any valid reason.

[Brent744]

16 hours ago, zerkeros said:

The OS is installed on the SSD, which is ADATA SP900.

My games are installed in all the others. Steam and its games are located in the Hybrid one (FireCuda). 

Anyhow, I removed the Toshiba one for now, but the system still underperforms. Just to have a glimpse of things, even the taskbar doesn't appear smoothly from the bottom of the screen, when i put my cursor there. Could be a failing PSU? I really try to think what could cause a HDD to perform bad, but I can't think of any valid reason.

It's more likely a software issue I suspect, could be corrupted system files. Luckily Windows 10 is quite easy and fast to install with their "Media Creation Tool".

Personally I like to use DBAN when wiping drives before a Windows reinstall. Even if your issue is still present after the reinstall, you can 100% rule out software.

[zerkeros]

Could it be the motherboard? And if yes, how could I test it?