Computer used to be able to run BF3 effortlessly

[madregoose]

When BF3 first came out I used to run it well on high graphics with consistent FPS. whether in fights or not my FPS would remain consistent.

I took a 5-6+ month break and when i came back i started to have problems running the game. Massive stuttering at first, FPS lag when turning around or zooming in or simply looking where there's more combat.

Looking into the background or not being around anyone i run the game just fine on ultra. It makes no difference if i'm on ultra or medium settings.

Nothing on my computer has changed hardware wise since i first started playing.

I run the single player fine

Intel Quad core Q9400 2.66ghz
G-Skill DDR2 1066 2x2gb
WD 7200rpm 1TB HD
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
EVGA GTX 460 SE
850 Watt PSU


I know my build is obsolete, plan on doing a new build around christmas

 

[aatje92]

Did you change settings?

 

[avacadobread]

Check to see if your drivers are in order. In that time a driver or two may have been released, and your own drivers may be out of date or corrupt. It's worth a try.

 

[madregoose]

Check to see if your drivers are in order. In that time a driver or two may have been released, and your own drivers may be out of date or corrupt. It's worth a try.

Drivers are all up to date. I was still on the computer regularly, just wasn't playing that game. My video card drivers are up to date, as are motherboard, sound card, mouse, etc.

 

[SmashSmashSumash]

Check to see if your drivers are in order. In that time a driver or two may have been released, and your own drivers may be out of date or corrupt. It's worth a try.

Drivers are all up to date. I was still on the computer regularly, just wasn't playing that game. My video card drivers are up to date, as are motherboard, sound card, mouse, etc.

Check the temps, an old gpu so the paste may be wearing.

 

[johnnyb105]

JUst for shit and giggles you mention months ago it ran fine? try to do A system restore to that time and see if it runs fine again if so something as drivers or orgin updates have changed your settings.

 

[cats_Paw]

Well, there are a few reasons why this can happen:
A) YOur temps are too high (the 460 was known for heat problems), if so id advice to at least change the thermal paste.

B) Your PSU has problems. This is a common issue for low end high power PSUs. what is the brand of your PSU? Its quite common that if its a bad one, even if it has enought power, overtime the heat it dissapates will ruin it. IF so I HIGHLY advice to get another PSU before your other componenets pay the price.

C) Game updates: Did you download any patches for the game since last time? Soemtimes patches actually lower performance, and i would not be surprised if EA made it on purpouse to lower server load on BF3 and make way to BF4.

D)Hard drive issues: This is less likely but defragmenting the HDD and making sure it has at leas a 10% free space is a good thing to do from time to time.

Thats all i can come up with for now.

 

[avacadobread]

Do you have any other games to test this card with? If other games run just like they should, then maybe we can rule out hardware issues.

 

[Jeremy Allen]

Turn Vsync off, first of all! Second maybe do a defraggler run. I recommend this to everyone! Don't know if it will help, usually just helps with booting this up. But none the less, it's good to do this about every couple months. Just don't use it on a SSD.

http://www.piriform.com/defraggler

 

[madregoose]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I think ultimately it's come down to my GPU starting to wear out (and perhaps PSU also).

It's not imperative that I play the game so i'm going to wait till i build my next comp and run BF4

 

[aatje92]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I think ultimately it's come down to my GPU starting to wear out (and perhaps PSU also).

It's not imperative that I play the game so i'm going to wait till i build my next comp and run BF4

Well GPU's usually don't wear so that's not it. Maybe the PSU but i doubt it, it will give bigger errors. I think it's software related.

 

[madregoose]

Thanks for all the quick replies.

I think ultimately it's come down to my GPU starting to wear out (and perhaps PSU also).

It's not imperative that I play the game so i'm going to wait till i build my next comp and run BF4

Well GPU's usually don't wear so that's not it. Maybe the PSU but i doubt it, it will give bigger errors. I think it's software related.

I'll try to mess with the config to see if i can run it better. I'd imagine after all the recent updates for BF3 that's probably whats changed everything

 

[madregoose]

And i just found out that my BF3 isn't in the Origin Games folder but instead it's just in the Games default folder on windows 7.

And i don't have any user config or anything. I think i'm going to try a clean re-install.

**UPDATE**: I reinstalled my drivers and added a config to the game. Everything ran well at high grahpics. It wasn't until 3 conquest games in did my graphics start to stutter. I'm assuming my graphics card began to overheat.

After closing out of the game i tried to close the web browser that launches BF3, this resulted in massive lag and my computer simply crashed.

 

[aatje92]

And i just found out that my BF3 isn't in the Origin Games folder but instead it's just in the Games default folder on windows 7.

And i don't have any user config or anything. I think i'm going to try a clean re-install.

**UPDATE**: I reinstalled my drivers and added a config to the game. Everything ran well at high grahpics. It wasn't until 3 conquest games in did my graphics start to stutter. I'm assuming my graphics card began to overheat.

After closing out of the game i tried to close the web browser that launches BF3, this resulted in massive lag and my computer simply crashed.

Now THAT sounds like a PSU problem.

 

[Xmsteel]

When BF3 first came out I used to run it well on high graphics with consistent FPS. whether in fights or not my FPS would remain consistent.

I took a 5-6+ month break and when i came back i started to have problems running the game. Massive stuttering at first, FPS lag when turning around or zooming in or simply looking where there's more combat.

Looking into the background or not being around anyone i run the game just fine on ultra. It makes no difference if i'm on ultra or medium settings.

Nothing on my computer has changed hardware wise since i first started playing.

I run the single player fine

Intel Quad core Q9400 2.66ghz
G-Skill DDR2 1066 2x2gb
WD 7200rpm 1TB HD
Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
EVGA GTX 460 SE
850 Watt PSU


I know my build is obsolete, plan on doing a new build around christmas

You might find this ridiculous, and maybe it won't work for you, but this did it for me when I had a similar issue (PC could run games fine then all of a sudden lagged on all games):

1.) Remove your RAM and graphics card.
2.) Clean your Graphics card with compressed air.
3.) Use compressed air on all your fans and inside the PSU.
4.) Re-seat your RAM and graphics card.

I know it sounds like something that wouldn't work, but for some reason that made my computer run my games normal again. Its worth a shot I guess.

Edit: Also because I noticed you added that your graphics card might have overheated, I suggest removing the heatsink and putting on new thermal paste, along with what I suggested above.