CPU going out?

[awilliams4806]

I think my CPU may be going out. I have a AMD 965 BE 3.4

When I play games I am starting to get massive fps drops, even in Call of Duty 4. Should I upgrade the CPU or is something else going on? I am reinstalling windows 7 64 now to see if maybe that will correct something.

Rest of the system is

SAPPHIRE 100352-3L Radeon HD 7950 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

ASRock 890FX Deluxe4 AM3+ AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

G.SKILL Sniper 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz Socket AM3 125W Quad-Core Processor

CORSAIR Enthusiast Series TX650M 650W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular High Performance Power Supply

HAF 912 Case.

 

[Supahos]

With the drops (assuming they are new) its likely a thermal issue, try blowing out the heatsink on the CPU and the Heatsink on the GPU, (or use a vaccum if you don't want to use compressed air)

 

[06yfz450ridr]

monitor temps and gpu usage. I would reinstall your ati drivers though first.

but as said above it could heat related and its throttling

 

[awilliams4806]

I reinstalled windows and blew everything out and am still having the same issues. Not sure what the deal is but I want to upgrade anyways. Thinking of going with Intel since I have never used them. Looking at an I5 4670k, the Gigabyte GA-Z87X-UD3H. How do those sound? Also will be getting an SSD for boot and main games. I will be using the PC mostly for only gaming and a little bit for photos but nothing serious. Any thing out there better for not too much more? I have about 200 wiggle room.