Custom built desktop has suddenly took a massive dip in performance?

[dpepper509]

I have: i5-4690 EVGA GTX 970 8gb ram Windows 10 boots from a 250gb SSD, and the drive I store my games on is 2TB.
Since I built this PC last June it's always been very fast, the SSD has made everyday tasks extremely quick and I've yet to find a game I can't max out while getting at least 60fps.
Yesterday, out of nowhere, my PC has become problematically slow. The game I play most is Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and I always get at least 300 fps (yes, three hundred) with no slowdown whatsoever. Now I get only 20-40 fps, with very stuttery movement. Other games I've tested have terrible performance now, making them virtually unplayable. Even when I use the highlighter on my desktop to highlight icons, windows slows down and stutters. I have no idea what possibly could have happened, and I hope my PC does not stay this way forever.

Also wanted to add that my temps are NOT high, and are actually quite a bit lower than they were before this happened. Playing CS:GO my CPU maxes out around 37c, whereas I used to get around 55c-60c when everything was working fine. Does anyone know what this could possibly be?

 

[Barty1884]

I have: i5-4690 EVGA GTX 970 8gb ram Windows 10 boots from a 250gb SSD, and the drive I store my games on is 2TB.
Since I built this PC last June it's always been very fast, the SSD has made everyday tasks extremely quick and I've yet to find a game I can't max out while getting at least 60fps.
Yesterday, out of nowhere, my PC has become problematically slow. The game I play most is Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and I always get at least 300 fps (yes, three hundred) with no slowdown whatsoever. Now I get only 20-40 fps, with very stuttery movement. Other games I've tested have terrible performance now, making them virtually unplayable. Even when I use the highlighter on my desktop to highlight icons, windows slows down and stutters. I have no idea what possibly could have happened, and I hope my PC does not stay this way forever.

Also wanted to add that my temps are NOT high, and are actually quite a bit lower than they were before this happened. Playing CS:GO my CPU maxes out around 37c, whereas I used to get around 55c-60c when everything was working fine. Does anyone know what this could possibly be?

Windows 10 is likely your problem, it has a horrible tendancy to update to drivers it 'thinks' you need, despite the fact you've got the optimal drivers installed.

Take a look at the update history, what was updated between all being fine & your current predicament?

You may have to fully uninstall your GPU drivers (potentially in safe mode) and reinstall them clean.

A second option may be your PSU, I don't see anything listed to clarify the model.
Perhaps, if it's a poor quality unit (think Corsair CX) then the better part of a year may well have worn down a poor quality PSU. As a result, it's no longer providing adequate power to allow your GPU to 'ramp up', hence the lower temperatures.

 

[dpepper509]

I have: i5-4690 EVGA GTX 970 8gb ram Windows 10 boots from a 250gb SSD, and the drive I store my games on is 2TB.
Since I built this PC last June it's always been very fast, the SSD has made everyday tasks extremely quick and I've yet to find a game I can't max out while getting at least 60fps.
Yesterday, out of nowhere, my PC has become problematically slow. The game I play most is Counter Strike: Global Offensive, and I always get at least 300 fps (yes, three hundred) with no slowdown whatsoever. Now I get only 20-40 fps, with very stuttery movement. Other games I've tested have terrible performance now, making them virtually unplayable. Even when I use the highlighter on my desktop to highlight icons, windows slows down and stutters. I have no idea what possibly could have happened, and I hope my PC does not stay this way forever.

Also wanted to add that my temps are NOT high, and are actually quite a bit lower than they were before this happened. Playing CS:GO my CPU maxes out around 37c, whereas I used to get around 55c-60c when everything was working fine. Does anyone know what this could possibly be?

Windows 10 is likely your problem, it has a horrible tendancy to update to drivers it 'thinks' you need, despite the fact you've got the optimal drivers installed.

Take a look at the update history, what was updated between all being fine & your current predicament?

You may have to fully uninstall your GPU drivers (potentially in safe mode) and reinstall them clean.

A second option may be your PSU, I don't see anything listed to clarify the model.
Perhaps, if it's a poor quality unit (think Corsair CX) then the better part of a year may well have worn down a poor quality PSU. As a result, it's no longer providing adequate power to allow your GPU to 'ramp up', hence the lower temperatures.

No updates have been installed since about a week before the issues started. I do have a Corsair CX600, but how can I be sure that's the problem? I would hate to go through the process of buying a new PSU and installing it only to find out that it didn't fix anything.

 

[Barty1884]

Unfortunately there's not too much you can do to determine a faulty PSU.

Short of buying a PSU test (as which point you're probably halfway to the cost of a new PSU), remove your GPU and run solely on the integrated graphics on the CPU - see how your desktop runs in general at that point. Without the load of the GPU on the PSU, you shouldn't feel as "laggy". You won't be able to measure FPS accurately, because clearly the iGPU wont perform close the the GPU's true output - but you'll be able to get a feel for it all-round.

Now that I;ve detailed that, it got me thinking.........you are definitely plugged in to your GPU and not the onboard....right? (I'm reading you didn't change anything between the performance difference, but better to confirm 100%)

 

[dpepper509]

Unfortunately there's not too much you can do to determine a faulty PSU.

Short of buying a PSU test (as which point you're probably halfway to the cost of a new PSU), remove your GPU and run solely on the integrated graphics on the CPU - see how your desktop runs in general at that point. Without the load of the GPU on the PSU, you shouldn't feel as "laggy". You won't be able to measure FPS accurately, because clearly the iGPU wont perform close the the GPU's true output - but you'll be able to get a feel for it all-round.

Now that I;ve detailed that, it got me thinking.........you are definitely plugged in to your GPU and not the onboard....right? (I'm reading you didn't change anything between the performance difference, but better to confirm 100%)

Yup. Games use the GPU and the fans spin while it's in use. My CPU just doesn't get hot at all anymore even under load. My GPU still does though.

EDIT: HWMonitor shows my CPU has used a max of .712 volts at a time. Does this seem a little low?

 

[dpepper509]

Unfortunately there's not too much you can do to determine a faulty PSU.

Short of buying a PSU test (as which point you're probably halfway to the cost of a new PSU), remove your GPU and run solely on the integrated graphics on the CPU - see how your desktop runs in general at that point. Without the load of the GPU on the PSU, you shouldn't feel as "laggy". You won't be able to measure FPS accurately, because clearly the iGPU wont perform close the the GPU's true output - but you'll be able to get a feel for it all-round.

Now that I;ve detailed that, it got me thinking.........you are definitely plugged in to your GPU and not the onboard....right? (I'm reading you didn't change anything between the performance difference, but better to confirm 100%)

Oh my God. So in hardware monitor it showed my CPU only running .7 volts, which I assume is too low? I checked the power settings and it was on the "balanced" plan. I tried changing it to high performance and now everything is fixed. Do you think my computer has always been on high performance but some recent update changed it back to balanced? Should a PC of my specs be that slow on balanced and have to be put on high performance for games to be playable? Also, since doing this fixed the problem, is there anything bad about leaving my PC on high performance mode?

UPDATE: My Hwmonitor is now showing all the cores at 3800 mhz now where they were 800 earlier before I switched power plans. Is this too high?

UPDATE2: Wow. So I looked at the advanced settings optioons for the "balanced" plan. Under "Processor power management" both my minimum processor state and maximum processor state were both set to 5%. Does this mean it was limiting the processor to only 5% capacity? That's crazy! How on earth did that setting end up getting changed, to something so low?