Games I played fine on high settings just recently started to freeze, low FPS

[Marek_89]

HELP ME HERE GUYS, PLEASE.

I have build a mid-range gaming PC, that has had no trouble of handling Fallout 4, GTA5, Witcher 3 on high/very high settings - games like Skyrim, Bioshock Infinite and the likes on ultra settings with 1920x1080p. I recently reinstalled Windows 7 pro 64bit, formated the hard drive, added a 500W PSU etc. Now, when I try to play any of them even on medium to 1280x720p, they have bad FPS, freeze, I suppose and are unplayable.

I really dont know what has/is happening. I am desperate. The case is new, clean. And when I play older titles like Burnout paradise or Fallout 3 the FPS is still kinda low around 30 FPS at times with ocasional hights at 60 that drop as soon as they arise.

My components are:
Windows 7 pro 64 bit SP1
Gigabyte B85M HD3 - practically new
2x4GB DDR3 1333MHZ - downgraded by CPU from 1600MHz - practically new
ASUS R7 370 STRIX 2GB GDDR5, 256bit - NEW
Samsung 750 EVO SSD 120GB - has Windows, ESET on it...NEW
Wester Digital 500GB SATA III 32MB Cache Caviar Black -has games installed on it - OLDER - makes noises sometimes
WD external 2TB PassPort Series X 3.0 USB - NEW
Cooler Master RS500 - 500W - NEW
Corsair Spec 02 case with 2x 120x120mm fans - cooling is nice

Temperatures are good - idle/load: drives 30/40C, CPU 40/50C, GPU 35/60C

I really cant see any reason for it to not handle games I recently played on high to ultra settings without lag, freezing, or low FPS. But, could it be the dual core CPU? Could it be viruses and such, oher reasons?

Please, if you know anything, any ideas, I will appreciate it.

 

[strizlow800]

If it is hardware related issue, it may be the PSU. I have seen a case where PSU was causing the PC to act strange and have low performance... But to make sure it won't hurt if you do a virus scan etc... and check the software status of your PC.

 

[Fleming_1]

it could be if you installed a new CPU/mobo after you reinstalled the windows

 

[Marek_89]

I am sorry, I was not specific enough.
The PC was bought last year. This year, 1 month ago, a new GPU, PSU, 2TB ED and case were bought. Before, it had a 400W PSU HEXA 400+, an MSI GTX 650 2G GDDR5, 128bit...but as the 400W could not handle the load of the new R7, making weird noises, i bought the CM RS500. The OS was installed before PSU, GPU was swapped. The CPU was always there on MB without change.

I have read adviceslike: reinstall windows, uninstall MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner, swap the 500GB older drive - all games are there - ISOs are on the external drive. Then disable/uninstal other programs, firewall etc.

The PC is clean enough, the GPU was in the initial phase of bending, so I supported it with a wire - doesnt affect it.

I will reinstall Windows on SSD, format the old 500GB drive, install just ESET SS8, no Afterburner, reinstall GPU driver - Crimson...and all drivers...

Then I will update this post.

PS-My older drive was 1 year in a position on the label, now, due to the case Corsair spec 02, it is with the label on top - formated.

 

[13thmonkey]

don't reinstall yet

what clocks are your GPU and CPU seeing whilst gaming.

 

[Marek_89]

BTW-If you look YouTube for G3220 with Fallout 4, GTA5, Witcher 3, you can see that even people with lower end setup play it on high/very high fullHD settings...so you understand my frustration

 

[neblogai]

Always have to ask> are you sure you have your monitor connected/running of discreet GPU, not IGP?

 

[Marek_89]

@13thmonkey GPU is through the MSI Afterburner set to 1050 MHz, - Core Clock, 1400 MHZ Memory Clock - In game, however, i dont know how to see the MHZs of any hardware...sorry, I am not familiar with OC either via software.

@neblogai Yes, The Intel HD Graphics 4000 is even disabled in device manager. The R7 functions properly, and has the lastest AMD Crimson driver version 16.9.2

There was but, as I remember one weird issue with my monitor/screen. The moment I installed the R7, it couldnt open in my 24´ inch LG FullHD monitor in 1920x1080 and it has only showed max 1600x.... I set this in the Radeon AMD settings to custom and added my numbers 1080p - it seemed to me so forced. Right in this moment, I Connected my pc to my friends 22´ desktop, which supports only 1600X... resolution, but still shows 1920x1080 when Desktop/right click/screen resolution. In Radeon/preferences/additional settings, the resolution 1080p is shown with a yellow triangle with an exclamation "Configurations outside of official AMD specificaions..." My LG display, at each start, shows a ť/10s blank black screen with little red, blue, yellow dots - no signal, then it turns to Windows loading screen always and boots up.

 

[13thmonkey]

We need to know what it actually is, and not what it is set to. afterburner can tell you, just look at the graphs quickly after tabbing out.

 

[nerro120]

Afterburner shows a time line of the clocks and everything or you can set it to show on the screen while in game

 

[Marek_89]

What has happened so far: I uninstalled some games, programs. Left only GTA5 on HDD, Win7, ESET, drivers on SSD. Then I installed Fallout 4 on SSD just to check how it would run. It went somewhat smooth - so I assume the older hard drive takes at least some blame for the low performance. But not convinced. I uninstalled F4. I did a thorough check with ESET, Malwarebytes and found nothing suspicious on the old drive, nor the other 2 drives.

I restarted the system and put Afterburner fan speeds to -Auto- The core clock is set to 1050, memory clock to 1400 as usual.

So, I don't know how to copy what is in the graph in Afterburner, but here is a summary:
MSI Afterburner with RivaTuner + GTA 5 1920x1080p All set to high/very high
GPU Core Clock Min 300 Max 1050
GPU memory clock Min 150 max 1400
GPU Memory usage Min 120 Max 1597MB
31-60.1FPS
CPU USAGE 100% ofc
Benchmark in GTA5 Seemed good.So now the GTA5 runs smoothly. I don't understand why it went smoothly - I mean, it almost seemed I have an i7, GTX980 rig with everything installed on EVO 850 SSD

The clocks during GTA5 were skyrocketed to their set limits in afterburner - which could be set higher - Is that the OC-ing everyone talks about? hh

So I tried F4 again, again installed back to HDD. i PLAY IT ON HIGH, OR EVEN MEDIUM SETTINGS AND STILL THE OUTCOME IS THE SAME - 26/35FPS mostly, sometimes even 58FPS.

So far, I can tell, nothing has been done to the PC, but for some reason, it works nicely now. Nicely as in with a dual core CPU. All i did was reinstall and turn afterburner to auto fan speed, reinstall F4, restart pc. But that doesn't explain the GTA5 and overall improvement, that I have missed for a week. I will be skeptical, I think this might occur again.

STILL - How can somebody on youtube play GTA5 on high/very high settings with this dual core and a 1GB GDDR5,128bit GPU, 4GB DDR 1333MHz RAM??? TELL ME HOW, and why I with a upper mid range GPU, 8GB RAM...cant do that to get smooth 40/50/60 FPS. I just don't get it. And why my app. 600eur PC behaved like a 200eur with IGP for a week or so...I dont know the answer.

All I can think off is that my pc is telling me I should buy a better CPU, like an i5 2500K at least, or i5 3470.

 

[nerro120]

Can't believe everything you see on youtube, nobody is playing gta5 on very high/high settings with a dual core and 1gb gpu, he might be playing at a lower resolution but definitely not 1080p