Question Graphics card suddenly under performing?

[tiorfior]

so, i have a custom pc. I'm not the one who built it and i dont feel like taking it apart to see the exact parts. anyways, until a few days ago, my pc could run games very well, league on the highest settings at between 150-200 fps. i never looked at the frames exactly for the other games i played, but it's the same story essentially. I could play destiny 2 and overwatch, all the games i have essentially, on the highest settings with no issues. then all of a sudden, i get into a league match, and not only am i running 20 fps, but the game itself is super laggy and responding slower. everything is unbearably choppy. I've since lowered most of my settings in windows at the advice from one of my friends and that has helped with league specifically. it's no longer choppy and horrible to play, but i'm still only getting 40~60 fps. any other game is unplayable. I have no idea how to fix it at this point. my pc otherwise has been running perfectly, i only run into issues when i want to start gaming.

graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690 CPU @ 3.50GHz, 3501 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
BaseBoard Product: Z97X-UD3H-CF (GIGABYTE)
and 8 gigs of ram.

any help you could offer would be much appreciated!

 

[Karadjgne]

The cpu is responsible for fps. The gpu is all about the settings and resolution.

So, if by making life easy on the gpu by lowering settings, then the issue is with the gpu. If fps stayed roughly the same after settings change then the issue is with the cpu.

First, I'd make sure you have the latest bios release and any motherboard chipset drivers. There was recently a windows update and they are known to make drivers go crazy.

May need to update gpu drivers too.

Also, use Afterburner in game and see what cpu/gpu usage and temps are.

Recent malwarebytes scan?

 

[tiorfior]

i def don't have the latest bios release, but I'm not fully sure how to go about it.
when league was running at 20 fps on the highest settings, if i lowered the settings in game, i was able to get 70 or so frames. after messing around with windows settings, i'm now able to get around 40-60 frames on the highest settings while the game remains playable. so i'd hazard a guess at the gpu being the problem?
i made sure to update all gpu drivers as soon as i saw i was having issues, but that didn't seem to do much for the rest of my games.
ive been using scangaurd instead of malwarebytes, and ran multiple system scans once i started running into issues, but couldn't really find anything (my internet safety know how is decent.) but I'll give it a scan with malwarebytes too.

 

[Karadjgne]

Most likely it's the gpu if changing settings changed fps that much. But part of gpu is the motherboard chipset drivers, audio, network, pcie, Sata. You'll find a listing of all those at your motherboard website under support/drivers/downloads along with latest bios. The website will tell you exactly what procedure to use to update bios, follow to the letter. Do NOT turn off your pc for any reason unless directed to. So make sure when you do this that you have the time to dedicate to it, not just a spare few minutes.

 

[tiorfior]

How do i know what bios version to use?
my motherboard and gpu are from different manufacturers, so should i go to thier respective websites instead? i found this also https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/20775/Intel-Chipset-Device-Software-INF-Update-Utility-
is that any good?

 

[xSamaru]

First thing you should look at are your temps, from you being uncomfortable to take computer apart I guess you don't clean it regurarly which means that dust may have settled in your components. Try downloading HWinfo or something, open it, play some games and then post the results here like this :

 

[tiorfior]

https://imgur.com/a/9EoO2xo

View: https://imgur.com/a/9EoO2xo

i also noticed that my gpu usage skyrockets to 100%, even when i open a small 3d game like garden paws.

 

[tiorfior]

OKAY TURNS OUT IM JUST A HUGE EFFING IDIOT. after i cleaned out my pc, i plugged in my main monitor into my mobo instead of my gpu, so my games where using my motherboards graphics card. problem solved! im just really dumb and wasnt paying attention when plugging everything back in

 

[Karadjgne]

If you can find someone who has never, ever done anything absent minded like that before, you'd be seriously lucky. Everyone I know has suffered from a 'brain fart' at least once in their life. The trick is in minimizing the occurances....

 

[SHMILY]

So, next when you plac to do something, you'd better to take photo in order to Restore original. Acturally，your temp of your CPU is a little higher.