[SOLVED] GTX970 Stuttering and low performance on games, help?!

[loudmax]

Here's the link to the results of the User Benchmark test I ran, my specs are on that page.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/25428034#GRAPHICS_CARD

I've had performance below what I'd expect in games, and in some games I got a noticeable drop compared to how they played in the past.

The test shows my parts and PC overall is performing below par, why is this and how can I fix this?

 

[rgd1101]

look like cpu issue. check the cpu temp?
malware scan the system?

 

[punkncat]

I see a few things to further check.

One, your background process is high. Any time you run this (or other benchmarks) you will want to go in and exit or disable other running processes. Things like game loaders that aren't being used, printer monitors, tool bars, etc. Anything that starts with windows and stays running. You can check for Windows related items like that in "background apps" in settings. Turn anything you aren't actively using and aware of, off. Just the same as helping benchmarks, having all that excess turned off will help gaming performance as well.

Something going on with your SSD unless you killed that aspect of the test.

You GPU is actually benching on par with expected performance.

I would run a couple of disk checks, perhaps run the Samsung app to check drive health and trim, etc.

Put up a temp sensing program and watch your CPU while running something like CPU-Z bench, etc. and see what you are running.
I would assume that your CPU fan, case, etc. are dust free and functional....

 

[loudmax]

Been looking into this, definitely seems like it is the CPU holding things down as was suggested.

CPU fan has some dust, but nothing substantial. Are there further tests I can do on the health of my CPU, to detect specific issues so that I know what to do?