Having a really hard time figuring out what's messing up my frame rate in games.

[GenesisTrigger]

For the past couple of months, I've noticed my frame rate getting worse and worse. I ask around and check specs and all of my parts seem to be good enough to hold a consistent 60 FPS in most games. The games I usually play are as follows: League of Legends, Star Wars: The Old Republic, DayZ SA, and Skyrim.

In League, my frame rate is a consistent 60 with all of the settings pushed up. I guess this isn't too surprising seeing the game isn't too resource demanding.

In SWTOR and DayZ SA are where I have most of my FPS issues. In SWTOR, I hold about 30 when i'm out questing and exploring, or when I'm in any fleet. DayZ is just mostly horrible frame rate all around, I would say that I drop as low as 10 when in cities.

Here are my specs.
OS: Windows 7 HP 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i3 2120
RAM: 10.0GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz
Motherboard: Acer ipimb-ar (The computer itself is a Gateway, model DX4870-ub20p)
Video/Graphics Card: XFX AMD Radeon HD 7770 Core

And for my hard drives I have one SSD and one regular. The SSD is a 120 gb Crucial M500, and the HDD is a Seagate 1TB.

I've tried clean installing Windows 7 multiple times as well as clean installing my video drivers several times. None of these seem to have made a difference. My belief is that the processor is the source of my abysmal frame rate, but I would like an experienced second opinion just to confirm before I do any upgrades.

Edit: Here are the RAM part numbers for anyone that needs them.
Kingston 4GB: ACR512X64D3U13C9G
Kingston 2GB: ACR256X64D3U13C9G
PNY Electronics 4GB: 64C0MHHHJ-HS

 

[sk12335]

First of all, your rig is not "Great".

 

[Gunmetal_61]

Is the RAM specification a typo? I don't recall anyone making two 5GB modules or a 10GB module. For you to have 10GB of RAM, it would either be that you have two 4GB sticks and one 2GB stick (which would be very bad in terms of compatibility and efficiency) or that you actually have something like 12GB and only 10GB is useable for general programs. Also, if it's not a typo, 665MHz is an insanely slow speed for RAM even on an older Sandy Bridge system. That could slow things down big time. I think the standard speed that Sandy Bridge supports is DDR3-1333. Otherwise, I can't see any root of your problem in your specs.

It probably isn't a virus, since you reinstalled the OS multiple times. I think the processor is just fine, but your system is only just a little bit above the borderline for good gameplay these days. I don't think that system requirements could advance this quickly as they keep updating these games, but it is possible. Perhaps there's something with your network connection?

 

[GenesisTrigger]

Is the RAM specification a typo? I don't recall anyone making two 5GB modules or a 10GB module. For you to have 10GB of RAM, it would either be that you have two 4GB sticks and one 2GB stick (which would be very bad in terms of compatibility and efficiency) or that you actually have something like 12GB and only 10GB is useable for general programs. Also, if it's not a typo, 665MHz is an insanely slow speed for RAM even on an older Sandy Bridge system. That could slow things down big time. I think the standard speed that Sandy Bridge supports is DDR3-1333. Otherwise, I can't see any root of your problem in your specs.

It probably isn't a virus, since you reinstalled the OS multiple times. I think the processor is just fine, but your system is only just a little bit above the borderline for good gameplay these days. I don't think that system requirements could advance this quickly as they keep updating these games, but it is possible. Perhaps there's something with your network connection?

I have two four gig sticks, and one two gig stick. The first four gig stick and the one 2 gig stick are the stock sticks that came with my tower. I later added another 4 gig stick. The 4 gig stick that I added later was not made by the same manufacturer as the other 2 sticks.

And the speed was not a typo, that was the speed that is shown in the utility tool I was using to get the specs, Speccy by Piriform. The reason I suspected it was my processor is because I've noticed that it's maxing out close to 100% usage whenever I play the games listed to here I have trouble.

I don't suspect it's a problem with my internet. I have 25 mbps down/5 mbps up, and I'm the only person in my home that consistently uses the connection. Though, it is my current understanding that my internet has nothing to do with my FPS. I've not had a latency/ping issue in a while while gaming.

 

[Gunmetal_61]

Could you give us the specific manufacturer models of the RAM?

 

[GenesisTrigger]

Could you give us the specific manufacturer models of the RAM?

Whoops accidentally clicked the best answer button on that.. but yeah. The stock RAM is Kingston. The stick I added is PNY Electronics.

 

[Gunmetal_61]

Could you give us the specific manufacturer models of the RAM?

Whoops accidentally clicked the best answer button on that.. but yeah. The stock RAM is Kingston. The stick I added is PNY Electronics.

Unselected it for ya. I won't take credit until you've been helped. I meant like the actual part number ID of each stick of RAM. That way I could look up the timings, speed, etc.

 

[GenesisTrigger]

Could you give us the specific manufacturer models of the RAM?

Whoops accidentally clicked the best answer button on that.. but yeah. The stock RAM is Kingston. The stick I added is PNY Electronics.

Unselected it for ya. I won't take credit until you've been helped. I meant like the actual part number ID of each stick of RAM. That way I could look up the timings, speed, etc.

Thank you for doing that, and I have updated the main post with the numbers.

 

[Gunmetal_61]

At first glance, the RAM doesn't seem to have an issue with timings or speed. All of them could be used a 1333MHz, so you should go into the BIOS and set them to that speed if that reading was true. Though I worry for the compatibility of using different RAM sizes and different brands with different manufacturing processes. I would make the RAM uniform, but I'm not sure if that's the cause of your problem.

First fix the RAM speed.

 

[GenesisTrigger]

At first glance, the RAM doesn't seem to have an issue with timings or speed. All of them could be used a 1333MHz, so you should go into the BIOS and set them to that speed if that reading was true. Though I worry for the compatibility of using different RAM sizes and different brands with different manufacturing processes. I would make the RAM uniform, but I'm not sure if that's the cause of your problem.

First fix the RAM speed.

I checked my bios, and I don't seem to have an option that shows me being able to adjust anything about my RAM. In the chipset settings/advanced settings it gives me the option to enable and disable a few things, but nothing that even refers to my memory.