Help Needed: Random Temporary FPS Drops During Gaming

[a_seymour]

Hi All,

As of late I have noticed that during gaming, my computer tends to randomly drop frames after a period of time.
Frames will drop to around 10fps, the system becomes slow and unresponsive in general, and then given about 10 to 15 seconds, everything returns to normal.
More than happy to supply more information if necessary, I've included the info below as well.
Any help would be highly appreciated!

Warm regards, Alex

----------SYSTEM SPECS AS PER SYSINFO----------

Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.4
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-8150 Eight-Core Processor, AMD64 Family 21 Model 1 Stepping 2
Processor Count: 8
RAM: 8173 Mb
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series, -2048 Mb
Hard Drives: C: 223 GB (85 GB Free); D: 111 GB (37 GB Free); F: 1863 GB (50 GB Free);
Motherboard: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd., GA-970A-D3
Antivirus: Bitdefender Antivirus Free Edition, Updated: Yes, On-Demand Scanner: Enabled

 

[frostedtim]

What games are you playing? There are a couple of things that I see could be an issue.

First, with alot of newer games, especially the AAA titles, they tend to need more video RAM than the 2GB you have on that Radeon GPU. So that might cause the frame rate to drop until it can free up some resources. I dont know your budget, but a new GPU might be what you need. A new nVidia GTX 1070 card gives you a great bang for your buck, but thats still around $400-500 depending on what brand and version you get. Plenty of articles on GPU's here on Tom's though, so check those if you need.

Second, if you are running a game off of that F drive, which is running out of space, that could be an issue. Standard hard drive sometimes do strange things when the have less than 10% of their space left. It usually has to do with any file swapping or virtual memory caching, though the virtual memory usually is managed on the OS drive by default. Try clearing some extra space if you can on the F drive and see what happens. Of course make sure you back up anything important just in case.

 

[herrwizo]

Most likely your CPU is overheating. Check your CPU temps while gaming. AMD FX series has a quite low threshold before they start throttling (62C) so make sure it is below 60C, preferably below 55C at all times. If temps are too high, you will have to clean your cooler and replace thermal paste. If the cooler is stock, a good idea might be to replace it alltogether with an aftermarket solution.

 

[a_seymour]

Apologies for the late response, just returned from vacation.

Generally playing Counter Strike and a few other titles, that being said I don't believe it's VRAM.

Additionally, CS is not being played off of my F Drive, so not storage either.

I'll play a little more and keep an eye on the GPU and CPU temps, any recommended software?

All I've been using here and there is Open Hardware Monitor.

Warm regards! 🙂

 

[a_seymour]

Most likely your CPU is overheating. Check your CPU temps while gaming. AMD FX series has a quite low threshold before they start throttling (62C) so make sure it is below 60C, preferably below 55C at all times. If temps are too high, you will have to clean your cooler and replace thermal paste. If the cooler is stock, a good idea might be to replace it alltogether with an aftermarket solution.

Yep, temps reaching 80

 

[herrwizo]

Definitely overheating. You will need to clean the heatsink from dust and reapply thermal paste. Consider improving case airflow. But the best option would be to buy a decent 3rd party cooler.

 

[a_seymour]

Definitely overheating. You will need to clean the heatsink from dust and reapply thermal paste. Consider improving case airflow. But the best option would be to buy a decent 3rd party cooler.

Thanks for the help,

Unfortunately I don't really have the know how to do it myself, is it a difficult job to follow with tutorials?

I had the pc built to order years ago but never really wanted to delve into it myself for fear of stuffing anything up.

 

[frostedtim]

Definitely overheating. You will need to clean the heatsink from dust and reapply thermal paste. Consider improving case airflow. But the best option would be to buy a decent 3rd party cooler.

Thanks for the help,

Unfortunately I don't really have the know how to do it myself, is it a difficult job to follow with tutorials?

I had the pc built to order years ago but never really wanted to delve into it myself for fear of stuffing anything up.

At a minimum, see if you can vacuum or blow out the dust that may have built up on the heatsink and fan attached to your CPU. Clear what you can out of the case, as the airflow is important here. You may not need to replace the cooler yet. Clean first.

There are lots of how to vids on youtube if you need them though. If you get a new cooler, you might even find vids made by the manufacturers.