High fluctuating FPS in games and emulators

[brightlite93]

I've been search around for my problem for quite some time now and haven't really found a solid answer on why I'm having such high fluctuating FPS. It all started about a about a month or 2 ago (not sure if it happening before I updated to 8.1) when I started to play games that I've played before like Need For Speed Most Wanted (2012), Hot Pursuit (2010), Undercover; GTA IV, and emulators like Super Smash Bros Brawl (Wii) and Burnout 2 (GameCube) where I'm getting FPS from 60 to the low teens and even some times single digit. Where before I was getting a constant high 50s to 60 in some games and high 40s to 50s in others. Now I've tried multiply solutions to try to fix it by moving the files to another HDD, cleaning out the computer, removing the GPU and putting back in, changing power profiles in Windows, disassembling the computer, and a couple other but still nothing worked. Now here's the weird part is that other games like Street Fighter X Tekken, BF3, and Crysis 2 run a constant FPS without problems, which lead me to believe that it's either a CPU or GPU problem. Also here's a BIG thing to put into consideration. I went to college and I have had my computer under my bed running for 3 months straight and about a week or so before cleaning I felt my computer blowing out extremely hot air from one of the exhaust fans. Then when I went to clean it there was a thick coat of dust on the front 2 fans and my liquid cooling system vent was so thick with dust I had remove it just to get it all off. Which now lead me to believe that I might have partially (if possible) burned either the CPU or the GPU.

Please Help!

PC Specs:
H2 Case
Phenom II X4 overclocked to 4.1GHz
Gigabyte 7770
Cooler Master Seidon 120m added a second fan
Gigabyte UD3-970a
Kingston HyperX Blu 3 x 2Gb
Xigmatek 700W
Samsung 840 120Gb
4 HDDs
Windows 8.1
6 x 120mm Fans

 

[Tremec]

I would start by adding a few programs like MSI Afterburner, and coretemp to monitor temps and check for throttling due to heat. Also sometimes drivers can cause these issues and performing a "clean install" will cure the problem.
MSI afterburner will let you overclock and underclock the gpu and also has a built in bench-marking and stress testing program Kombustor

 

[brightlite93]

I would start by adding a few programs like MSI Afterburner, and coretemp to monitor temps and check for throttling due to heat. Also sometimes drivers can cause these issues and performing a "clean install" will cure the problem.
MSI afterburner will let you overclock and underclock the gpu and also has a built in bench-marking and stress testing program Kombustor

Well I have CoreTemp and SpeedFan, but they don't startup when Windows boots up (I placed them in the startup folder), and I forget to start them when I turn on the computer. As for "Clean Install", do you mean clean install as for Windows or Drivers because I did do a clean install for the driver by using an application, forgot the name of it, that get rids of all the files associated with the driver you are trying to uninstall. And that didn't work either. I used the Stable and Beta version of Catalyst. Also installing Afterburner now.

 

[Tremec]

Yea clean install on the video driver, if you watch the graphs on the afterburner program while running the kombustor stress test - what you are looking for is a sharp drop in fps or gpu load when the gpu hits a certain temp. If this is the issue it should show up here.

 

[brightlite93]

Yea clean install on the video driver, if you watch the graphs on the afterburner program while running the kombustor stress test - what you are looking for is a sharp drop in fps or gpu load when the gpu hits a certain temp. If this is the issue it should show up here.

I must be blind or something but where is the Kombustor test on Afterburner?