Hey, right off the bat, I apologize for my ignorance. I've kept my gaming rig pretty well maintained over the last couple years since I bought it, but I'm having an issue and I'm still somewhat naive when it comes to things like diagnostics and benchmarks to help figure out what's going on. Luckily I've got you fine people! 😉
Anyway, it's held up really well. I use my rig ALL the time, just not necessarily for gaming, so it's put up with a fairly decent workload. I'm almost always streaming something in the background while I game, so I multitask quite a bit.
I realize that is somewhat strenuous. I sometimes reach ~50 percent+ of CPU usage and ~70%+ of memory usage in task manager. It gets much higher if something hangs and I have to start ending processes to get things humming again.
Anyway, I've been playing Skyrim quite well for the past few months. The last week or two I've noticed HORRIBLE lag that drops my FPS to a choppy hell that come and go. Usually quitting Skyrim fixes it temporarily, but I just finished a graphics-intensive scene (that I loaded into) and it was still jacked up even after restarting the game. I think there was just too much going on.
I found that turning off Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering under graphics options pre-launch eliminates choppiness. But, A) why is that necessariy if it worked before, and B) what prompted the lag to begin with?
I began to wonder if I was overtaxing my rig, so I installed HWInfo to gather some diagnostics. My temps seem rather high-- I'll attach a screenshot, but under my typical usage, both my CPU Package and MOBO reached a max of 69.3 °C! That seems way high, from my admittedly naive viewpoint. GPU temp appears fine.
I think I've got 2 or 3 standard case fans running in there, but the top of the back of my case feels somewhat warm. I've currently got it in a slot with a door built into my desk clearly meant for a PC case. It does have a cutout in the back of the desk, but is this ventilation sufficient?
TL;DR questions:
Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who takes the time to help a rookie like me! Just trying to branch out a little bit and get more comfortable diagnosing and fixing issues like this. It's a bit intimidating at first.
Link to my HWInfo readouts
System Info:
CPU: AMD FX-8350
GPU: GeForce GTX 660
Memory: Adata XPG V2 8.00 GB DDR3 1600
MOBO: Gigabyte GA?970A?DS3P AM3+ Crossfire
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart Series SP-750PCBUS 750W 80Plus Bronze
Realtek Onboard Sound Card (I believe)
Gigabyte PCI-E 802.11 B/G/N + Bluetooth
2 TB Toshiba DT01ACA200 ATA HDD
Silicon Power S70 120GB MLC 2.5" 7mm SATA III 6Gb/s SSD (OS installed here)
Windows 10
BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc F1, 4/8/2013
Any other info needed, just let me know.
Anyway, it's held up really well. I use my rig ALL the time, just not necessarily for gaming, so it's put up with a fairly decent workload. I'm almost always streaming something in the background while I game, so I multitask quite a bit.
I realize that is somewhat strenuous. I sometimes reach ~50 percent+ of CPU usage and ~70%+ of memory usage in task manager. It gets much higher if something hangs and I have to start ending processes to get things humming again.
Anyway, I've been playing Skyrim quite well for the past few months. The last week or two I've noticed HORRIBLE lag that drops my FPS to a choppy hell that come and go. Usually quitting Skyrim fixes it temporarily, but I just finished a graphics-intensive scene (that I loaded into) and it was still jacked up even after restarting the game. I think there was just too much going on.
I found that turning off Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering under graphics options pre-launch eliminates choppiness. But, A) why is that necessariy if it worked before, and B) what prompted the lag to begin with?
I began to wonder if I was overtaxing my rig, so I installed HWInfo to gather some diagnostics. My temps seem rather high-- I'll attach a screenshot, but under my typical usage, both my CPU Package and MOBO reached a max of 69.3 °C! That seems way high, from my admittedly naive viewpoint. GPU temp appears fine.
I think I've got 2 or 3 standard case fans running in there, but the top of the back of my case feels somewhat warm. I've currently got it in a slot with a door built into my desk clearly meant for a PC case. It does have a cutout in the back of the desk, but is this ventilation sufficient?
TL;DR questions:
Why did Skyrim start lagging out of nowhere? Why does turning off Antialiasing and Anisotropic filtering fix it seemingly immediately? And is there any fix to avoid shutting them off?
What the hell is going on with my system temp? Do I need to improve my cooling? Is there anything else funky going on in the HWInfo readings I should be worried about?
Thank you SO MUCH to anyone who takes the time to help a rookie like me! Just trying to branch out a little bit and get more comfortable diagnosing and fixing issues like this. It's a bit intimidating at first.
Link to my HWInfo readouts
System Info:
CPU: AMD FX-8350
GPU: GeForce GTX 660
Memory: Adata XPG V2 8.00 GB DDR3 1600
MOBO: Gigabyte GA?970A?DS3P AM3+ Crossfire
Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart Series SP-750PCBUS 750W 80Plus Bronze
Realtek Onboard Sound Card (I believe)
Gigabyte PCI-E 802.11 B/G/N + Bluetooth
2 TB Toshiba DT01ACA200 ATA HDD
Silicon Power S70 120GB MLC 2.5" 7mm SATA III 6Gb/s SSD (OS installed here)
Windows 10
BIOS Version: American Megatrends Inc F1, 4/8/2013
Any other info needed, just let me know.
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