[SOLVED] I notice a lack of performance since a couple of days

[Kinc4id]

Around last Christmas I built a new PC with the following hardware:

Ryzen 5 5600
RTX 3060Ti
16 GB DDR4 RAM
B550M PRO-VDH wifi

At first everything ran fine. I played Control at 1440 and highest Settings, Raytracing and without DLSS at around 100 FPS. But since a few weeks I notice performance issues. First thing I noticed was sometimes booting took very long. Normally I see the screen with the manufacturer of my MB and a rotating icon and a few seconds later windows is booted but sometimes the icon doesn’t rotate and it takes several minutes to boot. I’m not entirely sure, but I think this happened the first time after an update of the graphics drivers. Next thing I noticed was when I played Kerbal Space Program. I have to set it to below medium settings to run it smooth, I first thought this might be because of all the physics calculation. Last week I tried to play Warzone and even at the lowest Settings and 1080 it runs only with 20-30 FPS. Then I noticed a Twitch stream takes up 30% of GPU load in task manager. Today I played AOE2 while watching Twitch and I had heavy lags in the stream, this didn’t happen a few weeks ago. I feel like my system shouldn’t have trouble with all this.

I ran userbenchmark and all results are above average and I ran malwarebytes which found a malware that replaces search results and one that replaces ads. Both where removed but the issues are still the same. Windows and graphics drivers are up to date. Graphics card is connected properly, 8-pin is connected and monitor is connected to the GPU.

Any ideas what causes these issues? What can I test to find out?

 

[revodo]

Honestly, one of the fastest ways to troubleshoot is to reset Windows completely. Start fresh. Test everything out right after you get back into Windows. (And update graphics driver)

If it's still a problem, there's a good chance it's hardware. If it doesn't, that means it was something installed before that was causing it.

If you have a gaming rig, and backup your important stuff, a full reset shouldn't take your more than an hour to get back up and running.

 

[Kinc4id]

I was afraid of that. Was hoping to avoid reinstalling everything.

 

[revodo]

I was afraid of that. Was hoping to avoid reinstalling everything.

There's other ways to try to troubleshoot the problem, but they generally take forever. I always go for the fastest and easiest route, when possible.

 

[Quanticriver]

I was afraid of that. Was hoping to avoid reinstalling everything.

Revodo is right, that's the way you do it

 

[Kinc4id]

Ok, I reinstalled windows. Warzone still runs bad and booting takes much longer than usual every time now instead of just once every couple of days.

 

[Kinc4id]

It looks like I have found the issue. I had a problem with GTA5 not closing properly and the solution was to quit GHub (the software for my mouse to change DPI) and when I did not only did GTA close instantly, Warzone is running at 100 FPS at all maxed settings now. I can't confirm if it also solved all my other issues, but it most likely will. Except the boot time maybe, but after some restarts windows started normal today, so it looks like the slow boot at least only happens occasionally again.

 

[Kinc4id]

And the issues are back again.

I didn't change anything since I tried Warzone the last time. Just now I wanted to play with some friends and it runs at 6 FPS again without the mouse software. Also every boot takes ages before I even get out of the mainboards splash screen. When I have a stream running while playing anything I have to set the stream to 360p to at least have a playable framerate in the game.

 

[revodo]

Is this lag happening in any other game? Warzone is incredibly wonky.

 

[Kinc4id]

Not as bad as in Warzone. AoE2 runs fine for example as long as there is no Twitch stream running at a high resolution at the same time. Didn’t try any other games since I reinstalled windows.

I also noticed that my mouse moved slower when I was in Warzones Menu.

 

[Kinc4id]

@revodo I tried some games, Apex Legends, CS:GO and GTA5. All run bad. GTA5 ran at 70-80 FPS when I got rid of the mouse software, today on the same settings it runs with 5. CS:GO has 20 FPS max and Apex around 6.

In my first post I mentioned I ran userbenchmark and all scores where above average. I ran it again and the score for the GPU is way too low. 45% when 130% is the average.

2 Weeks ago: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/44690306
Today: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/45026155

 

[Kinc4id]

Today I tried an old GPU but the PC didn’t Boot at all. The GPU is really old though so it may not have worked because of this. I put my 3060 back in and when booting I got this:



F2 started windows but it said there are no graphics drivers. I installed them and got a black screen for several minutes. I pushed the reset button and now it works like it did before I swapped the gpu. Very long booting time, very low fps in games.

Do you think it’s an Hardware issue with my gpu? Unfortunately I sold the 1060 I was using before so I don’t have any hardware to test.

 

[Kinc4id]

When I booted yesterday the resolution was set to 1024x768. I had to reinstall the graphics drivers to fix it. I rebooted after installation and at least I was able to set the resolution to 1440 again. Today it was at 768 again, I reinstalled drivers, resolution was 1440 after installation but this time after the mandatory reboot it is at 768 again.

 

[mamasan2000]

Old graphics cards don't have support for UEFI. Can't remember exactly when but around 2014 is when most GPUs should have support. I suspect that 'GOP' and CSM is in reference to the old card. What happens if you turn off CSM? Turn on UEFI.
For the other problems, I would suspect a bitcoin-miner malware. Check processes when in Windows, anything stick out? Sort by GPU usage or something. Did you run any antivirus program? I would recommend that. And check every disk you have for viruses. I would not put it past a virus to "hide" on other disks and then install itself again on fresh installs.

I have an AMD R3 230, released 2014. I can't get that thing to work, it doesn't even show up in Task manager or anything. Just too old and cheap I guess. GTX 760 works fine though.

 

[Kinc4id]

@mamasan2000 There are no suspicious processes. I did scan for viruses and malware after I installed windows and nothing was found.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I was afraid of that. Was hoping to avoid reinstalling everything.

That's where it pays to create and save a disk image --- it's much quicker to restore that than to do full OS reinstall from scratch.

 

[Kinc4id]

I ordered a new gpu to replace my gpu and see if this solves the issues and right now it looks like it did. PC is booting fast and benchmarks look good. I have to see if it stays like this though. With the old card it worked too for a couple of days.

If the GPU is broken, is there any way for me to find out what is broken and how it broke? I fear that the GPU could’ve been damaged by other hardware (PSU?) and the same will happen to the new one.