Is my AMD FX-4100 Bulldozer Defective?

[BLR45]

Hi, so I've looked around the web to see if anyone else has this problem but to no avail. Recently I upgraded my computer with a new Motherboard and CPU. At first it was working great and I saw huge FPS boosts in all games(namely Crysis) and I was happy. But after a week or so I noticed that in some games my FPS would just drop immensely to around 20 or under. I've been trying to figure out what was causing these problems and I think I've narrowed it down to my new AMD FX-4100. I doubt it is my Graphics card since even before upgrading I never had FPS lag like this. I'm not sure whether my cpu hits a full workload of 100% but it happens most frequent in games like Crysis, and Blacklight Retribution(happens most often in this game). I know it's a problem and not just that my system do not meet requirements, because it would run fine for a while but then every once in a while it would drop past 20 FPS for up to a minute then shoot back up. Its been really bugging me especially since no one else seems to have this problem.

I originally did overclock it to 4.2Ghz on stock cooler but it would occasionally freeze so I clocked it down to 4Ghz for a while. Even now when I returned it to default settings I still experience the problem. Can anyone help?

My Specs:
ASRock N68C-GS FX mATX Motherboard
AMD FX-4100 Bulldozer CPU
Powercolor Radeon HD 5750
8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz memory
Antec HCG-620M PSU

 

[Guest]

i suggest watching your temps. get core temp
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
and gpu-z
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[BLR45]

I already have Core temp installed. I just played a round of Blacklight Retribution to test. Min temp. 24' Max temp. 37'. I haven't tested my GPU but once again, I highly doubt thats the problem.
I don't understand it, it goes from being silky smooth 60fps down past 20fps and then back up again.

 

[Guest]

i understand its the same gpu as before, i just considered if the 4100 was throwing off a lot of heat and getting the card warmer than before. i didn't realize you had core temp because that also will tell you the load on your cpu.

updated drivers lately? as much as you may feel its your cpu, a drop in frame rate is most likely the gpu . .

 

[BLR45]

Alright, just tested again. Maximum temp. for GPU was 82'. Avg 32'. I updated the drivers when I upgraded my computer which is around a month ago. Just to be safe I'll try re-updating drivers.

 

[Guest]

i would like to recommend uninstalling, booting into safe mode and running driver sweeper to make sure you get everything of the driver out.
http://phyxion.net/item/driver-sweeper.html

then re-installing.

 

[BLR45]

Alright, I've done a clean install after sweeping with Driversweeper and unfortunately the problem persists. All this talk about GPU has got me thinking, could my video card be dying? I bought this card nearly 2 years ago(albeit I didn't use it for around 7 months when my computer broke down before).

 

[Guest]

nah, two years is not really old for a graphics card. it is not a very powerful card though i have not played BLR so i do not know what you could expect - seeing the system requirements don't seem like it needs much.

now crysis on the other hand is very demanding . . .

there is still a few things to try out if you have the patience, i can understand your frustration. if your running fraps while playing, give it a go without and see if it makes a difference; try lightening the load a bit.

 

[captainblacko]

recommend clearing your CMOS on the bios. Then retrying everything. Could be something hanging around in the bios from the overclock.

 

[BLR45]

Ive tried turning off everything but the game and it still happens. I think this problem only happens when my cpu usage hits 100% which is pretty often.

 

[BLR45]

Ok ran task manager and it is NOT because of the cpu usage being at 100%. The problem occurred even though usage was at 54% and usage was spread on all 4 cores.

 

[Guest]

ok, you tried with BLR is there any other games you are playing?

 

[amuffin]

Have you tried lowering your voltage? Unstable voltages can cause many problems!

 

[BLR45]

I tried on both BLR and Crysis, I also played Crysis 2 but it only happened once in that game.I also occasionally play League of Legends but it NEVER occurs in that game. Also if I were to lower the voltage on my cpu, how do I know when the safe point is?

 

[ohyouknow]

DL and open up cpu z. Play in windowed mode and check to see if your cpu is throttling. 4.0-2.0ghz, Since you overclocked your processor you need to disable power saving features and core boost. Did you leave everything on when you overclocked?

 

[BLR45]

Omg you're right! I just played Crysis with CPU Z open and I noticed that when the FPS drop occured my clock speed dropped from 4.219Ghz to 1.418ghz! That was the regular speed of the processor at idle pre-overclocked. When I overclocked I turned off Cool n Quiet technology and Turbo Core. Does anyone know why it drops down to 1.4ghz?

 

[BLR45]

I think I've solved it! I went back into my bios and found an option called "CPU Thermal Throttle". After I disabled it I don't seem to have the problem anymore. Thanks to everyone for their feedback.

 

[BLR45]

Best answer selected by BLR45.