My graphics card is slowly getting worse over time?

[RoyalPara]

I've recently, well not really that recent, bought an EVGA GTX 680 around about 2 months ago, and have been playing on it ever since. And, I recently just noticed that my frames a second have DRASTICALLY decreased when I initially bought the card. To prove this, I watched a World of Tanks replay that I had, when I first bought the card, and played a game on it.

When you watch a WoT replay, it shows you the frames a second you had when you first played it, and the frames you currently have now. I used to have 90-120 frames, on MAX settings, and now I have about 45-60. When I come into an urban area, I range between 30-40, on the same settings. I'd play a desert match, and have about 100 frames ON AVERAGE, and now I have about 60 frames average. I thought it was just WoT, but then I noticed the same thing in War Thunder. I remember getting 150-200 fps on the max settings, and it'd be in the purple\orange colour section, in a game, and now I'm getting about 90-130. It's the same with SWTOR and Battlefield 4.

I've been using EVGA Precision X to monitor my graphics card, and used the Razer Gamebooster application to try and increase my performance for my card. I've uninstalled a lot of things, and re installed others. None of this is making it better. In fact, I think it might be making it worse. I've even taken the card out of its socket, unscrewed the screws, and opened the bloody thing to see if there's a fault there. I'm not sure if this would help, but I used to keep my GTX 640 in with my GTX 680, and just recently taken it out. I'm not sure if that effected the performance of my card, but if it did, I'll put it back in.

I have a Lenovo K430, and only two modifications; The PSU, which is a Corsair CX600M, and the EVGA GTX 2GB 680.

Could someone please help me out? This has been really depressing me over the last couple of days. I've spent at least around about £1500 on this computer, and I've only had it for a year.

My system specs are as followed:

CPU Speed: 2 Core 3 GHz
PSU: Corsair CX600M
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3770 CPU @ 3.40GHz
Graphics Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB
RAM: 16.0 GB DDR3
Total Memory: 2TB.

 

[RobCrezz]

Its performance shouldnt get worse over time. Check the temperatures its hitting when gaming, maybe its throttling due to heat - this is fairly common and you usually just need to clear the dust out and replace the thermal paste that transfers the heat from the GPU to the heatsink.

 

[RoyalPara]

You need to look at temperatures. You should check the cpu is not overheating, as well as the graphics card. Two months ago the ambient temp in the u.k. (respect Tommy) was ten degrees C cooler than it is now. Have you put a case fan in? Try running it without the side on the box to see.. ..
That gpu uses a couple of hundred watts. It really sounds like a heat issue to me.

I already have two case fans inside my computer, and I have had the side skirt of my computer off for the whole day now, and there has been no differences in the FPS. But, there has been a slight difference of temperature. Around about 5 less.

The first link is a print screen of EVGA precision, showing the results of my PC when it is idle. The second link is a print screen, showing the results of my PC when it is running WoT, on max settings.

http://i.imgur.com/tLPPvSy.png?1
http://i.imgur.com/D4Wmhm0.png?1

 

[RobCrezz]

What game? The temperatures there are fine (76'c), but the clock speed is very low, it should be much higher, the minimum speed should 1006mhz as the base clock.

 

[RoyalPara]

What game? The temperatures there are fine (76'c), but the clock speed is very low, it should be much higher, the minimum speed should 1006mhz as the base clock.

If I was to increase the clock speed, would this sort out my problem? And, how do I increase the minimum clock speed?

 

[RobCrezz]

What game? The temperatures there are fine (76'c), but the clock speed is very low, it should be much higher, the minimum speed should 1006mhz as the base clock.

If I was to increase the clock speed, would this sort out my problem? And, how do I increase the minimum clock speed?

Raise it on Precision X to 1000. I wonder if it has accidentally underclocked it...

 

[RoyalPara]

What game? The temperatures there are fine (76'c), but the clock speed is very low, it should be much higher, the minimum speed should 1006mhz as the base clock.

If I was to increase the clock speed, would this sort out my problem? And, how do I increase the minimum clock speed?

Raise it on Precision X to 1000. I wonder if it has accidentally underclocked it...

How do I raise it to 1000? Also, I've watched a Youtube clip, talking about the graphics card I'm currently using. When I benchmark, EVGA Precision X on default settings, using the Unigine Heaven benchmark application, EVGA Precision X shows my GPU clock to 705mhz; and the voltage to 986mv. Meanwhile, in the video, it shows the GPU Clock to be 1110mhz and the voltage to 1175mv, on the default settings.

Also, if Precision X, or myself, have accidentally under clocked it, how do I set it back to its standard settings?

Mentioned video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDnGjIxb1E0

Edit: It also doesn't show my base clock marker, or my boost clock marker.

 

[RobCrezz]

Try uninstalling Precision X, Afterburner or any other Rivatuna programs. then check the games again, using GPU-z to monitor.

 

[RoyalPara]

Try uninstalling Precision X, Afterburner or any other Rivatuna programs. then check the games again, using GPU-z to monitor.

https://i.imgur.com/20dAlQb.gif

This is the statistic of my card that GPU-z is showing when I run the Unigine Heaven benchmark application: https://i.imgur.com/YtwQ8Au.gif

And this is the statistic of my card, when it is idle:
https://i.imgur.com/kfm4Kcz.gif

I don't really know much about graphics cards, and what not, and seeing that you have a GTX 680 too, you probably have far more knowledge than I do about this specific card, and my problems.

 

[RobCrezz]

Try uninstalling Precision X, Afterburner or any other Rivatuna programs. then check the games again, using GPU-z to monitor.

https://i.imgur.com/20dAlQb.gif

This is the statistic of my card that GPU-z is showing when I run the Unigine Heaven benchmark application: https://i.imgur.com/YtwQ8Au.gif

And this is the statistic of my card, when it is idle:
https://i.imgur.com/kfm4Kcz.gif

I don't really know much about graphics cards, and what not, and seeing that you have a GTX 680 too, you probably have far more knowledge than I do about this specific card, and my problems.

Ok the speeds and temps look totally fine, so no problems there. I really dont think its the graphics card but you could try installing the latest drivers from nvidia.

I would check your cpu temp and speed in the game also, incase the throttling is occurring then.

 

[RoyalPara]

Try uninstalling Precision X, Afterburner or any other Rivatuna programs. then check the games again, using GPU-z to monitor.

https://i.imgur.com/20dAlQb.gif

This is the statistic of my card that GPU-z is showing when I run the Unigine Heaven benchmark application: https://i.imgur.com/YtwQ8Au.gif

And this is the statistic of my card, when it is idle:
https://i.imgur.com/kfm4Kcz.gif

I don't really know much about graphics cards, and what not, and seeing that you have a GTX 680 too, you probably have far more knowledge than I do about this specific card, and my problems.

Ok the speeds and temps look totally fine, so no problems there. I really dont think its the graphics card but you could try installing the latest drivers from nvidia.

I would check your cpu temp and speed in the game also, incase the throttling is occurring then.

When my PC is idle: http://i.imgur.com/c8J0ge0.png?1

When my PC is running heaven benchmark on max, 1280x720: http://i.imgur.com/b7Tb76y.png?1

 

[RobCrezz]

how about the speed of the CPU?

To be honest, everything looks fine. Last resort would be a wipe and reinstall of windows, just to rule out some sort of software issue as it doesnt look like theres anything wrong with the hardware so far.