Question My PC suddenly and permanently drops frames in games ?

[Andreirei03]

Hello,
I am suddenly experiencing what seems as permanent FPS drops in all videogames. Normally I was playing at 70+ FPS but now it drops to ~30.
I tried installing the graphic drivers again, but it didn't do anything.

I have installed a program to watch if it may overheat but I've noticed no difference now vs before. It reaches a max of ~80C but that's under heavy use. It all happed very suddenly.

These are my specs:
Intel i7-6700K
16GB RAM
RTX 2070 SUPER
Cooler CPU Corsair Hydro Series H110i
M12II-620 620W
Windows 10

I am really desperate, could this be a hardware issue?

 

[thestryker]

When you say it drops did you mean it starts high and then goes low or is it just always lower now?

I'd suggest checking with MSI Afterburner to see how much power your video card is pulling when you're gaming. It'd be worth looking at CPU and GPU clockspeeds as well. HWInfo/HWMonitor are good for this.

 

[Andreirei03]

The drops are always lower now, it starts low and maintains it basically.
I've installed MSI Afterburner, but I am not very savvy, and I can see that the CPU stays at 300MHz, the TEMP at around 65C, but the MEMORY says 7000MHz

 

[thestryker]

If you hit detach it will show a long set of graphs. Do you mean the GPU is staying at 300mhz in Afterburner? If that's what it does while you're trying to play something that's a pretty big sign there are problems.

That could be almost anything from failing card to power supply. Make sure the fans on the GPU are spinning, and it might be a good idea to take it out and clean any dust/dirt.

 

[Andreirei03]

Thank you for the very quick replies.
Sorry, my mistake, I did indeed mean the GPU stays at 300MHz.
I have also detached it and the GPU is at 99%.

Is there anyway to fix it, or I just need to replace the graphic card?

 

[thestryker]

Usually it's going to be something wrong configuration wise given that this happened suddenly. It's that or a power delivery problem. Check the nvidia control panel -> manage 3d settings -> power management mode in here see what the setting is on the 20 series I believe adaptive is the one it should be on usually. You could try toggling it to maximum performance, hit apply and then put it back on adaptive and hit apply to see if that changes anything.

Also check the windows power options to see what the plan is set to. If it's on balanced that should normally be perfectly fine, but you should give high performance a shot just to see if that makes a difference.

If you have any other software that interfaces with the GPU to do anything with tweaking it uninstall that.

If you didn't use DDU to completely remove everything when uninstalling the video drivers previously you could give that a shot.

 

[Andreirei03]

I tried adjusting the power settings but it seems hard stuck at 300MHz.
I google that and found a post that said to disable and re-enable the card from device manager which I did.
What happened is, as soon as I exit the game (any game) it climes up at ~1400 with just some windows open on my screen, but as soon as I start any game, it dips and locks at 300MHz.

I tried re-installing the drivers (without uninstalling though) but seemingly didn't change anything.

 

[thestryker]

Personally I'd try to pull the card, clear out any dust the reinstall it to see if that does anything.

At this point though it's sounding like a power delivery problem. If you install HWMonitor and go down to the GPU area there will be a line that says power limit. If this is at or goes to 1 and it is using under 200W that will confirm a power issue. This could be the card or the power supply.

 

[Andreirei03]

HWMonitor indeed shows what you said, limit=1 and power consumption is max 180. It is indeed a power issue. I'll confirm which one but that seems to be the problem.
Thank you very much for your help!