PC has inconsistant performance on all games.

[squammy2001]

I feel like my computer has been not performing up to par for a while now. In rocket league i used to be able to play at max settings completely fine. I built this computer about 1 - 2 years ago. I know computers lose performance after a while but I cant run rocket league on pretty much low settings without constant lag. Its very inconsistant too, today it was pretty laggy on low settings but last week i was playing at high with no problems. Ive done enough research that i think its a temp problem on my cpu. Im using the stock cooler if thats somthing i need to change out for a better one. (i play rocket league at 60 max fps)

here are some pics of laggy low settings in game

Open Hardware Monitor
Task Manager

my ram and gpu seem to be fine judging by the performance in task manager but the cpu seems to go up and down on the graph.

in other games like terraria my game has constant intervals of lag spikes every like 10 seconds. And terraria is not a power hungry game at all.

Some things i tried

- set cpu affinity on rocket league process
- changed rocketleague.exe priority to high

Thanks

 

[ragnar-gd]

Hi, squammy,
thank you for the detailed description, that ruled out some problems.
Even if i cannot pinpoint your problems exactly, it is clear it has something to do with your CPU, or background-activity making your CPU the bottleneck.
Indicator for this is the very regular up-and-down of your CPU on a high level.
Check for, i.e., other processes while running your game, to see, if there is another process consuming CPU-cycles at that time. Enable "See Kernel times" in Task manager, to see if basic Windows-activities kick in. I-O-intensive tasks can disrupt games quite severely.
Unfortunately, i.e. Antivirus eats up more CPU-cycles AND I-O than ever, and you cannot make anything about it, and it will get worse every day, so that might also be a culprit.
Yes, cooling is a possible reason, and the A10-stock-cooler can be insufficient. If you can get an AM3+ compatible Wraith cooler (i.e. from a FX 8350) for cheap, it is worth - and easy - exchanging it. If you CAN'T get one for cheap, perhaps spare your money:
It is worth noting, that, even though your CPU fits your R7 GPU, all FM2+ CPUs, as well as FX CPUs, start showing their age, and your CPU is not the fastest of that class to begin with (3.7 GHz, 4GHz boost, 4-cores, 95W TDP, right?), which is on par with the slowest FX, the AMD FX 4300.
If you have to buy a cooler anyway, consider buying a (perhaps used) combo of both a faster FM2+ CPU WITH Cooler (4GHz plus), i.e a 880K "silent".

But, right, start with watching temps, then, removing the cooler, un-dusting it carefully, re-apply thermal paste, build in CPU and cooler, and watch temps again. Doesn't cost a buck, and together with watching processes in task-manager, gives an indicator what can be the reason. The quality of your own diagnosis is good, trust it, and then decide.

 

[squammy2001]

Hi, squammy,
thank you for the detailed description, that ruled out some problems.
Even if i cannot pinpoint your problems exactly, it is clear it has something to do with your CPU, or background-activity making your CPU the bottleneck.
Indicator for this is the very regular up-and-down of your CPU on a high level.
Check for, i.e., other processes while running your game, to see, if there is another process consuming CPU-cycles at that time. Enable "See Kernel times" in Task manager, to see if basic Windows-activities kick in. I-O-intensive tasks can disrupt games quite severely.
Unfortunately, i.e. Antivirus eats up more CPU-cycles AND I-O than ever, and you cannot make anything about it, and it will get worse every day, so that might also be a culprit.
Yes, cooling is a possible reason, and the A10-stock-cooler can be insufficient. If you can get an AM3+ compatible Wraith cooler (i.e. from a FX 8350) for cheap, it is worth - and easy - exchanging it. If you CAN'T get one for cheap, perhaps spare your money:
It is worth noting, that, even though your CPU fits your R7 GPU, all FM2+ CPUs, as well as FX CPUs, start showing their age, and your CPU is not the fastest of that class to begin with (3.7 GHz, 4GHz boost, 4-cores, 95W TDP, right?), which is on par with the slowest FX, the AMD FX 4300.
If you have to buy a cooler anyway, consider buying a (perhaps used) combo of both a faster FM2+ CPU WITH Cooler (4GHz plus), i.e a 880K "silent".

But, right, start with watching temps, then, removing the cooler, un-dusting it carefully, re-apply thermal paste, build in CPU and cooler, and watch temps again. Doesn't cost a buck, and together with watching processes in task-manager, gives an indicator what can be the reason. The quality of your own diagnosis is good, trust it, and then decide.

Thanks for the help

I enabled kernel times in task manager and here is what I found.

(Offline just me and the ball no other players) performance in task manager
(In online game with 5 other players) performance in task manager

(everything else below it is pretty much 0%) Processes in task manager

*same rocket league graphical settings as before

I do not have an antivirus installed

I don't have the money right now but if need be in the future I might be able to get a new processor and or cooler.
Is there anything you see that I should look into in those photos. I will when I get time clean out my cpu and reapply it.

Thanks.

 

[ragnar-gd]

Weeeeell... In the screenshot it looks as if playing alone does NOT bottleneck your system, and your CPU is ok with that (it goes to nearly 3.9GHz...).
With 5 players, this looks different, and stress is put upon your machine, mainly by the game-server of the game you are hosting. That is the cause for your CPU-spikes, and the Network-activity seems to be causing that. Sounds logical.
Can you try how that looks like if someone else is hosting the game? Perhaps that can help...
(by the way: You do have antivirus, it's the default antivirus from microsoft - it's not that bad, no matter what other people say, so there is no need to install, less buy one)

Ah, and Cortana is showing 15% load... well, that is funny... can't tell you details, but you might read about disabling cortona, or parts of it (you cannot disable cortana completely).

At the moment, find out about that game-hosting, ignore your CPU, as it seems ok.

 

[squammy2001]

Weeeeell... In the screenshot it looks as if playing alone does NOT bottleneck your system, and your CPU is ok with that (it goes to nearly 3.9GHz...).
With 5 players, this looks different, and stress is put upon your machine, mainly by the game-server of the game you are hosting. That is the cause for your CPU-spikes, and the Network-activity seems to be causing that. Sounds logical.
Can you try how that looks like if someone else is hosting the game? Perhaps that can help...
(by the way: You do have antivirus, it's the default antivirus from microsoft - it's not that bad, no matter what other people say, so there is no need to install, less buy one)

Ah, and Cortana is showing 15% load... well, that is funny... can't tell you details, but you might read about disabling cortona, or parts of it (you cannot disable cortana completely).

At the moment, find out about that game-hosting, ignore your CPU, as it seems ok.

Not much i can do with the server as rocket league hosts their own servers i just connect to them. And i did not mention that i use a power line for my internet and its 2 floors below me in my basement so I'm not sure if that is a problem. There is nothing more i can do about that bc my parents wont move the router and motem out of the basement and wifi doesn't reach my room.

I also used cmd to ping google.com and got an avg of 21 and my rocket league in game ping is usually around 40 to 50

Thanks

 

[ragnar-gd]

Ping times are ok, and the powerline, even if providing unstable conditions, will not cause CPU-spikes, but the game would just hang (and less spikes would appear).
This is not the case.
I just supect your PC is ok, and playing the game in multiplayer is just a little bit too much for it, as simple as that.
Even if buying the fastest CPU for that socket could help, it will not be much (and perhaps not worth the money, i think it would be about 80 bucks for a new CPU, and a bit less for a used one).
So, your only option that is adaequate for the problem, is buying a faster CPU, but a used one, as a new one would be too expensive for the rather small expected gain.

What i would do, is ask a friend to lend his faster(!) computer to you (invite for pizza), or have him try his computer at your home, and then see, if another faster computer at your desk would help.
I assume your budget is better used on other things than a new computer, so only do so, if you can assure some funding for a new one...