[SOLVED] PC has started to underperform in games (stuttering, much lower fps than usual)

[Goaky-]

My performance in games has gotten progressively worse over the past few weeks.

Here are my specs:

Motherboard: Asus PRIME Z370-P
CPU: I7 8700k
GPU: GTX 970
PSU: Corsair TX850M, 850W
RAM: Corsair Vengeance LED DDR4 3200Mhz 16GB (2x8 Dual channel)
SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB
HDD: WDC 1 TB
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64

Most of the parts are from 2017, but the GTX 970 is from 2015.

Symptoms:

I first noticed unusual stuttering in the game Mordhau a few weeks ago. Other games ran fine, so I thought it was an issue with the game. Later, I got into the VALORANT Beta and I experienced some fps drops when action was happening on the screen, even on low settings. After that CSGO started to run very badly, and I concluded that the issue must be on my end, either software or hardware related.

CSGO: Low fps in general. It drops to 50-60 fps on high settings and 80-90 fps on low settings. Before this issue I could easily get 250+ fps on low settings and 150+ fps on high settings. Also fps drops when action is happening with multiple players on screen. No stuttering.

Mordhau: Varies from light to heavy stuttering. FPS is normal and good, which is very surprising and weird to me. The stuttering will make the fps drop for a split second.

Unfortunately I don’t have spare parts that I can swap with, so I have to narrow down the problem some other way.

What I have tried and looked at so far:

- Yesterday I wiped my SSD and did a clean reinstall of Windows 10, but the problems persist exactly like before. Prior to the clean reinstall I wiped my gpu drivers with DDU and downloaded the newest version, but it didn't work. So I’m thinking that it might be hardware related.

- I suspected that my GPU was dying since it’s almost 5 years old, but there are no artifacts and I think the Furmark score is decent for a GTX 970 (3700-3900 points on 1080p preset 0xAA).

- Nvidia control panel and in-game settings should be fine. V-sync disabled everywhere, frame queue limited to 1, power management is set to prefer max performance.

- System stability is (generally) fine as far as I have tested (CPU passes Prime95 over night, and 10 rounds of IntelBurnTest, Memtest86 showed no errors after a few hours).

- However, I have experienced random restarts once every month or every few weeks, going back at least ½ a year. This problem I suspected was caused by my PSU or Windows 10. I never got to the bottom of this issue. I’m not sure if this problem is related, and it might be fixed now on a clean Windows 10, but I have no way to reproduce it. I just thought it was worth mentioning.

- GPU and CPU temperatures are within the normal range on idle and load.

Originally I posted this elsewhere, but I haven't gotten much response yet. I would really appreciate some help with this. Any suggestions on what I could try are welcome.

HWmonitor on load (while in CSGO):

Furmark score:

FPS in CSGO (top right):

Low settings:

High settings:

 

[Goaky-]

Update:

I tried booting with just mouse and keyboard plugged in and without my HDD, as well as using only 1 RAM stick and then changing to the other one afterwards. Didn't fix anything, unfortunately. I also checked all connections in the PC and they were all fine, no loose ones.

I also tried removing the CMOS battery and then putting it back in after a few minutes. No change.

At this point I'm considering just buying new hardware, 1 part at a time to narrow it down. Which component do you think is most likely the cause? CPU or GPU, perhaps? I don't know what else would cause this.

Also, not related to the above updates, but I started getting reasonable fps in CSGO again, but this time it stutters, just like the symptoms in Mordhau. Valorant now runs smoothly, which is just odd.

 

[Goaky-]

Update 2:

I tried disabling the graphics card and running only on intel integrated graphics. CS:GO and Mordhau ran very poorly in terms of fps, as expected, but I did not notice any significant stuttering compared to the GTX 970. This leads me to believe that it is in fact the GTX 970 that is the issue. However, with the games running so poorly on integrated graphics, it could be that the stuttering just isn't noticeable, but still present. I'm probably going to order another card and do another update when it arrives, so the future people visiting from search engines won't be left in the dark. It's a bit of a gamble, though.

 

[Goaky-]

Update 3:

A friend suggested that I should do a GPU VRAM test. I tried with OCCT and gpumemtest and they show no errors. However, everything stutters while these tests are running, while he was getting no stutters whatsoever. He also noticed that my GPU's memory clock drops from 3500mhz to 3000mhz while doing this test. The regular gpu stresstests like Furmark do not stress the VRAM, so that's why there were no issues in regular benchmarks. So, I feel like it is definitely the GPU. Ordering a new one today. I'll just mark it solved and do another update if it turns out to not be the GPU, but it's 99% sure.

 

[golgothic]

Hi, i have a similar problem, do you have any updates on your side?