Question PC Performing Slower Over Time

[slothhii]

Ever since I took a 2 month break from gaming last year, my PC has performed noticeably worse than before. In more demanding games I used to average around 70-80 fps, whereas now, when I try the same game, I get more around 40-50fps. Same with other games, I lose typically around 20-40% fps than what it used to be, especially if I have one or two other programs running such as when I'm in a call in discord. I've tried cleaning dust out of my PC, reapplying thermal paste on my CPU, resintallling windows while keeping my apps and programs, configuring Windows settings for optimal performance, keeping minimal programs open at once, scanning for malaware, removing temp files / old app data, and updating all drivers. I'm lost for ideas now so I'm now wondering if I need to upgrade my components or even upgrade to Windows 11 perhaps?

Any ideas of what I can do to solve this issue are much appreciated.

PC Specs:
-Intel Core i7 8700
-GTX 1660 Super
-16 GB (1x16) DDR4 2666mhz (I have tried dual channeling, however my motherboard was created by OMEN, which has a bad design which completely restricts overclocking in the BIOS for my certain pre-built, so my base speed for dual channeling is 2133mhz which I can't change, which I have found to be worse in performance compared to single channel 2666mhz).

 

[jcarter12]

I know you mentioned drivers but that still seems like the most logical cause to me. Alternativly you could try saving your files and reinstalling Windows, then updating the chipset and GPU drivers from the manufacturer then use windows updater.

 

[slothhii]

I tried updating my chipset drivers for my motherboard off of Intels website alongside completely unistalling my GPU drivers using the Display Driver Uninstaller in Windows Safe Mode, then reinstalling my GPU drivers from Nvidia, however neither one seemed to have a difference in performance. I will do a clean reinstall of Windows through USB in a few days once I return home from a short trip, and try to reinstall my drivers to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the response.