Problems with MSI GTX 970 - Getting 10-20fps on all games!

[soft_mick]

Hi there,

For the past week or so I've been experiencing some serious frame rate drops, normally i'm getting at least 60fps on all the games I play.

It seems to work fine, then i'll shut down come back the next day run the very same game with the exact same settings and get between 10-20 frames per second... which is incredibly frustrating.

My Rig:

i5 6600K Overclocked to 4.2ghz
MSI GTX 970 (no overclock)
8gb DDR4 RAM
Asus Z170 Gaming Motherboard
Cooler Master 212 Evo Heat Sink
Corsair Builder Series CXM 600W Modular 80 PLUS
Connection to 144hz monitor through DVI.

Now before we jump to solutions;

• 
  Temps on CPU 35 degrees C on average (highest 55 degrees, lowest 25 degrees).
  Temps on GPU around 30 degrees idle (goes up to around 40 in game) - although i'm not in long enough to see any changes.
  Removed all Nvidia drivers and reinstalled - no change.
  Changed the graphics driver value to 8 in regedit - no change.
  Changed graphics to low - no change.
  Used malwarebytes to scan HD - no change.
  Cleaned case and components of any dust - no change.
  I do the get the "Display driver has stopped responding and had recovered" message but this has never caused any problems before, its popped up for months.

One interesting thing i have found, it seems to run normally if i turn off the PSU after shutting down. Does this mean my PSU is screwed? I've heard my PSU isn't the best - but I've also heard that it shouldn't interfere with in game performance.

Any solutions welcome.

Cheers.

 

[clutchc]

The PSU would be my first thought, yes. The CX line is known to be somewhat problematic. Poor capacitors. And from your description of having to cycle power, could indicate a cap is loosing charge.

 

[soft_mick]

The PSU would be my first thought, yes. The CX line is known to be somewhat problematic. Poor capacitors. And from your description of having to cycle power, could indicate a cap is loosing charge.

Well... i tried turning off the PSU as i mentioned above but this time it had no effect. I've just ran malwarebytes again and it found 1 problem. I've restarted at its running fine (for now).

When I boot up tomorrow i'll know if that was causing the issue.

 

[clutchc]

Might try a FULL virus scan too, if you suspect the problem isn't hardware related. And a CCleaner Clean/Registry run too.

 

[soft_mick]

Might try a FULL virus scan too, if you suspect the problem isn't hardware related. And a CCleaner Clean/Registry run too.

I run CCleaner every few days, i did a full system scan with Norton along with the Malwarebytes and that didn't find anything.

Yeah I don't think its the card, otherwise it wouldn't run at all, right?

 

[clutchc]

If all else fails, uninstall Nortons (if you can!) and run with something else for virus protection. Nortons has been very problematic over the years. Causing all sorts of headaches. I use Microsoft Security Essentials for virus. Interfaces with Windows seamlessly and never had a virus ever.

Yes, of course it could be the card itself. That was my 2nd thought after the PSU.