Random FPS Drops in Games

[TheEternal]

Hi,

First, sorry if this isn't in the best category, but here's the issue:

I recently switched out my motherboard and upgraded my CPU. Lately, I have noticed random framerate drops in some games. For example: Borderlands 2, I was getting steady 60fps, then randomly looked in a certain direction (pretty much only at a wall) and it dropped to 40. It was almost like it was just syncing to 40fps, though, because it was very constant. Then any other direction I looked, it jumped back up to 60. I have noticed this on several maps, and it's always 40 fps if it drops below 60.

Another example: Arkham Origins; I was playing max with constant 60fps, but looking in one direction caused me to drop to 30fps. Again, it was a constant 30fps. I turned off Vsync in the game and it went back up to 65-70. I tried disabling vsync in Borderlands 2 but it didn't seem to do anything.

I appreciate any help or insight as to why this would happen. Specs below:

Motherboard: ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS
GPU: Radeon HD 7950 (3GB Vram, running Catalyst 14.3 beta driver)
CPU: FX-6300 (6 core, 4.1GHz boost)
8GB RAM

One more thing to note: It did not seem that I was getting 100% CPU nor GPU usage when I had these drops.

 

[chicken4thewin]

No problem that I can see, but perhaps there is a problem with the GPU-mobo connection, try switching the location of the R7950

 

[TheEternal]

No problem that I can see, but perhaps there is a problem with the GPU-mobo connection, try switching the location of the R7950

There is only one GPU slot on my mobo, so your recommendation doesn't exactly work. But I have seen 99-100% GPU utilization, if that makes any difference.

It only happens in some games, as I said, like Bordlerlands 2 and Arkham Origins, and it was really weird seeing the framerate drop being tied to vsync in Arkham Origins (random drop from constant 60 to constant 30).

Could it have anything to do with the beta driver?

 

[chicken4thewin]

No problem that I can see, but perhaps there is a problem with the GPU-mobo connection, try switching the location of the R7950

There is only one GPU slot on my mobo, so your recommendation doesn't exactly work. But I have seen 99-100% GPU utilization, if that makes any difference.

It only happens in some games, as I said, like Bordlerlands 2 and Arkham Origins, and it was really weird seeing the framerate drop being tied to vsync in Arkham Origins (random drop from constant 60 to constant 30).

Could it have anything to do with the beta driver?

Probably, I've never seen this before, but it probably does. Maybe try reinstalling drivers or checking to see if the manufacturer has released any bug fixes/patches.

 

[TheEternal]

Just an update, I was playing FEAR 3 this evening and the same thing happened...faced a certain direction, fps dropped from 60 to 30. Faced another direction, back up to 60. Looked back in the 30fps direction, turned off vsync and my framerate went up to 130fps. It seems to be linked to vsync somehow...like it's somehow misreading the refresh rate of my monitor (an HDTV), but only in some instances...

 

[chicken4thewin]

Just an update, I was playing FEAR 3 this evening and the same thing happened...faced a certain direction, fps dropped from 60 to 30. Faced another direction, back up to 60. Looked back in the 30fps direction, turned off vsync and my framerate went up to 130fps. It seems to be linked to vsync somehow...like it's somehow misreading the refresh rate of my monitor (an HDTV), but only in some instances...

That's probably it