Searching for Bottleneck

[Fridzj]

Greetings, people of Tom's Hardware.

Lately I've been experiencing FPS drops when playing games. It goes from a smooth 60 FPS to about 10 FPS. Sometimes it goes back to its original smooth FPS but soon after it will drop again. This issue generally occurs after 20 minutes of playing time. I suspect that some part(s) of the system is/are overheating, but when I look at SpeedFan (see link below) the temperatures seem normal. The value of Temp1 is apparently bugged because it is displayed in degrees Celsius rather than degrees Fahrenheit.

http://i67.tinypic.com/25u4aj8.png

My system is rather old, but I have replaced most of the parts sporadically. My CPU is still the original one, and I have not replaced the thermal paste yet. Same goes for the fan of the GPU, which I've now used for 5 years.

GPU: http://i64.tinypic.com/mw2jvn.jpg
CPU: http://i68.tinypic.com/168sg2c.jpg

I have Windows 10 running on the SSD. My drivers are all up to date. Here are the specs:

PC model name: Acer Aspire M7720 (91.S8W7S.TPP) from 2009
Motherboard MBG4109002
CPU: Intel Core i7-920 @ 2.67GHz, 2668 Mhz, quad core
Memory: 6 GB DDR3
GPU: (ASUS) Nvidia GTS 450 (1 GB; 783 Mhz graphics clock; 1566 Mhz processor clock)
HDD: WDC WD10EAVS-00D7B1 (7200 RPM; 1TB)
SSD: Samsung EVO 850 250 GB
CPU heatsink: Gateway HI.G4100.001 Cpu Heatsink Fan
Case fan: Sunon Fans KDE1209PTV3.13.MS.A.GN (28 dB, 2200 RPM)

I really want to find the bottleneck so I can get back to a steady FPS.
Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance!
Fridzj

 

[assasin32]

CPU and GPU are a bit dated so you will be experiencing FPS drops while gaming with newer titles or when things get a bit hectic in a game it's not uncommon to go from 60fps to drastically lower if you don't have much in reserve.

If thats not the issue and you suspect overheating, hit the computer with compressed air to blow out dust. But maybe before than run Furmark and something like Prime95, both at the same time and monitor the temps. Than clean it out and look at the temps. This will stress test both your CPU/GPU and push it farther than any game would and should bring the temps even higher than gaming, and if you do it before an after cleaning you can help narrow it down if it was the problem.

Beyond that update your drivers, lower your graphics settings in game, check how much memory your using, reduce number of programs that boot on start, defrag hard drive, run disk cleanup. A few of these don't make sense but when there is an issue that may or may not be caused by lack of resources I find just doing everything and hoping something works to be the best approach and sometimes it's something weird that fixes the issue.

As for the thermal paste, I would replace it if the temps were high upon stress testing. Normally I would say replace it since you removed the fan and cleaning it up and reapplying would be the best approach but if you stress test it and it's good I wouldn't worry about it. If the temps are a bit high replace the paste.