[SOLVED] Sudden FPS drop in all games (desktop PC)

[RPG WOLF]

Hi,

I've recently unboxed and setup my desktop which I've had in storage for about 10 months (for personal reasons). When I gamed on it in the past, I was getting a consistent 100-200 fps in triple A games like BF1 and apex. Now, my FPS had dropped significantly and I even dip down to 80 in games like TF2, so I know something is up.

I suspect that since I haven't cleaned it for nearly a year (due to it being packed away), dust build up is a contributing factor though I'm not sure it would have this much of an impact, we're talking up to 100 fps drop in some games since I used this last.
Another thing to mention is that I haven't changed my thermal paste since I built this PC, which was in 2017.

My specs:
i5-7600k
GTX 1080TI (don't ask about the gpu/cpu combo)
16gb Corsair ddr4 3000mhz ram
EVGA Gold 650w psu
Running on Windows 10

Is this a case of CPU/GPU throttling, or something else? Please help.

 

[Lutfij]

What version of Windows 10 are you on? Ideally you should be on 20H2. Use DDU to uninstall your GPU drivers and reinstall with the latest drivers sourced from Nvidia's support site, in an elevated command, i.e, Right click installer>Run as Administrator. You forgot to mention the make and model of your motherboard. Please include the BIOS version as well for the motherboard.