Sudden Performance Drop

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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Up until a few weeks ago, I've had very good performance in games. I got 60+ FPS on just about everything on max settings. Then, a few days ago my performance suddenly became shit. Practically overnight. Before I could get 300+ FPS in CS:GO, now it drops to 30, and doesn't go higher than 75. I also noticed that the temperature of my CPU rose dramatically, up to 100 C. I haven't done anything to cause this increase in temp, it's at stock clock speed, the cooling works fine, and there's no lack of thermal paste. Scanning for viruses comes up with nothing. I've also cleaned out the inside of my PC, but that hasn't done much. I've still got 400 GB free on my hard drive.

Specs:
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel i5-4670K @ 3.4Ghz
EVGA Geforce GTX 760
8GB RAM
 
Solution
Your high CPU temperature has nothing to do with your power supply. Your Corsair H60 is loose or it has failed.

The LOG word in the RealTemp - Thermal Status area means that all 4 of your cores have reached the thermal throttling temperature. Your CPU will throttle and slow down dramatically when this happens. That is why your games are running so slow.

Fix the problem. I prefer simple and cheap solutions like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. Some self contained water cooling solutions seem to fail a lot more often than simple air coolers do.

Rit_86

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Are you getting high temperature for just the cpu or the gpu and mobo also ? Also have you checked the voltage of the cpu ? There may be a fault with the voltage regulation of your PSU or in the mobo. The performance drop is almost certainly due to the thermal spike. If the cpu or the gpu and mobo are showing high temperature simultaneously, if possible swap the PSU and check again. If the problem persists, may be the mobo is at fault. Give an update if possible.
 

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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GPU and mobo are fine, it's just my CPU. I don't know how to check voltage of cpu, and I don't think I'd know what I'd be looking at if I did
 

Rit_86

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There is a free tool named CPUZ. just install it and you can see the voltage of your CPU as well as other details. Just post a screenshot of the CPU section or tell me how much voltage and temperature it is showing, both normally and under load.
 

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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http://imgur.com/mROSi4I
Also decided to get a screenshot with the temps. CPU says 27, but the cores are at 100. It's what my other temperature monitoring programs say, and my BIOS as well.
http://imgur.com/pix5tWW
 

Rit_86

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The voltage seems to be OK, however, the frequency seems to be too high for an i5 (assuming no heavy duty background task was running while you took the screenshot). Also there is a massive difference between the core and CPU temperature.
Check the background processes running and see if any programme is using a large amount of resources.
Download and run this small program called realtemp from this link http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2089/real-temp-3-70/mirrors
and tell me the reading for the section "distance to TJ Max". That will give us the best idea of the actual temperature. Give a screenshot if possible.
Also check the BIOS, update it if necessary and reset it to its default.
Just to be safe, recheck your cooling system. Disconnect and reconnect all the connections. Leave one side of your PC case open and run the PC. See if all the fans are running and whether their speed is increasing with the increase in temperature.
 

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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No processes taking up a whole lot of resources, unless you count Google Chrome, which has quite a few different processes. Temperature has also backed off for some reason. http://imgur.com/AFrIsli. Only about 70 now. I have already updated the BIOS, and reset it. I am also using a Corsair H60, if it means anything.
 

Rit_86

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Ok so the BIOS update seems to have improved it a bit, but I think, your PSU is a major culprit. The CX series from Corsair is a pretty problematic PSU. I have seen numerous problems in PCs using CX PSUs, and it is a known problem.
Read these two posts
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2129460/corsair-cx750m-good-power-supply.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2421130/random-reboots.html
Hope this helps.
 

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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Really? I've had my PSU for about a year now, and I haven't encountered any problems with it. Why would it start causing problems now? Regardless, I'll try to find a PSU to swap out, and see if that fixes it.
 

unclewebb

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Sep 11, 2007
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Your high CPU temperature has nothing to do with your power supply. Your Corsair H60 is loose or it has failed.

The LOG word in the RealTemp - Thermal Status area means that all 4 of your cores have reached the thermal throttling temperature. Your CPU will throttle and slow down dramatically when this happens. That is why your games are running so slow.

Fix the problem. I prefer simple and cheap solutions like the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo. Some self contained water cooling solutions seem to fail a lot more often than simple air coolers do.
 
Solution

C4Yourself

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Dec 14, 2014
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Yeah, that was it. Switched out my H60 with the stock fan, and it works flawlessly. Thanks.