Unstable FPS Problem

[BluExMisT]

So I have spent a lot of money on my computer as it is, but its not performing like i would hope. I'm not just complaining that i wish it were better, I'm just having an issue. I think it may be a compatibility problem but I'm not completely sure.

What Happens: When playing a game of any kind, I get this sudden drop in frames. And its not just a normal drop that i can tell. There doesn't have to be anything crazy going on for it to take place. It actually happens at least once every ten minutes or so. I'll just be playing and out of nowhere I go from a capped 60 fps down to around 20 and its stays like this for a few seconds (anywhere from 2-5 seconds).

I'm thinking it may be my motherboard, but that's just my best guess. I have an AMD FX-8350 processor and a Radeon R9 390 8G graphics card, so I know that i should be running fine on the setting I'm at. My motherboard is a Biostar TA970 ver 5.3. Its not the best but I had a budget when I first bought it. Some other thoughts might be that I'm running a 700w power supply which may be too low for the setup. And the other though being Windows 10. Since W10 is fairly new and still not optimized for everything like other Operating Systems I figured I'd mention it.

Thanks in advance for any help. Feel free to ask me for any more specs if it helps.

 

[tmicheal]

Most likely driver issue make sure your drivers are up to date and if they are up to date try reinstalling them

But before you do that tell me what game you are playing could be a bad port or something

if its neither of those could be a GPU CPU or possible ram problem idk about mobo...maybe if your OC...are you OC

 

[BluExMisT]

Most likely driver issue make sure your drivers are up to date and if they are up to date try reinstalling them

But before you do that tell me what game you are playing could be a bad port or something

if its neither of those could be a GPU CPU or possible ram problem idk about mobo...maybe if your OC...are you OC

Currently on the most up to date drivers, although since this new set of drivers my second monitor does adjust at start up for a few seconds...
As far as games go, I play Dota, Fallout 4, CSGO, MGS5, really anything... Dont guess it would be a bad port.
Not overclocked at all and I have 16GB of Ram but its only 1600

 

[GhislainG]

Your problem description matches what happens when CPU throttling occurs. Did you check if the frequency drops to 1.4 GHz? Did you monitor the CPU with AMD Overdrive? Are the thermal margins greater than 10°C at full load? What CPU cooler are you using? If not the stock cooler, how are you cooling the CPU VRM?

 

[tmicheal]

Your problem description matches what happens when CPU throttling occurs. Did you check if the frequency drops to 1.4 GHz? Did you monitor the CPU with AMD Overdrive? Are the thermal margins greater than 10°C at full load? What CPU cooler are you using? If not the stock cooler, how are you cooling the CPU VRM?

FA4 as some fps issues if its in that game turn shadow quality down to medium or low should fix it also theres an update for it which should improve performance

 

[BluExMisT]

Your problem description matches what happens when CPU throttling occurs. Did you check if the frequency drops to 1.4 GHz? Did you monitor the CPU with AMD Overdrive? Are the thermal margins greater than 10°C at full load? What CPU cooler are you using? If not the stock cooler, how are you cooling the CPU VRM?

So I just monitored my CPU speed while playing Witcher 3 and my core speed does drop down to 1.4Ghz when the fps drop occurs. My CPU thermal margins are anywhere from 20c-40c when idle alone... and Im using the cooler master hyper 212 evo cpu fan.

 

[GhislainG]

Idle is not important; what are they while gaming or while running Prime95? How are you cooling the CPU VRM? Unfortunately a CM 212 Evo doesn't cool the VRM; how are you cooling it to ensure it won't throttle the CPU?

 

[tmicheal]

Could be vrm cooling also make sure you have thermal compound its possible you forgot but unlikely

I used my stock cpu cooler fan to cool my vrms so maybe try that

 

[GhislainG]

Could be vrm cooling also make sure you have thermal compound its possible you forgot but unlikely

I used my stock cpu cooler fan to cool my vrms so maybe try that

As long as it's cooled properly, but a better motherboard with an 8+2 phase VRM would have been preferred.