Why am I lagging in-game?

[smack_them]

Hey, I recently bought FIFA 14 and I cannot understand why I lag (particularly in fast moving sequences) when playing. It's very strange, as in some games such as Borderlands 2 i have not experienced similar problems (running high settings). In other games (LoL, Bioshock Infinte) , however, I sometimes (although not as prevalent) have the same problem and it can sometimes ruin the experience.

I have tried a number of things in an attempt to fix the problem but it has helped very little. I have tried deleting my drivers and installing them again, I have tried clearing up my ram and hdd with ccleaner and I have checked to see if it was a cooling problem.
Here's my specs:
Graphics card: Radeon HD 7850 HIS 2 GB
CPU: Intel i3 2120 3.30 Ghz
RAM: 8 GB
OS: Windows 7 64 bit
Motherboard: Gigabyte H77-D3H
Is it the game itself? Is it my hardware(i.e. bottleneck)? Is it my software/settings?
Any help is appreciated, thank you

 

[smack_them]

Is the CPU heatsink and fan properly installed with thermal paste?

Download HWMonitor to check the CPU temp as it is VERY reliable.

He only has 2 cores and 2 threads. ONLY the cores will matter because these games are not coded to use hyper-threadding at all.

Yeah it also says it's at a 100 Celsius, I'm gonna have to check that out.

100C is VERY close to the melting point of solder and you are close to frying the CPU. If it really is that hot, it is probably throttling itself and causing your performance issues, but it would NOT say 100% usage though.

Try Coretemp as the last check. If it says 100c as well, then that is a HUGE issue.

Yup, it's the same, why is my computer not warning me and why the hell hasn't it affected me before?
Edit: So, I just closed fifa which i had kept open in a tab and my temps are dropping quite rapidly, it really is CPU intensive. Is it even safe to play the game?

 

[tiny voices]

Is the CPU fan spinning and NOT loose? The intel heatsinks like to get lose and become not in contact with the CPU anymore.

 

[smack_them]

Is the CPU fan spinning and NOT loose? The intel heatsinks like to get lose and become not in contact with the CPU anymore.

I just closed fifa which i had kept open in a tab and my temps are dropping quite rapidly, it really is CPU intensive. Is it even safe to play the game?

 

[AnEwG]

Actually games scale on the other two threads, maybe they don't scale as well as they do on an IB or a Haswell i3 but they still do scale on them. In BF4 the i3-2100 is on par with an FX-4100 which is stronger than the A10-4600M APU:
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4100-vs-AMD-A10-4600M
To the original poster: Like it already has been mentioned you seem to have a serious overheating problem but it is really strange how your PC doesn't shut down at these temperatures, maybe that is safety feature is disabled in the bios for some reason. Is the CPU fan running?

 

[tiny voices]

No, anything over 85C is WAY WAY to hot for that CPU and will cause damage. You need to stop doing ANY gaming until you fix the cooling. The Cooler should be working to keep the CPU WAY cooler than that. Open the computer and have a look. Try to wiggle the cooler. Fix it if it is loose.

 

[tiny voices]

Actually games scale on the other two threads, maybe they don't scale as well as they do on an IB or a Haswell i3 but they still do scale on them. In BF4 the i3-2100 is on par with an FX-4100 which is stronger than the A10-4600M APU:
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4100-vs-AMD-A10-4600M
To the original poster: Like it already has been mentioned you seem to have a serious overheating problem but it is really strange how your PC doesn't shut down at these temperatures, maybe that is safety feature is disabled in the bios for some reason. Is the CPU fan running?

Sorry, but neither of those links are worth anything. BF is a TERRIBLE comparison as it is HEAVILY coded for 4 cores and these games are coded for 2.

Also, any modern i3 is MUCH MUCH better than a 4100 or a10 in games coded for 2 cores. The 4100 is complete trash and AMD even said this themselves.

 

[smack_them]

No, anything over 85C is WAY WAY to hot for that CPU and will cause damage. You need to stop doing ANY gaming until you fix the cooling. The Cooler should be working to keep the CPU WAY cooler than that. Open the computer and have a look. Try to wiggle the cooler. Fix it if it is loose.

The CPU fan is running fine, I'll open the case and see if it's attached properly...

 

[smack_them]

No, anything over 85C is WAY WAY to hot for that CPU and will cause damage. You need to stop doing ANY gaming until you fix the cooling. The Cooler should be working to keep the CPU WAY cooler than that. Open the computer and have a look. Try to wiggle the cooler. Fix it if it is loose.

Actually games scale on the other two threads, maybe they don't scale as well as they do on an IB or a Haswell i3 but they still do scale on them. In BF4 the i3-2100 is on par with an FX-4100 which is stronger than the A10-4600M APU:
http://www.bf4blog.com/battlefield-4-retail-gpu-cpu-benchmarks/
http://cpuboss.com/cpus/AMD-FX-4100-vs-AMD-A10-4600M
To the original poster: Like it already has been mentioned you seem to have a serious overheating problem but it is really strange how your PC doesn't shut down at these temperatures, maybe that is safety feature is disabled in the bios for some reason. Is the CPU fan running?

Sorry, but neither of those links are worth anything. BF is a TERRIBLE comparison as it is HEAVILY coded for 4 cores and these games are coded for 2.

Also, any modern i3 is MUCH MUCH better than a 4100 or a10 in games coded for 2 cores. The 4100 is complete trash and AMD even said this themselves.

Yup, it's become knocked loose somehow I'm gonna shut down my computer and try to fix it I'll update when it's done thanks for the help 😉

 

[smack_them]

Ok, it should be attached properly, Again, thanks a bunch for your help and time.

 

[tiny voices]

What are the temps now? Try running FIFA and see if it is better.

 

[smack_them]

It's late here (I'm on my phone right now) so I'm gonna go to bed, but I will message you tomorrow with an update.

 

[tiny voices]

Good deal

 

[sora]

His iGPU will auto-disable when a GPU is installed.

What is your CPU usage in-game in FIFA. If I remember correctly, it is a VERY CPU intensive game, and not very GPU intensive at all. Your i3 could be a bottleneck here.

You may be right, it's quite high: ~80 %, is there anything I can do to make the game run smoother? (without buying a new CPU).

You could get an aftermarket CPU cooler and a few fans for your case.

 

[Rob423]

... Cant wait to see if this fixed it. Poor CPU.

 

[tiny voices]

OP PM'd me and explained that he sorted the cooler out and it helped the temps greatly. They were still a bit high so he will be re-doing the thermal paste to get the in the proper range.

 

[Rob423]

Ahh cool. I was gonna comment on just reseating the fan without putting fresh compound might not be the way to go. Hopefully this fixes things and he starts to check under the hood once n' awhile