How to diagnose a bad GPU/CPU?

Alex Dmitriev

Honorable
Jul 2, 2013
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10,510
Hello,

Recently, I've assembled my own PC and it ran pretty smoothly couple of months, but right now I'm having some issues while gaming, the game freezes for half of a second, maybe even a second and then runs again, happens every 5-8 minutes, it's very annoying, I've ran Far cry 3 on highest settings and now it freezes while I'm playing DotA? I've checked my RAM using memtest86, and it gave me no errors, also I checked if the RAM is seated fully, and it is. I've cleaned the dust from the GPU&CPU&Fans, there is still some, especially on the back of the GPU (my vacuum cleaner is that not good, infact it's terrible)

PC specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 96 Black Edition 3.4 Ghz (CPU)
Nvidia GeForce GTX650 (GPU)
HyperX Blu 4 GB 1333 Mhz (RAMx1)
Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 (MB)

Question: How to diagnose a bad GPU/CPU/MB?


PS.
It cant be a virus, and it cannot be my operating system, cause I've just re-installed my OS, used to have 64-bit win7 now 32-bit win7.

PPS.
I have the latest GPU drivers, even installed the latest chipset driver.

PPPS.
SpeedFan (Take a look at the voltage, I dont think that is normal)
Oh and I had a game running when I was taking this screenshot.
sk73.png
 
Solution


Antivirus programs...
If it was a hardware issue it would be very unstable in nature. It wouldn't pause for a half of a second every 5-8 minutes, it would crash outright.

That sounds to me like typical background workloads taking priority, possibly a belligerent anti-virus. It could also be an aging hard drive.
 

Alex Dmitriev

Honorable
Jul 2, 2013
17
0
10,510

HDD is new, bought it few months ago, still got the warranty for it. It may be anti-virus' fault, I'm using a free anti-virus called AVG, also I'm using anti spybot "Spybot s'n'd"


Should I do a stability test on my GPU? Using FurMark? I heard it's a very GPU intensive software, and may do some bad things to my GPU, but it might reveal some issues if I have some with my GPU.

Oh and I'm using a 650 Watt gaming PSU.
 


Antivirus programs are notorious for slowing down PCs. Disable that shit and see if it stops.
 
Solution

Alex Dmitriev

Honorable
Jul 2, 2013
17
0
10,510


Alright, will test if that helps.