Frequent FPS Drops in all Games

KentEngel · Oct 1, 2013

Hello guys,
I built a gaming computer by myself for the first time this summer and have been having some issues in all games where the FPS drops to about 5 for around 10 seconds, and this happens quite frequently (some games every couple minutes, some slightly less frequently). Here is a list of my specifications:

AMD FX 8-core 4 gHz processor
Corsair 750M power supply
16 GB Corsair RAM
Nvidia GeForce 770 GTX card
1 TB hard drive (not SSD)
AS Rock 970 extreme4 motherboard

At first glance of these specs I would venture to guess that (as long as everything is working properly) I should have no problems running any game that is out currently. I have done some troubleshooting as I have a decent knowledge of computers but I am completely stumped and would really appreciate some help. I have checked temperatures and overheating is not the problem (although I did notice that my AUX on speedfan went from about 40C to 106C during these FPS drops, but excluded that as the problem after re-applying thermal paste and some research that stated the AUX readings in speedfan are faulty). I have not tried swapping out components such as RAM or my GPU yet but like I said I have no clue what exactly the problem is and if anyone has any guidance before I start deconstructing my computer I would love you forever.

Thanks in advance
-Kent

jwk3 · Oct 1, 2013

what's the hard drive make and model? sometimes when you're playing a game the computer will have to read map and game data from the hard drive if it's not already in the RAM, like when you move into new areas of a map. have you also tried with your antivirus disabled?

KentEngel · Oct 1, 2013

jwk3 :

Never set up the antivirus so I don't think that could really be the issue. The make and model of the harddrive are as follows: Toshiba DT01ACA100 ATA Device (copied straight from the device manager)

jwk3 · Oct 1, 2013

hmm that hard drive looks fine to me. if you haven't set up your antivirus then do that as soon as you can, free anti-viruses are perfectly fine.

have you got any additional software installed like overclocking software or motherboard utilities? what games have you played?

KentEngel · Oct 1, 2013

jwk3 :

I have a few programs but I have not overclocked or anything, mainly just programs that I downloaded to monitor activity in an attempt to diagnose the problem. I ran heavyload for my RAM and that didn't seem to be the problem as the graph was very consistent. The games that I am playing are Chivalry, Battlefield 3, DOTA 2, Counterstrike: GO, Planetside 2, Natural Selection 2, and most recently the Battlefield 4 beta. What is most puzzling to me is that Chivalry (along with BF4 beta) is the game in which these drops occur most frequently and it is in no way a demanding game. The BF4 beta is obviously just a beta so it is expected to have problems but after downloading the latest GPU drivers and still having these problems it becomes more puzzling. Also it is important to note that since this is my first computer built from scratch I may not have gone through the right processes of installing drivers. I got the drivers for my card as I stated, drivers for the ethernet port, and after realizing that my USB 3 ports weren't working downloaded those but other than that I let Windows 7 take care of auto updates and such.

simon12 · Oct 1, 2013

You could try a bios update as early versions don't support your CPU. What temps are you getting on the CPU & GPU also do the CPU or GPU usage hit 100% when you get the lag?

KentEngel · Oct 1, 2013

simon12 :

Hmmm BIOS could possibly be it, I am just a bit uneasy about doing that as I have never done it before. Also I recently changed out my RAM sticks one by one, ruling those out as the possible defect. My temps for GPU and CPU hover around 50C and 60C respectively and after research those seem to be pretty normal temperatures. Neither the CPU or GPU usages peak at 100% when these spikes occur either.

Note: Thanks everyone for their ideas and quick responses so far.

-Kent

simon12 · Oct 1, 2013

Check what bios version you have, if its one that doesn't support your CPU you need to update it.

KentEngel · Oct 1, 2013

If someone could please take the time to look over my Motherboard compatibility I would greatly appreciate it. It seems as if neither my RAM nor CPU are supported, but I could be wrong. I have 2 8 GB sticks of Corsair RAM and the AMD FX 8350 processor.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/AMD/970%20Extreme4/?cat=CPU

There is a link to the supported CPUs and the supported RAMs are in the menu to the left.

simon12 · Oct 2, 2013

The RAM don't worry about as the board makers never test more than a hand full of memory. The CPU is weird but if you look at the bios downloads version 2.3 says "2. Improve AM3+ FX-8350 and FX-8150 CPU compatibility.". If you google "970 Extreme4 fx8350" there seem to be alot of people that have issues with it but these may have been fixed with the latest bios update.

KentEngel · Oct 2, 2013

simon12 :

Thank you for your responses and care to research this subject further for me. As I said, I have a decent knowledge of computers but never thought to consider BIOS updates to be the solution. I did a little more research on this subject on my own and, as you said, many people are having this problem and by reading the description for the latest BIOS version it seems like it might be the solution. People are saying that the default RAM voltage isn't set correctly and I hope that this BIOS update will solve that issue.

Just one more question before I give this possible solution a try: I have never updated my BIOS before and seeing that I am a college student could not possibly afford to fry my computer due to inexperience in preforming this process. They list a few ways to update BIOS and "Instant Flash" seems to me the easiest way of doing it. Do you have any further advice/recommendations in regards to the best way of updating my BIOS?

Thanks once again,
-Kent

simon12 · Oct 2, 2013

If its a RAM voltage issue you can set the RAM voltage in the bios without updating. As for the best way to update the bios I have no idea, I imagine doing it in windows is most risky as there is a higher chance another program could interfere. To be honest I have never come across anyone ever frying a board from a bios update, and I would think 99 times out of 100 even if you had a power cut halfway through the update you could still reset the bios manually using the jumper on the board. But note just as I have never come across it doesn't mean it doesn't happen but I suspect it is amazingly rare.

KentEngel · Oct 2, 2013

simon12 :

Yeah I found some ways of changing the voltage manually but I haven't found any concrete numbers as to the voltage that works. It seems that updating the BIOS solves this issue so I'm going to try that first as soon as I get some time tomorrow.

simon12 · Oct 3, 2013

Let us know how you get on.

KentEngel · Oct 3, 2013

simon12 :

So I just flashed the BIOS and interestingly enough it is leaving me with even more questions as it seems to have decreased the severity of the frame rate drops slightly, but they are still happening just as frequently. Still stumped on this

KentEngel · Oct 3, 2013

Thought I found another possible fix for this issue in the Windows 7 hotfix which supposedly helps with the core efficiency of FX processors but that did not help either.

simon12 · Oct 3, 2013

That hotfix was for 1st gen FX CPUs and never worked anyway. Just as an experiment try setting the CPU voltage to 1.5V (normally only needed if its overclocked but is not extrmeme) and see if it makes a difference. To be honest I am clutching at straws a bit here, you could run Memtest and some stress tests like OCCT both the CPU and GPU one just to see if any of them show up any issues.

KentEngel · Oct 3, 2013

My processor maximum voltage is set to 1.5500 V so that seems like it should be enough right? Or should I lower it to 1.5? Just for further reference my DRAM voltage is set to 1.5 V, NB Voltage is 1.145 V, HT Voltage is 1.2 V, CPU VDDA Voltage is 2.56 V, PCIE VDDA Voltage is 1.81 V, and SB Voltage is 1.10 V. Thanks for your continued ideas (even if they aren't doing anything right now they are at least ruling things out and helping me come closer towards fixing this).

simon12 · Oct 5, 2013

The CPU should not need more than 1.35-1.4V @ stock settings and 1.55 is extreme but it should not be causing the issues, I would not recommend running higher than 1.5V for everyday use. Again just to see what happens try lowering the multiplier to 14 and see what happens then try raising it to 24 and see what happens, you could leave the voltage at 1.55 for this test just to ensure stability.

KentEngel · Oct 7, 2013

simon12 :

I'm changing the voltage and multiplier as I type this, and I noticed something when I turned on the manual instead of automatic option. The max voltage is 1.55 but the voltage seems to be set at 1.3375 when I turned on manual to change the multiplier. Should I change this to 1.4 or 1.35 also?

dsr07mm · Oct 7, 2013

Download CoreTemp or CPU-Z, start some cpu intensive game in window mode and keep eye on those 2 softwares for CPU Freq. I had 870-C45 FX V2 motherboard and according to their site fx8350 is supported but unfortunatally even with all bios options disabled (cool & quite etc) I had cpu freq drops to 1000+ or sometimes even lower - especially in moments when FPS was dropping like crazy for no reason.

Also you can download HWMonitor and check out motherboard temperatures, I'm not expert in this but I did noticed some temperatures that are higher then what they should be (for motherboard). Also I did experianced 100c + for fx8350, that cant be accurate, cpu would melt on that temperature (in my case I had 200c + in every software) but that unaccurate temp reading was due to bad sensors on motherboard caused by high temperature because of CPU. So motherboard used to lower my freq and I had really choppy fps in almost every game.

Make sure to check that and if you are experiancing that frequency drop then your cpu is trottling on that motherboard, because when I changed and upgraded to new motherboard all my problems were solved.

(original thread - http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1780488/fx8350-temperature-throttling.html )

simon12 · Oct 7, 2013

Put the CPU voltage to 1.4 for the test and see how in goes.

KentEngel · Oct 8, 2013

simon12 :

I tested the voltage both at 1.35 and 1.4, but each time the problems persisted although the voltage change seems to have helped in a small way. I went back and looked at reviews for the mobo on Newegg and many people say that the voltage needs to be changed because the FX 8350 does not work correctly on stock settings. The community seems to say that the correct voltage should be 1.38 but I still saw problems at 1.4. Some reviewers also said that they weren't having problems, while others said that the problem that they were having were fixed only after buying a new (better) mobo. I guess we can call this fixed although it is upsetting that for some reason these changes don't work correctly on my computer.

Frequent FPS Drops in all Games

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