FPS drop in 90% of my games

chrischan0323

Honorable
Jul 1, 2012
63
0
10,630
Specs:
i5-2500K @ 3.30GHz
GTX 770 2GB
8GB RAM
Windows 7 64-bit

I've been fed up with this problem for at least 1 year and yet I still can't figure it out which one is the culprit. Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, XCOM, Company Of Heroes 2, Tomb Raider, Payday 2, Mafia 2, Batman Arkham City and Origins, Sleeping Dogs, Assassin's Creed 3, Serious Sam 3 BFE, etc.

All of them are amazing games and I don't know whether I should blame those developers for badly optimizing their games or my PC's fault. All obvious methods were applied but sadly they turned out to be futile.

Are there any ex-victims able to help me? Any useful suggestion is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Solution
http://ark.intel.com/products/52210/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-Processor-%286M-Cache-3_30-GHz%29

Tcase, or Intels max temp for that CPU is 72.6C. Your temps are still to close to Tcase for my liking. Turning off the protection for the CPU will fix it, but isn't recommended because now the CPU can't throttle down to save itself. If you are in the northern hemisphere and summer comes with higher ambient temps, you could cross 73C and the CPU might not survive.

chrischan0323

Honorable
Jul 1, 2012
63
0
10,630
Sorry for the late reply as I got a lot stuff to do in my hands.

Maximum temperature while playing games:
CPU:79C
GPU:85C or above

Oh, the throttlewatch is only available for Pentium and Xeon. Therefore, I can't apply it on my CPU.
 

chrischan0323

Honorable
Jul 1, 2012
63
0
10,630


Yeah, I'm using the stock fan now and I cleaned up the dust by separating the fan and the heatsink and swept them with paint brush.
 
Ok, CPU is clearly overheating. Next question is WHY.

Try re-applying thermal past and see if that helps.

But yeah, I basically have the same rig as you (just with a 2600k), so you should be able to max everything under the sun. Clearly looks like a thermal issue.
 

Ishmael_Sheldon

Reputable
Mar 31, 2014
6
0
4,520
You could also look into getting a new heat sink or just a new processor in general. Other than that I don't know what the problem is other than your heat sink and CPU fan and thermal paste may be an issue as well.
 

chrischan0323

Honorable
Jul 1, 2012
63
0
10,630
Phew, got a new CPU fan and now the temperature is around 60++C during gaming but that doesn't mean it completely eliminates the FPS drop issue. In a meantime, I found something peculiar with my CPU. During gaming, the CPU clock speed is strangely inconsistent. All 4 cores fluctuate between 3.3GHz and 1.5GHz.

Any idea what happened to my CPU?
 

chrischan0323

Honorable
Jul 1, 2012
63
0
10,630
Found a fix! I downloaded this mighty program called ThrottleStop and followed instructions from Internet by unticking BD PROCHOT, EIST and C1E and then turn on in order to make it work. Guess what? No more CPU clock speed drop and FPS drop! Although somehow 4 cores will drop down to 3.19xxGhz for unknown reasons, they are not big deal as long as they never drop down to 1.5Ghz that's all.

Temperature is fine. The maximum temperature I get is 69C on 4 cores and sometimes the second core reaches to 72C. Hopefully it's not a huge problem for my CPU.
 

4745454b

Titan
Moderator
http://ark.intel.com/products/52210/Intel-Core-i5-2500K-Processor-%286M-Cache-3_30-GHz%29

Tcase, or Intels max temp for that CPU is 72.6C. Your temps are still to close to Tcase for my liking. Turning off the protection for the CPU will fix it, but isn't recommended because now the CPU can't throttle down to save itself. If you are in the northern hemisphere and summer comes with higher ambient temps, you could cross 73C and the CPU might not survive.
 
Solution