Large FPS drops

[TOT_tomdora]

Hello.
Until recently, every game I had played decently fine with a consistent 60 fps on whatever settings they happened to be. Now, I can't even play on Hightower without getting fps drop.
I tried game booster; I tried dusting out the system; I tried uninstalling and reinstalling GPU drivers; I tried cleaning the registry; I tried defragmentation.
Using HWmonitor, I found that my CPU and GPU never went above 40C.

System:
P6-2136
(A6-3620 APU)
(Radeon HD 6530D)
Windows 8 64-bit

Other examples: in Killing Floor, whenever there's more than 60 zeds spawned on the map, or more than 20 on screen, I get frame drop.
This also happens on all resolution and graphic settings (which makes me think it could be something with the CPU...)
All help would be appreciated.

 

[Groomer]

Do you have vsync enabled? Or any other settings overridden trough the AMD control center?

 

[TOT_tomdora]

I do have VSync enabled, but it hasn't been a problem before.
With enabled (right now): 23-60
Without enabled: 42-88
Strange, when I try to open the Catalyst Control Center, it no longer opens. I haven't touched it since I got the computer, though.
Is it possible that a lower download speed could affect gameplay? I don't think so, but it never hurts to ask.

 

[armageddon007]

i think i know whats causing that problem...
its your faulty driver which stops working after sometime and hence your system chooses the internal graphics card as a default/..(which is surely weaker than your dedicated one)

remove the present catalyst and reinstall some other version of drivers....hope it helps....

 

[jmanc6]

It could be something wrong with the drivers most likely. If not maybe something came loose inside the computer so you may want to check that out. But download speeds wont make a difference while gaming. Even if you are play mutiplayer. Hope all goes well.

 

[jmanc6]

It could be something wrong with the drivers most likely. If not maybe something came loose inside the computer so you may want to check that out. But download speeds wont make a difference while gaming. Even if you are play mutiplayer. Hope all goes well.

 

[HEXiT]

yep go to amds driver download page and get the latest gfx drivers for your system.
unistall your current drivers and run a reg cleaner like ccleaner (run it a couple of times till no errors show up)
reboot and install the latest drivers you got...
make sure you got the rite 1s for your apu and o.s.
http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

 

[TOT_tomdora]

i think i know whats causing that problem...
its your faulty driver which stops working after sometime and hence your system chooses the internal graphics card as a default/..(which is surely weaker than your dedicated one)

remove the present catalyst and reinstall some other version of drivers....hope it helps....

I don't have a dedicated right now; I'm using the APU's graphics, which worked well until recently.
HEXiT, does running the registry cleaner after uninstalling (I assume through Add/Remove Programs) really make a difference? Because I've already tried to uninstall and reinstall, and it did nothing.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

Edit: Ignore this bump.

 

[HEXiT]

it clears out reg entries that are left behind. this can include left over file links, settings and such.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

So even if I clear the reg before or after it doesn't do the same thing?

 

[HEXiT]

its best to do it after you remove the drivers. that way it should get everything rather than leaving stuff behind that may be locked while the files are in use.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

Alright, I tried it. It helped a little bit, but performance is still far from the way it used to be.

 

[HEXiT]

check the ram hasnt come out of 1 of the sockets. also on killing floor it will run well enough if your not running at 1080p.
the amd apu's run best with really fast ram. its possible 1 stick has gone bad. so run a mem test.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

Tried both. RAM is connected, and Memtest returned with no errors.
I may have forgotten to mention that the HDD is 5400 RPM and that my computer is much noisier than it used to be, which suggests fan activity, but as I previously stated, the maximum temperature it ever gets to is 41 C.

 

[haider95]

Oh guys -.- Hey OP what power supply are you running brah?

 

[simon12]

A laptop one, sorry I can't be more help.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

It's...
300 watts?! I thought at the least it was 350!

 

[simon12]

Sorry my mistake I saw pavillion and assumed a laptop.

 

[HEXiT]

try the auto feature on ultimate defrag trial.
5400 rpm is really slow so if the drive is thrashing it could be heavily fragmented.

 

[TOT_tomdora]

I use Auslogics Disk Defrag regularly.