My system spec are in my sig.

Up until recently I was pretty happy with my gaming performance. But recently I have noticed a large drop in FPS in most of my games. I did all the usual, defrag, reinstall driver and completely remove old, spyware. Nothing seems to help. The biggest surprise is that on some games, no matter what setting I have the FPS are unchanged.

For example, in CS:S I have all setting maxed @ 1440x900 and in the video stress test I used to average almost 200FPS, now I get 100 FPS, and when I lower all settings to minimum at same rez I am only getting 103 FPS!?!? Same thing in Crysis, From high settings to all lower settings I only gain like 3 FPS. Now i used to get 20+ FPS at High, and then 50+ at lower/med settings, now its like 14 @ High and less than 18 FPS at all low and in windowed. Any suggestions?

Could it be a power supply issue? Are there ways to check this?

One of the newer drivers did something to retard the performance. Go back and get a slightly earlier driver or do a "revert to earlier driver" in the device manager.

Make/brand power supply?
Was you video card over clocked?

I overclocked my card. I actually have even boosted it to 613/947 and no change in performance. Where as before it was a noticeable jump from stock 513/800

My power supply is this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6817159056

Which driver are you running?

I am currently running 175.19, But I have d/l'd the last 2 official driver to retry those, I am just finishing a virus scan to make sure its not that. then will try one of the older driver.

Ok so I reverted to the 169.21 driver and exact same issues. I did the CS:S stress test, and got 94 FPS with every thing maxed including AA @ 1440x900, and then did it again with everything at low @ 1152x864 windowed and got 97 FPS!?!?!? On Crysis, I tried the recommended setting and it gave me 800x600 with everything at low and I still got 30-35 FPS. I know when I used to use the driver that my performance was much better. I remember when Crysis first came out I was getting almost 20+FPS with everything maxed and I know that I would average almost 200+ on the CS stress test. Now I can't even get 100 FPS with an 8800 on low settings!!!!! What is going on!?!?!?!?

What are the temperatures of your video card?

I am not 100% but if your card is not cooling properly or the fan is not working it will probably be affecting performance.

Check your task manager and look for anything out of the ordinary.
Hijackthis.exe is a good program to download to find out if there are any "hidden" programs like spyware.

You can download SandraSoft (SIS) from download.com and benchmark your system to find any potential bottlenecks or failing hardware.

Or... maybe your case is dirty restricting airflow heating up your system and slowing it down?
Or check BIOS and make sure your processor settings are correct. This happened to me once and was a pain. The multiplier dropped down and reduced my e6600 to 1ghz.

That coolmax psu isn't rated very well....you are probably going to nead a better quality psu such as PC P&C Silencer610.
Your rig with that 8800GTS is starting to fail your psu.
See if you can borrow a decent supply to check.
One guy on that link you gave said his lasted for about 7months and then started shutting down on him when gaming!
Hope this helps.

Have you run MS update recently? Sometimes those updates interfere with other software. For instance, the whole Zone Alarm issue currently going on.

The 175.19 drivers were redone, as the original had several issues. Id Driver Clean the whole thing, and redownload the new 175.19 drivers, as theyre fixed now

Thanks for the advise everyone. I was using the most current 175.19 drivers. I will check temps and air flow and see if that helps. I had a HDD fail recently and before that is was off and on. It worked sometimes when I switched power cables and then finally it just crapped out. I have had the PSU for almost 2 years so that is why I am thinking it might be the PSU. I am just hoping this rig will last another year, because the wife will not let me upgrade until then.

Like I asked before...can you borrow a friends psu for a couple of hours....It's gotta be fairly new and of decent quality...
This will instantly show if it's the power supply or not...
Hope this helps.

i have same exact card as you and same drivers and i have no problems whatsoever, there are multiple programs that allow you to check temps of your card cause if it overheating then it can signifacantly slow it down and it might be the case if u are overclocking it. You can use Rivatuner or Speedfan to find ur temps of card. I recommend Rivatuner cause it allows u to control fan speeds and stuff. Also maybe your psu is crapping out also.