Help . . . . sudden drop in FPS

[on_the_high]

Well I actually have quite a lame configuration. its an Athlon II 240 with a 8600gt and 2gb of ram. however Dirt 2 quite well, with avg fps of 30-32 @ 1366x768. the fps then suddenly dropped to 15-17 range mid way thru the game and its quite stuck there.

Thought my system was bloated with crapware. Formatted system and now after a clean install FPS is still stuck in the 15-17 range even after tuning all options off to their lowest settings. Reducing resolution doesn't help either.

Similar case with NFS hot Pursuit. Reduced resolution in steps from 1366x768 to 800x600 and FPS hasn't changed at all.

Now normally when fps is stable irrespective of resolution then the CPU would be the bottleneck. But I don't think my cpu is as old or crappy. And it used to work fine earlier. Wondering whats gone wrong now.

Was planning an upgrade to 5750, but put that thought on hold with this development.

Any clues as to what could be wrong. Any suggestions as to what steps I can take to narrow down what the real problem is or what should I be checking.

Have tried Super Pi so far and take about 29sec for the 1M mark which seems inline with what I have read in reviews about this processor. Any other idea's?

Would appreciate all the help I can get.

Cheers!

 

[wiinippongamer]

download HWmonitor, let it run in the background while you play game, and post max cpu and gpu temps here.

It seems like it's overheating so it throttles down to avoid causing damage, make sure the heatsink is properly held against the cpu.

 

[on_the_high]

Thanks for that tip. Helped me figure it out. the graphics card running at 85-90 degrees C at idle. opened case and checked. card fan not working.

Cheers!

 

[on_the_high]

Best answer selected by on_the_high.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar