Games get choppy randomly

[campbullard]

I had a 9800gt and it ran all my games flawlessly, but then it stopped working so I got a 460 gtx, and now my games will run high fps but then every minute or so it will get really choppy and fps drops to like 20 for a few seconds. I updated my drivers and I haven't oc'ed it or anything like that, and I am still running all the same settings. gpu max temp was 63 degrees C, and cpu was 49 degrees C, so not even close to overheating. Also I wonder if this could be a power supply issue because I am still using the same power supply and it is 500 watts. Basically just asking if anyone has any ideas?

specs: Nvidia gtx 460, Intel e8500, 4 gigs ram, windows vista 64 bit

 

[pkw4]

what psu brand and spec? 12v rail/s amps?

 

[gracefully]

In addition to the above, do you have the latest drivers?

 

[campbullard]

I actually ordered a new psu, so I will let you know if the problem persists after I install it.

 

[dheckman]

I actually ordered a new psu, so I will let you know if the problem persists after I install it.

I'm experiencing this same problem and am interested in hearing whether a new PSU solves it.

 

[gracefully]

Okay that's nice, but please don't ignore our suggestions. You should always download the latest drivers from nvidia when they become available. Sometimes they fix random bugs and increase performance, so you should make a habit of doing it even without problems.

 

[dheckman]

I actually ordered a new psu, so I will let you know if the problem persists after I install it.

Did you get a new PSU yet, and has it solved the problem?

 

[campbullard]

Got new psu, reformatted windows, no heat problems, reformatted in case it was software issues, and I'm on newest drivers. Tested TF2 today problem seems to still be persisting, but possibly to a lesser degree will test SC2 later so I'm not really sure. I'm going to run memtest overnight tomorrow. I have no idea at this point, possibly vista doesn't like my gtx 460, possibly a cpu thing. I'm certainly not a technical expert but I am stumped. My issues also seem inconsistent across games which make it more difficult to describe my problem. In TF2 its more of a low fps stutter I get randomly every so often. While in SC2 it is a more typical games getting consistently choppy the bigger my army gets (which is normal if you lack the computer to run the game). However, I was running the game great on the 9800gt at maxed settings. Then I get my new card and the game starts having issues, and even after lowering the settings it didn't seem to change much. For some reason I don't think it's a problem with the actual graphics card because it certainly ran Battlefield Bad company 2 at much higher settings at a better framerate.