GTX 560 Ti driver problem

[xtremekarma]

Hello, I have a Palit GTX 560 Ti that I recently bought in Hong Kong. I took out my old 9800 GT and put in the new card, and after a few problems getting the computer to recognise the card (there was a cable missing in the box, so I had to make a new one) I got everything working. I installed the drivers that came with the card, and all was good. I got 80+ FPS in Modern Warfare 2. However, and I am not sure about this, I think I upgraded to the 275.33 drivers form NVidia. Everything was still good, but then after a day or two, I started to et moments in MW2 where the frame rate would drop drastically to the low 30's. But this is not a normal drop: It would stay at 30, then drop to 1 very quickly, then back up to 30. All in less then a second. And it would happen continually.
So I did the usual: Checked the GPU temperature, gettin 34 idle and 56 while running MW2. Defragged the hard drive, checked for viruses. Scanned other forums for ages. Rolled back to the drivers that came with the card. Still no luck.
It's very strange: in GTA IV EFLC, frame rate is high, e.g. this only happens in MW2. But sometimes in TA IV EFLC, the FPS will drop very low for a few seconds, then go back up to where it was. But it wasn't a temperature problem, the card wasn't that hot. Also, if I run a quick game of MW2 where it is just me in the game, on my own, the FPS is back to 80.
So it seems that only the online gameplay of MW2 is affected, sometimes other games are slightly affected.
Altogether now: WTF?!

 

[Mousemonkey]

Did you do a default install or did you pick the components to install?

 

[xtremekarma]

I tried both, from installing everything, to a clean install, to only the drivers.
Update: For some unknown reason, sometimes MW2 runs at 80 again in online, but if I start my own lobby and play on any map on my own, when I go back into an online game I get the FPS drop. The reall killer is that since I have crappy internet, finding matches takes ages, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. The fix for this is to start an offline game, exit and go back to searching for games, and then it works, but this also causes the FPS drop. :/

 

[Mousemonkey]

I'm wondering if it might be the Nvidia update option that's causing the grief but you say that is not installed?

 

[xtremekarma]

No, I tried with and without it.
Btw, for some reason after I uninstalled all the drivers, sed driver sweeper and rebooted, i had some trouble installing the drivers again. Sometimes i said 'Installation failed'.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I really don't like driver sweeper programs as I feel that they cause more problems than they cure.

 

[xtremekarma]

I had this problem before using Driver Sweeper, so never mind that.

 

[Mousemonkey]

I had this problem before using Driver Sweeper, so never mind that.

What did you do to fix it?

 

[xtremekarma]

No, I mean I had the problem before using DriverSweeper, and I still have it. DS did not cause it.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Righteo, my bad.

 

[xtremekarma]

Now also getting blue screens of death, and also lots of visual artifacts now and again.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Sounds like a dodgy card, what was the cable that you had to make?

 

[xtremekarma]

It was a duplicate of the 6 pin one that came with the card. It has 6 slots, but only 5 cables. Basically what I made was more or less what came with the card.
I realised I had OC'ed the mobo a bit, I'm dialing back the settings to see if it does anything.

 

[xtremekarma]

Fps drop has struck out of nowhere, MP unplayable.