Custom Built System is stuttering on games.

[ShakatheZulu]

I recently bought a bundle deal from Newegg that comes with a fairly decent gaming setup. Everything seems to run normal, no crashes or conflicts, but when I try and play a game like Fallout New Vegas, it becomes unplayable as soon as there are more than 8 characters in the surrounding area and is generally "laggy" anyway.

Processor: AMD FX-6100 Zambezi 3.3 GHz Socket AM3+
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-970A-D3 AM3+
GPU: GeForce GTX 560 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 256-bit GDDR5
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST500DM002 500GB 7200RPM
OS: Windows 7 Home x64bit

I did a clean reinstall of my graphics card, and the issue is still there even with all graphical settings set to low. So I'm not sure if it is an issue with the motherboard/processor or what. Also my videocard was apparently manufactured by gigabyte. (Side note, I just recently installed the new beta driver from NVidia, 295.51, and it's the same problem. I have not tried rolling back my driver to something before 285.xx.)

Somewhere I read something that the motherboard doesn't draw enough voltage and can effect performance. I am not sure how to correct that issue. So anyway, my question is... what do I try next to get my computer running the way it should?

 

[Crush3d]

I would reinstall the drivers from the nVidia CD. Give that a shot. I had a minor issue with a kernel failure even though I had just installed my drivers when I first installed all my components.. a reinstall of my standard video drivers seems to have fixed my issue.

 

[hpdeskjet]

For the sake of being thorough, what PSU do you have?

 

[ShakatheZulu]

PSU: COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus 550W

I thought that I should have put that in my post after I had already left for work. I will give the reinstallation of the video drivers a shot later after I get some sleep. I'm assuming I should uninstall all video drivers in safe mode and then reinstall? Or is it possible to roll back the drivers without leaving anything behind?

Also, thank you for the responses.

 

[ShakatheZulu]

After doing some extensive research, I decided to try and manually set the voltage and CL timings for my ram. It appears that my motherboard was underclocking my ram and also not giving it enough voltage.

It was giving it 1.46v when it needed 1.6v, and the timings were auto set to 9-9-9-24, when it needed to be 8-8-8-24. I fixed it in the bios, ran my game again and didn't really have any issues. I'll do a few more tests to make sure everything is kosher, but I think it's all good now.