550Ti Underperforming.

Ok, so, since my last thread was locked for piracy (I wasn't promoting piracy or anything), I might as well make a new thread and be more straight to the point.

I got a 550Ti for xmas, ASUS 550Ti (The lower end one), and we both have exactly the same hardware bar the motherboard and RAM (RAM have same speeds/timings, I have more RAM and different brand. My motherboard is an AMD 760G, his is an nVidia 7025.)

These are my GPU clocks:


the rest of my hardware:


3DMark11 score:
http://3dmark.com/3dm11/2440479
Note: The 3DMark11 score was with the card at stock clocks.

FurMark 1.8.5 score:


My friend has a 1920x1080 monitor, and mine is 1280x1024.

The problem is that my friend gets almost constant 60FPS in MW3 at 1920x1080, and I pretty much get constant 40-45FPS at 1280x1024. Although my copy of MW3 is cracked (Probably mentioning that got my thread locked, but that's a bit unfair.), I still don't expect that vast a difference in framerates. It's not only MW3 that I have problems with, it's also with Battlefield 3, Skyrim, DiRT 3, Borderlands and Just Cause 2 (All of which I own legitimately, so don't say it's all because of cracks etc). I also get TERRIBLE performance in OpenGL games such as Minecraft, Alien Arena, Sauerbraten and RuneScape. Minecraft and RuneScape a re probably the worst affected. RuneScape gets 30FPS normally, then drops to 20FPS when moving the camera. Minecraft gets roughly 40FPS but drops to between 20FPS and 30FPS whenever I start doing something.

The friend with the almost identical rig to me, gets perfect performance with all his games (120+FPS in Minecraft, not checked with RuneScape). He doesn't have Battlefield 3, DiRT 3 or Just Cause 2, but he gets at least 40FPS at his resolution on Skyrim and Borderlands.

I checked nVidia's optimal playable settings for each of my games, and I am supposed to get average 46FPS on Battlefield 3 maxed settings on my resolution, however, I can hardly manage to reach 46FPS at "High" with no AA at 1280x720. At 1280x1024, I still fall 10-30FPS below what my framerates should be according to nVidia's optimal playable settings.

Skyrim in particular seems to have problems too, whenever I go near water, my framerate drops from 30FPS to around 15FPS.

I have no clue as to why this is happening besides the possiblity of a hardware fault.

Here's what I have tried:

Reinstalling drivers (Several times)

Clearing CMOS

Rebooting (Duh)

Reseating the GPU and power cables

Closing ALL programs that aren't in use.

Running a virus scan (ESET NOD32)

Defragmenting (Defraggler)

Cleaning the registry and temp folders (CCleaner)

Trying the nVidia beta drivers

Outdated drivers from the ASUS website

IOBit Game Booster

Overclocking/Underclocking

If there's anything else I can try, please let me know.