Games running badly after windows reinstall?

[metroidmen]

Hey guys, so last week I reinstalled windows. I felt it was time to give my system a quick refresh. After doing so, I installed all my updates, got all my graphics drivers, etc and now, my games all run like complete crap. Games I have tested, Battlefield 3, saints row 3, skyrim, mass effect 3. Where before I could play them butter smooth at max settings, now it's unplayable! Please help with any ideas. :/ Specs below.

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
AMD Phenom II X4 945 @ 3.0Ghz
4 gb DDR3 ram
Zotac 580 GTX Amp2

 

[geekapproved]

Did you install your motherboards chipset drivers and the latest graphics driver from Nvidia.com?

 

[metroidmen]

Yes. Those were the first things to be done, along with all of windows updates.

 

[metroidmen]

Okay, Ive pegged the issue. I downloaded both the latest official driver and beta driver. While the beta driver was said to cause improved performance in a lot of games, it ironically caused bad performance. So running a driver sweeper and reinstalling the official drivers did the trick.