I recently reformatted my HDD and now my games lag like crazy regardless of Vide

[gzulick]

I came back from school to find my power supply fried, I replaced that and figured I'd reformat my HDD while I was in tech mode. I re-installed all the drivers for everything, I've upgraded my RAM and replaced my CPU Fan and heat sink (I thought that might be the problem because it wouldn't seat well). While playing games like Skyrim, Saint's Row 3, Killing Floor my game has a lot of that didn't exist before I reformatted. The lag isn't affected by any graphic settings or Internet connection. In Skyrim it is most affected in places with large numbers of AI or when there is a lot to load in a new area. This computer is about 3.5 years old and has handled everything I throw at it with maximum graphic settings. I just want to be back in that happy place. Also noteworthy that this problem only happens in games.

My build consists of:
Processor: i7 920 (not overclocked)
Graphics Card: HD Radeon 5800 series (5870?)
HDD: 2 1 Terabyte HDDs 7200 rpm
Mother Board: EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE
RAM: 12 Gigs 1600
Power Supply: 750 watt Corsair
Operating System: Fully Updated Windows 7 Professional x64

Thanks guys!

 

[Dupontrocks11]

How long have you been at school? I think your graphics card might be the culprit.

 

[mouse24]

Since you reseated a lot of components and you say AI makes you lag, what are your temps while stress testing?

 

[gzulick]

I was gone at school for 4 months or so, I've re-seated many of my components multiple times to test if it was something as minor as that, but nothing has worked. Using the Heavyload stress test program the temp is around 70 Celsius with the new fan (down from 85-90 with the old fan).

 

[mouse24]

Never heard of heavy load and don't know how well it works. The widely accepted programs are pretty much Prime95 (cpu stress test) Furmark (GPU stress test) and HWmonitor (Monitor temps)

My main thought process on this right now is thermal throttling. As with all things in computers, don't know till you rule it out.

 

[gzulick]

Heavyload is just a program that stresses your GPU and CPU, I ran RealTemp at the same time. I've never messed with thermal throttling before or after the reformat (not that it would change bios). Are you suggesting that its set to high?