Random framerate drops in all games

[Craig Jones]

Hello, I am new here to Tom's Hardware. I built a computer for myself back in october '12 and I seem to be having random framerate drops across all games. Even when I turn all the settings down to minimum the framerate will still drop intensely. This occurs every 30 seconds and lasts for about ten seconds at a time. I have looked through endless threads to see others that are facing the same and similar issues and haven't been able to solve them.

So anyway, I have used GPU-Z to observe my GPU during games, and the GPU usage seem to drop in conjunction with the framerate. I noticed this a while back and I have evidence that leads me to believe that it is the PSU that is the problem. This is because every time the framerate drops the 12v rails seem to spike up +0.2v. I have tried everything possible, I just want to be sure before i spend £90 on a PSU

These are my full system specs:

FX-8150
Powercolor HD 6970
OCZ Vertex II 60GB (as Windows 7 drive)
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1
2x4GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR3
Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 Motherboard
Powercool X-Viper 1050w 80+Bronze non-modular psu

I have taken screenshots of my GPU whilst playing Battlefield 3 at ultra settings with v-sync off.

Here is my GPU on idle

Here are 2 pictures whilst playing BF3

VDDC shows my 12v rail for some reason, as you see the it rises when the framerate drops. I know the sensors aren't exactly accurate but it's something to go off in terms of what may be causing the frustrating issue

 

[simon12]

What do the CPU usage and temps look like?

 

[computertech82]

Typically there can be some change in voltage. 12v is staying at around 12v. If it dropped to 11.5 or even worse, then that would be power supply issue. (And btw, that is one heck of a spike in heat on the video card). And i would run with V-sync ON, not off.

 

[Craig Jones]

My CPU usage is normal, around 50-60% the temps on my CPU don't hit anything over 40. I haven't overclocked it, and I highly doubt that it's the CPU bottlenecking my PC.

I don't know whether it is the PSU as it couldn't really be anything else, and the voltage on my stays at 12.2v when I'm not playing a game, when I go into a game the voltage drops to 12.0v then every 30 seconds, the voltage will rise 20 12.2v again and in conjunction with that the GPU usage falls to around 30%

 

[Craig Jones]

I am happy to announce that I decided to disable Turbo Core in AMD Overdrive and it turns out that that was the issue. I am so glad that it has stopped now and I can play all my games without the framerate dropping