New
#1
Periodic performance drop for most video games, out of options.
Right so, for quite some time now (seven months or more?) I've been having this weird problem with my PC.
Most of the time all my games run fine, sure some badly optimized ones like GTA IV don't run perfectly, but almost every other game runs as expected. However, from time to time I experience random performance drops (frame rate) in almost every game, only exception being the ones that are ether very old or just very light on the system. The problem lasts for a few days (sometimes weeks).
I have no clue what the source of the problem could be. I reformatted the PC several times and the problem still occurs. PC specs and maintenance details:
-Intel Core i5-661 3.33 GHz Dual Core processor (temperature between 27 C and 34 C)
-Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB GPU (temperature between 28 C and 39 C, rarely goes above 40 C during summer)
-8GB DDR3 RAM
-Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit
Maintenance:
-Advanced Defragment and Optimization once a week using I0bit Smart Defrag 2
-Full Automatic maintenance once a week using I0bit Advanced System Care 6
-Reinstalling drivers once a week
-Always keeping 20 / 320 GB of hard disk space empty
-Hardware dusting with compressed air spray once a month
-Hardware check and tuning at local service... normally I do this every six months but I kinda' slacked off cause I've never noticed the results, apart from my pocket being lighter.
-Only programs I have running in background are: Steam (always), GameBooster (most of the time) and the Nvidia CP (always).
Also:
-I use I0bit Game Booster when running games (free version)
-No anti-virus to slow the games down
-Running games as administrator
-I enable FXAA in every game, for or the ones that don't support it I force it from the Nvidia CP. For most games it doesn't impact performance but for a few games I disable or lower other forms of Anti-Aliasing.
This problem affects Saints Row The Third and Sleeping Dogs worst, despite the fact that they both run perfectly with everything set to maximum when the problem doesn't occur. Strangely enough, the crappiest port in the world (GTA IV) doesn't seem to be affected by this problem.
A lot of people have told me I might have an evil virus plaguing my PC, however I'm pretty sure that's not the case, that's because:
1. I'm not a moron, I know how to avoid obvious virus threats.
2. Last time I re-formatted, this problem occurred before I even connected my PC to the internet or copied my personal data from the backup disks.
Any ideas?
Last edited by TUN3R; 19 Feb 2013 at 14:21.