Rapid performance drop

[Bobul Head]

I built a gaming system in mid-December and it ran with no problems until a couple weeks to a month ago (not sure when it started really.) I was playing City of Villains and noticed that I was experiencing a singnificant drop in framerates after 15 mins of play or so.

This led me to running a couple of tests -

Quitting the game and restarting yielded no change. Rebooting however, brought me right back to where I should be in framerates for 15 mins or so, then it dropped right back down.

I ran 3dmark05 after the slowdown and it yielded a result of 5711. Rebooted and ran the test 5 more times ina row.

Test 1: 8262
Test 2: 8276
Test 3: 5699
Test 4: 5668
Test 5: 5668

Hmmmm. These results made me dig a little bit deeper.

So I downloaded performance Test 6.0 and ran it after the slowdown and then again after reboot. The results were..shocking to say the least. CPU performance in 8 different tested catagories, 2D and 3D graphics performance in several catagories and Memory performance in 5 tested catagories were all down 50%. Fifty percent?!

So my question for all you people who are more knowledgable than me is: does this sound like a hardware problem or a software problem. Sure stinks of hardware to me, but I'm going to do a complete hard drive wipe and reinstall only windows and a couple of benchmark tools to eliminate software altogether.

My next step after the software wipe is probably going to be power supply. The case is well vented (5 fans) so I don't think overheating is my p[roblem. I thought it was a vidcard problem until I saw the performance drop in RAM testing and CPU testing. So now I'm thinking either PSU or mobo, but any ideas any of you can give me would be super.

Thanks,

Kev.

 

[drpootums]

it seems wierd that hardware would make all those things slow down. What's the rest of your hardware?

I'm guessing a software problem, but honestly, i dont know. The only thing i can say in relation to your problem is my old Leadtek 6800GT got me a 8000 in 3dmark03 when i ran it the first time and i was really disappointed. A day later I ran it again and it scored over 11000. Kinda odd....not that it helps with your problem, but maybe it will make you feel better

 

[PurdueRy]

1. How much ram do you have?

2. Check the size of the allocated virtual memory

 

[Centoros]

I wonder if something maybe throttling back in your machine? I've heard of that happening and may be cause. Just a though

 

[DaveSimmons]

When not running anything, what is your CPU load in Task Manager?

You could have one or more adware, spyware, virus, trojan programs running and slowing you down, see the security thread at the top of the Software forum.


Running OK for 15 minutes could also be a heat problem, in the video card, CPU, or inside the case in general. You could have a dead/dying fan or a heatsink that isn't making proper contact.

 

[Powermoloch]

To my assumption, it seems to be more of a system throttling honestly :/

 

[alimoalem]

i'd still checking for loose heatsinks/dieing fans like Davis Simmons said. 15 minutes sounds like it's a heating issue

 

[Bobul Head]

System specs are:

Abit KN8 mobo
AMD 4000+ San Diego
Nvidia 7800GTX
2GB Corsair XMS
Audigy 2 ZS


I've been monitoring temps on everything and nothing is getting hot. I also wiped my hard drive this afternoon and reinstalled just windows, fresh drivers for everything, and 3dmark05. I ran the same tests I did before and unfortunately got the same results. RAM, CPU and GPU performance all dropped by 50%+/- 1%.

So it's not a software problem, it's not an overheating problem, tomorrow, I'm going to open the case up and check all connections, pull all the boards and reinsert them.

With the RAM, CPU and GPU all failing predictably and repeatably by the same amount the only thing I can think of is either PSU or mobo. Since I have the mobo box and it's only 3 mos old, I think my next step if a good cleaning doesn't help is to RMA the mobo and go from there.

Oh yeah, and as for the RAM and pagefile, I have the pagefile disabled because I have 2GB of RAM. (That was one of my first thoughts too.)

So does the mobo or PSU make sense to you guys or you think it's maybe something else? I can't think of anything else that the RAM, CPU and GPU have in common, can you guys?

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks all.

Kev.

 

[Centoros]

Yeah, that's a good idea to just open the case and pull everything out. Never know, there might be some dust somewhere that needs to come out.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I hear that even with 2+ gigs of RAM it's not such a great idea to disable the page file. Why not try letting windows manage the PF and rerun your tests just for kicks.

Edit: Also it's possible that the heat sensors on your board could be giving you incorrect temps. Might not hurt to remove the CPU heatsink and clean/repaste it while you're pulling the parts just to be sure it's not throttling.

 

[Bobul Head]

I can change the power supply more easily than the mobo of course, but it was part of the case and I can't RMA the PSU without the case..and that's just a pain in the butt. So I'm also thinking about buying a PSU and swapping it in to see if it fixes the problem. I can always return it if it doesn't fix the prob. But now I'm down the the point where I have to start eliminating hardware. And the PSU is sure the easiest start. 8)

 

[Bobul Head]

I had the problem with the pagefile, then I disabled it to see if it was the problem (one of the first things I tried.) And actually, now that I've wiped and reinstalled Windows, when I ran my tests this last time it would've been with a Windows managed pagefile. Neither seems to make any difference.