CPU related massive FPS drops and crashed software/games?

[severus]

I have a roughly 5 year old build consisting of

i5 2500k @ 4.4ghz
Biostar TZ68A+
8 gigs DDR3
60gb SSD
500gb Hitachi 7200rpm
HD7870 (honestly I don't remember the brand, I think it's a Diamond)
22" 1080p 2ms monitor

I think my issues are CPU related. At first I noticed that some clients were running slow; like Photoshop. Then Guild Wars 2 became sluggish at times and that game is heavily CPU based. The final straw is that, especially when I use the ESEA client, Counter Strike:GO is having MASSIVE frame drops. I know Source engine games are CPU based, but I'm going from 300FPS down to 60, RANDOMLY. It's actually to the point that I know when an enemy is coming because my FPS drops when they get close. On top of that, the client won't load on occasion, or it does a "soft load" where it sits on a black screen. I want to give the CPU the benefit of the doubt and say it's the hard drive as far as the load times. There's just no way an OC'd 2500k should be performing like this.

What do you guys suggest I do to find the culprit?

 

[ZGR]

Have you monitored your CPU temperature and clockspeed? Have you tried running the CPU at stock speed?

What version of Windows are you on and how long has it been installed for? May be time to get a fresh install of Windows 10.

In game, I recommend using Rivatuner to monitor GPU, and CPU load, temperature, and clockspeed. If your CPU is throttling itself, then it may be time to replace the TIM or back down a few hundred mhz and lower voltage.

 

[Burpo]

60Gb SSD is your Windows drive? Uhh.. yeah, start there.. Then run scandisk on the spinner.. Sounds drive related to me.

 

[severus]

I'm currently using 7 with no intention of switching over to 10 ever again. CPU temps aren't going any higher than the 30°'s. I have a massive twin 120mm CPU fan and 8 fans in the case, plus it's in a basement. I'll try Rivatuner when I get home, but any programs running in the background while I play a game yield the potential for a crash. I usually can't keep my web browser open while playing GO.

 

[cusideabelincoln]

This is probably not the problem, but the ESEA client is garbage. I left ESEA and wiped all traces of the client after the fiasco they had a few years ago where they incorporated bitcoin mining code and then "accidentally" turned it on for all ESEA users, without user knowledge.

I don't know if the same people are still in charge of ESEA, but if they are, they cannot be trusted.

 

[ZGR]

I'm currently using 7 with no intention of switching over to 10 ever again. CPU temps aren't going any higher than the 30°'s. I have a massive twin 120mm CPU fan and 8 fans in the case, plus it's in a basement. I'll try Rivatuner when I get home, but any programs running in the background while I play a game yield the potential for a crash. I usually can't keep my web browser open while playing GO.

When using Rivatuner and MSI Afterburner, make sure to add CPU temperature to the on screen display. Your CPU is probably running above 30c in games, but how high? idle temps are not really too important. load temps are.

Download Malwarebytes free for a quick scan. How much room do you have left on that old SSD? SSD prices are pretty good as of late.

I would recommend reinstalling Windows 7 to see if that helps. It is a bad idea to remain on 7 for this long for a variety of reasons. Windows 10 is a better OS for gaming and the free upgrade ends on the 29th. If you had issues installing Windows 10 before, I would recommend starting wth a fresh install. Having a small Windows 7 partition is a good idea for legacy apps along with a large Windows 10 partition for games.

 

[Headfoot]

Make sure you monitor temperature at load. Idle doesn't mean much. Also, run a program to measure what your CPU clock speed is at load as well, like CPUZ. My buddy just had this exact issue because his 4790k was stuck on 800mhz power saving mode even during idle. I "overclocked" the CPU to 4.4 (max turbo for a single core, but for all cores) and he has no issues now that the clock stays steady during load.

 

[severus]

Okay, I lied. It's actually a 128gb SSD. I made this posting while I was at work (shows how much I'm capable of remembering). It's got 6gb of free space left on it, however my games aren't on the SSD.

 

[Burpo]

There's your problem. 6gb is not enough. Free up some space on the drive..

 

[lyssword]

free up space, monitor cpu load to make sure it doesnt go above 85 or it will throttle down. If heat is the issue, reapply a thin slice of thermal material and clean out the dust in your fan, actually had to do that just 2 days ago, dropped my load temps by 15.