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Question

Low FPS on only a few games!?

Aug 12, 2018 4:06PM PDT
My problem is the following:
I was away from my PC for about 3 days. Everything was working fine before that. When I returned to my PC and started up either of those 2 games, they were suddenly lagging to an extent that they were unplayable. To take note of, is that these games didn't ever lag before. All the other games on my PC, many of them needing better graphics than the games named above, run just as smooth as before. Only Heroes of the Storm and Rocket League lag. The GPU and CPU temperatures also seem to be not too hot. Is there anything that connects both games that could cause lag in any way?

My PC rig:
-cpu: Intel core i5-4690k
-gpu: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
-Mainboard: Gigabyte Z97X-UD5H
-RAM: 8 GB
I also run a samsung ssd 840 evo 250gb and an 1tb external hard drive

Things I already tried to fix the problem are:
- launched the games from different HDD's
-restarted the PC
-cleared temp files
-updated graphics driver

Thanks in advance for anyone offering any solutions Happy

Post was last edited on August 12, 2018 4:08 PM PDT

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
What games?
Aug 13, 2018 9:21AM PDT
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Rocket League and Heroes of the Storm lag, other games don't
Aug 13, 2018 12:34PM PDT

Post was last edited on August 13, 2018 12:35 PM PDT

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I see 2 displays.
Aug 13, 2018 1:14PM PDT
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Before I try those things
Aug 13, 2018 1:18PM PDT

Thank you so much! you're giving a lot of valuable information.
Yeah i have two 144hz screens.
Before I'll do those things you mentioned, i wanted u to know that the usb drive is what i use mostly for my games and stuff. Should I upgrade to a internal hard drive then?

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There's a speed hit and penalty for USB drives.
Aug 13, 2018 1:33PM PDT

Read my full reading below since there's a lot to do with this PC to see if we can avoid running the games on lowest settings.

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Answer
A Speccy reading.
Aug 13, 2018 1:30PM PDT

1. That's a GPU load of 3 1080p monitors so the 1060 is going to work hard. This is one thing I'd pull back on along with items 2 and 3.

2. Unplug USB drives during high performance sessions.
3. Disable W10's sharing at https://www.howtogeek.com/224981/how-to-stop-windows-10-from-uploading-updates-to-other-pcs-over-the-internet/

4. The CPU is probably throttling at 70C. Find out why it's that hot and get it under control. Some cores at at 71C!
5. The GPU is high at 52C so while gaming it may be throttling. Try it without the case cover.

6. Be sure Avast is not scanning during gaming.
7. JAVA. Three versions installed. Clean it out and unless you know why you have JAVA, don't reinstall.
8. 5 DAYS of uptime. Reboot once in a while. Cures so many odd issues.

9. SINGLE CHANNEL RAM. That's a debit of 10% or more for both CPU and GPU performance. Gamers should not do this.

10. BIOS is out of date for the Revision 1.0 motherboard. When we want our best performance we update when we see lag complaints but there are other reasons for sub par performance so this should be updated when you feel like it.

11. Something odd in the Network adapters. Could be trouble or you know what happened there.
But since Killer is listed I run into a certain version of their driver leaking badly. Read what to check at:
https://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/microsoft-windows/threads/516015/how-many-handles-did-you-find-i-found-over-906-000-on-some-app-more

Lots to do but that single channel RAM, HEAT, USB, W10 update sharing all conspire to drag a good PC down.

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I tried some things:
Aug 13, 2018 2:22PM PDT

1. So what can I do there? Only use one screen / buy a better graphic card?

2. I only have my external hard drive and my w-lan- stick connected if mouse, keyboard and gamepad aren't counted.

3. Windows sharing wasnt active.

4. I should probably install a few more fans, i don't use many but have some laying around in my room...

5. Same as 4.

6. That's a good point. I now have gaming mode activated Happy

7. Uninstalled 2 of them. Didn't realize i had 3 versions.

8. Didn't realize I had 5 days of uptime either?! This was caused by an automated quick start option by windows 10... I turned it off and restarted my PC and the 2 games that weren't working, worked again !!!! That was the one thing that throttled the PC the most.

9. That's a good point, gonna invest into a second RAM soon. Btw is it important to use the exact same RAM (same manufacturer and version)as my first RAM to get the best results?

10. May update in the future.

11. I had trouble with that Killer program since I got my PC... don't thing I can really deinstall it and also driver updates so far didnt work Sad
I think thats also a cause for my downloads being throttled...

Thank you so much for the time and effort u put in here. U not only solved my main problem but also have shown me other things my PC can improve on. Happy

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Sounds like progress.
Aug 13, 2018 2:38PM PDT

1, Let's call the usual monitor load is the 1080p 60Hz so at 144Hz you are pushing over twice the load. And with dual monitors you are up to a UHD 4K load. You can read reviews of the 1070 and 1080 GPU pushing the 4K displays. The results are only acceptable to gamers with the 1080 GPU.

2. USB drives are a possible delay so we don't want those for performance reasons. Remember this is all about performance.

3. There were a lot of IP connections so this was suspect.

4 and 5. As to heat, the case temp looks high which leads to high values everywhere. So case cover off and hope that helped.

6. That should help to avoid that issue.

7. Clean!

8. HUZZAH! That does tend to be one of the many caused.

9. Best to get matched sticks, same make, model. You can try mixing but hey, I don't like to mix.

10. BIOS. Just stuff I take care of since it can help RAM compatibility and has resulted in many odd issues vanishing. I don't update the BIOS if all things work, but when it hits the counter or a forum with troubles then we update to remove any possible issues.

11. KILLER! I had the leaky driver version and UPDATES failed. I had to read about a tool by Killer to force uninstall the old version and finally I could install their latest. In my cases so far I've found this to eat Gigabytes of RAM. It had to die!

Hope this helps.