8800GTS framerate problems

E

ep1taph

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2006
Messages
470
Hello, It's been quite some time since I last posted to these forums. Maybe someone here has some advice for me.

I have an 8800GTS with an E6750 and 2GB DDR-6400 memory all on a Gigabyte P35-DS3-L.

The issue is this: If I run Call of Duty 4, the performance seems to start out fine (125FPS) for about 5-10 seconds then slowly degrades until I am getting 15FPS in firefights.

In Quake3 (yeah, I still play it) I even get drops as low as 60-70FPS and the game hitches continually.

CPU usage is fine, there isn't some other process sucking up cycles causing this problem. There's plenty of memory (I tried disabling the page file to avoid accessing the hard disk -- same results). The card levels out at about 71-72C when gaming which, to me, seems well within acceptable temperature range. I used to get 125FPS in Call of Duty 4, but I didn't play any games for months until about a week ago.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers (used drivercleaner in safe mode) and using different drivers and they all result in the same behavior.

Does anyone have the faintest idea why this is happening? Thanks in advance!
 
It may be something getting too hot that doesnt have a temp sensor (or even 71C might be too hot, it happens).
2 ways to verifiy this:

1) open the side of the PC and blow a housefan at it. See if things improve.
2) underclock everything say 10% and see if that helps.

Those arent permanent suggestions, just for troubleshooting.
 
I tried cleaning it with some compressed air then underclocking it about 20% with RivaTuner with the side open and my fan blowing on it. Temperatures were identical for most components, no change in performance.

Considering taking the HSF off and cleaning it up.

It's an eVGA 8800GTS.

I'm wondering if this is something on my end that's wrong with my setup or if the card is just behaving very oddly and needs to be replaced.
 
As its difficult to pinpoint, it might be quicker to grab a spare hard drive and install Windows on that to test with.
 
I fixed it, it was the CPU fan not being adequately secured. One of the black twisty things (don't know what they're called -- on the four corners) had fallen off and was stuck in the back corner of the case. Didn't see it before.

After re-applying some thermal paste and re-seating the CPU everything is back to normal.

Thanks for taking the time to help.
 
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