Restoring performance to pc

[Reckbawt]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

Several and some odd years ago I purchased a custom Area 51 pc (I know, I should've built my own; too ignorant at the time.) It has an Intel Core i7 960 3.20GHz. I have 8 GB of RAM that is usable and dual GeForce GTX 460 for my video cards and a 2 TB HDD (Not sure if any additional information is required for you guys.)

I used to be able to run WoW on the highest settings without any lag or performance issues up until I started playing again this past March. I had to drop the graphics settings to "Good" because ultra was just to much I guess and yet I am still running into the occasional lag and issues with my frames. Also the loading times can be terrible.

I take good care of my PC. Never have had a virus or spyware, ( I use Norton 360), I regularly use CC Cleaner and keep all my driver's up to date. So it's been very difficult to find the root cause of the problem.

So, my question is how do I restore my pc to the way it used to perform? Is there some kind of program I can purchase that scans my pc to find and fix performance issues? Or could it be that my pc is just finally starting to show it's age?

Any help and insight will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Krimzin]

What OS are you running.

[Reckbawt]

My OS is Windows 10, 64 bit

[Twistedelmo]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

Several and some odd years ago I purchased a custom Area 51 pc (I know, I should've built my own; too ignorant at the time.) It has an Intel Core i7 960 3.20GHz. I have 8 GB of RAM that is usable and dual GeForce GTX 460 for my video cards and a 2 TB HDD (Not sure if any additional information is required for you guys.)

I used to be able to run WoW on the highest settings without any lag or performance issues up until I started playing again this past March. I had to drop the graphics settings to "Good" because ultra was just to much I guess and yet I am still running into the occasional lag and issues with my frames. Also the loading times can be terrible.

I take good care of my PC. Never have had a virus or spyware, ( I use Norton 360), I regularly use CC Cleaner and keep all my driver's up to date. So it's been very difficult to find the root cause of the problem.

So, my question is how do I restore my pc to the way it used to perform? Is there some kind of program I can purchase that scans my pc to find and fix performance issues? Or could it be that my pc is just finally starting to show it's age?

Any help and insight will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

You should also keep in mind that as software updates (I.e.Expansion in Wow) may effect your performance, as well as the amount of data on your hard drive may cause your computer to run a bit slower because it has more files to go through.

There is probably a lot other reasons that may cause to hinder your computer.

[Mythbredor]

Well first question do you have an SSD? If not getting one will improve your load times. How long has it been since you've done a complete reload? That would affect your perfomance. You should look at getting/upgrading to windows 10(if you aren't already on it) And if the last time you played was during WoLTK/Cata Mop/dreanor did some graphical updates that could also be your issue.

[Reckbawt]

Well first question do you have an SSD? If not getting one will improve your load times. How long has it been since you've done a complete reload? That would affect your perfomance. You should look at getting/upgrading to windows 10(if you aren't already on it) And if the last time you played was during WoLTK/Cata Mop/dreanor did some graphical updates that could also be your issue.

I don't have a SSD was looking into getting one eventually. I haven't done a complete reload in a very long time but the last time I played was in patch 6.0 and everything was running on ultra smooth as butter, that's why I'm wondering what the issue is.

[Mythbredor]

I don't have a SSD was looking into getting one eventually. I haven't done a complete reload in a very long time but the last time I played was in patch 6.0 and everything was running on ultra smooth as butter, that's why I'm wondering what the issue is.

It sounds like you need to do a reload that's just my first guess tho. I'd pick up an ssd and move WoW over to that and see if it runs better(pick up a samunsg 850 evo 250gig).

[Reckbawt]

It sounds like you need to do a reload that's just my first guess tho. I'd pick up an ssd and move WoW over to that and see if it runs better(pick up a samunsg 850 evo 250gig).

Does an SSD just go into one of the HDD slots to install it?

I'm not computer savvy

[Mythbredor]

Does an SSD just go into one of the HDD slots to install it?

I'm not computer savvy

An SSD connects to your motherboard/power supply the exact same way as an HDD. And you can pretty much stick the SSD anywhere.

[Reckbawt]

Ok, thanks guys for your help. Much appreciated.

[Mazaxist]

Ok, thanks guys for your help. Much appreciated.

Advice you got is good. Get ssd and load fresh win10 64bit. Copy your wow folder to c drive(ssd) it will definitely load a lot faster! If you still experience FPS lag, try to remove wtf/add on folders to see if it gets any better. Make sure you load latest video driver after reinstall

I wouldn't use Norton instead use some free anivirus like AVG

[the boar]

honestly one out of date addon spamming lua errors (with lua error display disabled) can destroy wow's performance. make sure to check it isn't something silly like that, as i don't think there have been any huge game changes from 6.0 to 6.2?

i'd still grab an ssd and windows 10 if you can! just thought i'd mention it~

[Eroginous]

I'll try to keep this short and sweet.

Several and some odd years ago I purchased a custom Area 51 pc (I know, I should've built my own; too ignorant at the time.) It has an Intel Core i7 960 3.20GHz. I have 8 GB of RAM that is usable and dual GeForce GTX 460 for my video cards and a 2 TB HDD (Not sure if any additional information is required for you guys.)

I used to be able to run WoW on the highest settings without any lag or performance issues up until I started playing again this past March. I had to drop the graphics settings to "Good" because ultra was just to much I guess and yet I am still running into the occasional lag and issues with my frames. Also the loading times can be terrible.

I take good care of my PC. Never have had a virus or spyware, ( I use Norton 360), I regularly use CC Cleaner and keep all my driver's up to date. So it's been very difficult to find the root cause of the problem.

So, my question is how do I restore my pc to the way it used to perform? Is there some kind of program I can purchase that scans my pc to find and fix performance issues? Or could it be that my pc is just finally starting to show it's age?

Any help and insight will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

1. Open the case up, dust everything out with a can of air, use high percent alcohol (90% isopropyl works great for me) to wipe down the PCB of components with a lint-free cloth (microfiber works great for this). This will work to remove anything that might be trapping heat or causing poor airflow in your case. This is usually a good way to reduce temps and remove strain from your hardware.

2. While you have everything open, make sure connectors and cards are seating correctly and free of debris. This will improve performance if a bad connection somewhere is causing performance issues.

3. Reapply thermal compound to your CPU and GPU(s). If you've had the PC for some years and you've never done this, it's a great idea to do it just to make sure you've got good paste on your important components. CPUs have a heat spreader on them, so you don't have to cover the entire spreader with paste for it to do it's job properly. A single pea-sized glob of paste in the center of the CPU lid should be adequate. For GPUs, you have to be a little more careful. They don't have heat spreaders on the die, so you have to make sure you use enough paste to cover the entire surface of the die. It's okay to use a little more paste for GPUs, if you get some around the die, that's okay (as long as it doesn't spread out past the socket). Also be careful when removing a GPU heatsink, there might be a lot more screws than the 4 tension screws that hold the card together. There might be heat pads on the other components that make contact with the GPU cooler, make sure they are reusable, if not, you'll have to buy new ones (thermal past cannot be used here).

4. Check your CPU/GPU cooler fans and your case fans to make sure they are functional and have a good amount of life left. If it's been awhile since you dusted your case, these might need some TLC to remove excess dust and debris from the bearing and blade wells. If any fans have a grind/whine to them when operational, you can either buy new fans or drop a little 3 in 1 oil into the bearing to try and extend their life.

5. At this point, you've done everything in your power to restore your hardware back to factory condition. If problems still persist, it's time to address the software side of your machine. A fresh OS install and updated drivers might be what you need. If you've gone through all these steps and you're still experiencing problems, it might be time to replace your hard drive.

Over time, hard drives lose their ability to store data on their magnetic platters. This is called 'bit rot.' Older mechanical hard drives come with more storage space than their rating suggest, and the hard drive firmware does its best to move data to sectors of the platter that still have a lot of life left. But this extra space is limited. When it runs out, your hard drive is unable to deal with bad sectors and starts to report errors to your OS, sometimes causing the infamous 'blue screen of death' among other performance issues.

It's a good idea to run diagnostics an OS hard drive every 2-3 years just to be sure you have enough life left to avoid data loss if the hard drive does begin to fail. It is also a good idea to consider an SSD as your main OS drive. They are much more resilient to bit rot and data loss, with much faster access to the data you've stored. As long as you have power going to an SSD, they should never experience bit rot and should last for tens of thousands of read/write cycles longer than a mechanical HD.

6. If you've made it to this step and still experience problems, it's time to consider investing in new hardware. First place to start would be GPU(s). A single GPU is always going to be a better solution than running 2 less powerful GPUs in SLI, since having 2x cards doesn't translate into 2x performance increase. You can leverage the processing power of the second GPU a great deal, but can't benefit from the extra ram it provides (at least not until the current gen Nvidia cards release and you get an improved SLI bridge), so it might be a good idea to take one of your cards out just to see if that helps. SLI scaling just isn't good, and unless you've already got a top end GPU, SLI is a worse decision than getting the top end GPU.

Anyway, I hope this helps you figure out your performance issues, there are guides on Youtube to help you through any of the things I've suggested here. I'll be happy to answer any more questions you have and provide further assistance if you get stuck.

Good Luck!