Lagspikes while raiding, help!

[Rukbunker]

Hi,

First let me mention that I'm a complete tard when it comes to computer stuff. I have no clue what's going on. I guess that's why I'm posting here.

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The problem:
Lagspikes while raiding. I don't disconnect that often though.
A few weeks ago, my power supply died. I couldn't get my computer on, so I got it repaired at a shop. The computer works again now, but since then I have lagspikes during raids. I don't have lagspikes in orgrimmar, arena, while questing, etc. I do have lag when it get's 'busy'. Examples: raids (magmaw hc is particularly bad), busy battlegrounds (av and isle kill me)
Funny fact: most of the times when I lag, I keep pressing buttons (mind flay) and my char actually keeps doing the stuff even though I don't see anything for 3-10 seconds!

I never 'lag' while doing other stuff on the internet, so I doubt it's my internet connection (torrent downloads sometimes go up to 1500 kbs!)
(I also got a new monitor, but I'm pretty sure its not the cause as I tested playing on my beamer and I had the exact same amount of lag).

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The things I've tried:
* Remove dust from inside the pc as much as I could (without removing stuff from it's place).
* Running wow without ANY addons
* Running wow with different resolutions
* Reinstall wow completely
* Download new driver
Nothing helped at all.

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My specs (as far as I could find out, vista is a bit of a mess and I'm a noob. Vhecked the sticky's list of stuff but I didn't understand what that all meant)

System: Vista home premium 32 bit
Processor: intel core 2 duo CPU e8500 , 3,16 GHz 3,16 GHz
RAM: 4,00 GB
Videocard: Geforce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+ (I can gief you details from system information if needed)
Resolution: I think 1600-900, but it changes to lower settings automatically sometimes after watching something with my beamer.

Bought the computer about 2-2,5 years ago me thinks. A friend bought the same computer at thatime as well, but he has no probs at all.

WoW settings: right now graphics are on fair, but I tried putting everything on low(couldn't even see aoe healing effects on the ground...) with as many things as possible disabled. This did not help.
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I hope someone can shine a light on this issue, as I am really frustrated!
If you need to know more, please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[Drunkenvalley]

Can you hear the game continuing while the spike's going? Regardless, off the bat it sounds like a GPU issue tbf. Maybe it's underpowered.

[Rukbunker]

I think I can, I will double check it right now by queuing for AV :P

What's a GPU?:P
If it's underpowered, does that mean it's probable the power supply is the cause?

[Djinni]

Graphical Processing Unit (Aka Graphics Card)
Although strictly speaking, the GPU is the processor on the card, but loosly it means the whole card.

---------- Post added 2011-05-25 at 05:46 PM ----------

Is this a problem only in WoW? or does it happen in other things too?
Have you checked that everything is firmly plugged in properly and not just slightly loose?

[Rukbunker]

Ok, just tested in AV: during lagspikes I continue to hear old sounds, but I don't hear any new sounds that are generated during the lagspike.

[Drunkenvalley]

Then it's sounding like an issue outside of your GPU. I'd warrant a guess that your processors would be the cause, but I can't really determine that much here.

However, I can recommend you go validate that you're outputting at the values you described already. Ie your processor actually putting out nearly the value it says on the tin.

[Rukbunker]

Hmmm ok. Where could I check that? I have no idea hehe

[openair]

Who's your ISP? Canadian? Have your tried disabling the Network Optimizations that were reintroduced with the last wow patch? (about a month ago).