Terrible FPS stutter/spikes in games, don't know why..

[Hulari]

This last week - 10 days I've noticed that my games have been having terrible FPS spikes and stutters. Running fine at highs FPS then dropping down to 1 for a split second before shooting back up to how it was before, this can happen every 10 seconds or every few minutes, sometimes going on for a few seconds.

First of all my card is a 1GB EVGA GTX460 and it's just over a year old. I purchased it in January 2011.

The rest of my build is:
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.3GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM (2x2GB, 1600Mhz)
1TB Samsung HDD, some games installed on here (max payne, fifa, football manager, LoL).
120GB Corsair SSD main games on here (Diablo, WoW, BF3).
All powered by a 600W corsair PSU.

Windows 7 Professional, 64Bit

Displayed on a Dell U2311, at 1920x1080.

I've tried updating drivers and backdating drivers but the problem still persists, and it persists in every game I've played since I first noticed it. I first noticed it in BF3 and then moved onto Max Payne 1/2, Diablo III, WoW and League of Legends. I've also tried setting all settings to the lowest in all of the mentioned games but the problem still persists.

It's never happened before and I have been playing all of the above games plus more for far longer than the last two weeks. I also played the GW2 BWE, DiRT3, Fifa12 and Guild Wars 1 with no hitches all on pretty much high-maximum settings and I have no idea why it's started.

I am looking at upgrading to get 600 series but I was hoping to hold that off until the GW2 release date has been announced and to wait and see if the prices were to come down a little.
Another question, the current RAM I have has dropped in price, if I were to buy another 2x2GB sticks and put them into my system would that be okay? Or would I be better off buying 2 sticks of 4GB? I'm not too sure with the whole Single/Dual/Quad Channel.

[inux94]

Have you tried reinstalling your OS?

Doesn't sound like it could be a harddrive issue since you've got games installed on 2 different drives, if reinstalling Winodws 7 doesn't fix it then it might be your graphics card being faulty, you should take a look at the warranty by then

[Perderder]

That card should qualify for the lifetime EVGA warranty. I'd shoot them a request for an RMA. I had to RMA my EVGA GTX 680 and it's a fairly painless process. If you don't select the advanced exchange route you will probably be without the card for a week or two.

[Hulari]

Have you tried reinstalling your OS?

This was my next step. I was thinking about doing a reinstall tonight but wanted to see what other peoples opinions were first.

That card should qualify for the lifetime EVGA warranty. I'd shoot them a request for an RMA. I had to RMA my EVGA GTX 680 and it's a fairly painless process. If you don't select the advanced exchange route you will probably be without the card for a week or two.

Yeah it does qualify but being without my GPU and not being able to game for me in the next few weeks would send me a little cold turkey unfortunately. If it were any other time in the year I'd happily send off my GPU and do other things but I'm stuck indoors and the PC is my only escape. :P

[aeir]

Shit, brah.

had the same thing happen to me. I ended up buying a new rig :/

[Neji]

Go to an office supply store and buy a $5 can of compress air and clean out the dust from the card and the rest of the box. Your machine is waaaaay more powerful than my own and I never see these types of problems running on max settings.

[Deleted]

For first I'd check if there's any background application spiking cpu usage or even locking up momentarily. Try monitoring task manager while gaming (put game in windowed mode if needed), if there's no obvious signs of task hogging up cpu, try killing all non-critical processes and try again. Remember to disconnect from internet when disabling AV.

[Hulari]

Just took out my sound card and uninstalled all sound drivers and took out my speakers (friend of mine said it could be that) but the spiking continues.

I noticed that whilst I had BF3 alt-tabbed in the background and typed out to a friend through skype the whole system was suffering from this slight freeze. I'd type a message and the 2-3 letters I type during the freeze don't appear, but instantly appear once the drop in FPS is back up and stable. Going to try a uninstalling and reinstalling DX to see if that helps.

[obake1]

Just took out my sound card and uninstalled all sound drivers and took out my speakers (friend of mine said it could be that) but the spiking continues.

I noticed that whilst I had BF3 alt-tabbed in the background and typed out to a friend through skype the whole system was suffering from this slight freeze. I'd type a message and the 2-3 letters I type during the freeze don't appear, but instantly appear once the drop in FPS is back up and stable. Going to try a uninstalling and reinstalling DX to see if that helps.

May seem like a strange question but are you running any of the EVGA programs like Precision or E-LEET? Back when I had a EVGA GTX 285 and I had Precision open, WoW would stutter until I finally killed the process/uninstalled it.

[Hulari]

May seem like a strange question but are you running any of the EVGA programs like Precision or E-LEET? Back when I had a EVGA GTX 285 and I had Precision open, WoW would stutter until I finally killed the process/uninstalled it.

Not that I am aware of, couldn't see any processes with it.

Re-installed windows and now everything seems to be working fine except for BF3, even on the minimum specifications possible it's still stuttering after a fresh install of both windows and BF3.

[Friendlychap]

If I was to guess I think it's your SSD. Don't know why but I've heard lots of similiar stories and each involved an SSD. In almost every case I've seen a fresh install of windows on the SSD fixing it.

[Deleted]

Does it happen more on games installed on the SSD?..

Also u havnt forced on anti ailiasing in the gfx card drivers control panel and forgot about it?

[Deleted]

It sounds a bit like you may be hitting a memory wall with that card. 1gb might be maxing out with higher res and AA etc cranked up in the latest games. Have you upgraded your monitor/resolution around the time you noticed the spikes? You could try disable AA to see if the problem goes away. There's also an excellent little program called "Video Memory Stress Test" that will show you if you have any issues with your card that might cause some stuttering (my old 8800gt with the same symptoms threw up pages of them!).

[Baldarich]

Carebear,

I have the same Graphics Card, Nvidia GTX 460 (EVGA)...I've been having a similar issue with In-Game Screen freezing up the past week or so. My fps is usually in the range of 80-175 depending on what I'm doing In-Game, and it would drop to 20 fps when screen would freeze for a second ot two. I was using Graphics Card Driver 296.10, Released on March 13, 2012 and was looking on Nvidia's Website recently for a Driver Update which I never found using their Simple Update Finder Tool. I then contacted Nvidia to double-check, and they said there was a Driver Update for this Card...Version 301.24, Released April 9th, 2012. I'm just waiting till Wow's maintenance is done today to Log-on and see if this fixes the issue. Hope this helps, because I've though before that I had the most Updated Driver for my GC and found out I didn't. I think Nvidia just hadn't updated their GC Driver Tool quick enough. Good-Luck...