Hey guys, I'm running a 7900gtx graphics card on a lanparty motherboard. I recently replaced my chipset fan (which is an nforce 4 chipset, I believe). Things seemed to be going fine. I play counter-strike source a lot, and thus have been using it as my graphics guage. Well, I've been running this game on high settings for about two years now, and get at least 100 fps no problem. All of the sudden, it will run at about 50, then spike down to about 11-15, which is very troublesome. Would this be a graphics card issue? I feel like it might be a cooling issue... so I have a couple questions... a) where can I get a good program that will let me monitor temperatures in my pc (for free!), and b) is this a graphics issue or a motherboard issue (does it sound like)? Thanks in advance! If you guys need any more information, feel free to ask! -carmire
if your motherboard is nforce, if you click properties on your desktop you should see a nvidia control panel in that panel, on the left side, you should see "monitor temperatures" you may have to download Ntune, but thats no problem and it doesn't require a restart also, try updating your Graphic card Drivers
It could also be a hard drive issue. If your HDD is failing it can take a while for a certain texture or sprite to be pulled up. If updating drivers doesnt work, try re-installing the game. I know it sounds far fetched, but it beats replacing hardware. If it is hardware it could be an overheated northbridge, bottlenecked processor, or even a failing video card (although you would usually see artifacts on your screen when this is happening.)
Hmmm, I have a strong feeling that it is not an actual hardware issue. I have recently replaced both my processor and chipset heatsinks with models that are a lot better than the stock models that came with them. As such, I've been monitoring my temperatures for a little while and have noticed to real issues with the heat. This is why I'm a bit surprised to see a performance issue such as this. Also, I doubt that it is my hard drive. My specific issue is that the game will run fine for a while. Maps will load, and it will play normally, anywhere from 70-100 fps for a little while. 5-10 minutes into the game, it still runs fine, but then it will drop down to about 20-30 fps for a couple of seconds. This is still enough to play, but it is certainly a noticeable drop in framerate. It then picks back up to it's normal framerate for a minute, then drops down, and repeats this process over and over again. My real concern lies in that even at highest settings, the game has always run at 100fps+ no problem, and has never had these momentary drops in framerate. I will try downloading and installing the latest drivers for my graphics card, and see where that takes me. I am always open to new suggestions, though Thanks a lot! -Josh
