Built a monster PC, still having FPS issues, help!

[Briarknit]

I recently upgraded my PC to the following

Core i7-930
Radeon 5870
6GB Kingston HpyerX DDR3 RAM
Intel 80GBSSD


Now, I use two monitors on this card (24" and a 20") but that shouldn't be a problem since this card blows every other card I have ever owned with these monitors out of the water. They both have different refresh rates, but I don't know how that could pertain to my issue.

My issue is this:

When im playing 1-5 characters (doesn't matter, happens when im 5 boxing or just playing alone), I will be maxed out at 60FPS or 180FPS with vsync off. Then ever minute or two, my FPS will drop to 30 and lock there and it won't return to its normal FPS for another 2 minutes or until I restart the game. The only program I have installed on my comp at the moment is wow, chrome, norton, firefox, and other misc stuff that automatically installs when you install windows 7.

This problem is really annoying my because this PC should be able to handle anything I throw at it, and its choking up on something as simple as WoW.

Also, when I check my task manager my cpu usage never goes above 40%, so I dont think the CPU is the issue.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

[Poyzon]

How's your disk usage during that time?

What addons are you using? (Recount? - disable it - it's been picked on pretty hard lately as causing problems)

[Briarknit]

Well Im using an 80GB ssd with 50/80 gb used, so I dunno how my HDD usage could be the issue when its the same ssd everyone else uses without issues, but I can check. Thats in the task manager right?

I did have recount, but I disabled all addons to see if that helped anything but it didnt =/

[burningforce]

hmm could be memory problem or you might need to use the intel SSD tool-box to perform a check and run its optimizer(intel recommends doing this once a week) if you had the drive for awhile and written to it many times.

have you checked what programs/services are running in the task manager? something could be sucking up all the memory and you do not have enough for Wow.

another thing to check is the resource monitor (in task manager,performance tab, click the "resource monitor tab") and see what is hogging up precious cpu cycles, and memory and also network and hard disk should be checked as well.

also you can look through the event viewer and see if you are getting driver errors or power failures or whatever. to find the event viewer in windows 7, click start > goto control panel > click system and security > click administrative tools > double-click event viewer shortcut. it will be divided into sections that you can review and see if if its a hardware problem or application problem

few more things that come to mind is a underpowered power supply unit not able to keep up with the task of running 5-wows. and also make sure that all the components in your case is getting proper ventilation and airflow to prevent overheating.

other then that I really do not know, maybe a bad ati driver install?

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by burningforce

hmm could be memory problem or you might need to use the intel SSD tool-box to perform a check and run its optimizer(intel recommends doing this once a week) if you had the drive for awhile and written to it many times.

have you checked what programs/services are running in the task manager? something could be sucking up all the memory and you do not have enough for Wow.

another thing to check is the resource monitor (in task manager,performance tab, click the "resource monitor tab") and see what is hogging up precious cpu cycles, and memory and also network and hard disk should be checked as well.

also you can look through the event viewer and see if you are getting driver errors or power failures or whatever. to find the event viewer in windows 7, click start > goto control panel > click system and security > click administrative tools > double-click event viewer shortcut. it will be divided into sections that you can review and see if if its a hardware problem or application problem

few more things that come to mind is a underpowered power supply unit not able to keep up with the task of running 5-wows. and also make sure that all the components in your case is getting proper ventilation and airflow to prevent overheating.

other then that I really do not know, maybe a bad ati driver install?

I will try what you recommended, but this happened with my old nvidia card as well, and I just got the SSD not even a few weeks ago and it has TRIM. My PSU is 850 Watts, and I am running my 5870, ssd, 2 other hard drives (300GB Velociraptor, and 400GB 7500 RPM HD), MOBO, 920, corsair hydro series water cooling unit, 3 fans.

[Tim]

Don't use the SSD as your boot drive, you'll wear it out and break it. Boot and have your OS/swap on a normal hard drive for sure.

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by Tim

Don't use the SSD as your boot drive, you'll wear it out and break it. Boot and have your OS/swap on a normal hard drive for sure.

The latest SSDs have TRIM, so any significant space that's constantly being altered is corrected by that functionality. At least that's what I read when researching TRIM functionality

[Briarknit]

I think i have figured out my issue. Some of my friends are having the same issue when they are using dual monitors. I am using the same setup, but my monitors are different and have different refresh rates. One is a flatscreen 24" LCD and one is a 20" LCD, both have a 50mhz and a 60mhz default refresh rate, respectively. Do you think that if I bought another 24" identical to the one I have that it would help resolve my issue?

[burningforce]

Originally Posted by Briarknit

I think i have figured out my issue. Some of my friends are having the same issue when they are using dual monitors. I am using the same setup, but my monitors are different and have different refresh rates. One is a flatscreen 24" LCD and one is a 20" LCD, both have a 50mhz and a 60mhz default refresh rate, respectively. Do you think that if I bought another 24" identical to the one I have that it would help resolve my issue?

I will have to look around, but i have never heard of something like that happening because you are using dual monitors that have different refresh rates.

and you checked everything that was mentioned above by everyone? you said it was the same with the nvidia card that you had, was that an entirely different computer at that time?

hmm is it possible that your motherboard may be the problem? that the pci-e slot is running at a lower rate then intended? or you have it in the wrong pci-e slot, some motherboards have 2+ pci-e slots and the 2nd slot usually runs at half rate or lower. can you post your mobo brand and version?

also check the bios to see if everything is configured correctly for your hardware. turn off any power saving features if you do not need them in both the bios and in windows.

[Briarknit]

Originally Posted by burningforce

I will have to look around, but i have never heard of something like that happening because you are using dual monitors that have different refresh rates.

and you checked everything that was mentioned above by everyone? you said it was the same with the nvidia card that you had, was that an entirely different computer at that time?

hmm is it possible that your motherboard may be the problem? that the pci-e slot is running at a lower rate then intended? or you have it in the wrong pci-e slot, some motherboards have 2+ pci-e slots and the 2nd slot usually runs at half rate or lower. can you post your mobo brand and version?

also check the bios to see if everything is configured correctly for your hardware. turn off any power saving features if you do not need them in both the bios and in windows.

I will check for you, but I had an MSI X58M because it was the cheapest 1366 MOBO on TG when I was building my computer. Yesterday I fried it trying to do an overclock of my 930 to 3.8GHZ using liquid cooling. So needless to say I RMA'd it, but I don't think ill be using it. What mobo do you suggest?