HIS 7950, large FPS drop within a couple of days, what could I have done wrong?

[Mineores]

Hi there, recently built my 1st gaming rig, and it is pretty awesome, or sort of was, so not currently that great with all the technical stuff.

I have a HIS reference 7950 which was awesome for gaming with and I could play BF3 on ultra, but now I have to play on medium for some reason as the FPS has dropped from 60FPS which is a very nice number to below 40. This has only happened within the last week or so. I found this out first as I tried to record a game on Cod: Waw where I could easily record at 60, but not any more. I tried out Bandicam and still get a similar FPS, only a bit more than usual.

Is my GFX getting 'faulty' or is there something I could have maybe done to make this happen? I recently downloaded MSI afterburner and increased the clock speeds a little with a but of an FPS boost and not much of a temp increase. I reset the speeds back to factory settings and it still gets low FPS which is very irritating.

What could I maybe do to solve the problem with FPS as I do have a decent system and would quite like to play some Cities XL 2012 which is on sale this weekend and record it. Would you recommend me asking for a new unit, (I purchased it from here)?

Thanks for your help!

My processor is an AMD FX-4100, I have heard that this could potentially bottleneck my GFX card.

 

[Mineores]

is your cpu overclocked? what speeds your pc memory? overclocking the cpu would help more that overclocking the gpu

My CPU isn't overclocked as I still have the cooler that you get with the processor which isn't to great. My RAM is 8gb G-Skill Ripjawz with 1600Mhz clock speed.

 

[Mineores]

have you updated your graphics drivers recently? Maybe you could try uninstalling and re-installing them and see if that helps.

Very, very nooby question here, I have never touched the GFX drivers so this may be the source of the problem. Where will I find them and how can I update/uninstall them?

 

[Mineores]

here

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

just update them

Nope, looks like my drivers are up to date...

 

[Mineores]

If you are recording you may have found an issue with the harddrive you are recording the data to? Perhaps its on a slower sector or impeding a fail?

I am recording to my trusty old Hitachi Deskstar, I am running HD tune now for any errors.

 

[Mineores]

As he was getting good FPS in BF3 previously, adding a cooler to his CPU is not going to give him the fps back. I would go with Wazza on this and ask if the OP has recently installed any programs? Check and see what processes are running and if any of them are eating into the CPU. If need be, google every process to make sure you are virus free.

If all good there, run Memtest86+. It will take a while but is worth making sure your ram is good. Report back if these help/don't help and we can go a bit deeper

Ran HD Tune and surprisingly nothing came up on the drive I am recording to, my boot and apps drive is a Samsung 830 256GB SSD. No out of the ordinary processes in task manager, ran a virus scan and nothing came up. This is a bit strange to be honest. I also need to check there isn't an option in BF3 which limits the FPS or something, In fraps it is set to record at 60 FPS.

 

[Mineores]

I do know when I record with FRAPS, it is a massive lag on my computer (I5 @ 4.6 last time I recorded) and it never felt smooth but before recording, is your fps still good or has it dropped quite a bit?

My FPS has surprisingly not dropped at all when playing COD: Waw, still at a stable 91 when playing multiplayer. In BF3 I used to be able to play on all ultra with about 50-60 FPS, this now fluctuates loads, goes from 25-60, it's like fraps is benchmarking when it actually isn't! I play on high at the moment as there is not point playing on ultra when you only get 40 FPS, which is especially frustrating as I paid £220 for this card! To be honest it is probably me doing something wrong, just need to find out what this is!

 

[Mineores]

world at war isnt a demanding game though

Just had another try recording Waw, fluctuates madly! Goes from 60 which I'm odviously happy with, down to 25-30 for no reason, sometimes down below 10!

 

[Mineores]

UPDATE: More problems now!

Basically, for no reason whatsoever the 7950 suddenly goes to full load during normal tasks, no gaming, nothing intensive and stays like that for ages, all of a sudden the load will go down to normal levels, and temp will go down. The temp at full load goes to 75C which apparently isn't destructive, but it needs to be sorted as I am obviously not going to attempt to play BF3! I have a feeling that it may be something else in my PC causing the problem, but I have no idea what. I checked for any suspicious programs running in task manager and did a virus check which came up with nothing. At the moment my PC sounds like a lawnmower, side panel is off, fan control is at max, and fan speed on the card is 93%.

Do you think I should get it replaced? I bought it from here? Or is it possible to get a refund in store credit or whatever so I can buy a better one from here?