[MentalParadox]

My one-year old gaming PC used to be able to run GTA V maxed out at 120 FPS. Same with other demanding games: ultra settings, smooth as butter framerate. Suddenly and without warning, this has changed.

Now I get only 15-30 FPS in GTA V. Turning down graphics to medium or even low makes little difference. The gain is only a few frames per second. This doesn't happen in *every* game though... Last game I bought was Mirror's Edge Catalyst. Tried to play, but I get a framerate of 5-35 FPS... Turning down graphics once again makes no difference. I see people play on worse rigs than mine on ultra settings at 60 FPS. This is unacceptable. Many games are now unplayable.

I've always maintained it well, defragged regularly. Scanned with two different virus scanners. I'm considering wiping the PC completely (format C) and starting over from scratch.

My specs:

-OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
-CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz, 4001 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 --Logical Processor(s)
-GPU: GeForce GTX 980
-RAM: 16 GB

DxDiag is uploaded as attachment.

 

[Masterchiefxx17]

Let's take a look at your system temperatures. Follow this guide here:

How to check your system temperatures - Tech Support Forum

 

[MentalParadox]

Let's take a look at your system temperatures. Follow this guide here:

How to check your system temperatures - Tech Support Forum

Idle temperature in the "assembly" is: 30°C (86°F).

I'll record the temperature under high loads soon, I'm running a major defrag right now... turns out Windows Defragmentation sucks. It always told me my drives were 0% fragmented (I defragged weekly), but now I'm trying out Defraggler, and it tells me my C-drive is 27% fragmented... Could this affect framerates in-game?

 

[Masterchiefxx17]

I doubt that your hard drive fragmentation is a problem here.