New computer, Random lag

[jsethrea]

my computer is only a few months old. its really new, fast and its windows 7. it has 6 gb of ram, and plays world of warcraft at amazing speeds. thats a computer game if u dont know. anyways my computer has way more then needed requirments to play the game. i could even play it on high settings without lag. lately tho, ive been getting very random outbursts of lag, and it slows down from the normaly 60 fps to 3-5 fps. i thought maybe it was just my settings were turned up too high(even tho it worked fine on them before) so i turned them all the way down. the lag happened again bringing me down to 3 fps. this low fps lasts around 5 minutes, then goes back to its super fast speed of 60 fps. it baffels me. i thought maybe it was spyware, but i have webroot spysweeper and run it all the time and i delete spysweeper if i even get any. i use mozilla firefox aswell. somone said maybe my computer is overheating but im now sure, i opened it up and blew out some dust with my breth but it still happens. any ideas?

[Calum]

Welcome to the forums.
Can we get your full system specifications?

[jsethrea]

yeah my computer is windows 7 home premium. HP computer. model is p6310y. Processor is AMD athlon II X4 630 2.8GHz. 6 GB RAM. 64 bit operating system.

[the_mad_joker]

thats a computer game if u dont know

OH! I Really Dont Knew That

Two Things :
1] How Much HDD Space Left.

2] Is Your Antivirus Updated And Scanned With It.

[Calum]

Try defragmenting your hard drive if you haven't already, also do check for malware.
It sounds like either something running in the background or an overheating issue to me, but those Athlons do run fairly cool (at least with the OEM heatsink) so I doubt that's the cause.

[jsethrea]

yes i do have a very good reason to believe that my computer is over heating but im not sure if its just the video card, or the whole computer. my video card is the nvidia Geforce 9100 and when i play WoW it gets up to 250 degreese farenghiet before it slows down and lags. im guessing this is so it doesnt melt the card. any other temps u guys should know about that i could tell you let me know. i think its just the video card but not sure. anyways what should be done about this?

[quaxo]

gets up to 250 degreese farenghiet before it slows down and lags

What are you using to measure the temperature?

250F (or about 120C) is the maximum threshold for most video cards, so if whatever you're using is reading that your card is getting this hot, that could very well be the problem.

[the_mad_joker]

250F (or about 120C)

Whoaaa Thats Really!Really HOT! 

[quaxo]

Whoaaa Thats Really!Really HOT! 

Indeed. I hope the CPU isn't getting that hot or anywhere near it. For most CPUs, that's way past the limit.

[jsethrea]

im using CPUID HW moniter to measure the temperature. any other temps u guys wana see so i know its just the video card the needs to be replaced?

[Salmon Trout]

cpu core?

[PlasmaticJj]

i would say this is an intonet connection problem that causes lag, not your PC as what often happens is that someone will restar theere wireless during a game session so that all characters are frosen for the person who has restarted there wireless, however the person who has temporarily lost connection will experience problems thus causing lag as the game server will try to connect you back to the players you where with, a common exampole is when you are using a week signal for playing games, you will often find that it becomes laggy from time to time, this happens with everything even if it a jaguar super computer or a games consol.

[quaxo]

i would say this is an intonet connection problem that causes lag

He's talking about frame rate dropping from 60fps to 5fps. When you're experiencing lag (or latency) issues in World of Warcraft, it doesn't cause your FPS to drop, although it may cause other issues with movement. This most likely has nothing to do with his internet connection. He has already stated that his video card is running at 250F, which is pushing the limit of video cards and is the most probably cause of this issue.

Jsethrea, like Salmon Trout said, the CPU core temp, but really a complete list of temps that you're getting readings on (if you're not sure what's excessive and what isn't).


Additionally, but to prevent any arguments about the issue:
Before anyone breaks in and says something like "So why do people experience FPS drops in Ironforge and Dalaran and etc. and so forth?" That's a hardware issue, not an internet connection issue. The apparent "lag" is caused by the computer taking too much time to load that many character models. People with computers that are up to snuff usually don't experience this problem. I have a constant latency of at least 300ms, which is 5-10 times what most people in the U.S. get. With my current setup, I run maximum detail with a nearly constant 60fps, except in Dalaran where I might drop to 40fps due to excessive things being loaded, but 40fps is still good. I have always kept my computer well ahead of Warcraft in terms of system requirements and have never had an issue with these areas.