Games Running in Slow Motion

[lyndonn]

Hello,

I have been battling to diagnose an issue for the last 6 weeks or so - games that I run on my PC run in slow motion. They are beautifully rendered, the graphics are smooth and without fault, but everything moves slowly, as if watching a slow motion video.

I have tried everything that I can think of and everything that I can come up with via Google search on similar issues.

General PC performance is perfect; the only issue I seem to have is this in-game performance. I believe it is down to a driver issue because hardware isolation testing seems to suggest that compnenets are working, but I've tried rolling back to older versions of nVidia drivers without positive effect and similarly re-updated without positive effect.

The system was built two years ago and the only upgrades made have been a new OS hardrive and a new PSU. The HDD has been in use for about 8 months without this issue being apparent.

The timing of this issue and the upgrade of the PSU is suspicious (made in early January of this year), HOWEVER I have been able to get graphics working under two different graphics cards without this issue being apparent so I don't think this is down to lack of juice from the PSU.

The reason I suggest this is that as part of my testing I installed a RADEON based card in place of my nVidia, got the same issue (I forget the model number an HD6750 I think; it was of a similar era to my GTX460). After spending a long time cleaning up drivers and driver reinstalls in-game performance came right under the RADEON card and ran well for a week, before I went back to my nVidia - which after driver reinstalls/clean ups etc. also ran well for a few days).

So I figure if it was a PSU issue this could not have come right. Also I have been able to experience 'proper' performance on the nVidia card under this PSU but it was fleeting, system ran well for a couple of days after a clean install and then it seems as if I booted again one day and the issue was back.

I usually only play games via the Steam application and my usual 'test game' is Defence Grid, which my system specs easily overmatch requirements for and I have played (apparently for in excess of 100 hours) happily since this system was built.
I have tried other games within Steam and have also tried a game outside of Steam - all perform similarly.

Windows Experience scores (if they're worth anything? suggest the system is good), with 7.9 on all indices.
3D Mark testing demonstrated that graphics performance was on par with systems of similar specs.
As said, I can't pick a fault in the rendering of graphics - just that game speed seems to be in slow motion.
Monitoring of CPU, RAM and GPU temps suggest that temperatures stay within good and normal parameters whilst under load and there is no load usage on CPU or RAM to suggest I'm anywhere near running out of processing power (and again, system has run this game and many others quite happily for some time).

FRAPS reports a solid 60FPS on Defence Grid output on a new ASUS monitor (budget model) at stock 60hz refresh rate.
I don't know a lot about FPS but I get the sense that this is quite acceptable and if FPS were an indicator for this behaviour I would be seeing far lower FPS?

The following are my system specs and a list of strategies I've tried to overcome this issue.

MOBO: ASROCK X58 Extreme 3
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 800w
CPU: i7 960 @ 3.2ghz
HDD 1: Corsair Force Series 3 120gb
HDD 2: Seagate Sata II 1TB
RAM: 12gb Corsair Vengeance, running in triple-channel
GPU: Gainward Golden Sample nVidia GTX 460 (stock overclocked and with 2gb memory)
OS: Win 7 Home Edition, 64bit

What I have already tried, again using Defence Grid as my example, but behaviour is found in all other games I have tried:

Ensured vSync is off
Tried overclocking and also underclocking PCIe frequency without noticing any change in performance.
Turned off Aero desktop, tried performance settings, disabling tranparency etc. (performance of all programs and windows is fast and snappy as you would expect).
Steam application does exhibit a fade effect, I believe this is hard-coded, and this effect is noticeably slow.
I would lay the fault with Steam EXCEPT that I've tried running Total War Medieval II as a standalone install (nothing to do with Steam) and get the same slow motion issue.
This is a game that has previously run quite well on the system as have Steam games.

Ensured latest Windows updates installed

Reseated graphics card, ensured latest Nvidia drivers installed
Reseated graphics card in alternate PCIe slot, updated drivers
Checked all leads and power connectors, seating of RAM, cleaned up dust on fans, given the build-in-the-box 'the once over'.

Installed a different graphics card (as per description above) and experienced same slow motion performance issues.
Ran system off alternate OS hard-drive and experienced same issue.

Ensured Direct X is installed/reinstalled and up to date with version 9.0c and 11

Reinstall of mobo drivers (many times)

Reinstated default BIOS settings excepting basic tweaks to order boot of HDDs.

Reinstall of Windows

Clean install of Windows

Ensured Power Plan is set to Performance and that there is no power down on hdds etc.

Tried installing Steam and games on OS SSD and also on secondary SATA II drive, same issue encountered under both schemes.

Ensuring that AMD Controller is not present/running

Rolled back to nVidia drivers to a time period when I know in-game performance ran perfectly, no joy
Reinstalled latest drivers

Uninstalled display adaptor from system profile via Device Manager and rebooted for redetection/installation

General system and registry cleans using CCleaner.

Uninstall display drivers, run a system clean, reboot/install

I've probably tried other things I can't remember right now...
Essentially if I've been able to find it on the net I've tried it - so open to any ideas/thoughts that people can offer, I'm sure I've not found everything.
I would happily have gone and purchased a new component(s) if I thought this would resolve the issue but I'm not convinced that it's hardware nor 'old' hardware.
By the same token I have lost count of the number of driver installs/rollbacks/updates that I have performed for not only the GPU but system-wide.

The frustration is that I've had glimpses of the issue disappearing after all these efforts and the main efforts that seem to have led to resolution have been driver reinstalls.
Again, I've tried this again and again without success so if this IS the solution, damned if I can get it to work again.

Thanks in advance to any thoughts/questions/advice that might help.

Cheers
Lyndon

[bawssoftheinternet]

Its a matrix mod on your cpu.

Cheers
Heather

[lyndonn]

I have wondered if it was all in my perception, but alas...

[Legendary old man]

I have never seen nor heard of a game running in slow motion. I have seen and heard of poor frame rates, lag and crappy performance but never plays smooth but in slow motion and I repair computers for a living. Especially gaming computers. It sounds pretty strange.

I would start checking each piece of your hardware and make sure the CPU is clocked correctly and has the correct voltage in your bios. Performance test your hard drives and your video with any of the many tools. Maybe your motherboard has an issue. Do you have more then one video card slot? Unplug anything you can, add on cards, DVD burner, external devices and any hard drives not being used. Try a different keyboard and mouse as a long shot.

Also unplug any USB case ports. I have had them short out before and cause strange problems

[123]

Little story
----------
I had a video card that was top of the line (Best new tech just released) trying to play a older game once... Ran super great at first but after time performance started degrading.

What usually occurs with graphic cards is they are already overclocked (same with some processors) when you buy it ... so they can sell it for the higher listed price of the new "stats"

What occurs though is with usage they will over heat and slowly start dying (actually fairly quick if you use them for 5ish hours a day in intense game)...

Possible issues
--------------------
You have a infected computer. This can cause MAJOR performance issues from botnet running bitcoin farmer on your pc to general malware/virus
Not enough power is supplied by the psu
It is starting to die... low performance actually occurs before graphical issues when a graphic card dies.

Driver issues tend to be bit different... than just poor performance.

Overclocking a graphic card lowers the length before it dies.

[monkeyface]

Replacing the motherboard CMOS battery (CR2032) fixed this issue for me.

[JYLLEN KOLON:P PEPEGA]

Have u fixed this yet?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Most suspect issues in OP's case...

> When u are going to run a game where u are not going to use a game controller, if the game is known to act up, or u experience that. Unplug any game controllers before game launch.

> Given your GPU, fully uninstall your NVIDIA GPU drivers/software. Then clean install 314.22 WHQL. These are know to be some of the more stable drivers to date. When clean installing NVIDIA drivers, select Custom during installer, de-select NVIDIA Updater and 3D Vision if u don't need them. Then check the "Perform Clean Install" box.

> To ensure DirectX is fully up to date, use the one from Microsoft.com called "DirectX Runtime Redist - June 2010". OS' to date after Vista release are known to be missing some needed DX files for certain versions. Once the June 2010 full installer has updated your DX runtime, download the smaller DirectX Web Updater and run that, which should finish very quickly if the June 2010 did the trick.

> Some drivers, apps, games; require other runtimes; Such as .NET Framework; Visual C++ (2005, 2008, 2010). Also make sure others are the latest available, such as Adobe Shockware, Flash, and Oracle Java. Most runtimes also have two versions, x86 for 32bit OS, and x64 for 64bit OS. If you have 64bit OS, you should have both versions installed. Especially for Visual C++

After installing these key runtimes, ones like .NET Framework and Visual C++ should have further updates/hotfixes available via Windows Updates. So be sure to update them further this way.

[[Hou]Hulk Bogan]

What happens when you disable XMP in bios and manually configure RAM?

[JYLLEN KOLON:P PEPEGA]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Most suspect issues in OP's case...

> When u are going to run a game where u are not going to use a game controller, if the game is known to act up, or u experience that. Unplug any game controllers before game launch.

> Given your GPU, fully uninstall your NVIDIA GPU drivers/software. Then clean install 314.22 WHQL. These are know to be some of the more stable drivers to date. When clean installing NVIDIA drivers, select Custom during installer, de-select NVIDIA Updater and 3D Vision if u don't need them. Then check the "Perform Clean Install" box.

> To ensure DirectX is fully up to date, use the one from Microsoft.com called "DirectX Runtime Redist - June 2010". OS' to date after Vista release are known to be missing some needed DX files for certain versions. Once the June 2010 full installer has updated your DX runtime, download the smaller DirectX Web Updater and run that, which should finish very quickly if the June 2010 did the trick.

> Some drivers, apps, games; require other runtimes; Such as .NET Framework; Visual C++ (2005, 2008, 2010). Also make sure others are the latest available, such as Adobe Shockware, Flash, and Oracle Java. Most runtimes also have two versions, x86 for 32bit OS, and x64 for 64bit OS. If you have 64bit OS, you should have both versions installed. Especially for Visual C++

After installing these key runtimes, ones like .NET Framework and Visual C++ should have further updates/hotfixes available via Windows Updates. So be sure to update them further this way.

I did this, and it fixed my slow motion for ~1 hour or so. Now im back to slow motion again...

[JYLLEN KOLON:P PEPEGA]

Could it me my motherboard? How can i test it?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Next thing to look for then would be to look at Task Manager > Performance.
Is your CPU getting taxed when idling/doing nothing?
How much Available RAM is left?

If the CPU is doing random spikes or loads of any real sort when u yourself aren't running a game or doing anything, click on Processes and see what task(s) are using the CPU.

With any recent update to .NET Framework for example, after system reboot, .NET has to recompile it's database, and this can take some time and slow down Windows a bit. Course with your hardware specs, it shouldn't be slowing u down to where u'd notice it.

Sound like u may have conflict between present AMD drivers and NVIDIA. It is quite common. Any switch of these two GPU types u should prepare the system properly by fully removing any old drivers. Such as if you had a Radeon installed and are changing that out for NVIDIA, make sure to first fully uninstall any AMD GPU drivers before installing the NVIDIA card; or vice-versa.

[JYLLEN KOLON:P PEPEGA]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

Next thing to look for then would be to look at Task Manager > Performance.
Is your CPU getting taxed when idling/doing nothing?
How much Available RAM is left?

If the CPU is doing random spikes or loads of any real sort when u yourself aren't running a game or doing anything, click on Processes and see what task(s) are using the CPU.

With any recent update to .NET Framework for example, after system reboot, .NET has to recompile it's database, and this can take some time and slow down Windows a bit. Course with your hardware specs, it shouldn't be slowing u down to where u'd notice it.

Sound like u may have conflict between present AMD drivers and NVIDIA. It is quite common. Any switch of these two GPU types u should prepare the system properly by fully removing any old drivers. Such as if you had a Radeon installed and are changing that out for NVIDIA, make sure to first fully uninstall any AMD GPU drivers before installing the NVIDIA card; or vice-versa.

Ive reformatted and reinstalled windows, and the problem still appears. I do only have NVIDIA drivers installed, so i doubt its a conflict between those drivers.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I don't see how we can really be of help for u any further then.
Time to take it to a tech/pro. Let them troubleshoot it.

How about a spare HDD, u try a reformat with a regular HDD to rule out your SSD. Or at least run an app that can check your SSD for quality/life loss.

Since u tried two completely different model of GPUs and see the same results, not sure where else to go at this point. Could be MB, PSU, u name it.

Make sure AHCI is enabled in BIOS for your SATA mode before OS install. Then after OS install, make sure to download latest Intel Chipset Drivers, which will also cover AHCI. As without this, u can see alot of system performance lagg.

Make sure your RAM settings are all setup correctly in BIOS. U said u updated BIOS, so I would recheck all your BIOS settings, just to be sure.

[d'Artagnan]

..

[[Hou]Hulk Bogan]

This isnt a software issue. Can you answer my question above?