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

[Spl4tt_]

I have the same damn problem.. I can't understand what's causing this.
It's annoying as hell, because it occurs randomly, and ONLY a reboot can fix this.
It's hell when you're in a competitive game of csgo or LoL.

Don't know what to do.

[Pablo Escobar]

Hey, I have this problem too. I noticed that after I unplugged my joystick for War Thunder, Super Crate Box (free and really good) ran smooth, but in slow motion. After some testing, I noticed that when I plugged the joystick back in during SCB (please note that I've never used a joystick for SCB), it switched to joystick control and ran at a normal speed again. Still trying to figure out how to play games at a normal speed without the joystick though. Hope this helps! Good luck!

[Pablo Escobar]

引用自 geekster88：

Hey, I have this problem too. I noticed that after I unplugged my joystick for War Thunder, Super Crate Box (free and really good) ran smooth, but in slow motion. After some testing, I noticed that when I plugged the joystick back in during SCB (please note that I've never used a joystick for SCB), it switched to joystick control and ran at a normal speed again. Still trying to figure out how to play games at a normal speed without the joystick though. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Also note that I got the joystick recently, so I had only been playing games using it. (2 days ago). So this problem is new to me. Again, good luck!

[Pablo Escobar]

引用自 geekster88：

引用自 geekster88：

Hey, I have this problem too. I noticed that after I unplugged my joystick for War Thunder, Super Crate Box (free and really good) ran smooth, but in slow motion. After some testing, I noticed that when I plugged the joystick back in during SCB (please note that I've never used a joystick for SCB), it switched to joystick control and ran at a normal speed again. Still trying to figure out how to play games at a normal speed without the joystick though. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Also note that I got the joystick recently, so I had only been playing games using it. (2 days ago). So this problem is new to me. Again, good luck!

Sorry, for the constant replies to self, but further testing using Binding of Isaac (not Rebirth, ik) has proved that games that are not compatible with the joystick won't be affected. Note that I have not tested a bunch of games yet, but this is what I found. Hope the helps, and again - good luck!

[Mezu]

引用自 lyndonn：

- 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.

Hello,

i just build my new pc and got exactly that slow motion in games like im underwater.
When i searched around i found out i couldnt get on my NVidia Drivers...
So i looked behind my pc and realised the cables were plugged in the motherboard...
replugged in the Graphic Card and that slow motion ingame got fixed.

hope this help some ppl like a noob i am :)

[toss toss]

Too lazy to read all the replies so, sorry if its already been answered, but i had this problem the last couple of days.

BACKSTORY:

I booted up my pc one morning and was presented with a black screen. I rebooted, and it said "overclock failed" (I overclocked 5 months ago with no issues, after stability testing), i clicked reset to default and opened up into windows.


EFFECTS:

The PC was running horribly - not because of the base clock speed, but everything. Boot times, performance, audio issues.

I opened Spotify and all I could here was a crackling noise, behind my music. I opened up Chrome, it ran with intermittent bursts of not responding every 30 seconds. I booted up Steam, and loaded into a CSGO game with bots. Everything was in slow motion, I had really good fps, over 300 yet jumping off short on dust 2, felt like I had some sort of glide hack. I then tried Rocket League and felt the same slowness.

So I began testing, I initially thought, if my PC failed to boot due to an overclock failure, that for some reason or another, my overclock had fried my CPU, and it was running in some sort of limp mode.

I also thought it could be something to do with the age of my PSU. It may have degraded to such a point where it was unable to provide the volts required to operate my CPU at that clock speed, and so had failed to boot on the overclocked as a result.

I also considered whether the clock speed was having a direct impact on the "slowness" felt ingame, and it seemed to feel that way. After booting in default bios settings. I went back and began overclocking the CPU up to 3.2ghz. I had been at 3.6ghz when i got the overclock failure. With a smalll improvement to the "slowness" I had discovered more questions than answers.

That night I powered down the pc, unplugged all the peripherals, checked the pins between the PSU and the power cable. I took the side of the case off, and made sure nothing had been uncoupled, from the Mobo, I sprayed compressed air and cleared dust out of all the major areas.
There wasn't major dust built up, but I thought I would give it a go, but to no avail.

FIX:

I then remembered reading on another forum about how one guy had said to check all their USB ports for shorting, at the time of reading it went straight over my head, and I never really conceived that to be a possibility, since I had previously tried to isolate a short by removing a peripheral at a time, and testing performance.

I then removed the audio jack from my Logitech 7.1 surround dongle, and plugged it directly into the Mobos 3.5mm Jack port.

Instantly it felt better, the choppiness in sound was gone, it sounded clear. I booted up CSGO, went straight into a game of bots, and felts the normal tempo of the game again.

I then unplugged the MIC Jack from the dongle and plugged into into the Mobos 3.5mm Jack Mic input. Removing the dongle from the USB Port.

So I came to the conclusion that the Logitech Audio dongle which was a USB connection had in fact failed in some way causing a short circuit.

Hope this helps anyone who might be having this problem, or may have it in the future. I think with the problem being so Niche, and also it having a very broad area of potential components at fault, that this might help save a few people from launching their PC Straight out the window, out of anger.

All the best!

[Iceira]

if any want help make your own post, i doubt its relevant from 2013 hardware, to current year and win10 era

[GRUMPLE]

引用自 toss toss：

Too lazy to read all the replies so, sorry if its already been answered, but i had this problem the last couple of days.

BACKSTORY:

I booted up my pc one morning and was presented with a black screen. I rebooted, and it said "overclock failed" (I overclocked 5 months ago with no issues, after stability testing), i clicked reset to default and opened up into windows.


EFFECTS:

The PC was running horribly - not because of the base clock speed, but everything. Boot times, performance, audio issues.

I opened Spotify and all I could here was a crackling noise, behind my music. I opened up Chrome, it ran with intermittent bursts of not responding every 30 seconds. I booted up Steam, and loaded into a CSGO game with bots. Everything was in slow motion, I had really good fps, over 300 yet jumping off short on dust 2, felt like I had some sort of glide hack. I then tried Rocket League and felt the same slowness.

So I began testing, I initially thought, if my PC failed to boot due to an overclock failure, that for some reason or another, my overclock had fried my CPU, and it was running in some sort of limp mode.

I also thought it could be something to do with the age of my PSU. It may have degraded to such a point where it was unable to provide the volts required to operate my CPU at that clock speed, and so had failed to boot on the overclocked as a result.

I also considered whether the clock speed was having a direct impact on the "slowness" felt ingame, and it seemed to feel that way. After booting in default bios settings. I went back and began overclocking the CPU up to 3.2ghz. I had been at 3.6ghz when i got the overclock failure. With a smalll improvement to the "slowness" I had discovered more questions than answers.

That night I powered down the pc, unplugged all the peripherals, checked the pins between the PSU and the power cable. I took the side of the case off, and made sure nothing had been uncoupled, from the Mobo, I sprayed compressed air and cleared dust out of all the major areas.
There wasn't major dust built up, but I thought I would give it a go, but to no avail.

FIX:

I then remembered reading on another forum about how one guy had said to check all their USB ports for shorting, at the time of reading it went straight over my head, and I never really conceived that to be a possibility, since I had previously tried to isolate a short by removing a peripheral at a time, and testing performance.

I then removed the audio jack from my Logitech 7.1 surround dongle, and plugged it directly into the Mobos 3.5mm Jack port.

Instantly it felt better, the choppiness in sound was gone, it sounded clear. I booted up CSGO, went straight into a game of bots, and felts the normal tempo of the game again.

I then unplugged the MIC Jack from the dongle and plugged into into the Mobos 3.5mm Jack Mic input. Removing the dongle from the USB Port.

So I came to the conclusion that the Logitech Audio dongle which was a USB connection had in fact failed in some way causing a short circuit.

Hope this helps anyone who might be having this problem, or may have it in the future. I think with the problem being so Niche, and also it having a very broad area of potential components at fault, that this might help save a few people from launching their PC Straight out the window, out of anger.

All the best!

Yes that's a great point.
Having worked with computers and keyboards in public areas that I've had to wipe down because of the pandemic, sometimes the USB ports get wet, and as a result, the computer thinks the USB device is being plugged in and out constantly.

that can affect the PC in multiple ways, depending on the software that is being used to recognise the peripheral.

If the software that is being used uses a lot of CPU time or memory allocation when it detects a peripheral is being plugged in, then that peripheral shorting out can cause a lot of performance issues.

I guess an audio recording or playback software would allocate different amounts of space for the different amounts of sound outputs in a surround sound setting.

So if the device was faulty and shorting out (or wet), then maybe the software kept trying to switch between the regular setting and surround sound, so it had to keep messing with memory, which the OS couldn't keep up with.

[Solo55]

I am having the same problem, i built my pc just to play games and for 4 years its kicked ass. Then it just started running slow even the games i have played before, Biomutant, Hardspace Shipbreaker, Outriders, Horizon zero dawn, Cyberpunk 2077 and loads of others, they are just so you can see the mix of games i play and all suddenly start going slow the second the game kicks in.