New Skylake parts, FPS problems in old games

[E-matlet]

Hello everyone,

on this monday morning I present to you a problem that began when I swapped out Z87 parts (i5 4670K, Maximus VI Hero, G. Skill RipjawsX 1600MHz 2x4GB) for Z170 ones (listed below in specs) a few weeks ago. I experience FPS fluctuation in older games (World of Warcraft classic and other versions of the same game). Oddly enough, the problem disappears for the duration of Shadowplay recording. Newer games run absolutely fine with no problems. Another problem I experience is that occasionally following a clean shutdown, my computer just refuses to boot. It requires several minutes unplugged to start again. In an unsuccessful attempt to rule out the cause as anything other than my new hardware acting out in conjunction with a very old game, I have done the following:

1) Reset everything about the game itself and install the game fresh with zero clutter (addons, etc.)
2) Reset BIOS to defaults
3) "Safe Mode" (no unnecessary services) in 10 Pro
4) Tried the game with two different operating systems freshly installed (8.1, 10) with nothing unnecessary installed
5) Installed three different compatible graphics drivers ranging from the newest (375) to older ones (361). I've also tried tweaking nvidia control panel to enforce the 144hz setting.

My specs:

Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming
i5 6600K
HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 @2666MHz
GTX 970
Crucial MX100 256GB
Seasonic G-550
Sound Blaster Z
Fractal Design Define R4
Monitor is the VG248QE by Asus.

The motherboard and power supply have been warranty checked - apparently there is nothing wrong with them. I am really out of ideas as to where else these problems may be originating from.

I really appreciate any help this fine forum can give me. Thank you.

UPDATE: Both issues were caused by a faulty power supply, as explained on page 2. Thank you everyone for your help!

 

[trents]

What are you cooling the CPU with? You mention nothing about checking package temps under stress.


And what happens if you rune the video on lower than 144 mhz?

 

[E-matlet]

What are you cooling the CPU with? You mention nothing about checking package temps under stress.


And what happens if you rune the video on lower than 144 mhz?

Cryorig H7, CPU temperatures average 40-45 °C under load. If I lower the refresh rate to 60, it is stable.

I have a feeling I've just had bad luck with hardware.

 

[trents]

Maybe there are parts of the old games that are not compatible with 144 mhz. If it were a hardware problem it should show up in the new games as well. Wouldn't you think?

 

[E-matlet]

Maybe there are parts of the old games that are not compatible with 144 mhz. If it were a hardware problem it should show up in the new games as well. Wouldn't you think?

I suppose that makes sense, but what doesn't is that the Z87 ran it fine. Shutdown/sleep issue persists, but I'm going to be in touch with the retailer about that. Thanks for your help.

 

[trents]

There may be something about the instruction set in Skylake that comes into play here.

 

[EarthDog]

So, this is only in wow, right? You mention wow "and other versions of the SAME game". If you update it/add expansions, does it do the same thing?

 

[Kenrou]

If it's WoW most likely culprit is an addon. I had the vanilla client for a couple months (for nostalgia purposes) and noticed some of them seemed to cause trouble on occasion even though they were the correct version (not latest), Recount was a massive CPU hog for example.

 

[Lochekey]

Did you do a clean install of Windows when you upgraded your hardware or did you just migrate your drive over?

 

[EarthDog]

If it's WoW most likely culprit is an addon. I had the vanilla client for a couple months (for nostalgia purposes) and noticed some of them seemed to cause trouble on occasion even though they were the correct version (not latest), Recount was a massive CPU hog for example.

he mentioned classic. I dont WoW, is that not the original? He also said no addons. Because he said this, I'm wondering if an update or something made it work better with a modern chipset?

Did you do a clean install of Windows when you upgraded your hardware or did you just migrate your drive over?

#4 in post one.

 

[Kenrou]

he mentioned classic. I dont WoW, is that not the original? He also said no addons. Because he said this, I'm wondering if an update or something made it work better with a modern chipset?

There are "pirate" clients you can use for different expansions of the game, each a particular level cap. Missed the "no addons" part but i tried several clients years ago and they all worked well on Win7/Win8.1, unless the installer is corrupt or has virus/malware there should be zero issues. Only thing i can think of is that up to expansion 3-4 it was pure DX9 16bit/24bit image, not sure how Win10 handles it ? compatibility mode Win95/Win98/WinXP SHOULD help.

 

[Lochekey]

Thanks ED missed that one.

 

[E-matlet]

So, this is only in wow, right? You mention wow "and other versions of the SAME game". If you update it/add expansions, does it do the same thing?

Yes, only in wow. The same issue does not persist in the burning crusade, but rather an odd audio stuttering problem.

I have uploaded a video of the shutdown issue I described in my first post - could you please have a look at it here? For that reason I tend to avoid sleep mode and shutting down the computer if I need to use it shortly after.

 

[E-matlet]

There are "pirate" clients you can use for different expansions of the game, each a particular level cap. Missed the "no addons" part but i tried several clients years ago and they all worked well on Win7/Win8.1, unless the installer is corrupt or has virus/malware there should be zero issues. Only thing i can think of is that up to expansion 3-4 it was pure DX9 16bit/24bit image, not sure how Win10 handles it ? compatibility mode Win95/Win98/WinXP SHOULD help.

Thank you for the suggestion, I will give compatibility mode for XP a try.

 

[Janus67]

Okay so just to be clear you are playing on 'private servers' and not using the official and supported Blizzard WoW client?

 

[E-matlet]

Okay so just to be clear you are playing on 'private servers' and not using the official and supported Blizzard WoW client?

Yes, exactly. There is nothing wrong with the clients though, as I have tried different ones from different sources.

 

[EarthDog]

Is playing on a regular server a possibility? If so, I'd try that too..

 

[Kenrou]

Is playing on a regular server a possibility? If so, I'd try that too..

Sadly no, Blizzard has been talking about the possibility of making vanilla specific servers for a couple years now also to try and put a stop to private servers, but methinks it's too much money involved for too little profit (most people aren't gonna fork out 2 monthly subscriptions no matter how good the game is). You could ofc make an offline server and technically wouldn't be breaking any laws but that would defeat the purpose of a mostly social game (yes I know I'm treading on thin ice here). Also like I said each expansion raises the level cap and introduces new mechanics and areas and introduces a slight exp boost to make levelling faster. The people that like vanilla play it mostly because it was hard and time consuming to level each character, ex: average gamer would take roughly 1 week to get to max level 60, nowadays you can get to 110 in less then a day.

Funny thing is up to this latest expansion (which introduced a lot of interesting content) I would say there's more people interested in going back to vanilla/TBC/Wrath playstyle then current as Warlords was a major flop.

 

[Janus67]

What other games have you tried? What older other games are you noticing the dips and then all/most current games are going perfectly fine?

 

[E-matlet]

What other games have you tried? What older other games are you noticing the dips and then all/most current games are going perfectly fine?

Perhaps a misleading title - the problem only occurs in wow. Counter Strike: Source is from 2004, an equally old game, yet it runs great at 144 fps. A benchmark for testing purposes with Unigine yielded expected results - no problems there.