The PC I built lags

Not entirely sure if this is the correct section to post this, but I built my PC, and it feels slower than it should.

Components:
i5 4690K (Stock) and cooled by a Corsair H100i
MSI Z97M-G43
Gigabyte GTX 970 G1 Gaming Edition
Corsair VX or VS550 watt PSU
Kingston HyperX blu 2x4gb

My pc likes to lag in games like Borderlands 2. I cant play it on max settings because it likes to drop below 30fps. And with BF4, I can play on ultra fine at 60fps, but if I up the resolution scaling to 200%, it drops to around 30, whilst my friend with the standard Gigabyte GTX 970 and an AMD FX-8320 cpu can maintain a solid 60fps on the same settings.

And then there is dying light, which I mainly just believe is the games optimizational issues.

Is there any hardware component that would be causing it to not run at max performance? I hope its not my cpu, because the only reason I went intel was because I was told by alot of people who work with computers alot that Intel was the best decision.

I also noticed that the GTX970 requires a min 550w psu to opperate. Because my is the bare min, would this have any effect on its performance? and would I notice any performance upgrade from running say a 650w or a 750??

Also, the friend I mentioned before, he has a 650w psu. Just thought I'd share if the psu's actually make a difference.

Thanks in advance

No i dont think that the psu is the issue. 550W should be way enough.
How are your system temps during gaming? wenn lagging starts?

Did you re-use a hard-drive? and what are your CPU and GPU Temps?

The GTX 970 is very efficient. power-draw shouldn't be an issue. if power-draw were an issue the computer would just shut down on you.

Could be windows being stupid

Maybe run 3dmark and see if your results compare to the results of other people

I do have a scenario in mind, but i need to know the system temps.

Lower physx in borderlands 2 and check physx is running on your GPU not your cpu.
latest Nvidia PhysX driver http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/physx-system-software-9-13-1220-download.html

Is your ram plugged into the black slots with both blue being empty? If you plug them in next to each other you will cut your ram bandwidth in half

Is your graphics card plugged into the PCIe slot closest to the processor and ram? That slot is 3.0 x16 while the other full length slot at the end of the board is 2.0 x4.

Is your monitor plugged in to the graphics card and not the motherboard?

Is anything overheating and throttling itself?

In regards to temps, I ran a Heaven Benchmark and the GPU stayed at around 60 degrees Celsiusand the CPU was around 31. However, I dont know if this is something to be concerned about or not, but MSI afterburner is only showing 3 of the 4 cores temps. CPU #1 doesnt show at all in the temp monitor. Its just sitting at 0 with no altering.

For the HDD, yes, I reused my HDD from my previous computer which was an AMD build. It was still using an Nvidia card though.

How do I make it run the physX off the GPU rather than the CPU??? My old GTX650 ran borderlands 2 smoother when all hell broke loose in the game than my 970 does :(

Praestigaitor, My ram is plugged into the optimal ports, I believe for this motherboard, it is the 2 black slots (My understanding of the manual) They are not plugged in next to each other, so they are Dual Channeling.

The GPU is plugged in to the top port, closest to the CPU

And the monitor is plugged in to the port on the GPU. My motherboard doesnt output display from the motherboard when a graphics card is plugged in.. found that out one time when I was super tired and setting it up. (Mini Heart attack when things didnt display)

http://physxinfo.com/wiki/PhysX_Control_Panel

With a brand new system I would seriously consider doing a clean install of windows on a new or formatted drive. You could have some old drivers or something else from the old system bogging it down.

That is weird about the temps. It could be a broken temp sensor. Have you tried other programs like core temp to see if they report the same? Does it report any load under all of the cores?

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Ok, I changed the physX from auto to my GTX970, I hope that makes a difference in the future.

I plan on buying a a new HDD, probably a 2TB one or maybe even a 1TB, but with better stuff.

I restarted MSI afterburner and its reading all cores now, all temps are the same

Is there a way to clean out old drivers? maybe a program that goes through and sorts stuff out based on the hardware and programs you have installed?

http://www.guru3d.com/content-page/guru3d-driver-sweeper.html

Using a program to cleanup drivers probably won't fix the issues you're having. When you move a HDD from one system to another, you need to do a clean Windows installation. Anything less and you're asking for trouble.

i agree on a clean windows install.

Fair enough, I will do a clean install when I buy a new HDD

If I were to do it say, today though, am I going to notice much of a difference?

Check for pins that are bent on the cpu socket that may be why.

Thats exaly a very good one.
maybe there is a problem with the mobo.

Wont be the first time, that a mobo gets shipped in with bended pins.

But i would first do a clean windows install personaly. just back up everything you need, and do a clean windows install.

It came from personal experience when I had it as well with my system. Was too eager to test out my new cpu but of not knowing of how to install a intel cpu,then managed to install it, a week later it freezes every other second while playing Skyrim which I knew it was bent pins on the motherboard. I have already re-imaged my hard drive before checking to make sure and to no avail.

Im reinstalling windows today. Just about to finish transfering the 500gb of stuff from my main drive thats important. The computer doesnt freeze as such, it just gets really slow like its being bogged down by a million programs all open at once and all doing some small thing.

I may look into my RAM speeds and make sure they are running at the correct speed and havent been set to a slower speed by default from my Mobo.

I also tested out the PysX thing, from being changed from auto to make it my GPU only. But Im still getting 16fps on Borderlands 2. A game where my 650 ti boost got atleast 40 during a lag spike.

Did you remember to install your chipset driver? I forgot one time after reinstalling windows and the whole system lagged. Chipset drivers are different from drivers for hardware on your motherboard and come from either amd or intel but are downloaded from your motherboard manufacturer.