Unstable FPS in any game

          I've reinstalled drivers and defragged and I've gotten my CPU Usage down from high 80's down to low 60's/70's while in-game. This time I'm using Skyrim to test FPS due to GTA IV just being a bad port from console. Anyway, with Skyrim it runs on the recommended (pretty much everything on High) settings at about 60 FPS and every 5 or so seconds or when action kicks in drops to 20 or below FPS and back up to around 50 then 60. It's just unstable an these Low FPS hiccups are driving me insane. If I drop settings to the lowest it still does the same thing. This is seriously driving me nuts because all I strive for now is smooth gameplay with a constant FPS. I don't even really care about graphics anymore. I can record with FRAPS and post a video of Various games on High and Low Settings if you think that will help. Just please; anyone, help. ;_;

It sounds like it could be your Memory or possibly everything is just overheating. Test your RAM, check power supply consumtion, and check temperatures during a benchmark. Post your results here and maybe we could help you out.

What video card are you using, and have you looked to see if other people with the same card have this issue?

 

AMD Radeon HD 6850 HIS IceQ X Turbo, I have looked it up but it doesn't seem like anyone else with my card is having these problems.

I don't have the first clue of how to test any of this. I ran PerformanceTest 7.0 and got some numbers, but as for checking power consumption, Temps, and RAM. I just dont know.

Just checked my CPU's temperature... It's fucking 84 C... Buying thermal compund and I'm going to reapply the compund and clean the fans soon. I think this must be the issue.

Well, that wasn't it. Still about 82 C. Maybe I need to refill my liquid cooling? Haven't done that in a year.