Severe FPS drops and audio glitching

[Goardio]

Fallout New Vegas experiences frequent & very severe FPS drops on my computer.

Specs:

8gb Ram (1.2 gigs used by Windows and background applications)

2gb Video Ram

3.5 Ghz Dual Core Intel processor

Windows 7

...and lots more that I don't know.

These drops vary in severity and seem to happen at random, but more often outside. They tend to last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes and end if I restart the game. I use NVSE and Project Nevada, but I know they aren't the cause.

 

Audio glitching is hard to describe. It's severe, too. It sounds just... distorted.

 

I doubt it has anything to do with this but I feel it's worth mentioning that F:NV is installed on a different hard drive than Windows and My Documents.

 

I've tried NV Configator and it hasn't changed anything.