Strange performance issues

[jaygengelbach2]

I'm having a nightmare of a time with this performance issue, and was hoping somewhere here might have some suggestions.

 

I usually manage about 30 FPS, with it sometimes dipping to ~15 or so in a big fight, which is manageable. Lately, it has been dropping to a completely unplayable 4 FPS. It sticks that way for a minute or two before it recovers.

 

I can't come up with anything that has recently changed that might cause this:

- I've been playing with this hardware for weeks with no issues.

- No new mods

- No recent driver updates

 

Reducing the graphic settings doesn't seem to help--I've tried a number of things. I also found the Streamline and Operation Optimization mods. They improved general performance a lot--nearly doubling my frame rates when things are going well. But when the bad performance kicks in, things are still crap (5 FPS--"20%" better, but still unplayable).

 

I've tried isolating the problem, with some interesting results:

- The problem only exists when actively playing the game. If I open up the inventory for example, frame rates shoot up to ~120 or so. This rules out something like an AV scan or a virus kicking in and killing my performance, since it only kills performance for one aspect of the game.

- When performance is crap, reloading doesn't fix it. I can reload a quicksave or reload a completely different character, and the performance is still awful.

- The slow performance seems completely uncorrelated with how much work the game "should" be doing. Frequently, it will kick in after I've killed one or two enemies out of a group--usually, performance would be worst when all enemies are alive.

- Changing areas or buildings doesn't appear to help at all.

- There doesn't appear to be any event that makes performance improve again; it just happens after a minute or two.

- If I exit the game completely and reload my game (even reload with a game saved during the period of poor performance), performance is fine. Exiting to the main menu isn't good enough--I have to exit completely. (Interestingly enough, I can quit and restart Oblivion faster than what it takes to "ride it out" within the game.)

 

I don't have many mods installed, and I tried disabling them all, but the issue still crops up. I also tried running with setdebugtext 13, but couldn't correlate the slow performance with any of the values it printed.

 

Any ideas what might be wrong, or how I could debug from here?

[Hickory]

Check your graphics card for overheating. Open up the box and carefully, and thoroughly, blow out the inside with a can of compressed air. Dust bunnies will have all sorts of detrimental effects on system performance.

 

Take a look at Bben's slow game suggestions and Clening your computer.