TF2 slowdown

Hi all, my specs are in my sig. Recently I've been experiencing sudden slowdowns with TF2, I get about half an hour out of it and then wham! I'm at 3FPS. I checked my temps and they're at about 60*C straight after I quit. I don't know what is causing it as I usually get a good fluid 50-60 FPS. I even made a little passive cooler out of some ply to make sure the fan gets good airflow.

My settings are as follows:

DX9
1920x1080 res
rexture, model and shader detail set to high
shadows set to medium
reflection set to simple
trilinear filtering, no AA and no vsync
no motion blur and HDR set to whatever the default is (I don't think TF2 even uses HDR so it shouldn't effect it)

 

Was there a new patch for TF2? Are you using new drivers?

I know for some people with ATi GPU forget to make sure PowerPlay is set on high performance and Windows Power Settings. Did you double check for your powermizer?

Also for temperatures, what you want to do is to run it while playing. And after you quit, look at the maximum temp.

 

Check temperatures?

 

My temps are at about 60-65 when gaming for this time period. Way back before this started happening in the summer after extended gaming I saw some parts hit 80+ but I don't think I'm getting anywhere near that atm.

For drivers I have the 8.65 version with CCC version 9.9 (mobility modder), I tried to update after the slow ups started happening (in case new drivers had a fix) but the instilation screwed over. I have powerplay set to high performance while on the PSU.

I have TF2 set to update automatically just like all my other steam games so it should be up to date, also to my knowledge it's the only game I have which screws over like this, all my other ones seem fine. It also seem to affect my favourite map more than the others (koth_viaduct) but that might just be because I don't spend enough time on the others to get it to mess up. I'm kinda new to steam (haven't used it much in a while for I've only recently got more games, previously I only owned HL2), so I don't know all the ins and outs of it (though don't mistake me for a n00b either, I wouldn't call a 31 killing spree-26 of which were headshots- n00bish ).

Next time I play I'll make sure to run HWmonitor though, might make it do a graph too to really see whats going on.

 

I do believe I have found the source of my problem, I ran HWmonitor while playing and it turned out I hit 91*C on my processor and about 80*C on my graphics.

I'm going to get some MX-3 to replace the thermal pads in a bit and while the heatsink is off I'll wash it in some alcohol since I think so rubbishy stuff got in there. Hopefully that'll nock at least ten degrees off. In the mean time I'm playing in DX8 with everything set to as low as it will go and running in 1280x720, also with vsync enabled to make sure it doesn't go and start crunching excess frames which I don't need leading to more heat, I'm in no danger of having screen tearing (I've got the power to run the game maxed out, just not the cooling).

 

I wouldn't go as far as applying paste yet... sounds dumb but have you tried using some canned air to blow the crap out of your insides yet? 80c is pretty warm but it is nowhere near throttle TJmax, I don't think temps are the sole issue. Should try new drivers again

 

Well it's pretty definite that 91*C is the max it'll hit for the moment, I've cleaned it out before with compressed air and it kinda made a difference but I think that what I've got in the heatsink is a little more stubborn. Plus I've been meaning to change the thermal compound for a while, increase the life of my computer while also letting it run fanless when idle. When it was brand new it used to run without the fan most of the time when web browsing but now it kinda turns on and off when doing nothing. So to make things short I'd just like things as cool and quiet as possible, there aren't hate threads about this computer putting out some serious heat for nothing...