I've been experiencing a sudden drop in my PC's performance. It was functioning well not long ago, but now it lags frequently, even during something as simple as refreshing the desktop. My CPU, Disk, GPU, and RAM usage are all quite low (CPU at 6%, Disk at 2-3%, RAM at 15%, and GPU at 1-0%). It's particularly frustrating when I try to play games like Days Gone, which now lags terribly, including weird dialogue during gameplay. Other games are laggy too, including Age of Empires 2 HD, which shouldn't be a problem in this day and age. Here are my specs: Xeon E3 1241 v3, 16 GB RAM, RTX 3060 TI (8GB), 1 SSD (where Windows 11 is installed) and 3 HDDs from old laptops that I've checked. I suspect the CPU and GPU might be bottlenecks, but they were fine just a few days ago. I have Avast installed as I heard Defender was using more disk resources, plus it flags any bad redirects. I've disabled all startup programs except for Avast, and I'm stumped as to what's causing this lag. Any help would be appreciated!
3 Answers
Try booting into safe mode to see if the slowness persists. If it runs fine there, it's likely a software or virus issue, not a hardware failure. That could help narrow down the problem!
First off, consider removing Avast. Most people find it unnecessary and it can slow things down. If it didn't help after you uninstalled it, you might want to try a clean install of Windows. That can really speed things up by wiping out any redundant files and registry clutter. Also, old laptop drives can be slow, and that might be part of the issue too. And if you're getting bad redirects while browsing, that's a sign to steer clear of sketchy websites!
Have you looked at your temps and frequency? Sometimes, lag can occur if your CPU is being overworked without you realizing it. Use tools like RTSS to monitor your resource usage while playing games. If you're only using one core heavily, it might cause more lag than if it evenly distributes the workload across all cores. That could be part of your problem!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll definitely try that and see if I can find any issues.