I've built my first gaming PC and I'm really excited about it, but I'm noticing that it seems to be underperforming dramatically. Here are my specs: Ryzen 9 9900x, Nvidia 5070, Gigabyte x870 EAGLE WIFI7, Arctic Liquid Freezer III Pro 360, 32GB RAM G.SKILL Trident Z5, and Corsair RM1000X.
I switched from an Alienware laptop with a Ryzen R9 5900HX and a 3070M, so I know how a gaming rig should perform. But when I played Overwatch 2, I noticed a significant drop in FPS, especially when I moved my mouse. Tweaking the polling rate helped a bit, but it's still not right. Running benchmarks like 3DMark showed average results for my hardware, but playing Oblivion Remastered was a different story—my GPU usage was only around 30%, and my frame rates were far below what I expected.
I'm considering a complete Windows reinstall and checking each hardware component one by one. Any advice on what I should troubleshoot first? If you need more information or clips, let me know!
3 Answers
First off, make sure your monitor is connected directly to your GPU, not the motherboard. This can often be overlooked, but it's crucial for performance!
You didn't mention the full specs of your RAM. AM5 settings can be tricky. Install Windows and drivers first, then enable XMP/EXPO to see if it improves performance. If not, consider dialing back the speed of your RAM slightly to see if that stabilizes your system. For example, if you have 6400CL32, try dropping it to 6200CL31.
I turned on XMP after my Oblivion session, but I didn’t notice much difference. My RAM is at 6000CL36, so I’ll try lowering it a bit and see what happens.
Did you change your parts without reinstalling Windows? Also, ensure that your RAM is in dual channel mode and running at EXPO speeds. Keep HWInfo64 open to check your temps and clock speeds across the board. Also, verify that your PCI-E slot is set to x16. Even though your CPU is great, you might see a bit of a difference in FPS due to the different CPUs in the benchmark video you watched.
I installed Windows fresh with all the parts in. I’ll check HWInfo. My temps are surprisingly low—my GPU hovers around 50C and my CPU is at 40C, even during Oblivion.
Yeah, my DP cable is definitely plugged into the GPU.