I recently switched my motherboard from an A320M-K to a B550M-A Wifi 2, and I also added a new CPU cooler. However, I've noticed a significant drop in performance with my PC after the upgrade. For instance, in Monster Hunter Wilds, my frame rate dropped from a stable 55-60 fps to an unstable 25-40 fps, and in ARC Raiders, it went from a capped 60 fps to around 30-40 fps.
Initially, I booted up my system with the previous files and just updated the drivers for the new motherboard, which went smoothly, but I faced the performance issues right away.
After that, I did a full reinstall of Windows 10 and updated all drivers while ensuring my BIOS was up to date. Still, performance in both games remained poor.
I'd appreciate any suggestions for potential solutions I haven't tried or mistakes I might have made. Here are my specs for reference:
New motherboard: Asus Prime B550M-A Wifi 2
New CPU cooler: Be quiet Pure Rock 2
Power supply: Aerocool VX plus 550
GPU: RTX 4060
CPU: Ryzen 7 5800X
RAM: 2×16GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200MHz
Previous motherboard: Asus Prime A320M-K
**SOLVING EDIT:** I found out that my RAM was underclocked due to auto settings in the BIOS. After manually setting it back to 3200MHz, the performance issues were resolved. Thanks for your help!
2 Answers
It sounds like you might have been running your RAM at a lower frequency than intended. Double-check if you have the XMP profile enabled in your BIOS to set the RAM to 3200MHz. That alone can cause serious performance drops if it's running at 2133MHz!
If you found the 'Memory frequency' option and can set it to 3200MHz, you're on the right track! Don't worry too much about overclocking; enabling XMP is usually safe and recommended for optimal performance.
Glad to hear you found a solution! It’s always easy to overlook settings in the BIOS, and underclocked RAM is a common culprit when performance issues arise after hardware changes.
Also, make sure your RAM sticks are seated correctly for dual-channel mode and that you've enabled Resizable BAR if your GPU supports it. It can make a noticeable difference! You can find those settings in the BIOS too.