Massive performance hit after system upgrade

[e_SonOfAnder]

Ran into a bit of a strange one last night.  I recently did a system overhaul and encountered some extremely unusual behavior.  Below are the old and new system specs:

Old:

- CPU: Intel Core i7-2600k (2nd Generation)

- Motherboard: Alienware Aurora R3 (unknown chipset)

- RAM: 8 GB DDR3

- GPU: Nvidia GTX 970 4GB VRAM

New:

- CPU: Intel Core i5-7600 (7th Generation)

- Motherboard: Gigabyte Gaming MX5 (Intel Z270 chipset)

- RAM: 16 GB DDR4

- GPU Nvidia GTX 970 4GB VRAM

With the original build, things were smooth as silk in SWTOR, no issues, but was starting to see performance issues in other games where I was hitting CPU and RAM limitations.  After the upgrade, other titles (including Forza Horizon 3 and Mass Effect Andromeda) are running beautifully with no issues, but my performance in SWTOR is now down into the 10 - 15 FPS range, and I have no idea what is going on.  Needless to say, there is plenty of system horsepower here, both CPU and GPU, to do everything in this game.  Would appreciate any assistance anybody could provide here.

[proxos666]

@e_SonOfAnder

I guess the first thing to check is that windows power option is still on High Performance 

I have seen a low fps issue with gsynch if relevant, try disabling fast boot in windows as an initial step.

Provide a dxdiag per this link so can get a better idea of software side

[e_SonOfAnder]

@proxos666 thanks for the reply. For completeness' sake, dxdiag file is attached here.

Verified that power settings are still on high performance.

You'll have to explain why you think turning fastboot on or off would have any impact, though.  Not only did this not change setting after installing the new motherboard, CPU, and RAM, but I can see no way that this would cause performance issues within an application like SWTOR.

[proxos666]

@e_SonOfAnder

This is one link and is still an issue today, recommended workaround for it that has helped some was disabling fast boot

[e_SonOfAnder]

@proxos666 not using Gsync here, and even if I were, I guarantee that suggestion is a complete red herring and has nothing to do with any potential fix that was done.

Maybe an EA rep will be able to step in here for some actual support.

[proxos666]

@e_SonOfAnder

Upgrade the bios while looking into this issue - Link  it appears to improve ram performance and adjust vcore voltages 

The 840 EVO have you updated the firmware on it ? this is due to the performance degradation issue , example link

How recent are the Dragon Age Inquisition, NFS16 and Forza crashes ? there is also a crash with windows updates and the OcButtonService

If you press the windows key and type "reliability" open the reliability history have a look if anything has occurred recently.

maybe worthwhile opening a command prompt as administrator and run by typing the following

sfc /scannow 

this may correct the windows update crashes listed if still occuring

[proxos666]

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@e_SonOfAnder wrote:

@proxos666 not using Gsync here, and even if I were, I guarantee that suggestion is a complete red herring and has nothing to do with any potential fix that was done.

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Has helped others in the past - see this link on the geforce forum

[proxos666]

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Manthas wrote:

Maybe an EA rep will be able to step in here for some actual support.

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Ouch 

[e_SonOfAnder]

@proxos666

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@proxos666 wrote:

@e_SonOfAnder

Upgrade the bios while looking into this issue - Link  it appears to improve ram performance and adjust vcore voltages 

The 840 EVO have you updated the firmware on it ? this is due to the performance degradation issue , example link

How recent are the Dragon Age Inquisition, NFS16 and Forza crashes ? there is also a crash with windows updates and the OcButtonService

If you press the windows key and type "reliability" open the reliability history have a look if anything has occurred recently.

maybe worthwhile opening a command prompt as administrator and run by typing the following

sfc /scannow 

this may correct the windows update crashes listed if still occuring

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I appreciate that you're trying to help here, but this issue goes beyond your expressed technical expertise so far.  To address the specific points you have mentioned here:

• Motherboard firmware update
  • I am running the current firmware on the motherboard
  • A RAM voltage issue is not going to cause the type of issue I am describing here; at worst, it will cause system and possibly application stability issues
• SSD firmware
  • SWTOR is not installed on the SSD
  • Again, the sorts of performance that is being described here has nothing to do with the issue I am reporting; FPS while the game is running, particularly when not moving between zones in the game that might invoke a read/write operation to disk, has nothing to do with the disc drive
  • This has not something that was touched - if this were the issue, it would have been occurring before the system hardware update
• Other game crashes
  • Irrelevant, but all are old, and due to different issues from prior to the system update
• sfc /scannow
  • Again, would not cause the sort of FPS issue I am describing here as this is 100% disc related
  • Also, again, neither HDD was changed in the hardware upgrade

Additionally, most of the things that you are pointing out would, if they were actual problems here, impact all games and applications installed on my system, not just SWTOR.  This problem is 100% SWTOR specific. I understand the vagaries of the Hero engine and DX9 games in general running under modern hardware, but this is a scenario I have not encountered, and does not fit well with what I have already researched, hence the need for somebody with game specific deep technical knowledge to address this problem.

[proxos666]

@e_SonOfAnder

Dxdiag for example details you did not have the latest firmware it says you have F1 and latest is F2

 I tend to go back to scratch and look at the everything in the system first, i did not mention the other stuff in relation to swtor just overall system care.

all that aside I hope someone else assists you with this