Framerate tanks and takes my computer down with it. - Help

Ever since last night, I've been able to play both Garry's Mod and TF2 at a decent framerate. Then around the time I decided to get on Gmod to connect to my main server, I noticed that my computer was getting pretty slow; My mouse cursor moving extremely choppy, pages loading slowly, and once I connected, I saw that I was getting around 2 frames per second as compared to my usual 30ish. I closed the game and came back the next day to go to a map in singleplayer. It was perfectly fine, and after about 30 seconds, it stuttered for a bit, and fell back to 2 fps. I opened up the net graph and I got these results. [img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/Welp3.png[/img] I reinstalled gmod onto another drive, but the problem is persistent. Everything works fine the second I quit the game, however. The same stuff happens on TF2 (And admittingly on other games where it shouldn't happen.). Has anyone else had this problem before?

I can see that you host your server on your machine. This might be the issue as SRCDS uses up alot of CPU resources. Post your PC specs aswell as how many players your server has when this happens.

[QUOTE=Svenskunganka;42747436]I can see that you host your server on your machine. This might be the issue as SRCDS uses up alot of CPU resources. Post your PC specs aswell as how many players your server has when this happens.[/QUOTE] No, I don't host my own server; The photo was taken in singleplayer. Will these suffice? [img]http://filesmelt.com/dl/specs31.png[/img]

Your PC doesn't have good enough hardware to run the game. Your GPU only has 16 cores, each at 589 Mhz respectively 1,4 Ghz processing speed, which is not enough unless your decrease your graphics settings drastically. Your CPU has a single core at 3 Ghz, which should be sufficent if you're not running any background programs such as Skype or a resource consuming Anti-Virus such as Norton. What I think your computer is suffering from is that its hardware keeps increasing in heat and will after awhile start decreasing in overall performance, resulting in a very low framerate. Anyway, have you ever opened up the case and gotten rid of any dust? Dust and heat is a computer's worst enemy and if you don't clean it on a regular basis, the hardware will take damage. You should try removing as much dust as you can and make sure the fans are able to keep the air-flow running in the case. You should upgrade your PC though, but there are other steps you can go through if you really don't want to. To reduce the amount of dust your PC intakes, you can place the PC on top of your desk or something above instead of placing it on the floor. This will highly reduce the intake of dust. Kill any background process that you don't need. Make sure you're PC is free from malware and other virus. Make sure your PC is clean from unwanted/unused programs. Get rid of all these "iTunesHelper.exe", etc. (If you have them). You can also change the graphics settings: Disable shadows completely; shadows is mostly what's reducing framerate. Set the graphics to low. Reduce the resolution the game is running. Run "mat_dxlevel 81" in console.

I'm starting to think it's the fan; I checked my temperatures and I noticed that the video card was at around 210° F, when the highest it gets is usually around 130°. I'm gonna look into that further, might have to replace the card before it burns down the house.

[QUOTE=ChrisR;42753845]I'm starting to think it's the fan; I checked my temperatures and I noticed that the video card was at around 210° F, when the highest it gets is usually around 130°. I'm gonna look into that further, might have to replace the card before it burns down the house.[/QUOTE] 210° F is alot. As I said, sometimes it's enough to just clean the PC from dust. Have you ever cleaned it before?

[QUOTE=Svenskunganka;42754112]210° F is alot. As I said, sometimes it's enough to just clean the PC from dust. Have you ever cleaned it before?[/QUOTE] It's been dusted out regularly, and just yesterday when all of this stuff started happening. This whole thing will probably be resolved by getting a new video card.