What is wrong with my PC?

Jun 21, 2020
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I bought a pre-built PC (yeah I know, but my parents weren't comfortable with me building one) in February 2019. The specs are as follows:

Ryzen 3 1200 3.1GHz Quad-Core, GTX 1060 3GB, 8GB DDR4 2400, 1TB HDD, 24X DVD, Windows 10 Home 64-bit

With these specs, and with the types of games I normally play, I shouldn't have NEARLY as much of a problem as I do. As an example, playing Mordhau results in random stuttering and extremely low FPS drops, to the point of it being completely unplayable, but Mordhau is only an example, my PC does this with most games that aren't 10+ years old and have at least decent graphics. Most multiplayer games perform significantly better with less people, and the more people that are in the game, the more and more unplayable it becomes. I shouldn't have to play most Indie games (I rarely play AAA on PC) at low graphics. Although, sometimes the game decides that it wants to run perfectly, but thats a minority. I don't believe I have any malware or other viruses of the sort because I've used anti-virus software that have come up with nothing but things that are very small.

A huge problem that I have though, is that my PC has performed like this ever since I got it. A couple days after getting my PC, I purchased Post Scriptum and the same problem I mentioned earlier happened. Considering my PC's specs, it should have no problem running a game like Post Scriptum but it's rather the contrary. I'd love to be able to play some of my favorite games whilst being uninterupted by headache inducing performance, but I have reduced most of my gaming to Grand Strategy games such as Hearts of Iron IV or Europa Universalis IV just because I know as a fact they will run smoothly.

Whenever I look at task manager (usually no matter the circumstance) my CPU, memory and disk are all jumping all over the place, in which the graph of my CPU looks like a heart in fibrillation. As of writing this out of my 8 GB of ram, 5 GB are in use and my CPU is at 42% (which fluctuates between low one digits and nearly 100 constantly). I am lead to believe that there is a major malfunction within my computer that has been there since I got it. Can anyone help shed some light on what is wrong with my PC and how I can fix it? Thanks in advance!
 
Feb 15, 2020
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What brand RAM do you have? Could be a RAM issue. Maybe your RAM isn't seated properly. Are you running Dual Channel on your RAM? And... I have to ask, is your video cable connected to your video card or to your motherboard?
 
May 31, 2020
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Loads of CPU and RAM use even at idle I would suspect a virus/malware. Maybe a bitcoin miner or something? Do you have an antivirus installed?

I recommend getting a free trial of Webroot and ruling out that. https://www.webroot.com/gb/en/home/products/trials

BTW depending on the tool a scan when Windows is running isn't definitive. Once Windows is running a crafty virus can hide itself. If you're using Windows Defender for example you'll want to do a boot time scan:
 
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May 31, 2020
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Sorry just reread and noticed it was like that from new. Probably not a virus then. Maybe some bloatware that came preinstalled on the computer. I'd download a Windows 10 install onto a thumbdrive and do a fresh install. Then update all your drivers (preferably not with a tool from the pc manufacturer - it will likely try and install the bloatware again - get the individual drivers).


You will probably have to change your BIOS to try booting first from USB before the install: https://www.acronis.com/en-gb/articles/usb-boot/

It's an easy process even if the links above make it look complicated.Remember to back up anything you care about first to your phone/dropbox etc first as a reinstall willwipe the slate clean
 

Inspireless Llama

Community Contributor
I'd check how high your CPU usage is when it's in idle without any game running. I think the stuttering here will be caused my your CPU because the videocard is still pretty decent.

Also, what settings are you trying to play on, and what resolution is your monitor?
I just checked a Ryzen 1200 vs the i5 4670 (minimum req for Mordhau) and while the Ryzen is faster, it's not by a huge margin. So I could imagine that if you're trying to run it at ultra settings it might be slow.

That leads me to the last question though: have you tried lowering the settings and what results did that give?