I am not much of a gamer, but I do like to play Fortnite with my friends. I also enjoy some occasional GTA V. Recently, my FPS has been extremely unstable...to the point where all of my games (yes...all 2 of them lol) are literally unplayable. I will start Fortnite and as soon as I join a match, my CPU usage usually skyrockets to 100% and it takes forever to join a game. Most times I will completely miss spawn island and just start falling from the sky after several minutes of my CPU ripping at 100%. Then the game will start out ok (between 60 and 140 FPS) but as the game continues FPS will quickly degrade until it is intermittently dropping as low as like 3FPS, and I can't even play. To test whether it is game specific, or more likely a hardware issue, I tried GTA V. A similar phenomenon occurred. The game would start ok, but slowly degrade until the frames and audio became extremely distorted and the game unplayable. Before I moved states (a little over 2 months ago) both games ran completely fine. Since then, the only change has been a new monitor and new internet provider. The old monitor had G-Sync, this new one does not. Not sure if that makes a difference. Below I will list my build specs and list of things I have tried. I feel like I have tried everything under the sun and nothing seems to work, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Build specs:
Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
CPU: intel i7-11700K 3.60 GHz (not overclocked)
GPU: EVGA GeForce RTX 3070 FTW3 Ultra driver version 560.81 (overclocked with MSI Afterburner)
RAM: 2x 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws DDR4 3200 MHz (in 2nd and 4th slots)
Motherboard: MSI MAG Z590 Tomahawk WIFI
PSU: Corsair CX750M (750 Watt)
Old Monitor: Viotek GNV32DB 32-inch Curved Gaming Monitor, 144Hz, WQHD 2560 x 1440p, with G-Sync (broke during moving process)
New Monitor: Acer Nitro XZ0 32-inch Curved Gaming Monitor, 180Hz, WQHD 2560x1440, NO G-Sync
Storage: 1x SSD: Samsung WD Black 1TB (no HDD)
Old internet Provider: AT&T U-Verse (don't know speed because my employer paid for it, but it worked great)
New internet Provider: Xfinity 1000Mbps download
 
Fixes I have already tried:
1. Verifying Fortnite Game files via Epic Games Launcher
2. Changing Fortnite settings (e.g. graphical fidelity, DirectX11 vs. 12, frame rate limit, etc. etc.)
3. Defragmenting Hard Drive
4. Disabling/Enabling Fullscreen Optimization
5. Changing Power Mode for Windows PC (set to Ultra Performance)
6. Uninstalling/reinstalling Fortnite
7. Updating NVIDIA Drivers (already running the latest Game-Ready Driver available)
8. Using DDU to uninstall all NVIDIA files and re-install
9. Taking my PC to Microcenter and paying $40 for them to diagnose it (they found nothing wrong)
10. Running FurMark Thermal GPU Benchmark (performed fine, temps do not exceed 50C)
11. Running Superposition Stability GPU Benchmark (performed fine, temps fine)
12. Updating MSI BIOS (it should be noted that AFTER I updated the BIOS the GeForce Experience App would no longer optimize my Fortnite settings even after uninstall/reinstall)

Honestly, there's probably more random stuff I have tried from YouTube videos, but nothing has helped. The problem persists and I am desperate for a fix. I have provided as much information as I can think of. Any help would be really greatly appreciated. Thanks.

So how I would I go about determining which one, and how would I fix it?

Ok, so I followed your instructions and ran Cinebench while monitoring with hwinfo64. My CPU got as high at 99C and hwinfo seems to indicate that it is thermal throttling at some points. I also ran VK-furmark-donut and the GPU did not seemed very stressed. Usage was around 97 to 99% but the max temp was 61.1C and the clock speed stayed right around 1700MHz. What would be your recommendation? To me it seems the likely culprit is the CPU getting too hot, would a new CPU cooler fix this issue?
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jlebar5
Ok, so I followed your instructions and ran Cinebench while monitoring with hwinfo64. My CPU got as high at 99C and hwinfo seems to indicate that it is thermal throttling at some points. I also ran VK-furmark-donut and the GPU did not seemed very stressed. Usage was around 97 to 99% but the max temp was 61.1C and the clock speed stayed right around 1700MHz. What would be your recommendation? To me it seems the likely culprit is the CPU getting too hot, would a new CPU cooler fix this issue?
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You didn't list what cooler you have have, but the first step prior to replacing it as long as it appears to be functioning, would be to replace the TIM or thermal interface material (paste) between the CPU and the cooler, then retest your temps. My CPU never exceeds ~70C despite being overclocked 25% even under stress tests.

jlebar5
 
Yea my bad on forgetting to list the cooler. It is air cooled with an AK400 Performance CPU Cooler. Tbh I wouldn't be that surprised if this were the point of failure because I cheaped out on this when I built the PC. 
 
How is your CPU cooled? Air cooled, AK400 Performance CPU Cooler
 
How warm is the room you are in? Pretty cool, like 71 degrees Fahrenheit or less usually
 
How many & what kind of case fans do you have & @ what RPM? 3 intake fans, 1 exhaust. They are just the ones that came with my case which is a Montech case. Idk how to see the rpm but they aren't smart fans so I think they just go 100% all the time.
 
What Case are you using? & location of case? Montech case, idk what model or anything. It was the cheapest case I could find since I don't really care about how it looks.
 
MB - default "auto" BIOS setting are usually allowing much higher Voltage to the CPU than is necessary - this can easily lead to higher temps Gotcha. Should I manually lower the voltage? If so, what would be a good number?

You would need to test your system for stability & find a good voltage for your system.  It can be a slow & labor intensive process. 
 
Make a image of your OS drive or backup your files -- it is possible to hose your system (unrecoverable) when you play with your system settings
 
Start by doing a web search on your MB & CPU combo to see what others have use for OC their system or Under volt their system
 
Pay attention to number & size of RAM & type of Cooler used
 
 
Intel Core i7-11700K Review: The Chip of Last Resort - Tom's Hardware 
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/gaming/resources/how-to-overclock.html
 
 

I would definitely recommend a better cpu cooler such as the Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 5 if repasting the cpu doesn’t help. I would also recommend putting some ptm7950 on the dark rock pro 5 as well.

jlebar5
Thanks for your help and suggestions guys. I ended up biting the bullet yesterday and upgrading my cpu cooler and that seemed to the trick. Frames are much more stable now.

👍😎