Sigh.
I could post this somewhere else like the PC builds main thread but I think people would most likely skip my post over there.
Anyway, I have a laptop with an i7 3610QM (3.1 GHz), 8GB RAM, GT 650M (OC'd to almost GTX 660M levels). Everything was running flawlessly for about a month, until the motherfucking preinstalled McAfee started causing BSOD so I ended up uninstalling it painfully.
For some reason the performance in practically every single game I had installed plummeted, and they clearly became CPU limited. I could play NFS MW at 45-55 FPS before, but since then I've only been able to get 20-25 FPS, with unnverving stuttering every 2 seconds without fail, and the CPU usage never goes over 12-15% (12.5% is the equivalent of using 1 thread of the 8, only that the 12.5% is spread through ALL the threads). I had already completed the game so it wasn't that big of a deal, and it got a little better when I reinstalled some games/installed new ones.
Same shit happened with Dark Souls. I went from perfect 30FPS locked at 2.6GHz or ~50FPS unlocked at 1080p at 3.1GHz, to barely keeping 30FPS at 3.1GHz. If it may help, it does run better when unlocked, it sticks closer to 30FPS. If I keep the 30 FPS lock it's like the CPU "relaxes" and I often get slowdowns so big that my GPU underclocks and doesn't even sweat :|
Other games I've bought and installed after that have ran better than NFS but still BADLY in some cases, like Planetside 2 which is totally CPU limited and barely reaches 30FPS in empty places, or Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends which doesn't even reach 30FPS at 3.1 GHz, and does the same weird "spread 12.5% CPU usage over 8 threads" shit. Serious Sam 3 which I bought yesterday on Steam's Sale is also CPU limited in a very weird way, although it's playable.
Other games like AC3 or Hitman Absolution ran better than that I guess, performance seemed like what it should be and it was above 30 or 45 FPS so it didn't matter anyway.
But this shit is seriously annoying, specially with DS which I so wanted to replay with the DLC after playing on 360. AND specially seeing people playing with 50-60FPS after the patch using stock Q6600, which my i7 should match.
It's so frustrating to see my GPU usage at 50-60%... so, does any gaffer have any idea of what could I do? I've tried enabling and disabling Intel Speedstep on the BIOS, I've tried every single Throttlestop option to no avail.
PD: Synthetic benchmarks run fine, 3D rendering runs fine, 100% of every thread, so it's not hardware related. Temps are fine and never cross 78º. GPU doesn't cross 70º.
Sorry for the wall of text and the off topic, but PLEASE help a DS bro
PD2: Just tried monitoring my CPU while running New Vegas.. runs at 30FPS outside, 45-50 inside, with very low GPU usage (40-50%, and I'm using ENB) and even lower CPU usage. One thread maybe reaches 60%, the others hover around 30 or 20, overall usage is ~30%. Gah
