Framerate Spikes

[SamVijatov]

Ok so, i've been having some issues over the last 2 months where when i'm playing a game, such as Call of duty or World of Warcraft, I can easily play these games at maxed out graphics and with high framerate, but every 30-60 seconds my framerate will drop dramatically to around 10% of the normal for up to 10 seconds, and for those 10 seconds are basicly unplayable. I thought at first that i could be a cooling problem, but idling my CPU is at 48 degrees, and when gaming no higher than 60, My GPU also is running at around 45 degrees at its highest, and there is no need to manually accelerate the fan speed manually. I was about to reformat and go back to Windows XP Proffessional, but wondered what you guys thought about it first
My Spec -
Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit
2x 2GB Kingston DDR3 2GB Kingston DDR2
NVIDIA Geforce GTS250 1GB
AMD Phenom 940x4 3.0ghz
160GB Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AABS
ASRock M3A770DE AM3 Motherboard

Thanks

 

[SamVijatov]

Oh i also have 650W WinPower Power Supply if that matters at all -> its very old.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Do not fall back to XP. You will not get the security that Vista or 7 has.

Try turning down the graphics on the game. At x32, You can not use all your RAM + VRAM. You are being crippled. Get Win 7 x64.