General Poor Game Performance

[Jigsaw]

So, recently I've noticed my in-game performance in pretty much every game dropping somewhat. It's now gotten to the point where I'm starting to get worried it's some kind of problem within the system that I just cannot find.

Operating System
Windows Vista x64
Motherboard
Abit IP35 pro xe
Processor
Intel Q8400 Quad Core @ 2.66GHz
Memory
4049Mb
Video Card(s)
AMD EAH6870 1GB
Sound Card
N/A
Hard Drive(s)
500GB SATA 2
Power SupplyEdit
600w
Monitor(s)Edit Value
Samsung 20" LCD Widescreen

Example, I just bought Empire: Total War. Now, according to the recommended system specs my PC should be able to play it comfortably, however I'm getting about 15FPS (!) on small scale naval battles and about 20FPS on small scale land battles.

Supported OS: Windows? XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista?
Processor: 2.4 GHz Intel? Pentium? or greater or AMD? Athlon? equivalent CPU
Memory: 1 GB RAM (XP,) 2 GB RAM (Vista?)
Graphics: 100% DirectX 9.0c compatible hardware accelerated video card with shader version 2.0 support, 256 MB video memory
Display: Minimum screen resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels
Sound: Directx9.0c compatible sound card
Hard Drive: 15 GB free hard disk space formatted as NTFS
Peripherals: Windows compatible mouse and keyboard

Similarly, I've heard other people with systems similar to mine saying they can play RO2 comfortably on medium - however I only just about get 20FPS.

Recommended
OS: Windows XP/Vista/7
Processor: Quad Core 2.6 GHz or better
Memory: 3 GB
Graphics: 512 MB SM 3.0 DX9 Compliant NVIDIA? GeForce GTX 260 or better ATI? Radeon? HD 5750 or better
Hard Drive: 8 GB free hard drive space
Sound: Sound Blaster Audigy or better

Finally, Company of Heroes - I used to get very reasonable FPS however I now struggle along with only 20-25.

Recommended:

OS: Windows? XP or Vista
Processor: 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium IV or equivalent
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series or better

Any ideas on what I could do to identify the problem?

[Beee8190]

To be honest the Q8800 cpu is not a miracle anymore sir, i always assumed that recommended quad cpu for latest games would be also latest (example) 2.66Ghz CPU .So even if my cpu was slower (ex) 2.3Ghz but it was a sande bridge, my cpu would be considerably faster than OC'ed Q9550 at 3.0Ghz..

Also, any signs of overheating? Power supply still provides enough juice to your rig? (they degrade over time)
dust free too?

[LITOralis.nMd]

THe Total War patches are notorious for fragmenting the Total War installation files.
Try downloading the defrag utility from mydefrag.com , go to the mydefrag.com forums and download the custom gaming script.

Your bottleneck is probably the HDD,

otherwise common system maintenence stuff, virus scans, remove background processes, defrag, disable firewalls during online gaming, update gpu drivers, etc.