7870 massive problems

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Swiftduck88

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Apr 5, 2013
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I just recently upgraded my GPU to a MSI R7870 Twin Forzr 2gb OC, and i'm experiencing massively underwhelming performance on nearly all of my games.

BF3 - Sticks around 20fps with frequent dips to 10 or lower even on lowest setting with all post processing and AA turned off. Unplayable

Skyrim - Modded with 2k textures and ENB 0.155 with all post processing effects turned up, getting around 20fps outside in the world area, and around 45-50 fps indoors with dips to 30 or lower during fights. Game randomly freezes on a frame during scenes with lots of actors or particle effects. Freezing most likely caused by mods. Lowering post processing improves fps very slightly.

Bioshock Infinite - Sticks around 25-30 fps with all options turned on

I have done a clean uninstall of my drivers (Currently Catalyst control 12.10) and reinstalled and that helped a little, but now I'm getting the above performance instead of completely unplayable games. I have MSI afterburner installed to monitor resource usage, and my temps are steady around 60 during heavy gameplay, and gpu usage spikes to 100 about a third of the time, sitting around 70% the rest of the time. My CPU is staying around 80% duringg gameplay so I don't think anything is bottlenecking.

I have searched and searched for a solution to my problem and have no clue what could be causing this dismal performance, any suggestions or assistance is immensely appreciated.

System Specs:
Processor: Q9550 4core @2.8Ghz
Mobo: Intel DP35DP 770pin
RAM: 4x 2GB DDR2
OS: Win7 Ultimate 64-bit
GPU: MSI R7870 @1050Mhz 2GB DDR5
 
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manofchalk
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kennai

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Sep 11, 2012
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First, I'd update to the latest beta drivers, 13.3 or the latest release which is 13.1.

Honestly if your GPU is sitting at 70% and your CPU is 80% your cpu is doing a lot more work than your GPU. In addition to that you're working on a PCIE slot instead of a PCI-E 2.0/3.0/2.1 slot and DDR2 main memory. You're honestly looking a platform bottleneck.
 
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Swiftduck88

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Apr 5, 2013
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I just noticed the update, still having the same problems. PSU is a 1000watt, not sure the brand. resolution 1920x1080, old card was a 4860, did a format and fresh windows install when upgrading, also upgraded mobo at time of fpu upgrade.

Please elaborate on settings.
 
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Swiftduck88

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Apr 5, 2013
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I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. My CPU will max at 80% during gameplay and hover around 65-70%. I realize the pcie slot is limiting bandwidth but I did research before settling on this motherboard and I did not think the slot would be such a problem. Is this my culprit? I figured I would get better performance from such a better card, not worse, even with the PCIe slot being 1.0. I don't understand the performance drop after the upgrade.
 
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Swiftduck88

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Would these specs make my performance worse with this 7870 as compared to the 4860 I upgraded from? I am positive something is not right here. I got playable BF3 fps and better fps overall from the older card.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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The PCI-E Gen1 16x slot wouldn't cause issues, as it is equivalent to a Gen 2 8x which is sufficient for even the most powerful of cards.

More info on that 1000W PSU? Just if its a generic and as old as the rest of the rig, wouldn't surprise me if it couldn't push 400W.

I'l admit I'm stumped as to why your getting worse performance than before, you'v already done a clean driver install so its not that.
 
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kennai

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I'm 100% positive your board is doing the best it can to keep the card fed with information. However, that's the best your board can do to keep the card fed. If your CPU was better, you'd still be held back by the poor performance of the DDR2 ram. If your ram was better, the CPU would still be holding the system back. In total, it's a sum of all parts kind of thing that would leave you with a bad after taste. Also it's important to realize the load on each individual core instead of the entire thing. Most programs and games are really single/dual threaded. So 60% is 2 cores at 100% means that your CPU is the culprit. If your CPU is low usage on each core, GPU is still low usage, you're looking at the chipset or the RAM.

Like I said, it's a platform problem. You could experience negative performance gains since the platform you're putting the card into isn't ideal or even optimized for the card in the first place. It's kinda like putting 30 inch rims on a shopping cart, not calling your computer a shopping cart. The rims look amazing, but it's still a shopping cart.
 
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Swiftduck88

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It's a rocketfish 900w(1000w) PSU, about two years old.
 
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Swiftduck88

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I'm 100% positive your board is doing the best it can to keep the card fed with information. However, that's the best your board can do to keep the card fed. If your CPU was better, you'd still be held back by the poor performance of the DDR2 ram. If your ram was better, the CPU would still be holding the system back. In total, it's a sum of all parts kind of thing that would leave you with a bad after taste. Also it's important to realize the load on each individual core instead of the entire thing. Most programs and games are really single/dual threaded. So 60% is 2 cores at 100% means that your CPU is the culprit. If your CPU is low usage on each core, GPU is still low usage, you're looking at the chipset or the RAM.

Like I said, it's a platform problem. You could experience negative performance gains since the platform you're putting the card into isn't ideal or even optimized for the card in the first place. It's kinda like putting 30 inch rims on a shopping cart, not calling your computer a shopping cart. The rims look amazing, but it's still a shopping cart.
Click to expand...

I understand what you're saying, and I would hate to have to change my parts again after spending ~$50 on a new mobo and finding out it is not sufficient. I would like to troubleshoot this as much as possible and make sure that I am not missing some obscure or obvious problem, since I am getting such horrible performance. I am very open to upgrading my Processor, RAM, and Mobo in the next month or so, and would appreciate some suggestions on well-priced quality parts, as I am new to shopping for parts (obviously.) Say, somewhere in the combined price range of under $250. I can always put my old parts together into a secondary pc, sigh.

-Edit: I was monitoring all 4 cores, and each was experiencing near-identical loads.
 
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Swiftduck88

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Apr 5, 2013
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Sad news. Do you think you could shoot me some advice for buying some parts that would be up to par? My budget is $250 for all three components. I can settle for two sticks of RAM now, and get another two later, unless that is a bad idea.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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Swiftduck88

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Apr 5, 2013
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Thanks for your help, MoC. I'm also going to create a thread in the homebuilt section for other suggestions. You and Kennai have been a colossal help with my understanding of my problem.
 
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