Help find my bottleneck?

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CrossStealth

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Nov 28, 2008
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Hey guys. I built my gf a system about 3 years ago and she is experiencing lag in her art programs. She uses very demanding software so it looks like its time for an upgrade. Her processor hit around 87% according to windows task manager but that was a rare spike when she put the most demanding brush on the size bigger than the screen. Other than that it was between 13-50% during brush strokes and her ram stayed about 5.08gb in use. I suspect getting a SSD would be a big help but is there any suggestions on what you would upgrade?

Her specs are

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231356
Ram
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006
Power Supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423
Mother board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162049
Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136456
Hard Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115225
CPU
 
Solution
geofelt
You have what looks to be a very competent and balanced PC.
If you are looking to improve the performance of this pc, vs. replacing it, Here are some options.
1. Yes, a SSD will make everything feel so much quicker. If you can fit all of the used space on the 2tb hard drive onto a SSD, that would be ideal.
The new Samsung EVO comes in large sizes. You might be able to clone the hard drive. Use the hard drive for backup later.
2. Have you overclocked the 930? If not, you can get 15% more compute power out of it.
3. 12gb of ram is good. Some software is capable of using ram as a workfile instead of hard drive. If so, install the most ram you can fit.
In your case, it is 24gb. Past 16gb, you need more than windows home premium...
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geofelt

geofelt

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Oct 9, 2006
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You have what looks to be a very competent and balanced PC.
If you are looking to improve the performance of this pc, vs. replacing it, Here are some options.
1. Yes, a SSD will make everything feel so much quicker. If you can fit all of the used space on the 2tb hard drive onto a SSD, that would be ideal.
The new Samsung EVO comes in large sizes. You might be able to clone the hard drive. Use the hard drive for backup later.
2. Have you overclocked the 930? If not, you can get 15% more compute power out of it.
3. 12gb of ram is good. Some software is capable of using ram as a workfile instead of hard drive. If so, install the most ram you can fit.
In your case, it is 24gb. Past 16gb, you need more than windows home premium to access it.

You might try and see how sensitive the apps are to cpu speed and number of cores.
Reduce the maximum cpu usage from 100% to perhaps 70% and see how it affects performance.
That would simulate the effect of a cpu with faster cores.
You could turn off hyperthreading to simulate the effect of more/fewer cores.
Take out one ram stick to see what lack of ram does.
If you see a big impact, then you know lots of ram is important.
I doubt that the graphics card is an issue, but you could try downclocking it to see if there is any sensitivity to graphics power.
 
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