Disappointingly Slow AMD Gaming PC (FX 6200, HD 7870)

JOOK-D · Aug 28, 2013

EDIT: The issue was resolved by buying a new CPU and motherboard (intel). From the tests I did, it seems the motherboard was faulty.

CPU: AMD FX 6200 @ 3.8 GHz (stock)
GPU: Powercolor HD 7870 (stock) w/ Aftermarket CPU cooler, Titan 'Super Quiet 22dBA Cooler'
MB: ASUS M5A97 R2.0
PSU: Corsair TX 650 (I've noticed an odd coil whine, corresponding to movement of the mouse.)
RAM: 8 GB Kingston Hyperx 1600 MHz
HDD 500 GB WD Black
Monitor Res: Main - 1360x768, Secondary 1600x1200

Garry's Mod: Runs at roughly 230-280 FPS when standing around, but drops to 40-100 (very unstable) when playing online with others, graphics settings make no difference to FPS, I've found.
Team Fortress 2: The same as Garry's Mod essentially, but has to be played on medium to low to have decent FPS most of the time.
Saints Row The Third:Always at around 10-50 (50 indoors) FPS on lowest settings.
Grand Theft Auto IV (Episodes From Liberty City): I've heard that it's an awful console port, it runs anywhere for 10-80 FPS on lowest settings.
Chivalry: Medieval Warfare: Generally runs well (60 FPS), but on medium settings.
Minecraft: I always assumed that this wasn't a very taxing game. Regardless, with render distance on far, maximum smooth lighting and VSync off, the FPS seems to be capped at 60, and drops often to 53, 57 or 59.

Seladon-1370374 · Aug 28, 2013

Can you get your CPU/GPU/RAM/HDD % usage in game ? Might help to solve your issue.

oczdude8 · Aug 28, 2013

if it got worse over time, you have software issues. Best solution to speed up your system as a whole is do a fresh install of windows.

That system should NOT be struggling with tf2 at any setting.

Outlander_04 · Aug 28, 2013

Id suggest drivers could be an issue

But critically you dont mention your monitors resolution .

You may also be experiencing slow downs because of the slow green hard drive . If the game is loading textures from the drive it will happen in slow motion

And lastly keep in mind that anything over 60 FPS is as good as it gets . Your monitor [ if its an LCD ] refreshes at 60 Hz ... thats the same as 60 fps so you cant ever see more fps than that anyway

razor512 · Aug 28, 2013

On saints row the 4th using a GTX 460 (slower than your videocard) and a Phenom II x6 1075t at 3.9GHz, I get around 60-70FPS outdoors with max settings at 1080p resolution.

on garry's mod, I get around 50-60FPS when there is a ton of stuff going on (at which point, I hit a CPU limit and not a GPU limit. (the game is not threaded very well)

the FX CPU's have worst single threaded performance than the Phenom II series, but your performance should not be that bad. Do you have an old hard drive that you can test with installing a fresh copy of windows and then seeing if your games still lag?

(PS you should really consider overclocking that CPU)

JOOK-D · Aug 29, 2013

Outlander_04 :

My resolution is 1360 x768, which is why I'm s confused about the low FPS. Yes, I'd be happy with anything over 60 FPS, but it's constantly dipping below 60 FPS. What do you suggest to fix the slow hard drive issue? A fresh install of windows, or something like an SSD? Also drivers are the most recent I believe, and I've used a drive cleaner program to get rid of previous ones. Thanks for the response.

JOOK-D · Aug 29, 2013

razor512 :

Yeah, I've seen many cases where people with slower cards than my own get much better performance. I don't have an old hard drive though I guess I could get one since it could be a cheaper solution than buying a whole new system. And yeah, I really should overclock the CPU, but I'm not willing to until I found out the cause of this problem haha.

Might have to return it or something, I'm not sure as of yet. Thanks for the response.

lewisaro1 · Aug 29, 2013

check msconfig and task manager to see which programs run at startup and ensure that you dont have programs running in the background / tray, also if you have piece of mind doing it then try overclocking a little bit, check you have all of your updates for windows, your gpu, direct x(redistributable 2010) and the bios and run a virus and anti malware scan

oczdude8 · Aug 29, 2013

its not a hard drive problem. Its just too many unnecessary applications are running while you are trying to game. A fresh install of windows will solve everything!

JOOK-D · Aug 29, 2013

oczdude8 :

I'll try it and get back to you in a few hours.

Thanks.

JOOK-D · Aug 29, 2013

Seladon-1370374 :

Hey,
CPU never seems to go above 42% in Saints Row 3, and even less on other titles such as TF2. Same with the GPU, seems to hover below 50%. Thanks for the response. GTA IV EFLC has similar performance, CPU bumps up to 55 occasionally, but GPU stays at around 40. Garry's Mod CPU was 16%, and GPU 19%. TF2 CPU was 37%, GPU was 19% mostly.

JOOK-D · Aug 29, 2013

Alright, so to me, it seems as if my CPU and GPU are somehow being restricted from reaching what they should be able to, always running @ 50% or less regardless of whether I'm lagging.

JOOK-D · Aug 30, 2013

Outlander_04 :

Iv'e found that my GPU and CPU usage are low even when I have very unstable and low FPS. I think I'm going to reinstall windows, and if that doesn't work, should I get a new HDD or SSD? Or a new processor?

oczdude8 · Aug 30, 2013

try the reinstall, most likely its a driver issue.

There really isn't a problem with your system. I have played tf2 on a 2ghz Pentium laptop with integrated graphics..... (laptop prolly costs the same as a 7870 LOL)

JOOK-D · Aug 30, 2013

oczdude8 :

Alright, I'll do the reinstall now.

Once I've done that, what should I do? Just find the latest drivers from the AMD website? Thanks.

oczdude8 · Aug 30, 2013

JOOK-D :

yes, install all your mobo drivers (i.e sound, lan etc) if needed from asus and your gpu driver from amd. also install direct x if needed for the games you play

JOOK-D · Aug 30, 2013

oczdude8 :

Hey, I did all of that, and unfortunately there was no change in FPS.

I did however notice that out of my 6 cores, 1,3 and 4 are 'parked', know anything about this?

EDIT: I unparked the cores, no difference in FPS.

JOOK-D · Aug 30, 2013

I'm thinking of selling my FX 6200 and upgrading to a FX 8320. I suspect the CPU is the issue rather than the GPU, but I can't be sure. :/ Any tips? Thanks.

tiny voices · Aug 30, 2013

The 7870 should play all games at high easily. Your CPU isn't great but it shouldn't struggle that much. Be prepared to only get like $60 for your CPU. The 8320 is much better. I still believe there is a driver issue. Have you made sure there is no overheating going on? I helped someone yesterday with the same issue and their CPU cooler wasn't installed correctly and the CPU was throttling itself. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the issue.

oczdude8 · Aug 30, 2013

have you tried updating your motherboards bios?

JOOK-D · Aug 31, 2013

tiny voices :

I was thinking of also getting the Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler, and yeah, I'm not expecting to get much out of the FX 6200. I think I'll get the cooler first, then look at upgrading the CPU if I see no performance improvement.

JOOK-D · Aug 31, 2013

oczdude8 :

I haven't since I've been a bit wary about trying it haha

I can try it though.

butremor · Aug 31, 2013

Try that, but imo green drive is to blame. I'd get at least blue or black.

oczdude8 · Aug 31, 2013

hard drives really don't effect fps in games, since a lot of the textures and stuff are loaded into memory (that's why there are loading screens).

JOOK-D · Aug 31, 2013

butremor :

Just checked, it is a black, haha. My bad.

Disappointingly Slow AMD Gaming PC (FX 6200, HD 7870)

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