How much is my dual core CPU going to bottleneck my GPU in Battlefield 4?

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gary king

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The Battlefield 4 open beta begins today. Preliminary benchmarks have been released here. Not surprisingly, the game is going to use a lot of CPU resources. I've got an Intel i3-3220 and a GeForce GTX 660, at 1080p.

According to the graphs, my GPU will get me 43 avg FPS / 29 min FPS at ultra quality with no MSAA (of course, I will play at a lower setting myself, to get about 60 FPS avg FPS). The CPU graph in particular is what concerns me, which I have attached below. As you can see, the i3-2100 is the closest CPU to my own, and it gets 36 avg FPS / 24 min FPS. So this essentially means that I would be bottlenecked by my CPU? Would that be the case even if I dropped the game's quality settings, since these benchmarks are run at ultra quality with no AA?

Edit: Actually the graphs are a bit misleading, and are even worse. The GPU graphs on the site are mostly in 1920x1080, while the CPU graph on the site (and that I have attached below) are at 1680p. Actually, that seems much worse for me then, because if I drop my resolution to 1680p, my GPU should have more FPS, but the CPU is still limiting it to about 24 or so? Or is that not how it works out?

http--www.gamegpu.ru-images-stories-Test_GPU-Action-Battlefield_4_Beta-test-bf_4_proz.jpg
 
Solution
Christopher Shaffer
Well, it's not clear what "GeForce Titan" card they are using here, but yes, a new CPU would be a great idea. However, minimum requirements call for a Core 2 duo on the BF site.

To be clear: yes, your slower CPU will bottleneck your GPU in games that tax or almost tax your GPU and modern games that take advantage of the extra CPU power. More importantly, the speed of the CPU can affect your overall memory bandwidth and PCIe bandwidth, which is the two places that will really take your game performance down.

Considering you've got a great vid card, I would seriously consider upgrading your mediocre CPU to a modern i5 quad, then you'll have no issue running the game.

I'm also skeptical about that benchmark graph overall. They're...
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Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

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Well, it's not clear what "GeForce Titan" card they are using here, but yes, a new CPU would be a great idea. However, minimum requirements call for a Core 2 duo on the BF site.

To be clear: yes, your slower CPU will bottleneck your GPU in games that tax or almost tax your GPU and modern games that take advantage of the extra CPU power. More importantly, the speed of the CPU can affect your overall memory bandwidth and PCIe bandwidth, which is the two places that will really take your game performance down.

Considering you've got a great vid card, I would seriously consider upgrading your mediocre CPU to a modern i5 quad, then you'll have no issue running the game.

I'm also skeptical about that benchmark graph overall. They're testing on two older chipsets (X58 & P67) that don't have PCIe 3.0 16x. The performance of your card is hard to compare if you have a more up-to-date chipset supporting x16 as the bandwidth will be essentially double.
 
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gary king

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Okay thanks for the responses. Yeah, I was thinking of perhaps upgrading my CPU. I originally got my relatively mediocre specs because this was my first build, and I have an unusual setup in that I am using a KVM with my Mac and PC. Also, I "could" test BF4 myself, but #1: I'm curious about if I would get any improvements with an i5 quad-core and #2: I don't have my PC available to me at the moment, because some of its parts are getting an RMA, primarily the PSU.
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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well then u would probably gain performance with a i5 but to rlly would be to get the i5 and overclock it. Assuming that bf4 will utilize HT from ur i3 as it did in bf3, u shouldnt get terrible performance and if u do its probably because is a beta lol
 
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gary king

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At the moment, my GPU is having fan rattling problems in certain games. I was originally going to RMA it, but it costs me about $20 to ship the thing, and I don't have any guarantee as to whether Gigabyte would actually fix it (because the problem only happens in certain games), and plus, I would be without a graphics card for a few weeks.

So, I was thinking that instead, I would buy an i5-3470 quad-core plus an EVGA GTX 760, then sell my i3-3220 and GTX 660 somewhere, such as on eBay. Thoughts?
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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If ur going to upgrade go for a k cpu to OC if needed unless ur board isnt an overclocking board, but the 760 is about a 670 in performance so not much of an upgrade on the gpu side. The most hurtful thing to ur gaming is the cpu. If u want to sell quick and will change ur pricing i find craigslist best as ebay charges, but on ebay u may find someone to pay ur asking price.

So if ur upgrading go with a k cpu if u can, and probably something like a 770 as a 760 is not a huge upgrade but pricing of the 760s are not bad either lol
 
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gary king

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Well I don't plan on overclocking, which is why I particularly chose a CPU without a K. Also, I have a GTX 660 right now, not a 670; 660 is a $200 card, and the 670 is a $400 card, I believe. The 760 is a $260 card. I'm not doing this just to upgrade; my GTX 660 also has a fan rattling problem in certain games, so I figure I might as well take the opportunity to upgrade as well while I'm at it.
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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well a fan issue does not mean the card is junk lol, also im just saying that the 760 matches or beats the 670 and in some games does not show a huge performance gain from a 660. U can go ahead and get a 760 but surely do the cpu then.
 
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gary king

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Yeah, the GPU is definitely not junk. I'm just easily annoyed by fan rattling problems.

Also, quick question on selling items like CPUs on Craigslist. How can you prove that the item works? Personally, I usually like to meet in person in a public place rather than, at my own place, so would I have to prove somehow that the CPU works? I mean, if the buyer buys the CPU from me, once it's in their hands, in my opinion, it's not my problem anymore, because if they bend a pin two seconds after they take it out of my hands, it shouldn't concern me anymore. Thoughts?
 
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lazyboy947

lazyboy947

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If they ask for proof i usually take pics or a video to show them, ive sold 2 cpus b4 and 4 pcs on craigslist and only once was asked for proof as in a video, just post an ad and see what people ask for, if they dont ask to see it works then its not ur problem even though it does lol
 
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lazyboy947

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Yes, matters on the manufacturer tho, sapphire will not rma without registration and proof of purchase, and if u registered the item so did the warranty, but if un registered and not like sapphire then if warranty is still good then buyer wont have an issue.
 
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8350rocks

8350rocks

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Even the HD 7990 doesn't fully saturate a PCIe 2.0 x16 bus, so your concerns are unfounded.
 
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Christopher Shaffer

Christopher Shaffer

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Really? Do you guys even READ Tom's?

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-r9-290x-crossfire,24479.html

The 2GB of GDDR5 on my 7870 gets about 154GB/s when OC'd to 5.3GHz (it's stock speed is 5GHz).

So, yes, a PCIe 8x lane with about 8GB of bandwidth would have the clear potential to bottleneck this card.
 
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Supernova1138

Supernova1138

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On the ASRock P67, PCI-E x4 version 1 would only apply to the third PCI-E slot, so it isn't exactly relevant unless you want to run triple SLI or triple Crossfire, which they weren't doing for this benchmark. In any case PCI-E 3.0 is mostly a marketing gimmick right now, no single GPU or even dual GPU cards like the GTX 690 or Radeon HD 7990 can fully saturate 16 lanes of PCI-E 2.0. The only scenario right now where PCI-E 3.0 might make a difference would be if you were running 2 Titans in SLI with the PCI-E slots in x8 x8 mode or the same scenario with 2 7990s if you managed to get them to not overheat in Crossfire. Since this benchmark does not indicate that they used SLI, the PCI-E version isn't going to make a difference.
 
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8350rocks

8350rocks

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Actually, no...that is internal bandwidth, and that is not what is sent across the PCIe bus. Do you read any technical documents about these sorts of things?

Look at the benchmarks...PCIe 2.0 vs. PCIe 3.0 makes a difference of <1 FPS typically. That PCIe 2.0 sure is bottlenecking cards bad!!!!

BTW: That difference is only seen on something like a GTX 690 or HD 7990 or GTX Titan...so don't try to tell me something like a HD 7950 will even encounter an issue.
 
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beyondlogic

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If considering upgrading your i3

i would suggest i5 3470 if not planning to overclock it should handle bf4 much smoother
 
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