Idnetifying the Bottleneck on my PC

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joandco

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Jul 1, 2014
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Hello All,

I built an entry-level gaming PC a few months back and while I'm not surprised that I can't max out current games (next-gen), I was a bit disappointed that my PC can't easily Max out games that are now a few years old. As I've primarily been a console gamer for the past few years, I wanted to ask the community a couple questions so I can get my head on straight -

In a nutshell, anything with an "Auto-detect" setting makes me frown. A great example of this is "The Witcher 2" which I have yet to play through but recently picked up during the Steam Summer Sale. Being that this game came out in 2011, I expected to be able to turn it on Medium settings at the very least but was shocked that the auto-detect suggests I run it on the lowest settings possible.

Even for titles like "Gone Home" which aren't too graphically intense, the "Auto-detect" feature suggests I play it on Medium settings but I was easily able to crank the settings on MAX without any performance issues.

My questions are this:

1. How accurate are these "Auto-detect" settings as most of them don't seem to run any sort of stress test on the CPU/GPU?

2. Which component should I upgrade first for the largest performance gain? (I imagine the GPU which has gotten $25 cheaper since my initial purchase)

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Vishera 6-Core 3.5GHz
Graphics Card: SAPPHIRE Radeon R7 260X 2GB 128-Bit GDDR5
Motherboard: ASRock 960GM/U3S3 FX AM3
Memory: HyperX Black Series 8GB DDR3 (1600)
Hard Disk: Western Digital WD Blue 1TB 7200 RPM

Any step in the right direction is greatly appreciated! (Woot! First post!)

- Joey
 
Solution
moozilbee
No, the RAM is not the issue at all. His RAM is fine, adding 8gb more won't solve anything, just waste money.
The problem is the R7 260x, it's a decent card but not that strong, it should be able to perform fairly well on medium settings with most games.
Don't worry about the auto detect, it's never accurate, don't use it. Skyrim's auto detect recommends the lowest settings for me, and I can run the game on ultra @80-100fps.
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dottorrent

dottorrent

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May 20, 2012
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It's the GPU. Witcher 2 is insanely hard to run. Though Auto-detect functions are designed to keep your FPS consistent, depending on your system. I would upgrade the GPU to an R9 270X or a GTX 760.

The FX-6300 is a very capable processor, but I would also advise on upgrading the board with a better power delivery system. An Asus M5A97 R2.0 is a much better fit for that CPU. That board you have is designed for basic CPUs, like the old Athlons and the Semprons.

Plus, a new cooler might do the trick. AMD's boxed heat sink is not good for your CPU. A Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO will cool it down nicely.

Hope this helps you.
 
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J

joandco

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Jul 1, 2014
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Thank you so much for your prompt replies everyone! I figured the GPU is likely holding me back and I should have figured the folks at CD Projekt RED pushed the limits on the PC given how The Witcher 3 is shaping up. I guess I fell into the trap of thinking,"The Witcher 2 runs fine on an Xbox 360 and my PC specs easily outmatch the older console generation so my PC should handle this no problem."



Out of the 4 available DIMM slots, I'm currently running (1) x 8GB stick. I thought I'd leave myself some room to grow. I'm okay with spending an extra 50-70 bucks to jump to 16GB if I'll actually see a performance increase.

 
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Andrew Buck

Andrew Buck

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That is most likely the reason. 1 DIMM of DDR3-1600 RAM isn't enough speed for the CPU to store data and perform to its maximum.
 
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moozilbee

moozilbee

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Jul 19, 2013
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No, the RAM is not the issue at all. His RAM is fine, adding 8gb more won't solve anything, just waste money.
The problem is the R7 260x, it's a decent card but not that strong, it should be able to perform fairly well on medium settings with most games.
Don't worry about the auto detect, it's never accurate, don't use it. Skyrim's auto detect recommends the lowest settings for me, and I can run the game on ultra @80-100fps.
 
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Solution
RazerZ

RazerZ

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Aug 18, 2013
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Even for titles like "Gone Home" which aren't too graphically intense, the "Auto-detect" feature suggests I play it on Medium settings but I was easily able to crank the settings on MAX without any performance issues.
Click to expand...

So then the auto detect settings are wrong. Try manually adjusting the settings to ultra leaving of AA and ubersampling and see how well the game runs. You should be able to play it around 50fps. The ram isn't a problem.
 
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