I think my gpu is bottlenecking my cpu but dont know how to tell.

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

I recently upgraded my gpu to XFX Radeon r7 250 and it seems to be running games fine.
Around 40-50 fps but i cant seem to open any kind of browser without it crashing. I believe its bottlenecking the cpu but i dont really know since i am quite new at this.
My cpu is an amd athlon 64 x2 6000 which i know is pretty old. I was considering upgrading my cpu to a phenom ii x4 945.
Would the upgrade help or would i need to take some other measures? I have a Asrock n61p-s motherboard and i believe that is the best upgrade i can get on the cpu. Any advice or recommendations are appreciated.

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

mevaldivia :

its easy to see whether your cpu is a bottleneck just run a game and open task manager and go in performance look at the cpu usage in contrast to everything else

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

amd4lif3 :

Well, I checked and the usage seems to be around 50%-60% for the cpu. I don't understand why I cant browse and run a game at the same time if the cpu usage is pretty mid range.

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

Ran a few tests with different pages and it seems to hit 100% whenever it loads a new page with a lot of graphics and then eventually I get the "Aw snap" message from chrome.

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

you need more ram then for the games you play how much ram have you got

because i reccomend 8gb ram

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

Currently at 4gb RAM. Would a new cpu be pointless then?

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

yea just get another 4gb ram

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

Ill try that, thanks. I can only seem to find 8gb ram Thats DDR3 my mobo only takes up to DDR2 according to the compatability logs i've read. Is that a big difference?

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

yes thats an issue ddr2 has a max of 4gb ram i think

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

you may be better off doing a major upgrade thankfully the intel pentium hazwell version is cheap and amazing for gaming its unlocked so you can overclock it high like 4ghz or over if our lucky and 1150 mobos are not massively expensive then get ddr3 ram as well

mevaldivia · Oct 31, 2014

This might work? http://www.ebay.com/itm/8gb-2x4Gb-DDR2-667-FB-DIMM-PC2-5300-667Mhz-Samsung-M395T5160QZ4-CE65-/121439254107?pt=US_Memory_RAM_&hash=item1c4657f65b I'm not sure if its the best place to be looking.

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Pentium-3-00GHz-Extended-Technology/dp/B00EF1G9DW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414785584&sr=8-1&keywords=intel+pentium+haswell

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gigabyte-GA-H81M-H-Motherboard-Micro-Socket/dp/B00IS69CFW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1414785606&sr=8-3&keywords=1150+motherboard

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HyperX-Series-1600MHz-Memory-Module/dp/B00J8E8ZWY/ref=dp_ob_title_ce

so thats a cpu motherboard and ram for £134.55

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

mevaldivia :

that is server ram

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

server ram wont work just do a decent upgrade ddr2 is a waste of money right sooo expensive

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

ebays a great place to look by the way almost all my pc parts are from ebay

GhislainG · Oct 31, 2014

amd4lif3 :

You probably meant 4GB RAM (if supported by the motherbaord) per slot; I have a system with 16GB of DDR2 RAM and it's running fine.

amd4lif3 · Oct 31, 2014

GhislainG :

yep what i meant but if he has to change his mobo to get a higher ram capacity , and will need to get a cpu upgrade soon becasue thats a BAD cpu ok , and its ddr2 which is kinda overpriced so i think its time for him to save up for a newer system

GhislainG · Oct 31, 2014

I agree; building a newer and much faster PC makes sense.

mevaldivia · Nov 1, 2014

I will most likly end up getting an upgraded MoBo since ddr2 is looking costly. I feel like i could do that got any other suggestions for cpu mobo combos?

amd4lif3 · Nov 1, 2014

mevaldivia :

whats your budget???

mevaldivia · Nov 1, 2014

Budget would be a range of 200-250 i guess for all three. I'm trying to go pretty low with it but im willing to work with the budget a bit.

mevaldivia · Nov 1, 2014

I have about 480 watts. Would all this work?
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00J8E93G6/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EF1G9DW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00D1A5OR0/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2E00TCQQ2O80P
I can swing this. I'm just gonna have to learn to install it. Should be simple right? All i've done is the GPU and gotten info on the CPU installation.

amd4lif3 · Nov 2, 2014

YES WILL POWER IT ALSO ITS VERY SIMPLE TAKE OUT OLD PARTS EG MOBO+CPU TAKE OUT YOU GPU AND OF COURSE YOUR RAM SO YOUR LEFT WITH A CASE WITH A POWERSUPPLY THEN INSTALL CPU AND RAM THEN TEST USING ONBOARD GPU IF EVERYTING WORKS PUT IT INTO YOUR CASE (OF COURSE EVEN WHE N TESTING THERMAL PASTE AND HEATSINK IS REQUIRED , IF YOU ARE GOING TO OC THEN YOU WILL NEED A AFTERMARKET CPU COOLER I ADVISE AN AFTER MARKET COOLER ANYWAY BECAUSE INTEL STOCK IS SHIT AND LOWD IF YOU NEED A GOOD ONLINE TUTORIAL GO ON YOUTUBE AND SEARCH HOW TO BUILD GAMING RIG NCIX OR LINUS TECH TIPS

GhislainG · Nov 2, 2014

amd4lif3 you probably didn't know, but using all caps is like shouting at someone in person.

amd4lif3 · Nov 2, 2014

oh sorry erm no offense

I think my gpu is bottlenecking my cpu but dont know how to tell.

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