Is my CPU bottlenecking gaming performance?

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Hi, I was wondering if my quad core i5 750 running at stock speed of 2.67 is bottlenecking my gpu.

My specs are:

i5 750 @ 2.67 ghz
GTX 970
4gb Ram

In order to improve gaming performance, should I focus on upgrading my CPU or my ram?

Helldog26 · Nov 22, 2014

What mother board?

Helldog26 · Nov 22, 2014

Most likely its the fact that the motherboard doesnt support PCIe 3.0 speeds and the 970 is bottlenecking there. Its a beast of a card and the fact that its paired with a 5 year old CPU doesnt help.

CreationP · Nov 22, 2014

Yes, your CPU is bottlenecking you but not that hard. Only in CPU intense games. I would suggest to upgrade your RAM to 8gb 1600mhz first.

Helldog26 · Nov 22, 2014

Try upgrading ram but you are also putting a GTX 970 in board that only supports speeds of PCIe3.0x16 speeds, that is where the bottle neck would.

barto · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

That's actually not correct. PCIe 2.0 hasn't been fully utilized yet. All PCIe cards are backwards compatible. There won't be any bottleneck from the older board. The only bottleneck would be the CPU. It's a little slow and weak by today standards. But as previously said, the main performance hit would be in CPU based applications or games. You are correct thought about the RAM. 8GB is needed for games these days.

maxalge · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

No, pcie 2.0 x16 is fine.

Even pcie 2.0 x8 would be more than up to the task.

+1 on another 4gb of ram.

I would also look into buying an aftermarket cpu cooler and overclock the cpu.
If your motherboard is up to it.

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Hi guys, this is my motherboard:

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L

My tech-savy friend was also reccommending I get more ram, but I dont believe my motherboard supports 1600mhz.

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Another quick question, I thought my CPU wasn't overclock friendly, since it doesn't have a k after the 750. How would I go about overclocking it?

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

CreationP :

What games would you consider CPU intense games? Or how could I tell.

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L

Helldog26 · Nov 22, 2014

It doesnt it jumps from 1333MHz to 2200MHz. Everyone is saying that the 970 will be fine on a PCIex16 slot. I dont know how true that is. Try adding 8GB of RAM at 2200MHz and see if that fixes your problem

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

Do you not recommend using 1333MHz? I was thinking of adding 8gb on top of my 4gb for 12 gb, but if 2200 is better then I wouldn't mind just upgrading my ram all together?

Helldog26 · Nov 22, 2014

1333 for gaming is slow. If you can afford it go with the 2200

barto · Nov 22, 2014

Few things.

Never overclock RAM beyond it's rated frequency. But, the age of your system, higher RAM speeds won't benefit your situation. Only Intel Haswell and AMD APUs benefit from higher frequencies. So don't buy 2200 MHz RAM. You'll be wasting money.

The first generation Core-i CPUs weren't labeled and all had unlocked multipliers. It was the second generation where Intel started the K notation and locking multipliers. However, the motherboard you have really isn't for overclocking. It doesn't contain heat sinks for proper cooling. It's not wise to overclock on motherboards like that or on a stock fan.

As for the question about PCIe slots. There are two units. One for speed and the other for size. So most modern GPUs use a PCIe x16 slot (length). The second unit is speed (x4, x8, x16). For a single GPU, motherboards will run the cards on x16. After, it's up to the capability of the board for the second GPU.

And then there is PCIe generation. PCIe 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. While PCIe 3.0 is the latest version, PCIe 2.0 is has not be fully utilized by a single GPU yet.

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2012/07/18/pci_express_20_vs_30_gpu_gaming_performance_review/2#.VHFIu4vF_-s

barto · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

That is also incorrect.

Haswell RAM Scaling.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7364/memory-scaling-on-haswell

Ivy Bridge RAM Scaling.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6372/memory-performance-16gb-ddr31333-to-ddr32400-on-ivy-bridge-igp-with-gskill/8

The only thing that is needed is 8GB of RAM.

Personally, I would simply save money and start fresh. Putting money in this old of a system is a money pit.

petersona95 · Nov 22, 2014

Helldog26 :

barto :

If money is an issue, would you agree that I get 2x4gb 1333MHz ram for 12gb? Or should I just add two more 2x2gb for 8. I plan to upgrade my CPU and mobo next year after I have saved some money up for it, and the way I see it, if i buy ram now, I can just transfer it over when I get my new mobo.

Also, if I upgraded the stock CPU cooler do you think I could overclock my CPU? I only plan to keep it until I upgrade next year, so I'm not worried about it breaking as long as it can stay functional for another year or so.

barto · Nov 22, 2014

petersona95 :

Upgrading to 8GB wouldn't be too bad of an idea. Skylake is supposed to support DDR3 and DDR4 memory and will be released in 2015. I think you should buy a little bit faster RAM like 1866 hoping that Skylake utilizes the speed like Haswell. And it's only a few bucks more than 1600 and 1333. If it doesn't, that's ok. The motherboard will clock it to it's default speed. As for mixing the RAM, eh some times there are stability issues when the RAM has different timings. Give it a shot. If it doesn't work, just take out the 2GB sticks.

Again for overclocking, I wouldn't do it on that motherboard. The 1156 and the 1366 CPUs ran rather warm if I remember correctly. The motherboard doesn't have proper cooling. Even if you don't care if you damage the motherboard or CPU, I'd wait until you had money for new parts.

petersona95 · Nov 23, 2014

barto :

petersona95 :

Upgrading to 8GB wouldn't be too bad of an idea. Skylake is supposed to support DDR3 and DDR4 memory and will be released in 2015. I think you should buy a little bit faster RAM like 1866 hoping that Skylake utilizes the speed like Haswell. And it's only a few bucks more than 1600 and 1333. If it doesn't, that's ok. The motherboard will clock it to it's default speed. As for mixing the RAM, eh some times there are stability issues when the RAM has different timings. Give it a shot. If it doesn't work, just take out the 2GB sticks.

Again for overclocking, I wouldn't do it on that motherboard. The 1156 and the 1366 CPUs ran rather warm if I remember correctly. The motherboard doesn't have proper cooling. Even if you don't care if you damage the motherboard or CPU, I'd wait until you had money for new parts.

Thank you so much for your response Barto, Very informative. I just purchased some 1866MHz based on your reccommendations. well see if that fixes my issues.

Helldog26 · Nov 23, 2014

barto :

How was I wrong? Literally the first article you posted says stay away from 1333MHz and 1600MHz C11? Why get 1866MHz RAM when it will just run at 1333MHz? While 8GB will be a nice upgrade you shouldnt have wasted the extra money on RAM that is essentially 1333MHz.

CreationP · Nov 23, 2014

The best RAM speed reportedly is 1600 mhz. As for the whole system, the PCI is ok, the ram is slow and you should need at least 4gb more to reach the 8gb limit.

barto · Nov 23, 2014

Helldog26 :

As I stated previously, they are completely different chips. That's why it matters. Haswell notation starts with 4xxx. Ivy Bridge notation starts with 3xxx. If you have a Haswell chip, the RAM purchased should be 1866 or 2133. If you have an Ivy Bridge CPU (the second link), RAM speed is pretty much irrelevant. Intel's first gen Core chips notation only had 3 digits (3xx, 5xx 8xx, and 9xx). The 1156 chips didn't really benefit from RAM with faster frequency but in some situations faster timings.

The reason I suggested faster RAM is because hopefully Skylake (new CPUs releasing next year) will utilize faster RAM like Haswell. The OP stated they were going to upgrade next year and transfer the RAM to the new build. If he hadn't said that, I would have suggested 1333 and walked away. Even if the OP doesn't buy Skylake and gets Haswell, the faster RAM will be good. It's only a few bucks more (about $3-5).

1156 RAM Scaling
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-870-1156,2482-8.html

bootcher · Nov 23, 2014

Faster ram also helps boost minimum frame rates on games, though you wouldn't notice a difference on this system. However, clock speed of ram is irrelevant if it has a high cas value. 1600 dd3 at cas 7 will beat 2133 ddr3 at cas 10 for example. The difference is negligable, so you have to see which one is cheaper and not waste money on higher speed ram.

Helldog26 · Nov 23, 2014

barto :

Helldog26 :

As I stated previously, they are completely different chips. That's why it matters. Haswell notation starts with 4xxx. Ivy Bridge notation starts with 3xxx. If you have a Haswell chip, the RAM purchased should be 1866 or 2133. If you have an Ivy Bridge CPU (the second link), RAM speed is pretty much irrelevant. Intel's first gen Core chips notation only had 3 digits (3xx, 5xx 8xx, and 9xx). The 1156 chips didn't really benefit from RAM with faster frequency but in some situations faster timings.

The reason I suggested faster RAM is because hopefully Skylake (new CPUs releasing next year) will utilize faster RAM like Haswell. The OP stated they were going to upgrade next year and transfer the RAM to the new build. If he hadn't said that, I would have suggested 1333 and walked away. Even if the OP doesn't buy Skylake and gets Haswell, the faster RAM will be good. It's only a few bucks more (about $3-5).

1156 RAM Scaling
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/core-i7-870-1156,2482-8.html

Ok I get what you are saying now. Makes a little more sense once explained. All I kept reading was that 133 and 1600 were garbage but that makes sense i guess.

Is my CPU bottlenecking gaming performance?

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