What's a good upgrade from i5-3340? Terrible framerate in gaming.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

I'm looking for a good CPU for gaming. I've been having some trouble running Ground Zeroes at 60fps and I have a GTX 970 which honestly surprised me. Everyone else seems to be getting solid 60fps with the same card and even solid 60fps with less powerful cards.

Is it most likely my CPU causing this problem? It doesn't happen with any other game.

What's a good CPU for gaming? My motherboard is a Gigabyte D77-D3H.

Thanks!

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

What psu are you using? The i5 3340 is still a very strong cpu and I doubt that is the problem.

Do you have a H77 or Z77 motherboard?

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

Sorry, I don't know much about the board other than the name, it's a Gigabyte D77-D3H and I upgraded my PSU when I got the GPU, it's a XFX Pro Series 550W.

I actually formatted my PC yesterday so it's a completely fresh, empty system with the game installed on it.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

I just looked it up and it's a H77 board.

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

Well I'm 99.999999999999999% positive that there is no such thing as a Gigabyte D77-D3H. It's either a Gigabyte H77-D3H or a Gigabyte Z77-D3H.

To answer your original question.... I don't think I would bother upgrading to an different i5, I recommend the Xeon e3-1230v2 or 1240v2.

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

This!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085MQUTU/?tag=pcpapi-20

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's the H77. I got that original motherboard name from an app that was supposed to ID your motherboard and I copied and pasted. It obviously didn't do it's job. Looking at the picture of the H77 it's definitely that.

Do you have any other ideas about what might be slowing the game down? I'm even using the new beta drivers specifically for this game while other people are using the older drivers and still getting better framerate than me. This game was the reason I got the 970 and it's the only one that won't stick at 60.

If it's the CPU then I don't mind upgrading but I don't want to upgrade only to find that nothing has changed. Thanks for the link by the way.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

Okay I just monitored my CPU in Afterburner. (Why the hell didn't I do this earlier?) When I was playing with the "lighting" setting on extra high all 4 cores were in the high 90s (percentage used) and the framerate was hovering around 50. When I lowered the "lighting" setting all 4 cores went down to around 70% and the framerate was flatout 60 so it's obviously the CPU causing this right?

Looks like I'll be getting a Xeon. Thanks for your help. If you have any more advice though, anyway to improve the CPU (I've never tried overclocking but am willing to I suppose) it'd be appreciated.

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

Yes if all 4 cores are at +90% usage, it's the cpu. I'm surprised about that though. How are your temps?

Mr_Venbeer · Dec 22, 2014

Your CPU is probably bottlenecking something or throttling.
I doubt it is bottlenecking that GTX 970 since the i5-3340 is a pretty powerful CPU.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

The temperature is in the 60s on everything.

Any advice on how I can go about fixing it if it's throttling? (I don't even know what that means, I'm ignorant when it comes to hardware) Is throttling when it doesn't run at full capacity?

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

Could it be that my PSU isn't good enough?

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

That XFX is a great unit. I doubt it's that. It has to be the cpu if performance is fine in other games. I'm not familiar with that particular game so I dunno.

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

Just get that Xeon. It's a beast for $224. It will give you an extra +400mhz, hyperthreading, and more L3 cache.

Mr_Venbeer · Dec 22, 2014

Turn off power saving mode on your control panel, choose High Performance. Also, on your motherboard check that all CPU cores are enabled and the clock speeds are at stock or faster (if you have overclocked it). Try unparking your CPU cores, this might gain you some FPS like it did with a lot of people.

Xeon isn't that good for gaming. It's capable, but not like an i5/i7. They are made for running servers and a lot of rendering and mutli threading tasks.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 22, 2014

Yeah, every other game is perfect. I haven't seen anyone else using this CPU with the game so I've got nothing to compare it to, I've only seen slightly better i5s running it perfectly although one user was going down to 55 at a higher resolution than me and they had a 970 and a slightly better i5.

There are a LOT of light sources in the scene where it slows down (this issue only occurs on a night time level full of spotlights, the game runs perfectly during the day time levels) so I'm guessing when it's on extra high settings it's doing a lot of reflection calculations? Just guessing. But the "lighting" setting is the only setting that makes a difference to the framerate. Even when I set the resolution to 1024x768 it made NO difference which is what led me to to it being a CPU issue in the first place.

I just checked my Windows power settings and they were on "balanced" so I don't know if that makes a difference. I'll put them on high performance tomorrow and see how it runs. I'm not expecting anything great to happen though. It looks like I'm going to have to upgrade because this is the only game I really care about at the moment and Phantom Pain when that comes out. I'm just annoyed that I can't hit 60 after spending money on a 970, it's playable at 50 but it's a 10fps drop which I can really feel while I play.

CTurbo · Dec 22, 2014

Xeon isn't that good for gaming. It's capable, but not like an i5/i7. They are made for running servers and a lot of rendering and mutli threading tasks.

No offense, but this is an ignorant statement. The Xeon e3-1230v2 is the exact same cpu as the i7 3770 except it has been down clocked 100/200mhz and does not have integrated graphics. It is a GREAT cpu for gaming and every other thing that a cpu can do. It's performance is almost exactly the same as the 3770 except it actually runs cooler and uses less power.

CTurbo · Dec 23, 2014

http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/413/Intel_Core_i7_i7-3770_vs_Intel_Xeon_E3-1230_v2.html

Mr_Venbeer · Dec 23, 2014

So lowering resolution and eye candy and no difference in performance basically means there is a bottleneck. Seen that you lowered your res, and you get 90% CPU load it is a CPU bottleneck. Try to overclock your CPU to reduce or get rid of this bottleneck. Set your power plan to High Performance, if you don't see it it must be in advanced power plan options or something.
Have you tried unparking your CPU cores yet?

Edward Wokhands · Dec 23, 2014

Thanks for all the suggestions, it was nearly 4am when I was talking to you last so I've only just got your replies.

I'll have to look into what "unparking CPU cores" means and how to do it. Do I need a utility like Afterburner for my CPU? When I was younger I killed a laptop playing with overclocking so I've stayed away from it but I'm willing to do it again, I wasn't anywhere near careful enough.

In Afterburner it showed all 4 cores so does that mean they're unparked?

Edward Wokhands · Dec 23, 2014

If none of those suggestions work I'm obviously going to have to upgrade my CPU. That Xeon looks cheap enough for an impulse buy.

Mr_Venbeer · Dec 23, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FHbGANr6HA

Edward Wokhands · Dec 23, 2014

I looked in my registry (as advised by a tutorial) and all my CPU cores are unparked. (If that tutorial was wrong let me know so I can try it properly) I've put all the power on high performance and the game still shoots up to 97-98% as SOON as it sees those lights in that game.

Is there a utility for overclocking? I'm going to upgrade my CPU to the Xeon unless there are any more suggestions? In the meantime, while I wait for it to arrive I'll play with overclocking.

Thanks again for the replies.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 23, 2014

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the app to double check but they were already unparked so maybe it's just the performance of this CPU isn't enough or the programming isn't very friendly for that CPU?

I'd like to see someone with this CPU and GPU running the game to compare. I'll just upgrade my CPU to the Xeon. Maybe I should wait for the new drivers. I'm on the beta drivers for the game right now, if they do nothing (if it's a CPU issue I don't know why they would) then I'll buy that Xeon.

The only bad part about this for me is that I've never actually had to upgrade a CPU so I'm worried about breaking something. Cards, PSUs and RAM are easy, I know a few guys who've broken pins on new CPUs.

Edward Wokhands · Dec 23, 2014

I looked up the system requirements for this and the MINIMUM is a Core i5-4460. I don't know how the numbers work for CPUs anymore but I assume 4460 is better than 3340?

The recommended is a Core i7-4790 which I assume is better than what I have too. If someone could confirm whether they're better than the i5 3340? I'm going to upgrade now anyway but I'd just like to confirm that the problem was indeed the CPU and not something that could have been fixed.

What's a good upgrade from i5-3340? Terrible framerate in gaming.

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