How to find a bottleneck

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alexpc86

alexpc86

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Apr 15, 2015
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Hey guys,

I just upgraded my PC and can't seem to get decent FPS out of hardly ANY games I play, sometimes even with settings on low... including but not limited to GTA V, NBA 2K15, etc... My uniEngine Heaven Extreme score is good, between 1600-1800, but my framerate in games sucks. Am I bottlenecking myself with my CPU? I know this is an old board, and I've installed the best hardware it can support, but it shouldn't have a problem running games...

I can't get the GTX 970 to go over +85 on the Core Clock and +525 on the Mem clock (max voltage & power limit) without it crashing, but I'm seeing many people getting 150+ on Core.

I have a quad-core PC (Q9550 Intel Core2Duo) 2.8 GHz overclock to 3.4.
I have a EVGA GTX 970 SSC video card.
I have 8 GB of RAM
500 GB SeaGate 7200 RPM HDD
I use a 23" 1080p monitor @ 60Hz

I'm kinda new with this overclocking thing and ANY advice you can give would help tons.

Thanks!
 
Solution
Sandstorm3000
Unfortunately the bottleneck is really your CPU and probably also the RAM since i guess it is DDR2. Your CPU is still really powerfull though, but it just can't keep up with the 970 im afraid.

It is weird though that you are getting those really bad framerates since in overall it is still a powerfull PC, have you updated your drivers?

I don't think overclocking your GPU is going to make any difference since it will be slightly bottlenecked by your CPU anyways.

Also could you maybe tell my your CPU usage while playing one of your games on low settings?
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Sandstorm3000

Sandstorm3000

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Unfortunately the bottleneck is really your CPU and probably also the RAM since i guess it is DDR2. Your CPU is still really powerfull though, but it just can't keep up with the 970 im afraid.

It is weird though that you are getting those really bad framerates since in overall it is still a powerfull PC, have you updated your drivers?

I don't think overclocking your GPU is going to make any difference since it will be slightly bottlenecked by your CPU anyways.

Also could you maybe tell my your CPU usage while playing one of your games on low settings?
 
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Solution
alexpc86

alexpc86

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Apr 15, 2015
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Sandstorm3000,

Thanks so much for taking the time to help me. Now that you mention it, I did want to post a picture of that (my CPU usage during Benchmarking). Attached is a screenshot. Notice while GPU usage stays at 100, CPU usage is about 50%. Why is this?

Also, you are correct it is DDR2 SDRAM. Running Windows 7 Ultimate with a Cooler Master Hyper 212 TX4 on the CPU.

Thanks again!
 
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alexpc86

alexpc86

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Apr 15, 2015
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30ivp6a.png
 
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alexpc86

alexpc86

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2crap8z.png


However, a glance at the usage percentages while playing GTA (and getting around 20FPS with settings on High) appears to confirm what you are saying about the CPU: All 4 cores at 100%.

Still though, as you said it's still a powerful PC and should be able to get better than 20 FPS, shouldn't it?
 
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Sandstorm3000

Sandstorm3000

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Well, i haven't bought GTA V yet, so i don't really know how itll perform on my PC. (i have a Q6600 which is significantly weaker than your Q9550)

I do know that GTA V is a very CPU heavy game, so your graphics card doesn't really matter all that much, the recommended GPU is a GTX660 while you have a 970 so that is absolutely no problem.

The recommended CPU however is an i5-3470 which is way more powerfull than your Q9550. Also one friend of me has a i5-3470k along with a GTX780TI and yet he can't run the game on ultra settings with 60fps. So i guess they still have to do some optimization (lol after 1.5 years)

I have also seen a youtube video, with a guy running high/ultra settings on similar hardware that i have, yet he runned on a mix with ultra and high settings, So you might want to try and play a little bit with the settings? So some things ultra and some things high or even medium and see what causes low framerates for you.

I hope the above information is a little bit usefull.. sorry if it isn't.
 
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alexpc86

alexpc86

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Apr 15, 2015
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Thanks for your reply! Unfortunately even with all settings lowered to normal, my frame rate stays between 20-30 in most situations. I overclocked my CPU to 3.8 and that helped a little, but it seems like there has to be a way to lower in-game CPU usage without sacrificing so much.
 
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