Is the Intel Core i5 2310 decent for gaming?

Crix525 · Jul 22, 2015

A few years ago when I was building my PC I had the bright idea to cheap out on my processor to have more cash for my GPU. I decided to go with the Core i5 2310 because it was one of the cheaper processors of the series and was a capable quad core. Today, when I try to run games, specifically Battlefield 4, I get really really mediocre framerates with a pretty capable GPU no matter what settings I play the game on.

Here are my current specs for my PC:
Core i5 2310
Asrock H61M-DGS Motherboard
GTX 960 2GB OC'd
8 Gb Single Channel DDR3 Ram
*Old 500GB Laptop HDD that runs at 15MBps speeds (Might also be a culprit)
400 Watt PSU
Windows 8.1

For example, I could be playing Battlefield 4 at Ultra settings 1080p and get 50FPS Avg, but I can lower the settings all the way down and play at 720p and only get 60FPS Avg. Only on certain, close quarter maps do changing the settings make a significant impact on performance. The reason I suspect its my processor it because these are symptoms of a bottleneck. But I don't think this processor ain't all that bad... In other, lighter games everything behaves as it should.

clutchc · Jul 22, 2015

That CPU is still considered a top tier processor for gaming by Tom's Hdwr: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html
Use a pgm. like HWMonitor to check CPU usage vs GPU usage. If the GPU is hitting near or at 100%, and the CPU has room to spare, it is the card that is the weak link.

Crix525 · Jul 22, 2015

clutchc :

Usually the CPU is at 100% while the GPU hovers around 60% but if I crank the settings to the absolute maximum it can reach 100% usage.

clutchc · Jul 23, 2015

I presume those results are in multiplayer mode on a busy server? Otherwise, the CPU should not hit 100% usage just playing in SP mode.
But yes, the CPU at 100% usage while the GPU is at 60% usage is an indication that the CPU is having trouble. Do you have a lot of stuff running in the background when you game? Is the tray full of stuff that is hogging resources while gaming?

Have you run CCleaner lately to clean up registry errors, software conflicts, junk files, and other resource-wasting crap? https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Do the Clean and Registry portions both.

velo3100 · Jul 23, 2015

I suspect that you have a lot of background processes or startup programs as the cpu should manage the game fine. Also you may want to think about changing the ram to dual channel to increase the frames.

Sergeant_Sneaky · Jul 23, 2015

My old 2320 bottlenecked my GTX 660 in Battlefield 4 multiplayer, your CPU is going to bottleneck in highly cpu intensive games, lowering the settings and barely getting a performance increase is a sign of this.

Crix525 · Jul 23, 2015

Well I updated my BIOS and things seems to get better. Now there is usually an 20FPS difference from Low to Ultra on full 64 Player servers. Will be running cleaners as suggested by "clutchc" and look into integrating dual channel ram on my system. Its strange though, This processor shouldn't be a bottleneck to said video card, It would be understandable if it held back an r290 and a GTX 970, but not a GTX 960.

clutchc · Jul 24, 2015

You're right. That i5-2xxx Sandy Bridge is way more than enough CPU to keep up with the GTX 960. I suspect some other issue is causing the problem. If CCleaner doesn't do the job by cleaning up resource-wasting crap, try disabling as much as you can in your tray. You may have some poorly written background hog running that is using up CPU cycles.

Crix525 · Jul 24, 2015

No luck. The game even used to behave very similarly with the Radeon HD 7770 I had. Not only that when I upgraded I did a clean install of the OS and while I did get the performance boost the symptoms are still there. Guess Im just gonna have to deal with low frame rates overall on this game, because its the only one that has a problem like that. Even the older Battlefield 3 runs significantly smoother at more demanding settings

clutchc · Jul 25, 2015

If the issue is only present in that one game, I'd have to agree. Something is wrong with the game. Or the server(s). This forum used to be full of folks with BF4 gaming issues. But I thought it was all cleared up by now. Maybe not. Not a fan of war games, so I can't speak to that particular game.

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