Will a new GTX 1070 fix my issue? Or am I bottlenecked at the CPU?

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J

jamor

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I have an i5 2500K, GTX 770 2GB, and 16 GB of Ram.

If I dual display my two 1080p monitors (23" & 42") I get severe FPS drop and unwatchable movies/tv on VLC player via 42".

Likewise, if I'm playing a video game (Dota 2 max settings) on 23" and use a dual display with a youtube (or any streaming service) on the 42", I get a lot of FPS drop (120 to 50) and lag on the game.

I thought for sure it was the GPU, but I did a side by side of Techpowerup GPU-Z and Task Manager and the GPU load wasn't even hitting 50% while my CPU was between 93-98%. It would never go to 100%.

My question is does that tell the full tale? Do I just need to upgrade my CPU to use dual monitors or is the real issue the GPU?

Or is this a driver issue/settings issue?
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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I wouldn't classify those parts as "old and weak" for this purpose.

I've done almost identical things just fine using my i7-3770K + GTX680.

You obviously have a CPU bottleneck, however dropping so much by simply adding the other monitor surprises me.

1) Both screens are 60Hz?

2) What is CPU usage for DOTA 2 with the second screen (HDTV?) unhooked?

3) Try K-Lite Standard instead, and try Hardware decode instead of software in the settings.

4) Have Task Manager running on second screen so you can monitor what processes the CPU is running and the CPU usage.

When I watch a video my CPU usage is pretty low. If I disable Hyperthreading so I have closer specs to your CPU I use about 7% average to watch an HD video (bluray rip).

That's why I'm surprised that your FPS would be affected much.

Other:
Manv, I don't understand your statement "A 1070 will fix it but then the CPU bottleneck will be worsened."

He's showing almost 100% CPU usage, and low GPU usage so what exactly do you think a better video card will do in this scenario?
 
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M

manv

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My bad I missed that part while reading.
Will edit my reply.
 
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photonboy

photonboy

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It's not strange at all. If the main game thread is limited by the CPU speed (CPU need not be fully used either) then the GPU is left waiting for the CPU to send it new data.

That's the definition of a CPU bottleneck.

That's why I want to find out what is eating up his CPU cycles.
 
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J

jamor

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1) I believe both screens are set to 60 hz in the Geforce settings but the 23" is natively a 60hz and the 42" is a Plasma television which is natively 600 hz.

2) I'll have to check this when I return home. I don't want to give a wrong answer before then.

3) I'll look at K-Lite thanks.

4) Dota 2 is always the heaviest consumption at around 1.1 GB.



The thing that confuses me is that it's not just Dota 2. Even if I have just both monitors on and and I'm doing nothing on the 23" Eizo and I'm watching a movie on VLC media player via 42", it will be laggy and stuttery (seemingly very low FPS). I didn't check the CPU usage when this occurs though and I'll have to do that tonight.


What you say makes sense though. Perhaps the GPU is low % because the CPU is limited.
 
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J

jamor

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I just tested dota 2 with the other monitor unplugged and CPU usage doesn't go over 50%. As soon as I add the HDTV it spikes up to 70-80% and when I put a 1080p stream on the HDTV it goes up to 96%.

I also tried VLC player with a blue ray movie and it's very suttery low fps but the CPU usage is very low under 20%. However, the GPU usage is very low too.
 
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