Could use some help upgrading my PC

samprinsen · Aug 22, 2016

Hey,

I want to upgrade my pc since

a) It's become real slow, which can be very annoying
b) For some reason, the CPU is almost broken, to the point where I cant even play GTA V or BF4 on 1080P without the CPU jumping to 97-100 % and remaining that way, causing massive stuttering.

My current pc is:

-Intel i5 3570 3.4 Ghz
-Asrock z77 extreme 3
-MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X (Bought it this week)
-8 GB ram
-2 HDD's, 1TB and 250 GB
-Bequiet Powerzone 750w Bronze

My first move will be replacing the MOBO and the CPU (i5 4690K would be my pick) and I think that I'll start with that to see if my stuttering/speed problems are fixed. The slowness of my pc may not be caused by the cpu, but my games are really being held back by it which is fairly annoying considering I just bought a 1070 for 530 euros and I would really expect any game to play at ultra settings at 1080 or even 1440p.

If someone could give me some advice on what MOBO and CPU to buy, or even another PSU or something like that, that would be awesome.

13thmonkey · Aug 22, 2016

It's not broken.
They don't break like that.
If you are seeing massive utilisations, then you have something using it (not a sign of the CPU being broken), or it's not running at full speed (the question is why).

What temps are you getting, GPU and CPU, idle and gaming.

samprinsen · Aug 22, 2016

Gpu idle: ~50 degrees C
Gpu gaming: max 68 degrees C
Cpu idle : ~ 33 degrees C
Cpu gaming: ~ max 50-60 degrees C

But the weird thing is, metal Gear solid V is playing just amazingly on my pc on high resolutions and ultra settings, but gta with no advanced graphics and 1080p with everything but grass in very high creates game breaking stuttering. Bf4 sometimes plays okay and bf3 suffers from stutters and fps drops as well

13thmonkey · Aug 22, 2016

CPU GPU clock speeds when gaming?

I'm not going respond again tonight, but that will be enough for someone else to discount things.

BFs could be CPU constrained by the network nature, I know it takes my 3570k@4.3 up to 90%. Gtav not sure if the port is good this time.

samprinsen · Aug 22, 2016

GPU is in OC mode via the MSI gaming app, which results in about 1900-1930 mhz in most games. CPU clock speeds in MGS V stay around 3,95 Ghz, because I kind of oc'ed the cpu to reach those clock speeds. But in MGS V everything runs extremely smooth, even in the highest settings on 1440P+ resolutions. Games like BF3/4 and GTA V and also the witcher 3 are the problem. Black ops 3 also tends to not run as smooth as its supposed to

13thmonkey · Aug 22, 2016

samprinsen :

Bkclk oc? If above 104, remove it. See what happens.

samprinsen · Aug 22, 2016

Its at 103.5, I heard its unstable after 104. But thats not the problem, because even when everything is set to its stock speeds, the CPU still gets very odd peaks and will stay at 100 % usage in GTA V which leads to frame drops and stuttering

Supahos · Aug 22, 2016

You do know you can oc your processor a bit with that board and see if it helps any. I severely doubt the processor is any of your issue as my build will pretty well run gtav just shy of maxxed and maintain 60 fps most of the time

Supahos · Aug 22, 2016

Sorry I had this post pulled up a while ago and just responded with other messages not in it. Yes reset Bclk to 100 and see if that helps I bet that's your issue

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

My current machine with a multiplier OC was stable on prime testing, but not stable on BF3 (at the time), it need an extra 0.005V. So stability is not universal.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

Thanks for the answers, but like I said, having the bclk at 100 doesn't change anything in terms of stuttering or framedrops...

Edit: if I change it to 100 again, should I also change the multiplier to 34 again instead of 40? So I'll just put in on stock setting again?

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

yes, go back to stock, for testing purposes. Save your current profile first though.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

Just played GTA V on stock CPU settings, Maxed out graphical setting on GTA (minus the advanced graphics), and when Im driving fast, the CPU will get to 100% usage which results in heavy stuttering, frame drops and textures disappearing in the game. Could it also have something to do with the PSU? Like the CPU isnt getting enough power or something?

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

I'm surprised, it does sound like your CPU is a little on the weak side, but this is for a franchise that historically has been poorly ported. What's smooth gtav worth to you?

It may be that you have processes that are sucking up more than they should be, or you'd like them to be. I know on my old Q9550, I had to end a lot of tray processes to get smooth gameplay on TDM BF3 with high player counts on noshar (sp?). But it was enough of a difference to make a difference, a 3570k however did solve that.

As a side note, it has been refreshing to work with someone who just tells us what we need to know. Thanks.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

I'll just have to keep looking for the cause of the problems I guess... Don't know if your last sentence was meant sarcastically but thanks anyway for your help!

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

No sarcasm at all, i've lost count of the number of times that i've asked for clocks and temps to be told 'there's nothing wrong' or 'that's too much trouble', you know how to get them, you gave them to us, you know what you are talking about, it makes our lives easy. Just thought i'd say thanks.

What does task manager say is running, what's utilisation like at idle, what's ram usage like etc. that's where i'd look next as nothing is wrong with hardware.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

At Idle, the CPU usage doesnt really go above 30%, the ram is at about 35-40 % when idle. But the only problems about my pc is that it is very slow, especially when I just turned it on. I guess I should get an SSD or more ram? And while gaming, the only thing that's causing problems is my CPU so I really dont know what to do...

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

SSD will help, BUT that 30% at idle is a concern. At idle I was expecting 0-5%, that's more normal.

Looking at my 3570k right now, with a citrix window open, browser open and a VM running my CPU is sitting at 20-25%. Not idle, but lower than yours. I'd put some money that being the problem.

Do you have a spare HDD? Simplest solution, install windows on spare SSD, wait for updates, install one problem game, see what happens. Then either hunt down offending apps on current installation, or start again.

RAM 8GB should be enough. SSD would help, but not with this problem.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

No wait, Im sorry I had google Chrome opened with multiple sites when I looked at the CPU usage. Without anything running, apart from like Origin and steam in the background, usage is between 3-10% like you said. Right now as Im typing this I've gotten 2 tabs opened and cpu at about 5% usage, but when I open a new tab and visit a random website it jumps to about 30-40% usage. Is that normal?

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

seems high to me. but figuring why is a pita, nothing obvious in task manager?

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

Nothing seems out of the ordinary I guess in task manager. Ram is at about 40-50% usage when I've gotten 3 tabs opened plus watching netflix and steam and origin are running as well. This is really frustrating, since I dont know whether to buy a new MOBO and CPU, because what if it solves nothing and I just threw away about 350/400 euros...

Edit: Im just quite convinced its my cpu thats ruining my pc, because if bf3/4 or GTA V starts stuttering, its always the cpu that starts going from 50 to 100% usage and going up and down. Ive got no clue what else would be causing that problem.

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

BF is CPU heavy when online gaming
GTA no idea, but history suggests artificially high.
So we know that hardware is in good condition, i.e. no over heating etc.
Which leaves software, or hardware being not sufficiently capable.

We could isolate it being a fixable software issue by reinstalling windows, if you are considering an SSD regardless (a good idea anyway), then get one and install windows to test. If this resolves it then your system is inherently capable (perhaps only on teh lower load of a clean installation), but would cope better with an older (and dirtier) windows installation by being stronger.

Some settings in the game will reduce the CPU load, these might be the solution.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

Yeah, because MGS V plays amazingly smooth even above 1440P at maxed out settings, zero frame drops or stuttering. But I guess thats because its a very good port. BF4 on the other hand 3/4 matches stutter up to the point that its unplayable, and GTA V is just awful when ive been playing for longer than 5 min. Cod BO3 isnt that great either, and the witcher 3 can feel kinda low fps like, when its actually above 60fps (I dont know how to explain it, it just feels kinda blurry-ish). Im really considering completely renewing my pc, new CPU, mobo, ssd and maybe even a new psu. But of course you have the change that it wont fix anything and Im about 6-700 euros down... Such an irritating problem, because the slowness of my pc is also really annoying when I have school assignments or something. I kinda think my psu isnt doing the best job, thus not giving the cpu enough power.

Edit: I just benchmarked my main HDD with windows on it using HD Tune, turns out the average transfer rate was 3.1 mb/s.... I guess that explains the extreme slowness of my pc.

13thmonkey · Aug 23, 2016

I wouldn't be concerned about the PSU. Slowing down doing other things too you say?

It's a software issue, you've got some piece of software dragging the system down.

samprinsen · Aug 23, 2016

I think you didnt see my edit, my main hdd with windows on it has an average transfer rate of 3.1 mb/s. I also benchmarked my other smaller hdd and it was way way faster, so Im going to transfer my windows to that hdd and see if the slowness will be improved

Could use some help upgrading my PC

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