Subpar performance with new Radeon 7850 card

[jofo]

I recently upgraded my graphics card from a Radeon 4870 to a Radeon 7850, hoping to see some fairly significant improvements in gaming. But after upgrading, even though there is an improvement, my games still don't seem to be running as smoothly as they should.

It's not like I'm playing the most graphics-intensive games either. I'm playing slightly older games like Just Cause 2, Batman Arkham Asylum, and Skyrim. I just want to be able to play these games with max settings without having to worry about a stuttering frame rate. Cranking up the graphics causes the games to dip below 30 fps pretty easily.

Are my expectations too high with my current rig, or is there be something else throttling my performance?

System specs:
EVGA 141-BL-E757-TR LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX X58 SLI LE Intel Motherboard
Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply
Western Digital 640GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
Intel Core i7-920 Bloomfield 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
12GB CORSAIR XMS3 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600
ASUS Radeon HD7850-DC2-2GD5-V2 2GB 256-bit GDDR5

 

[simon12]

I used to have a 4870 and upgraded to a 6950 2Gb which is slightly worse than your 7850, since the upgrade I can play skyrim with the high res download pack maxed at 2560 x 1440 and Batman on close to maxed (I can't remember the AA AF settings exactly) I never checked my FPS but there is no lag. I suggest you check your CPU & GPU temps and if they are OK check the CPU & GPU usage.

 

[Sunius]

For Skyrim you'd really want to OC your CPU.

 

[darth pravus]

+1 for CPU OC. Definitely needed for such a low clockspeed.

 

[jofo]

Thanks for the suggestions! I haven't seen my GPU temp go above 55 degrees, and I haven't seen my CPU cores go above 60.

I've actually never overclocked before (shows how much of a noob I am) but I will try it on Friday and report back.

 

[jofo]

So I finally got around to overclocking the CPU and HOLY CRAP did it make a difference! The games are running significantly better now, and I've only brought the clockspeed up to 3.1 Ghz so far.

There is still some slowdown in Skyrim, particularly in the towns, but it's improved. Also Just Case 2 has started crashing after about 15 minutes of playtime, which never happened before. I probably still need to tinker around in the BIOS to get more stable settings for the CPU.

Thanks so much for the help!

 

[jofo]

Best answer selected by jofo.

 

[Sunius]

Glad I helped you!