GPU, CPU or RAM limiting me?

[zeppman]

Hey Everyone,

This is more of a "out of curiosity" question just to better inform myself about the workings of computers...

I recently built up a computer with the following:
AMD X3 425 (3 core 2.7Ghz)
Radeon 5850 1Gb 256 bit ddr5
4Gb DDR3 SDRAM latency 7


When playing left 4 dead 2 on the recommended (or pre-set) settings, everything runs fine. Just for the hell of it, I tried maxing out the settings, and noticed that the game play "jitters" and gets kind of shaky. Just curious where the weak link is and what's causing this?

I'm running win7 64bit prof. if that matters.

Thanks!

 

[sturm]

I would say its the cpu. The Athlons do not have any L3 cache which can slow things down some.
What resolution are you running at?

 

[shortstuff_mt]

What resolution does your monitor run at? It could be that you're just pushing your GPU past its limits when maxing out all the settings.

 

[zeppman]

um... its the highest, 1080x 1920 I want to say? I'm viewing on a 40'' 1080P lcd tv. I don't touch the resolution, only the anti-aliasing(?) and another video option that I can not remember at the moment.

I was hoping it would be the RAM. I followed others suggestions on this setup (which was to be a $800-$900 pc) and would be a little disappointed if the cpu or my expensive(to me) GPU would be limiting me already.

 

[zeppman]

is there a way to monitor cpu and ram usage during the game like i can with the win7 built in performance dials? would overclocking the cpu help?