Athlon 2 bottlenecking my 6970

[shinebox]

My system spec

athlon 2 445 (unlocked and over-clocked to 3.4) [stable in prime 95 for 24 hours]
asus m4a88t-m
8gig gskill ddr3 1333 ( running at 1470 ) [ stable in prime 95 for 24 hours]
his 6970 2gb
1tb hitatchi hdd
windows 7 64bit

OK ill make this quick :lol:

i used to have a HD 6850 which was fine BUT wanted more power so went and got a 6970 thinking its better ill b able to run everything maxed out at 1080p.... nope i was wrong .
my 6850 used to run GTA Ballard of gay tony at 50 fps that was 99% graphics card usage and 75% processor use age. now its 30 fps (dont matter what graphics settings i use or resolution) with 95% processor and 40% graphics card.

Battlefield bad company 2... same again 95-99% processor and only 55% graphics card...

Fear 3 same again

Red Faction Armageddon same again

where as it was the other way round with my 6850 gpu was always 99% used

now im wondering if i get a phenom 2 (thinking about a 980) will this sort out my bottleneck OR will i have 2 spend loads of money on a i5 sandy bridge?

i no its my first post, this is why i signed up here as you guys seem to be the best around!!!

thanks in advance

 

[simon12]

Do all these games play worse than the 6850? Did you make any other changed at the same time? Have you tried removing the drivers and reinstalling different versions?

 

[shinebox]

the only 1 that plays worse is GTA al the others i can play highest settings (on the 6850 on high) yes used driver sweeper then in desperation i formatted and used 11.7 drivers. dont get me wrong i can see the differnce BUT there is a little mirco stutter sometime on BBC2 and on fear 3.

 

[shinebox]

only the extra core, there is naff all wrong with the 4th core coz if i turn it off games run worse! i 95% certain my athlon 2 is the culprit BUT i wanted to ask you guys here before i spent any more money :lol:

 

[simon12]

GTA is poorly coded so I guess that game just doesn't like the 6970 here is some info about it running on a 6950 http://benchmark3d.com/grand-theft-auto-iv-benchmark This is what you should get in BFBC2

if you are getting close to these FPS then the CPU is not limiting you

 

[shinebox]

well i use v sync, and in fraps im getting 60 fps (max refresh rate) but its not locked at 60 it will drop to the 40's (same in fear 3) when this happens its noticeable. but as ive said before... my processor is maxed and my gpu is 50% used. isn’t it ment to be 99% used?

 

[shinebox]

forgot to mention about dirt 3... used to run at 93 fps on the bencmark with me 6850 on high no aa and on me 6970 its 78 on ultra and x4 aa. no stuttering


bad company 2 im using x2 aa (stuttering when in battle and snipering)

same in fear 3

and red faction full everything and only a slight stutter when panning the camera angle around....

 

[cypeq]

You sir crank up your settings and demand same or higher fps... my question is why?

When you consider that 6970 isn't even new generation it's just more muscle in most benchmarks it's on avg 20 fps better ON THE EQUAL SETTINGS with high-end cpu.
And yes this difference will get lower as your cpu strength goes down.

With gta4 it's probably driver issue anyways game is very cpu bound badly coded and optimized... this goes for all of the series the rockstar just don't know how to write pc games right (they are from console market). I still don't know why it was ever used in any benchmark. Just look at it's quality of graphics than at demands.

 

[3xch4ng3]

only the extra core, there is naff all wrong with the 4th core coz if i turn it off games run worse! i 95% certain my athlon 2 is the culprit BUT i wanted to ask you guys here before i spent any more money :lol:

I'll put money down that your CPU isn't able to handle the load which is causing the bottleneck. I'd be interested to see the core utilization on the CPU after unlocking the 4th core because typically AMD uses the extended wafer for the X3s (much like Intel uses for Celerons) for performance & quality reasons.

Also, it's a $75 processor and you've pretty much maxed its potential. I would wait for Bulldozer or upgrade to the X4 955 if you can't wait till then. I'm sure you'll see an immediate improvement.

 

[Baralis]

You could try OCing your CPU further. While it will not make a major difference it may give you some indication if the CPU is indeed bottle necking your GPU. If you see any fps increase at all after OCing more I would say the CPU is the culprit.

 

[shinebox]

thanks for the replys, you guys have reassured me that it is my cpu thats the bottle neck. i cannot over clock any more as then it become unstable. ill put it back to stock and report back here to let you guys no what my fps are saying or cpu/gpu usage.

and im supprised no intel fanboys have told me to buy a i5 2500k hahaha

thanks guys!!!!

 

[shinebox]

nice one bro, ill get a phenom 2 then, altho i would like a sandy bridge my bank balance wouldn’t!

 

[shinebox]

I'll put money down that your CPU isn't able to handle the load which is causing the bottleneck. I'd be interested to see the core utilization on the CPU after unlocking the 4th core because typically AMD uses the extended wafer for the X3s (much like Intel uses for Celerons) for performance & quality reasons.

Also, it's a $75 processor and you've pretty much maxed its potential. I would wait for Bulldozer or upgrade to the X4 955 if you can't wait till then. I'm sure you'll see an immediate improvement.

how would i go about finding this information out? ill post results

 

[cypeq]

deus ex benchmark @toms shows your cpu delivering 1/3 fps of i5 2500k on highend gpu :S

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/deus-ex-human-revolution-performance-benchmark,3012-7.html

 

[shinebox]

thanks for your input, ive been looking at benchmarks and i can see the a sandy bridge spanks the p2 980 BUT the price is just too much for me right now!

ah well lets see what payday brings!