Disappoiting performance

[malteDK]

Hello

I've been running with this system for quite some time, and the performance in games has been good, but not up to the standard that I expected. I would like to consider that I have a fairly high-end PC, but something tells me that the components in my build does not work that well together. What do you think??

System specs:
Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
Intel Core i7 920 @ 3.48 GHz OC
Sapphire Radeon HD 5970 2 GB
6GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3
ENERGON 750W
Corsair H50 - CPU Watercooler (Push-Pull Config)
Noctua NF-P12 120mm
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB
Western Digital Caviar 1TB SATAII 64MB
STECH Simple Drive USB 750 GB
Windows 7 64-bit
Cooler Master HAF 922 Midi Tower

Anything unsual to see here? Or anything I could upgrade or change to make the performance better?

Thanks.

 

[lewza]

Its not a bad system tbh, seems a bit overkill using watercooler for that system though but good for future upgrades.

First off I would advise upgrading your processor, dont be tricked into thinking that the I7 is the best just because it is the most recent. The I5 2500k would beast all over that and can overclock up to 4.5ghz.

Not 100% sure on your GPU, perhaps AP could elaborate on that.

 

[008Rohit]

Is the ram setup 3x2GB? if yes, the fine. 1366 needs tripple channel memory.

Change your PSU. That seems the culprit, it can't deliver enough power to all parts, so the parts cant give their best under load.

I'd recommend a 650W Corsair, Seasonic or XFX unit or any single card setup. No need to upgrade processor at this point.

 

[malteDK]

Oh okay.. So what I should do is upgrade my PSU? .. Seems like a good idea, because when I bought mine I just went for the cheapest with the highest voltage. But buying one with 650W instead of 750W seems a bit wierd to me??

 

[AdrianPerry]

Oh okay.. So what I should do is upgrade my PSU? .. Seems like a good idea, because when I bought mine I just went for the cheapest with the highest voltage. But buying one with 650W instead of 750W seems a bit wierd to me??

Efficiency rating on a PSU is everything. Always look for 80PLUS Bronze or better.

A 750w without an 80PLUS rating could only be 50% efficient meaning a huge loss in power meaning it will actually deliver power less efficiently than a 650w unit with an 80PLUS.

Recommended PSU brands include: XFX, Corsair, SeaSonic, Antec, (some) OCZ.

 

[malteDK]

Oh okay. I really didn't know that. Thanks for a lot.

So I've looked around and it seems that a Corsair TX V2 650W PSU would be the best and cheapest purchase in this case. Agree? .. + This should improve my system pretty dramatic right? Because if it only makes a small difference in perfomance like 5-10 % I'm not sure I'll spend the money on a new PSU.

 

[mightymaxio]

Anyone who thinks an I5 2500k is faster than a I7 2600k is an idiot, theres a huge difference especially w/ threaded games such as Unreal, Battlefield, and Crysis. They will take those threaded cores and use them to the max. I would highly recommend a I7 2600k for this years games which are all going to support as many cores/threads you have such as elderscrolls 5, battlefield 3, and rage to name a few.

 

[AdrianPerry]

I'm personally not convinced your PSU would be a limiting factor. Generally it would just crash if it couldn't handle your components or you would experience tearing and artefacts during gameplay or system reboots/unexpected shutdowns.

ATI recommends: 650 Watt or greater power supply one 75W 6-pin and one 150W 8-pin PCI Express® power connectors recommended (850 Watt with two 75W 6-pin and two 150W 8-pin connectors for ATI CrossFireX™ technology in dual mode)

Recommended manufacturers include: XFX, Corsair, SeaSonic, Antec. Corsair are generally the best mid-priced option, however XFX and Antec often have some nice sale prices/offers and SeaSonic tends to come in a little more expensive.

 

[AdrianPerry]

Anyone who thinks an I5 2500k is faster than a I7 2600k is an idiot, theres a huge difference especially w/ threaded games such as Unreal, Battlefield, and Crysis. They will take those threaded cores and use them to the max. I would highly recommend a I7 2600k for this years games which are all going to support as many cores/threads you have such as elderscrolls 5, battlefield 3, and rage to name a few.

None of these games support Hyper threading...........?

That's not to say games in the future wont, but the current ones and the ones currently planned for release between now and Christmas wont as far as i'm aware?

 

[mightymaxio]

None of these games support Hyper threading...........?

That's not to say games in the future wont, but the current ones and the ones currently planned for release between now and Christmas wont as far as i'm aware?

They will, look at battlefield bad company 2, that utilizes as many threads as you have. Thats why performance scores for that game are higher and why the amd thubans can keep up with the i7's in that game.

Straight from guru3d.com "The game has native support for DirectX 11 and on the processor testing side of things, parallelized processing supporting two to eight parallel threads, which is great if you have a quad core (or hexacore) processor.
"

 

[AdrianPerry]

I dont see hyper threading mentioned there? Hyper threads are virtual cores, not actual cores....the i7 still has 4 cores, the same as the i5, which is why in games they bench very very similarly.

 

[ahnilated]

I dont see hyper threading mentioned there? Hyper threads are virtual cores, not actual cores....the i7 still has 4 cores, the same as the i5, which is why in games they bench very very similarly.

You do also realize that the i7 can be overclocked to 4.5 just like the i5? I have had mine running at 4.4 without any issues on air. If I switch to water cooling I could probably go even higher without issue. A lot of games out there if they are using a single core only care about the clock speed of that core.

 

[ahnilated]

Is the ram setup 3x2GB? if yes, the fine. 1366 needs tripple channel memory.

Change your PSU. That seems the culprit, it can't deliver enough power to all parts, so the parts cant give their best under load.

I'd recommend a 650W Corsair, Seasonic or XFX unit or any single card setup. No need to upgrade processor at this point.

I don't agree with your assessment that his power supply could be the issue. 750 watts should be enough for his system. I have an i7 sitting at 3.8 with a higher end setup then him and have only seen it hit a max of 600 watts under max loads.

 

[008Rohit]

750W should be enough, but you also have to look at the brand of that PSU. Cheap ones generally kill other PC components.

 

[malteDK]

So let me get this straight.. If I buy a Corsair TX V2 650W PSU instead of my ENERGON 750W the overall performance would not be that notable?

If it's not my PSU that's the real issue here, what could it be then?

 

[mightymaxio]

Are you running w/ vsync turned on? What games are you playing? Do you have multiple monitors running a game such eyefinity?

 

[lozz08]

You don't have a solid state drive. An SSD won't improve frame rates but general system responsiveness will be massively improved. No one with an i5/i7 should go without an ssd these days it's a crime.

 

[malteDK]

I mostly play BFBC2, MW2, Shogun 2: Total War, Napoleon: Total War, and Crysis 2.

I only have one monitor, 24" HD screen.

I'm not interested in getting a faster system in that way. I know SSD's are incredible fast, and I've looked into it, but I'm much more into getting my frame rates up.

 

[008Rohit]

You just get a Corsair TX 650 V2 and overall system performance will increase.

 

[mightymaxio]

What are your framerates in those games atm? You said they are slow but whats the framerate?

 

[lozz08]

That's the thing, all those games you listed should be capping at 60hz if you're at a normal resolution (crysis 2 with dx11 full is different but it's silly anyway) with your hardware.

edit by capping I mean never going below

 

[AdrianPerry]

You do also realize that the i7 can be overclocked to 4.5 just like the i5? I have had mine running at 4.4 without any issues on air. If I switch to water cooling I could probably go even higher without issue. A lot of games out there if they are using a single core only care about the clock speed of that core.

Im well aware of what CPU's can overclock to what frequency.

What I said was "Hyper threading doesn't increase FPS in games because games DONT MAKE USE of hyper threading". Which im still waiting for someone to prove me wrong on....

If Hyper threading DID impact on FPS and games DID make use of it, then i7-2600k would obviously bench higher than i5-2500k, which it DOESN'T because games DONT use hyper threading they only make use of the individual cores which in terms of the i7-2600k and i5-2500k are more or less equal.

 

[malteDK]

That's the thing, all those games you listed should be capping at 60hz if you're at a normal resolution (crysis 2 with dx11 full is different but it's silly anyway) with your hardware.

edit by capping I mean never going below

Exactly. That's why I think it's so wierd.. I run at 1920x1080 maxed out on all those games.

But in BFBC2 I'm usally between 60-80 FPS. Sometimes 40 if there's a lot of action, but if I want to record using Fraps or X-fire, the FPS immediately drops to like 10-15 and the game is unplayable..

It just seems that there's something in my system that bottlenecks my performance.. and now I'm guessing it's very likely my PSU?

 

[008Rohit]

Yeah, most likely the PSU.

 

[mightymaxio]

Fraps always kills your FPS though disable fraps and there ya go problem solved.