Do I have a CPU bottleneck?

[BradF1979]

I have a GIGABYTE GA-P55-UD4P LGA 1156 running an i5 at 3.2Ghz standard voltage with 4GB DDR3 1600. I had been running 2x ATI Radeon 5770s and still not getting the performance I thought I should in newer games (@ 1680x1050 res). I'm running Windows x64.

I'm upgrading to a 6950 and adding another 4 GB of DDR3 1600 but worried that maybe my CPU was the issue. I really don't want to upgrade motherboard/CPU etc...

As far as an SSD, that's just going to help loading times right? Not performance once the load is complete.

 

[rolli59]

A single HD6950 and 2xHD5770 are pretty equal setups. Your I5 should be able to handle it but you can try overclocking it to see if you get performance increase. Even a single HD5770 is capable of handling your resolution well so something is wrong.

 

[BradF1979]

CPU is already overclocked to 3.2Ghz. I think I've tried pushing it further, but even with a Freezer 7 Pro after market cooler it just doesn't stay as cool as I like in my wood desk.

 

[rolli59]

If you slow it down then and there is a drop in performance then it is possible that you would gain from going to a better CPU like I5 760 or swap over to lga 1155.

 

[loneninja]

What I5 do you have? Is it a dual core or quad core?

Also what games are you experiencing problems with?

 

[BradF1979]

It's an i5 750. Normally any modern games when I enabled AA. AF is normally decent, but anytime I enable AA, thinks go in the crapper fast...

 

[rolli59]

I5 750 does not bottleneck your setup are you sure you are not expecting to much? It should even handle a HD6990.

 

[BradF1979]

I may be expecting too much... but at my resolution, I figured I should be able to bump most games to 8x AA 16x AF...

I haven't got my 6950 yet, so maybe it will be better... I'm asking if my current setup 2x 5770s should be able to do that... They couldn't which is why I'm adding another 4GB of RAM and getting the 6950...

 

[rolli59]

At least the HD6950 will not have any crossfire issues and the other 4GB ram can help if your games are reaching into the page file.

 

[loneninja]

I've still got to ask which games? Some can be very demanding when AA and AF are turned up and require more than 1Gb vram.

 

[BradF1979]

Battlefield 3, Rift, you name it... Anything that's came out recently, if I turn on AA (really at any level, but mainly past 2x), I have issues. 2x5770s have 2GB of RAM, the 6950 I'm getting also has 2GB of RAM.

 

[con310]

Battlefield 3, Rift, you name it... Anything that's came out recently, if I turn on AA (really at any level, but mainly past 2x), I have issues. 2x5770s have 2GB of RAM, the 6950 I'm getting also has 2GB of RAM.

what settings you running Bf3 at? becasue im prity sure you need a really strong PC to run that 4x AA(or whatever its called).

 

[rolli59]

Battlefield 3, Rift, you name it... Anything that's came out recently, if I turn on AA (really at any level, but mainly past 2x), I have issues. 2x5770s have 2GB of RAM, the 6950 I'm getting also has 2GB of RAM.

The ram on a crossfire if the cards are 1GB still counts as 1GB.