Where is my bottle neck??

[adam2012pb]

I have upgraded a packard bell IXtreme 2711.

My spec is:

Intel Duo2 Q6600 Quad core 2.4ghz
4GB DDR2 Kingston RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate X64
ATI 5670 1 GB DDR3
600 Watt PSU

I am struggling to play games even on lowest resolution, as every few seconds the games jumps.

I am wondering what is causing the issue, I get a gut feeling its sound related. At the moment I am letting the sound come through the HD cable, via the graphics card. Instead of using the on board Realtek HD Audio.

Any thoughts??

Thankyou

 

[sadams04]

Having the sound ouput through HDIM is fine. It won't cause you the problems you are seeing... If you are bottlenecked it would probably be with the HD 5670 before the Q6600. Even so, you shouldn't struggle to play games at low settings and low resolution. Latest patches and drivers up-to-date?

 

[Emelth]

GPU and CPU but it all depends on what type of games your playing (some are more CPU intensive while others are GPU)

 

[adam2012pb]

Thankyou for your reply.

I am using latest catalyst control centre from the ATI website. But I dont think this is "forceware". I am not aware of any patches.

I have seen many people play Crysis 2 and GTA 4 on medium settings with no bother.

It feels like im missing something but really not sure what. The 5670 is the 1GB DDR3 model. hmmmmmmmm

 

[adam2012pb]

the problem I have is that wether on highest resolution or lowest, the lag seems the same....

For example when I switch to all highest settings the game still runs fine for a few seconds then a short lag, then the same over and over. Even the same on lowest settings. I am really stumped..

 

[adam2012pb]

Having the sound ouput through HDIM is fine. It won't cause you the problems you are seeing... If you are bottlenecked it would probably be with the HD 5670 before the Q6600. Even so, you shouldn't struggle to play games at low settings and low resolution. Latest patches and drivers up-to-date?

I have a little thought. I have in my "stock" an ASRock Mobo - ALive NF6G , which uses 940-Pin CPU. It has an AMD X64 X2 processor installed (I think 2.1ghz maybe more but certainly no less). I am wondering wether to put this board into my packard bell case. I will be giving up my Quad Duo2 2.4 ghz 775 CPU though. Is this worthwhile?

I know that the ASRock mobo can take upto 8GB RAM and is more "future proof" , but I am wondering if it will be a big loss on the CPU....

 

[sadams04]

What you can do is overclock your CPU to see if it helps your problem. Hopefully you have ample cooling, but testing for a short period should be fine. Try something like 2.8GHz... You should also be able to overclock your HD 5670 to see if that helps at all. Don't leave anything overlcocked unless you have cooling in check!

 

[adam2012pb]

The trouble is that my mobo cannot overclock the CPU. I would have to do it with software and havent found anybody who can guide me, because I know the Q6600 can be overclockec nicely. I have a big ass heat sink at the ready and plenty of fans handy so cooling for my needs will be fine I assume!
I have overclocked my HD 5670 but this doesn't seem to make any improvement.

Thanks for your help with this!

 

[hannibal]

I would allso think that bigger "consern" is you GPU. You CPU should be fine with next gategory amd 6850 or even nvidia 560 or AMD 6950... With those some potential would not be gained, but not much.

 

[adam2012pb]

GTX 460 is on my wishlist... hmmmm.
I have a £150 budget...