What's my bottleneck?

[saxtontechsolutions]

Hey guys,

I just bought a msi lightning 6970. I wasn't too impressed with it while playing skyrim and can't figure out why. I believe its because of my ramm being DDR2 and not DDR3. Which would mean I need to get another motherboard and RAMM

Amd Phenom II six-core 1090t (stock for now at 3.2)
MSI R6970 Lightning (stock for now)
8 GB Kingston 800 mhz RAMM
Asus M4A785-M Motherboard
Seagate 2tb internal 5400 r pm.
Seagate 80gb internal 7200 rpm.
Corsair AX-850
all in a
Corsair 500R(stock fans for now)

So am I right? Motherboard, ramm, probably a SSD for OS and a few games.

Should be able to play most anything I throw at it. After I upgrade, lol.

 

[eklerus]

read this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

Your cpu is the problem altough it's a very good cpu with 6 cores Skyrim doesn’t appear to be optimized for more than two threads.
The article says you need a i3 at 3Ghz or phenomen 2 at 3.5 Ghz to reach 30 fps.
You can play any game 60+ fps but not this one due to poor optimization.
From personal experience i can keep 40 fps with a 5770 but a i5 at 4.6 Ghz.

 

[mouse24]

read this http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/skyrim-performance-benchmark,3074-9.html

Your cpu is the problem altough it's a very good cpu with 6 cores Skyrim doesn’t appear to be optimized for more than two threads.
The article says you need a i3 at 3Ghz or phenomen 2 at 3.5 Ghz to reach 30 fps.
You can play any game 60+ fps but not this one due to poor optimization.
From personal experience i can keep 40 fps with a 5770 but a i5 at 4.6 Ghz.

Lets take a step back here for a second, that article clearly states that at its absolute max setting including 16x AF + 4x AA at 1920 his absolute lowest fps is 25 and his max is 40, honestly at 8x AF + 4x AA that would be VERY playable.

what are your settings at? are you using the latest drivers?

 

[eklerus]

His gpu is not the problem and yes lowering settins will improve his fps considerably just read the whole article and select your best settings you want.
If you want max settings you should consider upgrading to a 2500k only for this game if not you system is very good for everything else.

And on a side note you could consider overclocking your cpu but the key word is caution when doing this (research good airflow cpu cooler temperatures etc)
I get 60 fps in ultra mode and 40 with custom settings all on max and the game is capped at 60 i think i can get even more all on a 5770 worlds apart form a 6970
So just put ultra mode and increase settings to your liking

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

All updated drivers, I was at ultra, max everything. Going to get a CPU cooler and 4 more 140mm fans to increase my airflow. Then I can probably get to 4.0 Ghz. I'll let you guys know as soon as I get it all assembled.

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

Well its all assembled. Waiting a little bit before I boot her up, I could only find 120mm fans but I bought 5 of them, 2 to go onto my hyper 212 plus CPU cooler and an additional three to move even more air thru my case. I have a 200mm on the side pulling in, two 120mm on the front pulling in, one 120mm on the bottom pulling in, one 120 on the top pulling in as well as another 120mm on the top pulling out from my CPU cooler exhaust side and another 120mm pushing out the back directly behind my CPU cooler exhaust. For my first truly high end build I'm happy with my purchases.

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

After getting everything setup I ran furmark to see what my 6970 got to at stock speeds under load. I just about fell out of my chair when it told me that my max temp was 61C. Idle 44C. I grabbed prime95 to test my CPU underload for my baseline before overclocking. I had speedfan to monitor the temp but it stopped respond 30 seconds into the test. Anyone know of a good temp monitor for a Phenom II 1090t?

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

Well, hardware monitor and speedfan are still responsive in test 7 of a blended test and my highest recorded temp is 49C... Max temp I want to get it too is 60C so how much of an over clock can I get with 11C to work with? Any thoughts?

 

[eklerus]

Good you got enough ventilation to oc and a hyper 212 for your CPU.
May I suggest you try for your case front-bottom-side intake and top-rear exhaust and see if you can see any changes in the long run.
Your gpu temps look very good so like I said it's not the problem.
HWMonitor Real Temp I use Speed Fan to play with the fan speeds.
Well like I said if you’re going to oc the key word is caution first of do some research find your cpu voltage then the max voltage it can run, temperatures, give tom's a good browse before you start overclocking watch some YouTube video start another thread here about your cpu and then after a day or so you can start easy easy to overclock +100 MHz stress test if blue screen more voltage and so on and always monitor your temps and cpu fan max 100%

You do have a good computer the problem is just Skyrim and poor optimization

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

Lock this thread please MOD.

 

[saxtontechsolutions]

Best answer selected by Saxtontechsolutions.