The bottleneck escape!

[sirashram]

Hey Community!
Tomorrow I would like to upgrade my current Gaming PC build because I believe I am experiencing what you all define as bottlenecking.
My current specs are:
HIS IceQ Radeon 6950 2GB
AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.1GHz no OC
16GB 1333 10600 DDR3
Corsair TX650
MSI 870A-G55 Mobo
Seagate 500GB HDD

I am experiencing "frame skipping", "jumping", "visual lag" whatever in the higher settings of Arkham City, Skyrim, the max settings in The First Templar and a few benchmark tests. (FFXIV becnhmark, The Last Remnant Benchmark, etc.) I think my processor and maybe my HD is to blame.....Ive heard that HDs have a very small percentage of effect on game and other editing software performance.

My local CompUSA is advertising a i7 2600k for $60 off the normal price, which is the same as a 3750k...so that is a great thing, plus I was also going to change to a Z77 mobo thats on sale, and get an OCZ 240GB SSD also on sale, and run my 500GB HDD as a slave. Do you all believe that this setup will greatly improve my framerates and overall PC performance? Again, Im new to this stuff so be gentle.....lol

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

That quad is NOT bottlenecking that card.... its only a mid range card thats getting a little old now....so its probably the card bottlenecking...

All the best Brett

 

[geekapproved]

I don't think your cpu is bottlenecking your gpu. You can test if your bottlenecking by overclocking your processor.

Run a benchmark. Then overclock your cpu and run the benchmark again. If your graphics score goes up, then your cpu was bottlenecking your video card.

 

[amuffin]

It's not bottlenecking.

 

[wr6133]

Issues in Arkham City maxed out......... hmmmmm maybe as your card cant play it at 60FPS maxed out.

Seriously has FHM done a badly written article on hardware bottlenecks or somethings? Amount of these threads this week are nuts there was one where a guy had a "bottleneck" as his 560ti couldnt run BF3 @ ultra at 60FPS.

 

[sirashram]

If I am not bottlenecking then I am a little upset at the fact that a 2GB $300+ superclocked vid card cant run a game thats a year old at max settings.....
I was considering a GTX 670 but on Passmark.com the difference between my card and that one wasnt TOO spectacular. Well thanks anyway you guys. I appreciate your input. Im going to get that Intel and SSD anyway since Ill be going into sound and video editing this fall in addition to gaming. Have a good one you all.

 

[amuffin]

Passmark is synthetic, it does not simulate real world performance.

Here's a better comparison:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/510?vs=598

The 670 absolutely destroys the 6950.

 

[sirashram]

@amuffin
Thank you for that link. I looked at some other hardware I was thinking about and it turns out the Samsung 830 beats out the OCZ SSD and it really WILL make the difference to go ahead and switch to Intel until I can get my hands on a ZOTAC GTX 670. I appreciate the input!

 

[amuffin]

IMO I would not get a Zotac card, aim for ASUS, MSI, and EVGA!

 

[sirashram]

I ended up getting a core i7-2600k for the sale price, a hyper 212+ cooler for it and a 670 GTX card. Lets watch those benchmark scores go through the roof now!