What Is Bottlenecking?

[ElectroStatic]

Hello everyone! A few days ago, I purchased, received, and put a new Zotac GTX 560 Ti OC into my system. The problem is, I am not getting the full potential out of the new graphics card. I immediately suspected a bottleneck, but my GPU, from information on "Sensors" in GPU-Z, has a load of 85%-99% in Battlefield 3. I uninstalled the drivers, wiped them with Driver Sweeper, and reinstalled. No "Dice." (See what I did there?)
Today, I checked my CPU usage while playing Battlefield 3. The cpu usage never went above 83%, and I suspect a bottleneck there. I would like any person in the awesome Tom's Hardware Community to identify the issue in my system and help me solve it. I suspect my RAM, HDD, or something else...
So, is my GPU bottlenecking? Or is it my CPU? The fps drops a lot, in the worst cases about 20 fps, on high settings, no deferred AA, 1x AF

Here are my home-made system specifications:

CPU: AMD Phenom II x6 1055T (Non-Oced)
GPU: Zotac GTX 560 TI OC 1GB GDDR5
PSU: OCZ Modstream 600w PSU
RAM: 1 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBNQ + 1 x Patriot Gamer 2 Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model PGD38G1600ELK
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200 1 TB 7200RPM SATA 3Gb/s 32MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Hard Drive ST31000528AS-Bare Drive (Primary) + Some old hard drive (Secondary)
Motherboard: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T Thuban 2.8 GHz 6x512 KB L2 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Processor - Retail HDT55TFBGRBOX

Also, I read that mixing RAM is not good, so should I remove one type of RAM out my computer? If so, which brand?

If I'm missing some information, please point it out.

Thanks!

 

[amuffin]

Nothing is bottlenecking, what do you mean you aren't getting the full potential if you are getting 85-99%? That means you ARE using the full potential!

 

[smorizio]

your cpu may be bottleneck of video card. i would not remove any ram unless your getting bsod. more ram even if it mix pair is better then no ram. i would check the games web page to see that your game is patched and updated. also see if there are any tweeks. as this game was written for dx9 and been patched for dx10. there are things like v-sink on some games that have to be change with newer cards to get higher frame rates. also with any mid range video card your going to have to turn down or off some iteams in the video game to get higher frame rates like water. also check and play with nvidia control pannel you can sometime tweek it and get better frame rates.

 

[Chainzsaw]

What resolution do you play at? Is this online only?

Playing online with lots of players and/or on big maps are known to bring computers with high specs to their knees in BF3. All the players doing stuff, blowing crap up, shooting each other...it takes it's toll on CPU's, and GPU's!

I agree with amuffin though....your pretty much maxing out your computer as is.

 

[ElectroStatic]

Nothing is bottlenecking, what do you mean you aren't getting the full potential if you are getting 85-99%? That means you ARE using the full potential!

I did some more testing, and my gpu got below 65% in the game for a little bit, then scaled back up. It really depends on the area...but it should always be higher. My CPU has abnormally low usage, despite being an old CPU that should be flexing its last muscle.

 

[schnitter]

The problem is as soon as you Alt Tab out, your GPU usage goes all the way down. While you are gaming it should be close to 100%

Battlefield 3 is a GPU intensive game. On Crossfire 5870 they both go to 100%

 

[Chainzsaw]

I did some more testing, and my gpu got below 65% in the game for a little bit, then scaled back up. It really depends on the area...but it should always be higher. My CPU has abnormally low usage, despite being an old CPU that should be flexing its last muscle.

Try this if you haven't already:

Open up your power options

Click on High Performance - then click on change plan

Click on Change Advanced settings

Expand the "processor power management" set the "Minimum processor state" to 100%. This will keep the cores firing on all cylinders.

You could even OC your CPU a little bit. I'm sure throwing a few hundred Mhz wouldn't do any harm.

 

[ElectroStatic]

Try this if you haven't already:

Open up your power options

Click on High Performance - then click on change plan

Click on Change Advanced settings

Expand the "processor power management" set the "Minimum processor state" to 100%. This will keep the cores firing on all cylinders.

You could even OC your CPU a little bit. I'm sure throwing a few hundred Mhz wouldn't do any harm.

Hmmmm. I'll try overclocking it. But, I've never overclocked before.