Q8200 bottleneck ati 7870?

[apollon]

Hello,
i have the motherboard gigabyte g41mt-d3v,4giga ram ddr3 and the cpu intel core 2 duo q8200. i recently bought the ati hd7870. when i play for example bf3 i get 25-35 fps. when i check the msi afterburner i use only 40-50% of my gpu so i imagine something from my system bottleneck it. anyone have any idea what is it? if its the cpu i can buy a watercooler and oc it but i dont know how much oc i can do because of the cheap motherboard. anyone knows? ah i forgot i used my gpu at my friend's pc with amd and he had 90-100% gpu usage and he run bf3 at 60-100 fps.... thanks in advance

 

[bigcyco1]

I think it's your cpu but try this program http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyJoGOYXfHs and http://www.majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=43 are your drivers up to date? I am pretty sure no matter what you need a new mobo and cpu.

 

[BuddiLuva]

CPU definitely.

 

[stant1rm]

It's definitely a CPU bottleneck. There are some things you can do to alleviate some of the issues however.

Overclocking is the first thing you can do to remove some of the bottleneck. I wouldn't spend too much on buying a closed loop water cooler, a good air cooler such as the Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO ($28) will do the job just as well.

I would also start saving your money. For $200 you can AMD FX-6300 (Six Core CPU) and an MSI 970A Motherboard. This would be an excellent choice for many reasons. First, with the cooler you purchased to overclock your Core 2 Duo, you can easily crank the FX CPU to 4GHz or higher. Second you wouldn't have any bottleneck whatsoever. Third, the motherboard is CFX capable so if you want, you can purchase a second 7870 for CFX, have increased performance and there will still be no bottleneck!

 

[apollon]

thanks a lot guys you were all very helpfull. thanks again

 

[apollon]

btw is anyone here with my mobo and my cpu? i ask because i want to know if i can oc the cpu more than 3 ghz.

 

[Satyr99]

btw is anyone here with my mobo and my cpu? i ask because i want to know if i can oc the cpu more than 3 ghz.

I got same kinda setup and my 7870 card seems to work 99% power when its checked from catalyst settings, it only depend what game you play.

Some of games give only on 60-70% but still fps is lv 60.

try skyrim or witcher II and boost your catalyst setup best way it works and it should burn as hell.