Not sure if CPU is bottlenecking my GPUs

[explodatron]

I just bought a second 670 and I am not getting as great performance in many games as I expected. Here is my rig:

i5 2500k @ 4.3GHz
8GB DDR3
2 GTX 670 FTW in SLI
Windows 7 x64

Examples (all with the highest settings)

In Guild Wars 2 I had about 45 FPS at one point and I was getting like 45% usage from both cards, and about 92% usage on the CPU. I suspect this is because the game is new and doesn't support SLI properly yet.

In Crysis 2 I was getting about 45 FPS in an area and my GPUs were around 60% usage, and my CPU was around 80%.

The Witcher 2 w/ ubersampling ON I as getting probably 40 FPS on average. Occasionally my GPUs would hit 99% usage but on average maybe ~80% and similar for the CPU.

I am using the most recent beta drivers (306.02), no overclock on the cards, and all the nvidia control panel settings for maximum performance.

Is this an issue with my computer or is it a driver thing with nvidia?

 

[samuraimastr]

The i5 shouldn't be bottlenecking any GPU configuration on the market today. Are you sure that their isn't something else using up your CPU?

 

[deepblue08]

I just bought a second 670 and I am not getting as great performance in many games as I expected. Here is my rig:

i5 2500k @ 4.3GHz
8GB DDR3
2 GTX 670 FTW in SLI
Windows 7 x64

Examples (all with the highest settings)

In Guild Wars 2 I had about 45 FPS at one point and I was getting like 45% usage from both cards, and about 92% usage on the CPU. I suspect this is because the game is new and doesn't support SLI properly yet.

In Crysis 2 I was getting about 45 FPS in an area and my GPUs were around 60% usage, and my CPU was around 80%.

The Witcher 2 w/ ubersampling ON I as getting probably 40 FPS on average. Occasionally my GPUs would hit 99% usage but on average maybe ~80% and similar for the CPU.

I am using the most recent beta drivers (306.02), no overclock on the cards, and all the nvidia control panel settings for maximum performance.

Is this an issue with my computer or is it a driver thing with nvidia?

What mobo are you using? Check BIOS settings, are your cards using 8x pci-express configuration, because you should be using x16?

 

[explodatron]

The i5 shouldn't be bottlenecking any GPU configuration on the market today. Are you sure that their isn't something else using up your CPU?

CPU usage outside of games seems to be ab out 10% with Steam and a few other programs running (I host an active teamspeak and stuff).

What mobo are you using? Check BIOS settings, are your cards using 8x pci-express configuration, because you should be using x16?

I have an ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 and I believe it only supports 16x when using a single lane, and it does x8 when using both lanes.

I've read that with the current GPUs on the market, x16 lanes don't make a difference.

 

[obsama1]

Update Windows, BIOS, mobo drivers, and GPU drivers.

 

[samuraimastr]

Well, I'm fairly sure those aren't CPU intensive games, so I can't say what the problem would be. Apologies :/

You ~are~ right though, current GPU's (as in GTX 680/690 and HD 7970) will barely max out a 2.1x8 slot, let alone a 3.0x16. It's sad to say it, but 3.0 is kind of a gimmick right now.

 

[explodatron]

I feel like over all my games I should be getting better performance, and I can't figure out what is going on. Take these benchmarks for instance:

Some random persons: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/3752121
Mine: http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/4332488

That person has almost all the same hardware. His memory is faster, his CPU is 5 GHz where mine is 4.2, my gpu mem clock is higher, and we have the same core clock speeds.

Should the scores really be that drastically different?

 

[kitsunestarwind]

Half the time with Dual GPU's its driver problems and support.
The newest driver is not always the best.

Currently in Guild Wars 2 everyone is reporting low FPS with Nvidia configurations
while AMD cards are having no problems. It's a reported problem with the Nvidia drivers and is expected to be fixed soon

 

[esrever]

uber sampling is not usable. disable it, it has no point.

crysis 2 should be working better, might be a driver issue.

guild wars 2 is just new and doesn't work well.