Am I Experiencing Bottlenecks? What can I do to Fix?

[SMGeaZy]

I recently finished building my first system. I would consider this a "High End" Build.
Specs:
i5 3570k @ 3.7ghz
MSI Hawk 7870 @ 1300mhz (once I figure out my problem)
8gb of DDR3 Kingston HyperX Genesis W/ HyperX Ram Cooler @ 2100mhz
AsRock Extreme4 Z77 Motherboard
A crappy Hitachi 500gb HDD @ 7200rpm That I got from a $200 HP Desktop(I think this is the problem)
Thermaltake TR-2 600watt power supply
CM Storm Scout case

With this system I should get at least 50-60fps on BF3 on ULTRA 1080p, But I get 19fps on low 1080p? also I get this when something actually decides to work. Once I usually start a game The system Automatically restarts Then says "Windows recently recovered from an unexpected restart."?

Not knowing much about computers I think the problem is bottle necking

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[jonjonjon]

non of your parts should be a bottleneck. in the Event Viewer check under Windows Logs and System. to see what is causing the problem. did you install all the drivers?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-Event-Viewer

 

[Sava]

That's a pretty nice build. The hard drive is going to be a bottleneck of sorts. It's not necessarily keeping your system from great performance (FPS wise). But throw in a pair of crucial m4's and you'll wonder how you ever functioned without an SSD. BF3 loading times will be 10-15 seconds vs a minute plus. Windows will load faster.

Just think of how many people you could be killing (in the game, dear lord) instead of sitting there watching that loading screen.

 

[geofelt]

I might suspect your PSU.
The Thermaltake TR-2 is a tier 5(not recommended replace asap) unit on this list:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
UNder load, a graphics card can draw lots of power.

Your ram is faster than needed, and might not be stable.
Test it with memtest86+ for a few full passes. You should get NO errors.

To exercise the cpu, run prime95 with check for rounding errors.
Monitor the temperature with realtemp, and verify that the cpu is always running @3.7 or max.

 

[swifty_morgan]

I think you should reset the cmos and give that a try. how's it work?

 

[jonjonjon]

I might suspect your PSU.
The Thermaltake TR-2 is a tier 5(not recommended replace asap) unit on this list:
http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx
UNder load, a graphics card can draw lots of power.

Your ram is faster than needed, and might not be stable.
Test it with memtest86+ for a few full passes. You should get NO errors.

To exercise the cpu, run prime95 with check for rounding errors.
Monitor the temperature with realtemp, and verify that the cpu is always running @3.7 or max.

i was thinking it was the psu too and that would explain the system crashing when the gpu was pulling max power on BF3. would the psu force the video card to run at 20FPS? wouldn't it just crash?

 

[DarkSable]

The hard drive is not affecting your FPS, only your loading times.

That being said, the issue isn't coming from a bottleneck, it's coming from a problem.

Do you have all drivers, especially graphics drivers?

Also, like geofelt said, your PSU is a very bad unit that could easily be causing problems... do you experience issues outside of games?

 

[geofelt]

i was thinking it was the psu too and that would explain the system crashing when the gpu was pulling max power on BF3. would the psu force the video card to run at 20FPS? wouldn't it just crash?

I think if a graphics card does not have sufficient power, it may well downclock instead of crashing.

Can you test with a different psu?

 

[SMGeaZy]

Thank you for your responses.
I downclocked my RAM to 1600mhz

Now I need a recommendation for the parts to get. I am completely clueless.
@geofelt I can not test with a different PSU because my only other PSU I am not using is a 300 watt xD
@jonjonjon Yes it has been crashing alot. But when it didnt right away it would go down to 9-15fps

 

[SMGeaZy]

non of your parts should be a bottleneck. in the Event Viewer check under Windows Logs and System. to see what is causing the problem. did you install all the drivers?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-Event-Viewer

I installed all of the newest drivers possible that is compatible with my system and OS

 

[SMGeaZy]

I looked at the AX850 from Corsair. It's pretty expensive. Does anyone recommend it?

 

[CheesyHotDogPuff]

I looked at the AX850 from Corsair. It's pretty expensive. Does anyone recommend it?

It a fine unit, but you don't need 850 watts of power, even for crossfire. This will work if you want crossfire in the future and costs way less.
-The Corsair - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139020
-The Seasonic - http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151106
I would go with the seasonic, but thats just preference. As well the seasonic is semi modular and has better reviews. If you look on the eggxpert list above you will see that they are both on the tier 2 list. They can both also crossfire.

 

[jonjonjon]

save yourself some money. its a rebranded seasonic psu.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1650snlb9

here is a modular version.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/xfx-power-supply-p1750bnlg9

 

[SMGeaZy]

Best answer selected by SMGeaZy.

 

[SMGeaZy]

Fixed it. I change my RAM clock to 1333mhz and that covered the problem