Am I bottlenecking?

[braydenaus]

I recently upgraded my rig but I'm kind of disappointed at the FPS I'm getting while playing games like Battlefield 3 and Far cry 3.
On Battlefield 3 at 1080p, low preset and 90 FOV i average around 70 FPS. Far cry 3 ultra preset at 1080p I just barely get 60 FPS outside of areas with barely any vegetation/buildings.

PC specs:
CPU - AMD FX-6100 @ 3.3Ghz
GPU - MSI GTX 670 power edition
MOBO - asrock 970 extreme 3
PSU - 725w coolermaster extreme 2
RAM - 8gb 1600mhz

I think that's everything, I suspect i need a CPU upgrade but I'm unable to go to intel as a new mobo and CPU would be way out of my budget. Any AMD cpu's that may improve performance?

 

[manofchalk]

Try overclocking the CPU, if performance jumps by a lot then you know you have a CPU bottleneck. Heard that the FX-6xxx series need a good overclock to perform well.

 

[zooted]

So you're getting 70 fps in bf3 and 60 in fc3?? I think you are doing pretty well.

 

[manofchalk]

^ Was thinking that as well. Cant say for BF3 but in FC3 I'm getting an average 45FPS and its perfectly playable.

 

[razvan_mz]

did you tried the latest drivers from nvidia? I don't thing it is really necessary to change the CPU.

 

[braydenaus]

im using the latest 310.90 nvidia drivers.
I'd try OCing my cpu but im not experienced enough in OCing to risk attempting it, i reckon i'd stuff my whole machine up

 

[manofchalk]

You gotta get experience somehow

Have you got aftermarket cooling on the chip? Recommend you do before you overclock a CPU.

 

[braydenaus]

I do but i doubt its an improvement over the stock cooler. also I have a coolermaster HAF XM case.

 

[manofchalk]

Whats the cooler anyway, something like a 212 EVO would be good enough for a decent overclock.

 

[braydenaus]

this is a bloody embarrassing cooler i'll admit, but this is it. http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=207_23_312&products_id=16780

 

[adity8522]

I think your system and graphics card is well above.
But I think you should provide cool air with another heat sink fan.
For better CPU Performance I Will recommend you Upgrading to an AMD FX-8320 or 8350 (eight core processor). As you cannot go with intel, FX-8350 is the best processor till date in amd line. Its base clock is itself set to 4.0 Ghz (4.2Ghz).

 

[manofchalk]

Ahh, another Aussie. Always good to see.

Yeah, that is a fairly dismal cooler, though I suspect you could get a small overclock from it.
Try going into the BIOS and bumping the CPU multiplier by 2 (it should be 33), that will overclock to 3.5Ghz. If you see an improvement in games, you know youv got a CPU bottleneck.

 

[braydenaus]

I'll try fidling around in the BIOS after my bad company 2 bender. what tempreture should i worry about after i OC?

 

[manofchalk]

WIth an overclock that small, wouldn't think temps will rise that much.
As long as you arent getting over ~70c under Prime95 load you'l be fine I think.

 

[Soda-88]

Install MSI Afterburner, set up the OSD toggle hotkey, in monitoring tab set the GPU usage and VRAM to show on OSD.
Run the game you want to test, turn off Vsync, hit up the Afterburner OSD (by pressing the toggle key you previously set) and see if your GPU usage is at 95% or more.
If it is then your CPU isn't bottlenecking your GPU.

 

[braydenaus]

thanks chalk im going to give what you said a shot now.
and i use a OSD but i dont think i have the gpu usage but i'll see if anything improves after i try to OC

 

[braydenaus]

that failed miserably, there wasnt any multiplier like you said but there were preset OC settings for 3.4, 3.6ghz so on. first i tried 3.6ghz i logged in and my task bar loaded then my pc siezed up and rebooted and same thing for 3.4ghz. not sure what i did wrong but it doesnt seem to work.

 

[manofchalk]

You sure there wasn't a CPU multiplier? Might also be called the "CPU Ratio".

Sounds like an unstable overclock to me, might be that you would have to raise the voltage to make it stable. If that is necessary then I wouldn't try with that cooler.

 

[braydenaus]

with those presets it automatically raised the voltage. my guess is it turns off because it gets to hot maybe?

 

[manofchalk]

The CPU would have to be hitting 90c+ for that to happen, and quickly enough that Windows cant even boot.
I dont think temperature is the problem.

 

[jthill909]

Seems like this thread has definitely strayed from the original question, but I would like to give my two cents.

I had an fx-6100 in my system up until a few weeks ago and I thought about a getting a nice gpu to get a bump in games, so I threw down some of my hard earned money and bought an Evga 670 FTW. I only did this because I thought the cpu was capable enough to not bottleneck the 670, but I was sadly wrong. Luckily, I had pretty bad screen flickering issues with the 670, so I decided to return it. I then used the money that I had originally spent on the gpu to buy an i5-3570k and an Asrock Extreme 4 z77. Let me tell you, the performance boost was amazing(I reverted back to my old card which is a 6870 1gb)! I saw a 30-50% boost in all games, but especially games that capitalize on cpu horsepower (gta4,bf3 64 man servers, etc.) Then I even got a decent overclock to 4.4ghz with a 212 evo. So if I had paired that with a 670, the performance would be through the roof.

So, for right now, since you do have a mobo that you could at least overclock a little bit, I probably recommend just oc, saving money, and then upgrading cpu's a little later. I also not necessarily recommending a 3570k, but just whatever is the best for your money which, most of the time, ends up being an intel offering.

 

[braydenaus]

Thanks guys, i'll keep trying to work out why OCing doesnt work for a while.
sorry for going off track to, im new to the forums