GTX 670 FTW - High expectations or defective hardware?

[alphadeltamike]

I feel I should be stomping any game I come in contact with using this card. I understand video card drivers can be bad as well. ( I have the most recent drivers) but do I just have to high of expectations?

I have been bench marking many different games and programs such as the heaven benchmark with all settings max'ed my score was 1140, sadly I don't have any other machine to test this card on nor do I have any other individuals that have a video card as high end as mine.

The only thing I do know is that this card supports pcie 3.0 which my motherboard only supports 2.0 would this cause such a significant drop in performance?

Tl DR

I need to figure out if my card is preforming poorly but has a reason to or if I need to RMA it because its defective

PC Specs

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 build 7601 (64-bit)
CPU Type: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Number of CPUs: 1
Cores per CPU: 6
Motherboard: M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Memory: 16GB G Skill Intl DDR3 SDRAM
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
Hard Drive: WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640GB)
Monitor Dynex tv 42 in" LCD res 1920x1080

 

[djangoringo]

fps in game ?
check cpu and gpu usage and temps, download the nvidia 310.90 drivers.
Also is that cpu overclocked ?
And psu ?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

cpu bottleneck. no doubt about it. Overclock or go to an i5 setup to not bottleneck that card.

 

[techbaddie]

I would most likely to agree with this

 

[maxalge]

I feel I should be stomping any game I come in contact with using this card. I understand video card drivers can be bad as well. ( I have the most recent drivers) but do I just have to high of expectations?

I have been bench marking many different games and programs such as the heaven benchmark with all settings max'ed my score was 1140, sadly I don't have any other machine to test this card on nor do I have any other individuals that have a video card as high end as mine.

The only thing I do know is that this card supports pcie 3.0 which my motherboard only supports 2.0 would this cause such a significant drop in performance?

Tl DR

I need to figure out if my card is preforming poorly but has a reason to or if I need to RMA it because its defective

PC Specs

Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 build 7601 (64-bit)
CPU Type: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
Number of CPUs: 1
Cores per CPU: 6
Motherboard: M4A88TD-V EVO/USB3
Memory: 16GB G Skill Intl DDR3 SDRAM
Videocard: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670
Hard Drive: WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B2 (640GB)
Monitor Dynex tv 42 in" LCD res 1920x1080

At 1080p your expectations were good with a gtx 670, sadly your processor has other thoughts.


You need to overclock it to 3.8 - 4ghz, you will see gains, but since amd were never that great in games to begin with it will not totally alleviate the bottlenecking.

Nowadays it is really starting to show it's age tech wise, they are basically 2 generations behind the intel offerings.

 

[blibba]

While that CPU is a poor match for that GPU at that res, it should nonetheless be fine in games. What PSU are you using, what is your 3DMark11 score?

 

[alphadeltamike]

I lost my entire wall of text I was going to post which it didn't do correctly so now for a shorter less intellectual version.

FPS in specific games as follows with max settings and 1920x1080
Battlefield 3 depending on the map and player count 40-70 FPS
Farcry 3 30 - 65
Skyrim 50-60 fps outside not near cities 40-60 near cities and 40-50 in cities
Saints row the third 45 - 60 fps

PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044



I appreciate all the feedback I was already thinking about whats next I was looking at the extreme 4 z77 board and a 3570k i5 but I just don't have the money currently but I will be saving. What would you all prefer in a processor? Is the i7 worth getting or not?

 

[MotherFerJones]

The i7 is NOT worth it if your just looking for game performance. IF you want a beast proccesor for OFFICE tasks, heavily multitasked OFFICE tasks, then yeah step up to the i7, but for games the i5 is where its at. With the i5 you would probably see close to DOUBLE your current framerates. That CPU is choking the hell out of your GPU.

 

[alphadeltamike]

Just completed my 3dmark11 test this was the results that it redirected me to

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/5503022

I assume that yellow/orange bar is mine?

 

[jthill909]

I went through the exact same thing you're going through. A couple weeks ago, I purchased an FTW 670 and I didn't see stellar performance. I was using a FX-6100 and thought that it would be enough for that card. Sadly, I was wrong. So, I returned the card and bought an i5-3570k and an ASrock Extreme 4 Z77 Mobo. I haven't installed them yet, but I will be doing it later on tonight. I'd recommend going for an Intel rebuild if you can. It really all depends on what your previous gpu was. I'm using a 6870 right now. I comment back after I do this rebuild and do some benchmarks.

 

[alphadeltamike]

Sadly I don't have a card to fall back on so Ill more or less be keeping my 670 and swapping to intel later on this year. Either way I still get between 40 and 60 fps in most games and I now know that its not my card thats all I was worried about. But still on the interest of the i7... For gaming is it better than the i5 for gaming? Because I also need a strong processor for 3d design and video rendering.

But the best of luck to you jthill909 ill be there some day also

 

[hapkido]

I lost my entire wall of text I was going to post which it didn't do correctly so now for a shorter less intellectual version.

FPS in specific games as follows with max settings and 1920x1080
Battlefield 3 depending on the map and player count 40-70 FPS
Farcry 3 30 - 65
Skyrim 50-60 fps outside not near cities 40-60 near cities and 40-50 in cities
Saints row the third 45 - 60 fps

PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341044



I appreciate all the feedback I was already thinking about whats next I was looking at the extreme 4 z77 board and a 3570k i5 but I just don't have the money currently but I will be saving. What would you all prefer in a processor? Is the i7 worth getting or not?

Your framerates seem pretty reasonable for your GPU and settings. BF3 and FC3 are very demanding games. 670 is a great card, but if you're expecting 60fps minimum on all games at max settings you'll probably have to realign your expectations.

Skyrim and SR3 may be getting held back a bit by your CPU, but I'd try overclocking a bit before immediately buying a new CPU and motherboard.

 

[jthill909]

On the subject of i5 vs i7 in gaming, the most you will see is a 2 fps difference in favor of the i7 in some games, but if you also need a cpu for 3d modeling and rendering, then you might as well go for the i7. Also, you need to remember that the i5 is no slouch when it comes to modeling and rendering, but the i7 will do better in those situations. It just really depends on whether the amount of modeling/effects work you do justifies the bump in price over the i5.

 

[JamesSneed]

The low clock on the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T is probably holding you back in some games. Your BF3 FPS looks pretty good if that's multiplayer mode.

Your CPU is OK today, so I would likely wait for Intel's Haswell to come out then replace CPU, motherboard and possibly ram if your wanting better performance.

 

[tomokoja]

i would get an i5 3350p which does not have integrated graphics (you don't need it obviously) and therefore is quite cheap. also for mobo z77 is excellent type, but if you're not going to oc much just get B75. thats sufficient for a rig. also you'll have your pci that you need and 6gb sata. this will be half of the price of i5 K series alone and will blow your current cpu out of the water.

prices and preferences in my country may differ a lot. don't flame please, those are just my 2 cents.

 

[thently]

I have a 1090T and clock it between 3.4 and 4ghz I see no bottlenecking at all. and I am running 4 screens on it 3 surround 1 info screen. not sure what you issue is. When I was running a single 1920x1200 screen I could max detail every game i touched. With current setup I have to lower some things but still not as much as you would think runing 6000x1080 with bezzle correction.

Thent

 

[J_E_D_70]

Your BF3 results are not that bad at Ultra. I barely (5-10 frames) get higher than that with adaptive vsync off but I usually just leave it on.

Skyrim is probably OK too if you run the high texture pack (or other graphics packs).

Dunno about the others.

I wouldn't expect a huge leap going to the i5 based on what you're getting.

 

[maxalge]

Your BF3 results are not that bad at Ultra. I barely (5-10 frames) get higher than that with adaptive vsync off but I usually just leave it on.

Skyrim is probably OK too if you run the high texture pack (or other graphics packs).

Dunno about the others.

I wouldn't expect a huge leap going to the i5 based on what you're getting.

On non cpu bound yeah 5-10 fps.


On cpu bound he would see around 40%+ better performance, even more if overclocked.

With the added benefit of smoother gameplay, thanks to the i5's superior spread of fps under 16ms.

 

[alphadeltamike]

Lol so is it really that much of an improvement? I hope it is, but for now my FPS rates will do. I mainly was just worried about my card being defective but its just a bottleneck which is nbd

 

[JamesSneed]

Why not overclock the AMD Phenom II X6 1055T? That should help a good deal.
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cpu/zardon/overclocking-the-amd-1055t-3700mhz-out-of-the-box/

1055T vs 2500k to get an idea on some games:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/147?vs=288

 

[iam2thecrowe]

while your waiting for the new cpu setup, overclock your cpu, that will help a lot. you will need good cooling to keep 6 overclocked cores cool though.

 

[bystander]

I have a 1090T and clock it between 3.4 and 4ghz I see no bottlenecking at all. and I am running 4 screens on it 3 surround 1 info screen. not sure what you issue is. When I was running a single 1920x1200 screen I could max detail every game i touched. With current setup I have to lower some things but still not as much as you would think runing 6000x1080 with bezzle correction.

Thent

Well, without some testing, you might not be aware of one, but when running Eyefinity or 2D surround, you end up lowering the FPS enough that bottlenecks are much less common. Eyefinity does not add more CPU work, or at least, not much at all, but it does increase the GPU load a ton.

 

[alphadeltamike]

while your waiting for the new cpu setup, overclock your cpu, that will help a lot. you will need good cooling to keep 6 overclocked cores cool though.

Yeah clearly understandable I normally tend to avoid overclocking just because it degrades your hardware much faster. But on the subject of that matter where could I find a solid tutorial using my system's specific bios?

 

[iam2thecrowe]

Yeah clearly understandable I normally tend to avoid overclocking just because it degrades your hardware much faster. But on the subject of that matter where could I find a solid tutorial using my system's specific bios?

i have overclocked every video card and cpu that i have ever owned and none have failed (this is going back to original intel 486, AMD K6 and pentium days and nvidia's first 3d card Riva 128). It's when you push things to far and dont have proper cooling that you get problems, and they normally surface pretty quickly, not degrade over a long period of time. There are plenty of people who have OC'd those phenom x6 cpu's and they have been around for a while that you can get a good feel for their limits. with good cooling you can hit 3.3ghz very easy and can go even further than that if your keen.

 

[JamesSneed]

Yeah clearly understandable I normally tend to avoid overclocking just because it degrades your hardware much faster. But on the subject of that matter where could I find a solid tutorial using my system's specific bios?

How does it degrade your hardware, being rhetorical don't answer. Voltage and heat are the factors for wear on electronics. The 1055T in many cases will reach 3.7Ghz OC without out adding voltage and its a minimal change in heat. Same scenario for the good ole 2500k which could get to 4 - 4.4Ghz on stock voltage. If your not increasing voltage you are not causing any more wear on the CPU if you keep the extra heat down.