GTX 670 Bottleneck?

[metalgriff]

Hi, so I recently purchased a new EVGA GTX 670 2gb and have not been noticing the FPS that I was expecting from a 400 dollar card. Normally, on BF3 I get 55+ FPS on the older maps and around 50+ FPS on the newer ones on multiplayer, and in Borderlands 2 I have *** performance with 25+ framrates with Physx turned to high (which is why I switched to Nividia for the Physx). I am having other problems with FPS in games such as WoW, Saints Row the Third and etc. Where I am getting much less fps than many of the benchmarks and even user testimonies I have seen.

Now my question really is, if my computer is bottlenecking the card itself, as I was told that my CPU and PSU shouldnt bottleneck my GPU that much.

I have an:

i5 3450 3.1ghz

B75 AsrockPro Motherboard

650 Watt PSU

8Gb Kingston Ram

1.5 Tb HDD Hard Drive.

I was told that it could also be my Hard Drive holding me back, however I doubt that it would cause severe bottlenecking in the case of the fps.

Anyway it would be greatly appreciated if anyone could help me with this, as I have been struggling to resolve this problem for days now. I can provide more detailed info on my build if necessary.

 

[EzioAs]

Have you updated to the latest geforce driver?

 

[metalgriff]

Yes. I am at 310.9, and I have uninstalled the drivers, dozens of times and done clean sweeps of them. I honestly am getting super frustrated with this. Idk if its my CPU or if its my mother board or my psu or if I have a faulty GPU (which I doubt since it runs games fine just with weird fps).

 

[bigshootr8]

What speed is your ram moving at? I have a Gigabyte GTX670OC and a i5 2500k. In borderlands 2 I get around 120 frames just moving around and it dips at its lowest to around 80 frames. It's possible that you are running vsync if you are I would turn that off. In some cases a game is more heavily writing intensive I know that crysis 2 is like that where it does a lot of writing while you are playing so that is a place where a SSD would come in handy. In wow I was getting similar frames when I played. I have heard though that with mop that until you've been in a area for very long that the phasing can really push your frames down there was a thread not to long ago that went into it.

 

[metalgriff]

I have thought about grabbing an SSD and am thinking that it would help ALOT. However I am not sure how I can tell my RAM speed. As well I never thought Vsync would hurt the fps like that, seeing as how my screen tears alot if I dont have it on.

I am also wondering if it might be the i5 that I have, seeing as how it is pretty low end compared to many others.

 

[bigshootr8]

I would go into your nvidia control panel go to 3D Settings>Manage 3D settings>Vertical Sync>Change to adaptive and then while you are in a game turn off Vsync let nvidia handle it. Essentially what it will do is when your frames reach beyond your screens refresh rate which I'm going to take a guess and say its 60 hz when you would get over 60 frames it will turn on vsync and when it goes below 60 frames it will turn it off. Vsync can really hurt your settings and with adaptive you kind of solve things on two sides. A SSD would help out in a game like world of warcraft I can tell you that loading screens are a pain and they are non existent with a SSD I'll find a cata loading video to show you what mine looked like.
[flash=420,315]http://www.youtube.com/v/H2D7YbLljfc?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]

 

[metalgriff]

Alright I tweaked some settings in my Nivida Control panel based on the info you gave me and etc. I am going to try BF3 out atm to see if I see any improvements.

Also I turned off Intel Speedstep or whatever the thing is called that supposedly fluctuates a CPUs clock speed and it still fluctuates like made between 3.1 ghz and 3.5ghz.

 

[metalgriff]

I havent noticed much in terms of a performance increase. My fps doesnt fluctuate that much on BF3 as much as it used to with Vsync turned off, however its still the same kind of performance.

 

[bigshootr8]

Do you still experience tearing when you go below 60 FPS? Adaptive is a form of vsync it turns it on when you need it.

 

[mansfield]

quick somewhat related question, is the 670 worth the extra money or should I go with 3GB GDDR5 660 Ti for around $335?

 

[bigshootr8]

the 660Ti will be fine for now the 670 is designed more to last longer in the future do to the higher ROPS it has as well as higher memory bit

 

[mansfield]

cool thanks, If i Plan on have this setup for another 5 years or so you think just adding another 660 Ti would be alright instead of getting a 670 and maybe another later? sorry for going off the original topic.

 

[bigshootr8]

I don't I think the memory bit will hold it back going forward that it would make more sense in the future if you wanted to sli to go with the 670 however when you look 5 years down the line I'm sure a 670 will be trash

 

[mansfield]

now it's time to contribute to this thread. the single most noticeable upgrade to can do is get an SSD. trust me it's night and day and WILL help you get higher FPS.

 

[bigshootr8]

Well it will help with I/O performance your hard drive is your slowest component and windows typically is the thing that is slowing you down the most it will help quite a bit but that doesn't explain for the tearing which is why I had asked whether or not it happens when you go below 60 FPS

 

[mansfield]

well I think the tearing is a GPU issue or power, but I"m pretty certain 650 should be enough power, maybe not.

 

[bigshootr8]

It is I'm not sure of the company though but yea in most cases it certainly is.

 

[metalgriff]

Its not that bad as compared to alot of issues people have with it but I notice it quite a bit. And I am not sure, seeing as how my GPU usage usually never goes to 100% in any game except FarCry 3 on max settings, and when I do that, my GPU runs around 78 degrees Celsius .

I will invest in an SSD seeing as how many people have recommended it, however I am just wondering if upgradin the CPU or PSU would help with the FPS issue.

 

[mansfield]

CPU is fine, but what brand PSU do you have?

 

[metalgriff]

Its an Mios 650 watt power supply. Its a cheap power supply and I personally have never heard of the brand, but when I got this computer built, my friend was the one who purchased it for me.

 

[mansfield]

the PSU MIGHT be the problem here, but that's not 100%. it probably only gives around 470-550W but even that shouldn't affect the playback TOO badly.

 

[metalgriff]

Im upgrading the powersupply either way, seeing as how I am going to be upgrading some other components sooner or later, so even if it doesnt show a performance increase its still okay.

But yeah my main issue is how my GPU doesnt run at full 100%, and how overheated it can get. I have my fans tweaked so that they run at a higher rate the hotter the card gets but I hear that can damage the card, so I am also thinking about investing in a cooling system, or atleast a better one.

 

[bigshootr8]

What kind of case do you have it running it. Maybe heat is the silent killer here.

 

[mansfield]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139021

 

[metalgriff]

Its a very cheap case, with little to no ventilation, which I am also going to be replacing tomorrow with one of these

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146067

Im not sure if this is a good choice, but from what I can see, it will help out with the ventilation issue.