PC Build not performing well Diablo 3 and Guild Wars 2 (AMD Based)

[thepants]

Hey guys,

Long time lurker and I have a question. I built a pc for my friend last Christmas, pulled the trigger on a great bundle deal from newegg (he had a limited budget). I was generally impressed at the specs for the price and it's no 1200-1500 behemoth but it should be fine for 1080p gaming IMO. Here's the specs:

Windows 7 64 bit
hec Zephyr MX 750W PSU
XFX HD 7850 1Gb GDDR5
AMD FX 8320 3.5 ghz (4 ghz turbo)
Seagate Barracuda 1 Tb 7200 rpm 64MB cache SATA 6.0Gb/s
Biostar TA970 AM3+ AMD 970 ATX Mb
1 Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 1600 ram.

I had to turn everything down to lowest settings just to have a playable game on Guild Wars 2. Diablo 3 on lowest settings wasn't even smooth, I was kinda shocked to be honest. I've got the graphics drivers all up to date and the CPU isn't overclocked or anything. I'm kind of at a loss. What could I try to improve the PC's performance? I mean I've been reading reviews on the graphics card (since that was my first thought) and people say they can run BF3 on ultra with it, several other games on high all at 1080p and my friend isn't even pushing 1080p its some wierd resolution like 1400 x something (or high 1300 hundreds? I forget. It wasn't 1080p though).

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Transmaniacon]

That is strange, have you tried any other games? The 7850 should be great for 1400x900... I have never heard of that PSU, and while it seems like the computer runs fine, it could have problems supplying enough power to the GPU under load, causing performance issues. I would swap that out for a good unit, something from Antec/XFX/SeaSonic/Corsair/EVGA.

 

[thepants]

Any way to test for that or monitor it? I'm not a fan of just throwing parts at something. Budget is definitely a factor

 

[Transmaniacon]

Try some other games and see what kind of performance you get.

 

[logainofhades]

Make sure you are not having temp issues. If you are hitting 60c+ on your CPU, you are thermal throttling, which will kill performance. I don't trust that paperweight of a PSU either.

 

[NightAntilli]

Download HWinfo.
Download Prime95].

Run 8 threads in Prime95 with the smallFFT test.
Use HWInfo to monitor your socket temp, CPU temp and CPU frequency.

If at any moment during the test, your frequency drops from max to 1400 MHz, your motherboard is throttling your CPU to avoid damage. Either your socket temp or CPU temp is too high. Chances are that it's the socket temp.

 

[thepants]

"Download HWinfo.
Download http://www.mersenne.org/download/" target="_blank">Prime95].

Run 8 threads in Prime95 with the smallFFT test.
Use HWInfo to monitor your socket temp, CPU temp and CPU frequency.

If at any moment during the test, your frequency drops from max to 1400 MHz, your motherboard is throttling your CPU to avoid damage. Either your socket temp or CPU temp is too high. Chances are that it's the socket temp."

Thank you, next time I visit I will do this. If I do find that the temps are getting too high should I reapply the thermal grease or just go straight to aftermarket CPU cooler?

Also, any way to test out the PSU supplying the graphics card? I have a volt meter tool to measure stuff if need be.

Thank you for all your suggestions! Definitely a big help

 

[NightAntilli]

Do the test first, then we'll decide what to do. If it's the socket temp, you might have to place a fan on the backplate, behind the motherboard...

As for your PSU, you can start by looking at your voltages in HWInfo when under load and see if there's deviations that are too high.