Q8400 @ 3.2Ghz bottlenecking?

T

Trackr

[H]ard|Gawd
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My GF is trying to run The Witcher on the Q8400 rig I built for her.

Using a GTX 280, usage was around 60-80%.

Using a GTX 480, usage is around 30-40%.

This is at 1920x1200, even with 4xAA.

Only other limiting factor in her rig is an HDD.. but that can't be it.
 
sounds like cpu bottleneck to me

Try lowering the resolution a little
 
I'll have to check my settings on the Witcher 2 when I get home since my system seems to be quite close in specs to hers.
 
I'm usually the first one to dismiss the "CPU bottleneck" thing because I believe it's way overused, however I would say you likely have one with a GTX480 at 1920x1200. That chip was all the rage when the top rigs were rolling a GTX280 at 1680x1050 so it's getting a little overworked at your resolution and playing The Witcher which if I remember right is a fairly CPU intensive game.
 
Try reducing draw distance if possible. That should free up some CPU resources if a CPU bottleneck.
 
HydroBudz said:
sounds like cpu bottleneck to me

Try lowering the resolution a little
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Lowering? I think you mean heighten the resolution if there's a CPU bottleneck..

dr.stevil said:
can you bump the CPU clocks up to 3.4-3.6?
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Nah, that's the most I squeezed out of her board.

Next upgrade is 2500k if I can get one for cheap here..

Jorona said:
I'll have to check my settings on the Witcher 2 when I get home since my system seems to be quite close in specs to hers.
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Sure, that'll be sweet.

Rvenger said:
Try reducing draw distance if possible. That should free up some CPU resources if a CPU bottleneck.
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Will try.

MacLeod said:
I'm usually the first one to dismiss the "CPU bottleneck" thing because I believe it's way overused, however I would say you likely have one with a GTX480 at 1920x1200. That chip was all the rage when the top rigs were rolling a GTX280 at 1680x1050 so it's getting a little overworked at your resolution and playing The Witcher which if I remember right is a fairly CPU intensive game.
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Yeah, I don't get it.

The Witcher is from 2007 and her CPU is a relatively high-end CPU from 2008.

If it's bottlenecking a GTX 280, it's got to be bad coding.

EDIT: I'm running the game on my rig (2600k/GTX 660) and I'm getting 100% GPU usage.

But then again, this doesn't really answer the question, because I also have an SSD..
 
And does she have a playable framerate? If yes then what's the problem?
 
Trackr said:
Lowering? I think you mean heighten the resolution if there's a CPU bottleneck..
Click to expand...

If you're unwilling to try, even at 1680x1050 (which would be more in line with what was high end back in 2008), then I have no answer for you. Draw distance will also help. CPU still has to process the information before passing it on to the GPU.
 
Trackr said:
Yeah, I don't get it.

The Witcher is from 2007 and her CPU is a relatively high-end CPU from 2008.

If it's bottlenecking a GTX 280, it's got to be bad coding.

EDIT: I'm running the game on my rig (2600k/GTX 660) and I'm getting 100% GPU usage.

But then again, this doesn't really answer the question, because I also have an SSD..
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Ah, my bad then. I was thinking of The Witcher 2.
 
My QX6850 @ 3.00Ghz bottlenecks my 7870 I'm almost certain on this game. 1920x1080 on ultra settings except for Ubersampling.

GPU percentage sits at about 60%.
 
I just jumped from a Q6600 @ 3.6 to a 3930K @ 4.2......A world of difference in BF3. I don't Play the Witcher but I can attest that despite that being a very good CPU it could be your bottleneck.

In BF3 I would be stuck maxing out at like 58fps and often dip into 30's regardless of what GPU settings I used. Insert new CPU and I'm maxing in the 70's 80's and have a pretty stable 55-60 FPS party going on. The most I have seen dip was 45 and that was likely GPU doing it.
 
HydroBudz said:
If you're unwilling to try, even at 1680x1050 (which would be more in line with what was high end back in 2008), then I have no answer for you. Draw distance will also help. CPU still has to process the information before passing it on to the GPU.
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No need to get defensive. It's just a known fact that when you're CPU limited, you HEIGHTEN your resolution and graphical settings, not lower them.
 
Oh, I though we were talking about the Witcher 2.

The Witcher is bluntly poorly coded, and almost single threaded. It plays poorly on just about everything.
 
Jorona said:
Oh, I though we were talking about the Witcher 2.

The Witcher is bluntly poorly coded, and almost single threaded. It plays poorly on just about everything.
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Bah. Well, I guess you have to give something up to support Indie developers.
 
Trackr said:
No need to get defensive. It's just a known fact that when you're CPU limited, you HEIGHTEN your resolution and graphical settings, not lower them.
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He's suggesting you test it to make sure. Also, if you're CPU limited, usually you notice because of low FPS. It's true that you can essentially bump up graphic settings, but if you're already getting low FPS, what difference does that make? Unplayable FPS is unplayable FPS, whether it looks slightly prettier or not.
 
Trackr said:
No, it dips into 30-40 in battle. She says it's frustrating sometimes and I agree.
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Well I played it on E7200 and NV 8600 GT. No problems with exception of that flaming dog.

Cmustang87 said:
My QX6850 @ 3.00Ghz bottlenecks my 7870 I'm almost certain on this game. 1920x1080 on ultra settings except for Ubersampling.
Click to expand...
Witcher doesn't have ubersampling.
 
Trackr said:
My GF is trying to run The Witcher on the Q8400 rig I built for her.

Using a GTX 280, usage was around 60-80%.

Using a GTX 480, usage is around 30-40%.

This is at 1920x1200, even with 4xAA.

Only other limiting factor in her rig is an HDD.. but that can't be it.
Click to expand...

Forgod sake

Here's is a crazy idea!!!!!!!!!!

Open up Task Manager, alt tab into Witcher and play for 10+ seconds, alt tab out. Are "any" of your cores maxed recently?, repeat process a few times.

If not a processor upgrade is not likely to help, its not a 100% accurate methodology probably 90% accurate, and a ton better than guessing as per most of the advice you are getting here. When I played Witcher it was poor performing but back then I was GPU limited.

/endrant

/enable hate responses
 
Or he can have problems because he's playing the version with copy protection. He should grab the patched version without copy protection.
 
Last edited:
Chalk this up on a misread on my part, thought we were talking about Witcher 2 as well...
 
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