Identify the weak link in my gaming PC!

C

CharDar

n00b
Joined
Mar 12, 2016
Messages
38
I'm just getting back into gaming after a while and I noticed that I get less than stellar performance on some newer games like Path of Exile. I'm looking to fix the weak links before I have to consider buying a new PC.

What do you think would help the most?


------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 1/29/2018, 13:49:38
Machine name: CHARLIED-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_ldr.171231-1547)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: To be filled by O.E.M.
System Model: To be filled by O.E.M.
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/26/15 18:42:03 Ver: 04.06.05
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.5GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16284MB RAM
Page File: 9234MB used, 7047MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 1060 3GB
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_1C02&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_A1
Display Memory: 2680 MB
Dedicated Memory: 2986 MB
Shared Memory: 3789 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: Acer S231HL
Monitor Id: ACR01A6
Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
Output Type: DVI
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver File Version: 23.21.0013.8831 (English)
Driver Version: 23.21.13.8831
DDI Version: 11
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 11/14/2017 17:43:18, 18207576 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-5F42-11CF-CF41-0D201BC2DA35}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x1C02
SubSys ID: 0x00000000
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Driver Strong Name: oem5.inf:NVIDIA_Devices.NTamd64.6.1:Section169:23.21.13.8831:pci\ven_10de&dev_1c02
Rank Of Driver: 00E60003
Video Accel:
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D3D9 Overlay: Supported
DXVA-HD: Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: SPDIF Interface (4- USB Audio Device)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: USB\VID_1852&PID_7022&REV_0001&MI_01
Manufacturer ID: 65535
Product ID: 65535
Type: WDM
Driver Name: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7601.18208 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 7/12/2013 05:40:58, 109824 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Microsoft
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: Microphone (3- USB Audio Device)
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7601.18208 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 7/12/2013 05:40:58, 109824 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x1
Format Flags: 0xFFFFF

Description: SPDIF Interface (4- USB Audio Device)
Default Sound Capture: No
Default Voice Capture: No
Driver Name: USBAUDIO.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7601.18208 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 7/12/2013 05:40:58, 109824 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x1
Format Flags: 0xFFFFF

-------------------
DirectInput Devices
-------------------
Device Name: Mouse
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: n/a
Vendor/Product ID: n/a
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: Gaming Mouse G400
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC245
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: Logitech USB Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC30F
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: Logitech USB Keyboard
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC30F
FF Driver: n/a

Device Name: DigiHug USB Audio
Attached: 1
Controller ID: 0x0
Vendor/Product ID: 0x1852, 0x7022
FF Driver: n/a

Poll w/ Interrupt: No

-----------
USB Devices
-----------
+ USB Root Hub
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x1002, 0x4397
| Matching Device ID: usb\root_hub
| Service: usbhub
| Driver: usbhub.sys, 10/17/2017 21:06:57, 344064 bytes
| Driver: usbd.sys, 10/17/2017 21:06:35, 7808 bytes

----------------
Gameport Devices
----------------

------------
PS/2 Devices
------------
+ HID Keyboard Device
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC30F
| Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_keyboard
| Service: kbdhid
| Driver: kbdhid.sys, 11/20/2010 22:23:47, 33280 bytes
| Driver: kbdclass.sys, 7/13/2009 20:48:04, 50768 bytes
|
+ Terminal Server Keyboard Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_kbd
| Upper Filters: kbdclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: i8042prt.sys, 7/13/2009 18:19:57, 105472 bytes
| Driver: kbdclass.sys, 7/13/2009 20:48:04, 50768 bytes
|
+ HID-compliant mouse
| Vendor/Product ID: 0x046D, 0xC245
| Matching Device ID: hid_device_system_mouse
| Service: mouhid
| Driver: mouhid.sys, 7/13/2009 19:00:20, 31232 bytes
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 7/13/2009 20:48:27, 49216 bytes
|
+ Terminal Server Mouse Driver
| Matching Device ID: root\rdp_mou
| Upper Filters: mouclass
| Service: TermDD
| Driver: termdd.sys, 11/20/2010 22:23:47, 63360 bytes
| Driver: sermouse.sys, 7/13/2009 19:00:20, 26624 bytes
| Driver: mouclass.sys, 7/13/2009 20:48:27, 49216 bytes

------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 562.4 GB
Total Space: 953.6 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD10 EZEX-00WN4A0 SATA Disk Device

Drive: D:
Free Space: 71.2 GB
Total Space: 305.2 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: Hitachi HDP725032GLA360 SATA Disk Device

Drive: E:
Model: HP DVD Writer 1260t SATA CdRom Device
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.01.7601.17514 (English), 11/20/2010 22:23:47, 147456 bytes
 
had a free minute to skim the mess =P

for that specific game your current specs are fine but an SSD would do wonders for overall windows and game experience.

overclocking that cpu to 4ghz might also be doable depending on your cooling. I have 4 such systems at 4ghz on good old Zalman CNPS9900's
 
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A better GPU than a 1060 might help as would putting in another 16 GB of RAM.
 
God_Of_Death said:
had a free minute to skim the mess =P

for that specific game your current specs are fine but an SSD would do wonders for overall windows and game experience.

overclocking that cpu to 4ghz might also be doable depending on your cooling. I have 4 such systems at 4ghz on good old Zalman CNPS9900's
Click to expand...

yeah i''d try OCing that FX CPU..
 
I didn't mention the GPU due to current crap pricing. only thing holding me back from upgrading my whole system is gpu prices. i7 960 @ 4ghz and a 7970.... =(

the o/c and ssd upgrade are free/cheaper and may yield noticeable improvements.

then again, it could be the game engine. I like to play Tera on occasion and it can be a mess on my main rig which is due to the game engine even though the game is old by relative standards and yet it plays Crysis just fine. =P
 
1060 should be fine for 1080p gaming. That FX is really long in the tooth, that's my bet for any frame issues you might be having.

A SSD would make the system snappier at the desktop and would make loading games / levels within games much faster.
 
An SSD will make general day to day use (and loading times) way better, but it doesn't typically affect your framerate. At least not much. It will eliminate hitching in a few games, though.
A 1060 should be able to play most games at 1080p/60 as long as you're willing to dial back the details to medium on occasion. If you're looking for a new GPU, Best Buy stores sell 1080's at normal retail price.
Your RAM should be fine for gaming. That essentially leaves the CPU as a possible weak point or bottleneck, but I dunno for sure. A new CPU cooler like a Hyper 212 can be had for something like $25-30 and can probably net you another 500mhz.
 
I can't imagine your rig having issue running Path of Exile honestly....
 
Thanks everyone for your reply. It seems like the bottleneck may be the CPU, which makes sense. It was a budget buy a couple years ago.

I'm not too familiar with overclocking, and I have stock cooling, but if someone can guide me to a good youtube video that may help with the overclocking. I may just be able to buy a new CPU.

Here's my Mobo:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/

Finally, I actually do have quite a few issues with PoE, which, as the last poster said, is surprising. I've formatted my PC many times and built it myself, however, so I know it's not a software issue.
 
CharDar said:
some newer games like Path of Exile.
Click to expand...
That's not a new game, it's like 6 year old, on a custom indie engine written from scratch - it's not a good game to gauge pc performance, as it behaves wildly differently on different systems. It's possible to have a rig that gets 120+ fps in Crysis3 / BF1 etc get only 30-60 unstable fluctuating fps in PoE. (when they started development on it, engines were very expensive to license so they created their own, it's ok but has performance issues on some rig configurations)

Before blowing cash on pc parts, check your pc's performance with other titles on the more established engines.
 
That FX chip is going to be the problem. POE is heavily single threaded, I tried playing it on an Athlon 860k before and it was a mess.

Unfortunately, DDR4 is so damn expensive it really isn't worth it to try and upgrade unless you get a good deal on some.
 
Get an i5 7 series cpu / mobo combo and an SSD (Samsung EVO)
 
FX Chip I have a FX6300 in like 2012-2013 myself
OS could be upgraded for 20.00 for a Windows 10 key also on ebay
 
You need a solid state. Period. It will improve your quality of life in everything else on the system.

After that your CPU is the weak link for sure. Unfortunately DDR4 prices just like GPU prices are atrocious right now. Honestly you could build a budget Sandy Bridge system for less than the price of a DDR4 kit alone. Just a 2600K and mobo, reuse everything else. Even an X58 Westmere setup would be an upgrade over that and could hold you over until the DDR4 prices come back down.
 
It sounds like the most reasonable thing to do is just buy a Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO and then overclock. Overclocking seems to be really easy with my BIOS, although I've never done it before.

Thanks to everyone for the help! :)
 
Get an i5, i7 or Ryzen, if you have a Microcenter near by they are usually the best deal. Also pick up an SSD, Amazon has had some good deals lately. You can also work on optimizing your GPU's power curve if you want to get technical and get the most out of it, though it could take an hour of testing atleast. But SSD and CPU then you're set.
 
Armenius said:
Definitely the CPU.
Click to expand...


From the DXdiag report;
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-6300 Six-Core Processor (6 CPUs), ~3.5GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16284MB RAM
Page File: 9234MB used, 7047MB available
Click to expand...

That doesn't look like pretty heavy page file use to you guys? It's like 60% what he has in RAM is being used for the Page File. But is the Page File coming out of RAM or is it being written to the HD because if it's going to the HD then this is a real bottleneck.

I was going to disregard someone else's comment about more RAM until I saw this. The Page File is typically stored on the OS disk. You can move it somewhere else, but it's pretty much always resident on a drive and not within RAM. Mostly it's purpose is for caching RAM data on the hard drive in order to free up valuable RAM for processing tasks.

Maybe the game is hitting the RAM really hard and if it is, then yes, more RAM would really help. Play the game while monitoring RAM usage and see if it's being tapped hard. But if it's not and this is just heavy Page File usage and your RAM isn't being hit hard, there are a few things you can do.

Faster hard drive, and SSD or a Hybrid with a large cache.
Win 7 was the first OS I had that allowed me to use a fast SD Ram card for caching, they are not expensive and you can add a reader to a desktop pretty easy usually, just don't add a USB one, would be self defeating unless it's USB 3.0, but your mobo would have to support it or you'd need a USB 3.0 expansion card.

Stack these options up by cost and see how it works out or bite the bullet and jump on the sure thing.

Example, there are PCIe expansion cards that add 2 internal and two external USB3.0 ports for under $30, then you need the card reader, another $30, and a fast 16GB+ SDRAM card $20+ so you can spend $80+ dollars to add a 16GB SD Memory card that will handle fast caching work ..... or you can spend $80 on a 250GB SSD and get the same performance or even much better and far more capacity.

But some people already have an SD card reader in their machine sooo.....


BTW, make sure your drive is defragged, a page file that large with fragmentation would really degrade caching performance.
 
Last edited:
lcpiper said:
From the DXdiag report;


That doesn't look like pretty heavy page file use to you guys? It's like 60% what he has in RAM is being used for the Page File. But is the Page File coming out of RAM or is it being written to the HD because if it's going to the HD then this is a real bottleneck.
Click to expand...
Right now I have it set to no paging file. So I think everything is going to the RAM?
 
6300 is slower than a sandy i3 in most games. You need to upgrade your CPU, and mainboard with it.
 
lcpiper said:
Then you made that change after the DXdiag report?

No paging might be your problem then.
Click to expand...
No, nothing has changed since the Diag. I was under the impression that no page file was necessary if you had 16gig of RAM?

Btw... PoE doesn't really use too much RAM, it seems. I'm usually never more than at 70% usage.
 
CharDar said:
No, nothing has changed since the Diag. I was under the impression that no page file was necessary if you had 16gig of RAM?

Btw... PoE doesn't really use too much RAM, it seems. I'm usually never more than at 70% usage.
Click to expand...


Well your DXdiag showed that you are using a page file, typically that is on the hard drive so I was making that assumption but if you are forcing it to RAM then perhaps thats not the problem.

Like I said, fire up the game and open the task manager and look at your RAM usage. Run a new DXdiag, see what's what. DXDiag will tell you how big your page file is running, Task Manager will tell you if you are maxing out your RAM or not.

You can also set the affinity for the game, see, even if the game doesn't do hyperthreading, it still has to run on a core, push it off on an unused one by itself via task manager, say Core #4, leave Windows to manage all the other processes and which cores they will run on.

You know Windows let's you set where your page file will be located so it shouldn't be hard to find it and to see the data for the last time it was written to.
 
CharDar said:
Thanks everyone for your reply. It seems like the bottleneck may be the CPU, which makes sense. It was a budget buy a couple years ago.

I'm not too familiar with overclocking, and I have stock cooling, but if someone can guide me to a good youtube video that may help with the overclocking. I may just be able to buy a new CPU.

Here's my Mobo:
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/M5A97_R20/

Finally, I actually do have quite a few issues with PoE, which, as the last poster said, is surprising. I've formatted my PC many times and built it myself, however, so I know it's not a software issue.
Click to expand...

Poe doesn't play well with the FX line of cpus for whatever reason. I remember streamer ZiggyD dropping his AMD sponsorship because of it. Step up your cpu/mobo, and make sure you're running on a SSD. Your vid card is just fine, tho.
 
In addition to what lcpiper said, you may want to experiment with setting the page file back to default so that Windows manages it.
 
Does it matter if I don't have a paging file when my total memory load is below my 16 gigs? Usually something like PoE doesn't take more than 3k total working memory. I always usually have plenty of left over for that game.
 
CharDar said:
Does it matter if I don't have a paging file when my total memory load is below my 16 gigs? Usually something like PoE doesn't take more than 3k total working memory. I always usually have plenty of left over for that game.
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Yes it does. Many programs, especially games, will assume you have a pagefile available and try to use it without checking if one is actually present. And not having a pagefile will cause issues in the programs that do so. My personal (and professional) advice is that you always have a small pagefile available, somewhere around the size of 2GB will suffice in the cases I've run into before. And most of the time a pagefile of 512MB is enough, but I have run into games that really wants a pagefile of 1.5GBish to work properly on a computer with 16GB(+) ram and plenty of free capacity. So never, ever, ever disable the pagefile! Especially on a gaming computer! Because games are in my experience the worst of the bunch when it comes to this behaviour.
 
Pandur said:
Yes it does. Many programs, especially games, will assume you have a pagefile available and try to use it without checking if one is actually present. And not having a pagefile will cause issues in the programs that do so. My personal (and professional) advice is that you always have a small pagefile available, somewhere around the size of 2GB will suffice in the cases I've run into before. And most of the time a pagefile of 512MB is enough, but I have run into games that really wants a pagefile of 1.5GBish to work properly on a computer with 16GB(+) ram and plenty of free capacity. So never, ever, ever disable the pagefile! Especially on a gaming computer! Because games are in my experience the worst of the bunch when it comes to this behaviour.
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So just putting the pagefile at something like 800 min and 2,500 max would work?
 
Yes it should. I ran mine at 512 min, 2048 max for years. Got it set at 2048 min, 4096 max now. And I've never seen it increase past the min setting. But at my old min I would see it increase sometimes which is why I just said to heck with it and went with my new settings instead.
 
Using DXDiag for identifying hardware configuration is about as useful as someone attempting to teach a bullfrog ballroom dancing. Free to choose the endeavor but I can think of a lot of different ways to exponentially increase efficient use of time.

The FX processor may be the bottleneck but RAM is still an unknown. I'd recommend downloading CPUz and checking out the RAM speed and timings.
 
1333Mhz RAM speed. For gaming, that pretty much sucks.

Per specs, The FX-6300 and the M5A97 motherboard supports 1866Mhz, DDR3 RAM. I'd look at getting a 8 or 16GB kit to replace the 1333Mhz stuff. You'll find a great performance increase just by changing the RAM alone.

Edit: Re-worded statement for clarity.
 
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I would strongly recommend investing in your current platform by upgrading ram. I think it would give a few percentage points at best.
Buy a new CPU/MB/RAM, something like an reasonably modern i5 on the used market if you are tight for cash. Anything from the last 5 years should be good.
I have an i5-2500k and I never had any issues running PoE on the highest settings when it came out.
 
Thanks all for your feedback. I'll keep all of that in mind. Right now I'm just debating whether or not I should just buy a new rig! I'm not even sure at this point that it would be worth doing just mid-tier upgrades at this point.

My thoughts right now (and this will change in the future when I get $$) is just to buy a new fan for my CPU and overclock it to 4300 from the 3500 stock speed. And I could do that for just $30. I'm thinking that this will be the best price x performance increase for now? What do you all think?

FYI... it looks like a mobo/intel chip/RAM would set me back at least $300 right now. Probably more. Any of those separate would still be $100+
 
You need to have a page file. Regardless of what you or anyone else thinks might make sense, you need to have a page file. In my opinion, if you have 16gb of system ram or less, you should have a page file which is the same size as your system ram. There is ZERO reason in this day, to be skimping on page file size. A small page file or no page file is not tricking windows into performing better. I would not be surprised if Path of Exile is noticeably smoother, with an decent size page file.
 
I just set it to an automatic management of the page file. Maybe that will help.
 
Just got a Hyper Evo and overclocked to a stable 4.5Ghz. That seemed to help a bit! One thing I've noticed while playing PoE is that performance drops a lot over time as I'm playing, which may be a RAM issue since it's quite slow. But right now RAM is too expensive. Also, I get a lot of dropped frames when around many mobs and many particle effects, which is to be expected.
 
wow, 4.5ghz is nice. i stopped mine at 4ghz and called it a day.

is your win7 install old? i used to reformat once a year just to keep things fresh. i would notice some of my other win7 rigs with 2+ year old installs would tend to bog down when used intensely versus a fresh installed rig.

of course that is just my personal thing, picked it up from win95-98 days. would have to reformat every 6 months just to keep things working right.
 
God_Of_Death said:
wow, 4.5ghz is nice. i stopped mine at 4ghz and called it a day.

is your win7 install old? i used to reformat once a year just to keep things fresh. i would notice some of my other win7 rigs with 2+ year old installs would tend to bog down when used intensely versus a fresh installed rig.

of course that is just my personal thing, picked it up from win95-98 days. would have to reformat every 6 months just to keep things working right.
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My install is pretty new. Less than a year, for sure. But I may install soon just for the hell of it.
 
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