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bottleneck question

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Bman123

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
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What is the easiest way to check for a bottleneck whether it be Cpu or gpu?
 
Run a game with task manager and something like MSI afterburner in the background.

ASSUMING THERE IS A BOTTLENECK,

a) CPU maxed out, GPU low utilization - CPU bottleneck
b) GPU maxed out, CPU low utilization - GPU bottleneck

Of course, this is overly simplified and can be wrong when apps don't utilize multithreaded capabilities, are poorly optimized, if there are other problems (such as lack of RAM or VRAM, bad memory, PSU, etc).

What application/game is this, specifically?
 
Task manager is useless for that purpose. Look at Skyrim. Doesn't gain performance from more cores but the CPU still bottlenecks you often. Yet the task manager would report well below 100% CPU usage.

Get MSI Afterburner/EVGA Precision. Watch your GPU utilization. If it's almost 100% most of the time, your GPU is the bottlenecking component. If not, it's the CPU.

To make absolutely sure, overclock either component and if it gives you 1:1 more fps according to clock increase, then this is/was the limiting part.
 
Rig in sig, games are new vegas, MW3 and my res can go from 1280x720- 1920x1080
 
I'd say with that system they are both bottlenecking you in modern games. But probably the GPU is worse.
 
I'm gonna get a i5 2400 CPU in January I just don't know what video card to get.
 
mda said:
Run a game with task manager and something like MSI afterburner in the background.

ASSUMING THERE IS A BOTTLENECK,

a) CPU maxed out, GPU low utilization - CPU bottleneck
b) GPU maxed out, CPU low utilization - GPU bottleneck

Of course, this is overly simplified and can be wrong when apps don't utilize multithreaded capabilities, are poorly optimized, if there are other problems (such as lack of RAM or VRAM, bad memory, PSU, etc).

What application/game is this, specifically?
Click to expand...
that is NOT a very accurate way to check at all. you can be cpu limited with a quad at 50% in a game like Skyrim or Starcraft 2 that effectively only use 2 cores.

the easiest way to check is just lower the resolution and check the framerates. if they go way up then the cpu is not a huge limitation. if they stay about the same then the cpu is a limitation for that particular game.
 
cannondale06 said:
that is NOT a very accurate way to check at all. you can be cpu limited with a quad at 50% in a game like Skyrim or Starcraft 2 that effectively only use 2 cores.

the easiest way to check is just lower the resolution and check the framerates. if they go way up then the cpu is not a huge limitation. if they stay about the same then the cpu is a limitation for that particular game.
Click to expand...

Interesting, I never thought about checking it that way. I will give it a try. Thank you :D
 
Bman123 said:
I'm gonna get a i5 2400 CPU in January I just don't know what video card to get.
Click to expand...

It all depends on the games you want to play and the resolution you want to play them at. Right now I would suggest a 6950 or a GTX 570 unless you want to play on resolutions higher than 1920x1200. And if you want to play on higher resolutions than that, I would recommend SLI or crossfire with the 6950 or gtx 570. Right now I would also recommend Nvidia over AMD. Personally I own a 6950 crossfire setup and I do love it, but there have been slow driver releases for AMD.

Now, that being said, if you just want to do 1080 and don't care about the highest settings you could even go down to a 560Ti or maybe a 6870 and still play at that res on high settings.
 
I guess I am bottlenecked with both the cpu and the gpu
In MW3 I did this Max everything 1920x1080 got between 35-42 fps
Max everything at 600x480 35-42 fps there was no increase at all

1920x1080 max visuals aa and af maxed 35-42fps
1920x1080 lowest quality visuals no aa or af same exact framerate

Fallout new vegas wont even launch if I go to change the res above 1360x768 so I did this
1280x720 max everything including AA and AF then same res with everything at low same frame rate
I checked gpu z while running new vegas at 1280x720 at ultra settings with max aa and af and saw this

GPU load 98% max Memory load 505mb max
 
that is certainly huge cpu bottleneck then. and thats with a g530 and 8800gt? wow I thought that cpu would be much stronger than that.
 
It's just a cheap place holder CPU, from the get go I only planned for a playable framerate which I got so I cant complain honestly. I basically paid $78 for the whole tower too, I sold a dell that was given to me with a Pentium d 930 in it on Craigslist for $200 so this is a win given what I had before.

I am surprised a 2.4ghz dual core SB Celeron with a 4year old 8800gt ran mw3 at max everything at 1280x720 and stay above 30fps all the time so far. Better then my xbox can run it lol.
 
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