CPU Bottleneck Question, could use some advice

N

NeoTek

Gawd
Joined
Nov 23, 2004
Messages
558
I currently have an older system:

Socket 775 ECS Mobo g33t-m2
E6550 Core 2 Duo (Stock)
4gb Crucial DDR2 PC-8500
ATI HD 6850 MSI (OC version)
Crucial 128 SATA3 SSD


My question pertains to Diablo 3 and framerates. When I am playing single player I have no problems running at 60fps consistently. When I get online with 2 or more people and there is a lot of enemies on screen and killing going on it will dip to about 10-15fps. I wanted to know the general consensus: If I upgrade my CPU will that help in this scenario or am I just pushing the video card at this point.

1900 x 1200 resolution with all in game settings turned up.

TIA!
 
Last edited:
Check your loads. If when your system slows down your CPU is 100% load, then its your CPU. If its the GPU, then upgrade it.
 
In your case, with a 6850, it is most likely the CPU. A 2.33 Ghz Core 2 Duo is fairly slow.
 
NeoTek said:
I currently have an older system:

Socket 775 ECS Mobo
E6556 Core 2 Duo (Stock)
4gb Crucial DDR2 PC-8500
ATI HD 6850 MSI (OC version)
Crucial 128 SATA3 SSD


My question pertains to Diablo 3 and framerates. When I am playing single player I have no problems running at 60fps consistently. When I get online with 2 or more people and there is a lot of enemies on screen and killing going on it will dip to about 10-15fps. I wanted to know the general consensus: If I upgrade my CPU will that help in this scenario or am I just pushing the video card at this point.

1900 x 1200 resolution with all in game settings turned up.

TIA!
Click to expand...

+1 for Tsumi's response. The 6850 should run it just fine. I would OC if you have a decent cooler on the CPU, but try Jorona's response also.
 
Your in a perfect place to upgrade. Your a good 4 generations behind.

Getting a modern day platform will give you a ton of new features:
- lower heat and power usage
- sata 6gpbs
- usb 3.0

Ivy Bridge!
 
Sounds to me like a CPU bottleneck since you have a decent GPU. My old X2 6400+ would do the same thing with my 570 and newer games. Hell, it would do it with Fallout 3 without cranking up the eye candy to max. Now I can run it with every setting maxed out and I get better frame rates than with the old system. Same GPU, just upgraded the rest of my system.
 
Last edited:
OK

1st
that is a E6550, damn almost got me searching for a mysterious non existing E6556.

2nd
Diablo will tax your CPU more in multiplayer than singleplayer.

If you have a proper cooler you should be able to OC that CPU, although you are limited by the low (7) multiplier.

Try posting your motherboard model, as that may hold you back or prevent any OC.
 
runs2far said:
OK

1st
that is a E6550, damn almost got me searching for a mysterious non existing E6556.

2nd
Diablo will tax your CPU more in multiplayer than singleplayer.

If you have a proper cooler you should be able to OC that CPU, although you are limited by the low (7) multiplier.

Try posting your motherboard model, as that may hold you back or prevent any OC.
Click to expand...

Yeah fat fingered the processor #. I updated the original post with my mobo info. Not sure if o/c is really possible considering my case is small and I only have stock cooling. May just have to end up with an upgrade. Wouldn't be such a bad thing ;)
 
Eh, the E6550s didn't OC very well because of a low multi and high FSB already. See if you can get to a 400mhz FSB, but that board might be your limiting factor aswell. G33 wasn't exactly an enthusiast chipset.

If you turn down physics quality and shadow quality, that should help.
 
Can a cpu be at say %70 load and still be slower in terms of fps compared to a newer generation CPU? (i think it can)

Also yes, as jarona stated, Turn shadows to low and physics also. These should help. Also you should consider an upgrade...
 
ShuttleMunky said:
Can a cpu be at say %70 load and still be slower in terms of fps compared to a newer generation CPU? (i think it can)

Also yes, as jarona stated, Turn shadows to low and physics also. These should help. Also you should consider an upgrade...
Click to expand...

Yes, if the game depends heavily on a single thread and that single thread is loading a core up to 100%.
 
Tsumi said:
Yes, if the game depends heavily on a single thread and that single thread is loading a core up to 100%.
Click to expand...

This. A key factor to look for in Task Manager is processor loading that is roughly divisible by the number of cores. If you see this, your processor is probably maxed-out.

Windows is constantly switching tasks to different cores, so one main thread is not likely to peg just one processor at %100. So you have to use your head to spot a load that's thread-limited.
 
NeoTek said:
Yeah fat fingered the processor #. I updated the original post with my mobo info. Not sure if o/c is really possible considering my case is small and I only have stock cooling. May just have to end up with an upgrade. Wouldn't be such a bad thing ;)
Click to expand...

Hmm, looks like you are SOL with that motherboard & CPU combo. I think you may be able to squeeze out 100 or 200 MHz, but it would probably be a fight.

mATX and 775 was never a good combo for OC, but there was a chance that you where lucky and owned a OC mATX board.

Guess you can use the tips given by the other members ie. turn down a few of the details and buy a better system when you decide that have the cash for it.
 
If your able to put in a Q9550 that is a good way to extend the life of your system if your so inclined. Next year would be a good time for a new system with a new version of windows & all the other new tech...
 
Jorona said:
Check your loads. If when your system slows down your CPU is 100% load, then its your CPU. If its the GPU, then upgrade it.
Click to expand...

Checking CPU loads is not a good way to determine CPU limitation.

Many games don't use all cores, and those that don't switch processes rapidly back and forth between cores, making it look like - for instance you have two cores at 50% load, when in fact at any given time one is 100% loaded and the other is at 0% load.


The best way to check for CPU limitation is to load up MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X, or some other tracking software. Pull up the full sized data tracker and make sure it is tracking at least your GPU load (in %). FPS is also helpful.

Load up the game and play for a while, making sure Vsync is off. Close the game back down and then look at the charts. Anything lower than 95% GPU load you can start to suspect that there is some sort of CPU, RAM or bus speed limitation, as they are not able to load the GPU to 100%.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038807372 said:
Checking CPU loads is not a good way to determine CPU limitation.

Many games don't use all cores, and those that don't switch processes rapidly back and forth between cores, making it look like - for instance you have two cores at 50% load, when in fact at any given time one is 100% loaded and the other is at 0% load.


The best way to check for CPU limitation is to load up MSI Afterburner or EVGA Precision X, or some other tracking software. Pull up the full sized data tracker and make sure it is tracking at least your GPU load (in %). FPS is also helpful.

Load up the game and play for a while, making sure Vsync is off. Close the game back down and then look at the charts. Anything lower than 95% GPU load you can start to suspect that there is some sort of CPU, RAM or bus speed limitation, as they are not able to load the GPU to 100%.
Click to expand...

Indeed, I simply over generalized. I think we can all agree his bottleneck is his CPU.
 
A $119 Core i3-2100 would be almost double as fast as that E6550...

Of course, you'd need a motherboard and possibly RAM too, which would make it more expensive, but you can get socket 1155 motherboards for less than $50...

4 gigs of replacement DDR3 ram, could be yours for $20, too...

Not bad for $189...
 
Zarathustra[H];1038807372 said:
Many games don't use all cores, and those that don't switch processes rapidly back and forth between cores, making it look like - for instance you have two cores at 50% load, when in fact at any given time one is 100% loaded and the other is at 0% load.
Click to expand...

As I stated in a previous post, you can spot indications of a CPU-limited scenario by looking for a CPU load that is some integer multiple of your CPU cores (e.g. 4-core, %25 load = single core limited). It's also possible that it's 2 or more cores at %50 or less load, but in these cases (not full load) you will usually see load spikes. A smooth load graph without spikes that is a multiple of your CPU cores is a pretty clear indicator of CPU limitation.

That said, lowering your resolution and not seeing an increase in FPS is also a dead giveaway.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038807604 said:
A $119 Core i3-2100 would be almost double as fast as that E6550...
Click to expand...

So true!

Now that poses the question to NeoTek:
If you are leaning towards a system upgrade, we'd love to help you by giving some parts recommendations. What would your max budget be?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top