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Does my CPU Severly Bottleneck My GPU?

ill definitely be getting some better cooling including the motherboard 1 the i lack but just so its know
i just had a crash.. but it was just a solid darkblue/black screen. not a regular BSOD where it had bright blue with text... dont know what that is or means.

anyways here are my specs for what im about to go test. just to be clear
O5x6J.png
 
Laziestnoob said:
Ok so popped BF3 open and i think ive done something wrong. waiting for a response for info above.

CPU USage was about 80-95%
GPU Usage was about 85%

temp on both were about 64C

FPS: 15-30
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What's your monitor resolution? That's some low FPS.

The OC'd Thuban won't bottleneck you. An OC'd Thuban is still a great CPU. Keep in mind BF3 also uses ~6 threads.
 
if you read back you can see all the setting we've been going through. yes 7970
as of the last test it was 40-70fps. very nice

If i were to upgrade my CPU to an i7, how much better overall would that be? is it worth it? would i need to change my motherboard? and should i work on cooling before anything else.
 
In BF3 there would be virtually no difference. BF3 is one of the games that AMD can run neck and neck with Intel in. Unless you play Civilization V a lot or plan to run two 7970's, your X6 is just fine. Trust me.

Also, don't overclock with Overdrive. Overclock thru the BIOS. I'd use HWMonitor to monitor all your temps and voltages. I don't have Overdrive even installed on my rig.
 
You'd need to buy a new motherboard, yea. As far as gaming goes, you really wouldn't see a difference either. There really isn't a processor on the market right now that will give you a significant upgrade in gaming at the moment. You should be set for a couple of years :)
 
see this is why im getting fusterated. just opened BF3 on a different map. getting 20-30 FPS. what is wrong.... why is it keep changing.
 
Drivers? Try uninstalling them reinstalling and make sure you've got the right ones. That's about the only thing I can think of that would give you 40-70 fps one time then 20-30 on another.
 
Laziestnoob said:
see this is why im getting fusterated. just opened BF3 on a different map. getting 20-30 FPS. what is wrong.... why is it keep changing.
Click to expand...
My best advice at this point would be to set everything stock: the cpu and gpu, as well as ram and make sure all the timings are at the manufacturers specifications. Reinstall the gpu drivers as well. Make sure to turn off any software overclocking utilities and then see what happens. Like I said before, look into a better cooling option for your cpu. I would also look into try reseating the cpu heatsink and get some quality thermal paste such as AS5. As far as upgrading goes, you don't really need anything more than an i5 for gaming imo.
 
Aaron11 said:
^^K that should help. As far as the cooler, that looks like the Cooler Master Hyper TX3. If it is, that's great for lowerend CPUs like the one I have, but for the X6 you want something with a bigger fan, like the Hyper 212+ and its 120mm fan. I'd look into better cooling.
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Depends it's fine for 125w cpu's even says so on the spec. I would however use some premium thermal paste, as for the fan well you can look into that too.

Problems are the voltages which are too high thus pumping more power and heat than needed.
 
So i keep looking at reviews of the radeon 7970, im getting told my CPU is fine. yet ive now set BF3 to high settings from ultra and i cant play open maps without terrible FPS.

increased myCPU/NB yet things are even worse. i dont understand how this keeps getting worse..
 
Laziestnoob said:
So i keep looking at reviews of the radeon 7970, im getting told my CPU is fine. yet ive now set BF3 to high settings from ultra and i cant play open maps without terrible FPS.

increased myCPU/NB yet things are even worse. i dont understand how this keeps getting worse..
Click to expand...

Is something throttling? You need some way to log your clock speed while you're gaming. Make sure the GPU and CPU are running at proper clocks while gaming.

With certain drivers I've heard of the 79*0 series getting stuck at weird clocks if you have stuff with flash open in the background like youtube.
 
so ive unclocked everything i have and that means my CPU is 3200MHz.

cant i just buy a new CPU and put it on my motherboard so i dont have to overclock it? wont that fix the problems? that + some more cooling. :/
 
well.. i dont know anymore. at minimal settings with my radeon 7970 i can pull a good 55FPS.
 
Its not your CPU. Thats a good CPU.. Drivers can cause some real issues.. Also. .Have you tried not overclocking the GPU at all(leave it all stock) and see if it makes any difference.. Some GPU's just dont like to be overclocked and can make things run really jacked up... Have you tried cleaing your display drivers and reinstalling them?? sometimes the driver just doesnt work right the first time..
 
Have you tried applying your CPU OC settings through the BIOS? Overclocking anything on the motherboard is a really big no-no through windows. ALWAYS use the BIOS. The few utilities that can actually work generally arent as accurate and fail to properly save the settings. I would only use the CCC to OC the GPU and do your CPU tweaking in the BIOS.
 
ive got my CPU clocked as stated above by a member here. my GPU is stock. Ive reinstalled my drivers. testing it out now.

PS. cant reformat atm because i dont have my W7 Pro disk, should have a w7 home edition so once i find it i will reformat.
 
so far its very good i think ive got a good balance going.

OC the CPU as requested. and leave the GPU Stock, getting 80-120FPS max settings with AA disabled. did throttle 1x after 20minutes so i gotta check what that was and see if it happens again.
 
Laziestnoob said:
so far its very good i think ive got a good balance going.

OC the CPU as requested. and leave the GPU Stock, getting 80-120FPS max settings with AA disabled. did throttle 1x after 20minutes so i gotta check what that was and see if it happens again.
Click to expand...

Sounds good, a slightly better cooler will definitely help. The 212 is like $25 so it might be something to pick up. At least you know it can work properly. :cool:
 
ok see now i have 1 small problem left i dont want to screw everything up again.. now every 20minutes for about 20seconds it throttles somewhere. where it drops from 90FPS to 20FPS.
 
Ok, now I'm confused. In your OP you state you have the CHIV Formula, but in the picture you posted the board most certainly is not.
 
ASUS - Motherboards- ASUS Crosshair IV Formula
thats my board.


EDIT: or so thats what someone who checked my stats from screenshots said i had.. i dont have the box anymore but i checked CPU-Z and the number in there is "M4A87TD/USB3" i google that and i find this board which looks just like the one i have. was i wrong? please tell me ive been wrong and that this motherboard is my issue and replacing it will make all my dreams come true O_O'
http://ca.asus.com/en/Motherboards/AMD_AM3/M4A87TDUSB3/
 
Yours is definitely the M4A87T like the guy above said, the Crosshair series will have red components. Did someone sell you that telling you it was? Thats pretty low if its the case.

Anyways, I was wondering because those boards with no heatsink on the VRM's tend to be lower end and you could be pulling more power than the VRM's can provide with the overclock, causing them to heat up until it throttles itself back to cool. Its a common problem with that particular board.
 
so is there room for me to upgrade my motherboard and CPU? if so please link me a good combo of motherboard and CPU for around $400.00 if thats a good price range.
 
Laziestnoob said:
so is there room for me to upgrade my motherboard and CPU? if so please link me a good combo of motherboard and CPU for around $400.00 if thats a good price range.
Click to expand...

Honestly your motherboard and CPU are fine.

What he was saying is that the particular motherboard you have is not well suited for overclocking because it has no heatsinks on the VRM's. When the VRM's get too hot they can cause throttling. If you had a Crosshair series motherboard it would have heatsinked VRM's because they are designed for max overclocking.

ON THE OTHER HAND, its not exactly sure what is causing your issue (it may not even be throttleing), its probably not the GPU since its at stock.

This is what you should do. Open task manager and go to the performance tab and keep it running. Play BF3 until you encounter the dip in FPS. Once you get the dip in the FPS then you can close the game and take a screenshot of the task manager so we can see if the CPU usage goes down dramatically or not.
 
there is no way in hell a 6 core AMD is going to bottleneck a 7970.

If your CPU is hitting 50% that is not a limit. That is only half of the CPU.

If your GPU is hitting 99% that is a GPU limit.

One good way to test is to load GPUZ and use it's logging feature. Then run Unigine Heaven 2.5 or 3.0 and do a standard run and a everything max run then refer to the logs. It will tell you what is going on.

If your CPU is maxing and the GPU is not then you are hitting a CPU wall, if your GPU is maxing and your CPU is not then you are GPU limited.

I have a Intel I7 3930K @ 4.5-7ghz depending on how I feel that day and BF3 always 99%/99% both of my GPUs on my 6990 but my CPU NEVER EVER EVER MAXES! Of course this is an Intel 6 core which is certainly faster than a AMD 6 core but if you OC that AMD it will really start to roar.

Now as far as mobo is concerned, in order to have a stable overclock that doesnt throttle down you need to have really good power delivery and good cooling of the components that regulate voltage, i.e. like the person above me mentoned. That is why it is recommend to get a good higher dollar overclock designed motherboard, i.e. Cross hair V or IV or whatever you want.
 
drop'd from 90FPS to 15FPS, CPU usage was still 92% and GPU was @ 30% O_O but it is not clocked
 
well today i ran some testing and my GPU stayed @ 100% the entire time and did not throttle. which means my CPU must be throttling. going to go buy a new CPU cooler as well as another fan to fill the last spot. hope it fixes it.
 
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