Is my rig CPU bottlenecked?

[daraeon84]

Hello folks,

I want to ask, if my CPU is holding my gpu back. In certain games, especially MMO´s I have pretty crappy fps, nop mater of resolution, but if I lower details it helps in some and in some not.

I have i7 920 OC´ed to 3.78 GhZ, MSI GTX 670 PE 2GB, 6GB ddr3 ram running (becouse of OC @ 1440 MHz or some like that, PSU: OCZ Extreme 700W and running on Win 8.1pro x64.

In Tera online, i have same fps on 1920x1080 resolution on maxed settings and 20-30 fps in towns and 30-60 fps outside while my gpu usage is 20-50 %. But in GW in large events I have 10-20 fps maxed out and 60 on all setting low.

My CPU usage is pretty high (80-95% sometimes some core spike to I think about 98%.
I have no problems running BF4 and gpu demanding games on ultra at 1080p with Gpu usage in range of 85-98%.

This problems remains especially in MMO, SWTOR too, only 40-65 fps maxed out in starting zone with gpu usage about 25-35%.

BTW nothing is overheating, At full load max temps are @ 65 degrees of Celsius.

So can my old i7 920 be a bottleneck? Even on 3.8 Ghz?

I remember my old gpu GTX 285 performing better buth with lower details (high in swtor, but gpu usage was about 80%)

I thing it must be the CPU when changinh resolution doesn´t raise FPS and gpu usage....
So if I will buy new mobo and i5 4670k, should i expect fps going sky high? I think my cpu isnt so bad at all, but I really want to play MMO´s

Thanks for advices
Have a nice weekend.

 

[Dangman]

PSU: OCZ Extreme 700W

I would recommend replacing that PSU if it is indeed the OCZ GameXStream 700W. It's based off the FSP Episilon PSU design which has out of spec ripple, or voltage fluctuations, at high loads that can damage or kill your system. Granted, you may not reach such high loads but why use PSU that can kill your system?

http://www.jonnyguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=442

I thing it must be the CPU when changinh resolution doesn´t raise FPS and gpu usage....
So if I will buy new mobo and i5 4670k, should i expect fps going sky high? I think my cpu isnt so bad at all, but I really want to play MMO´s

MMOs have generally been a bit more CPU heavier than other games out there. So since lower resolution didn't actually increase your FPS in any meaningful way, then yes it does appear that your CPU is the bottleneck so to speak.

But to confirm that, set your overclock down to stock speeds. See if the performance suffers massively from that. If so, then yes time for a new CPU and mobo.

As for FPS increases with a new CPU, mobo, and RAM, depending on the game and how high of a overclock you can get, you're looking at around 25% performance increase give or take.

 

[HobartTas]

Greetings

Your 920 cpu and 670 video card are reasonable in performance, ordinarily I would have said that they are a bit below cutting edge but the following statement you made "I have no problems running BF4 and gpu demanding games on ultra at 1080p" contradicts this as most people simply have insufficient horsepower.

The contradiction is resolved because the only other way for this problem to occur is your 2GB video card memory is most likely the culprit as you are running out of VRAM memory, other people that run MMO's like Skyrim that have say a 2GB GTX680 also complain whereas older 3GB GTX580 users say they have no problem, also with added installed mods for that game I've seen people mentioning they are using like 3.5GB of VRAM. If I had to recommend something I'd suggest at least a 3GB card and even better something like a 4GB GTX770, this is only slightly faster than your 670 so perhaps consider buying two of them in SLI, the only other thing I would recommend would be a used Titan as that has 6GB on board.

Also perhaps consider upgrading your cpu for a hexacore Xeon L5639 cpu on ebay for around $170 and overclock that instead, the cpu may not be on your CPU support list for your motherboard but have a look on the net to see if other people are also successfully running it anyway.

Cheers