Need Advice: Graphics Card Upgrade or CPU?

[Zoda]

Hey all, so I have recently experienced an uber drop in FPS in League of Legends (around 80 fps during team battles, 110 fps during laning phase)

Should I buy a new graphics card or CPU? I want to optimize my computer's performance but I'm not sure if my mobo and cpu is too outdated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Current build:

ASUS Z97-A-USB31
Intel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Crucial 8 gb DDR3
ASUS GTX 970

 

[eclypse]

The screen resolution you play with would help decide.. if its 1080 then your CPU is limiting you. Could try overclocking it to 4.6ghz.

Upgrading to a 8700k and getting 5ghz would be easy. Though you would need all new mb (z370-z390) and new 3200mhz ddr4 memory.. 16gb 2x 8gb would work nicely.

For a GPU a 1070 or 1080 would be a nice upgrade.. Used prices would be nice atm.

 

[MrC4]

If you are looking to upgrade on the cheap, overclock the CPU a bit more and drop in a used 1070 card for under $300.

 

[VanGoghComplex]

Did LoL get an update that caused that kind of performance hit for multiple people? I'm more inclined to believe that something like a software update caused your FPS to tank. I'd investigate that first - you may not need to spend any money at all.

Of course, if you've just got the upgrade itch, that's understandable too - and in your case I would replace that 970. The used 10-series market is great right now.

 

[Dayaks]

If you are looking to upgrade on the cheap, overclock the CPU a bit more and drop in a used 1070 card for under $300.

Especially if you play other games at all - GPU all the way. 4790k is still a valid CPU for the majority of instances.

It's hard for me to believe a 4790k can hold back LoL...

 

[serpretetsky]

970 was the one with 3.5GB of regular memory and 0.5GB of slow memory, right? Maybe they added more textures or something and it dipped into the slow ram? There is some app that monitors GPU memory usage.

Also, just wanted to verify. The FPS is dropping TO 80fps or dropping BY 80fps?

 

[VanGoghComplex]

970 was the one with 3.5GB of regular memory and 0.5GB of slow memory, right? Maybe they added more textures or something and it dipped into the slow ram? There is some app that monitors GPU memory usage.

Also, just wanted to verify. The FPS is dropping TO 80fps or dropping BY 80fps?

That's correct, I hadn't thought of that. Perhaps try lowering the texture quality in your game a notch, OP, and see if that fixes the issue.

Nvidia really screwed up the 970. They'd have been far better off just selling it with 3.5Gb of VRAM. That 500megs of slow memory destroys performance whenever the card has to use it. =/

 

[Araxie]

common people, league of legends really and thinking about GTX 970 3.5GB issue? which is not an issue at all?

Hey all, so I have recently experienced an uber drop in FPS in League of Legends (around 80 fps during team battles, 110 fps during laning phase)

Should I buy a new graphics card or CPU? I want to optimize my computer's performance but I'm not sure if my mobo and cpu is too outdated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Current build:

ASUS Z97-A-USB31
Intel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Crucial 8 gb DDR3
ASUS GTX 970

OP you need NO upgrade really required at all for such game.. unless you are running several browser windows and running out of RAM. are you using HDD or SSD? most performance issues with LoL are typically telated to RAM and HDD causing hiccups on heavy team fights when loading skill effects.. are you using in game Vsync?. Vsync have a nasty habit of cause stuttering and can cause that kind of drops the Vsync target. for example if you have a 144hz panel with Vsync enabled and the game drop from 144FPS to 140 in that instant it will cause a drop not to 140 but to 72FPS and then it will again go up to 144fps.. which can explain your fps drop feeling. one option it's just ot run Adaptive Vsync in the Nvidia control panel and/or limiting your FPS with a 3rd party app as MSI Afterburner.

beyond that you have a more than powerful machine to run that game in the hundreds of FPS.. so if you want to upgrade something a fast 16GB RAM kit will help to overall improve your machine performance.

a cousing of mine play LoL as his main game in the machine I gave to him couple of years ago i7 2600 (non K) GTX 660ti, 8GB RAM and still he is over the 150FPS - 200FPS at 1080P. with no issues beyond the expected FPS drops in team fights due his single threaded performance being low.

I have a machine with a GTX 970 and i7 3770K@4.5ghz and 1080P screen I can do some test for you if you want main difference is that machine have SSD and 16GB RAM. I can even drop the clock to 4.2ghz to the same clock as your 4790K when all threads loaded if you want.

 

[eclypse]

Yeah I got a evga classified 1080 I can sell ya. Works like a champ. $400 shipped. Even have a ek 780ti water block that fits it.

 

[Araxie]

Hey all, so I have recently experienced an uber drop in FPS in League of Legends (around 80 fps during team battles, 110 fps during laning phase)

Should I buy a new graphics card or CPU? I want to optimize my computer's performance but I'm not sure if my mobo and cpu is too outdated. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Current build:

ASUS Z97-A-USB31
Intel Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Crucial 8 gb DDR3
ASUS GTX 970

Did some test with League of legends.. and as far I can say.. the gpu stay 25% - 35% usage the whole game and the clock not going even over 1000mhz.. fps in the range of 200 in the lane, and 150 fps during team fights, so for sure I can say you have excess of GPU for that game, CPU will be the most important element here, I can recommend overclock the hell out of it as noticed there was huge peformance difference between 4.2ghz, 4.5ghz and 4.8ghz.. at 4.8ghz the performance jumped to 300 fps and over 200 in team fights.. and even much more stability if you disable hyperthreading as there's always a single core in that gamin un the 80% - 100% usage while the rest are low usage, so for more performance in that game found turning HT off help a lot to frame stability..

VRAM not even touched the 800mb mark.. so forget about any "issue" mentioned above about VRAM.. on the other hand system RAM reached with only game opened the 6gb. So with browsers and other apps open you may find yourself in a situation where are running out of RAM (causing FPS issues)..

Your CPU is a nice overclocked and I can be sure 4.8ghz should be easily doable if you have a decent cooler.. I would start there to improve that game performance.

 

[CAD4466HK]

common people, league of legends really and thinking about GTX 970 3.5GB issue? which is not an issue at all?



OP you need NO upgrade really required at all for such game.. unless you are running several browser windows and running out of RAM. are you using HDD or SSD? most performance issues with LoL are typically telated to RAM and HDD causing hiccups on heavy team fights when loading skill effects.. are you using in game Vsync?. Vsync have a nasty habit of cause stuttering and can cause that kind of drops the Vsync target. for example if you have a 144hz panel with Vsync enabled and the game drop from 144FPS to 140 in that instant it will cause a drop not to 140 but to 72FPS and then it will again go up to 144fps.. which can explain your fps drop feeling. one option it's just ot run Adaptive Vsync in the Nvidia control panel and/or limiting your FPS with a 3rd party app as MSI Afterburner.

beyond that you have a more than powerful machine to run that game in the hundreds of FPS.. so if you want to upgrade something a fast 16GB RAM kit will help to overall improve your machine performance.

a cousing of mine play LoL as his main game in the machine I gave to him couple of years ago i7 2600 (non K) GTX 660ti, 8GB RAM and still he is over the 150FPS - 200FPS at 1080P. with no issues beyond the expected FPS drops in team fights due his single threaded performance being low.

I have a machine with a GTX 970 and i7 3770K@4.5ghz and 1080P screen I can do some test for you if you want main difference is that machine have SSD and 16GB RAM. I can even drop the clock to 4.2ghz to the same clock as your 4790K when all threads loaded if you want.

I 2nd this.
Your rig is overkill for LoL. My son plays nothing but LoL on a FX-6300 @ 4.1GHz paired with a R9 270 @ 1100GHz, with 16GB of 1600MHz RAM. 1080p60 VSR @ 1440p.
He maintains around 100-115fps.

He only lags during the day when the server is overburdened (200ms). He chooses to play after 10PM so he can maintain lower ping (50ms).
His CPU usage is around 25-30% and his GPU never even hits it's max clocks @ 45-50% (600-700MHz).

He also plays with around 5 or 6 FF tabs opened with Youtube and wiki sites + Discord. I had him exit out of everything else and his ping bottomed out around 30ms. But being that he's 18 and games with friends, he can't deal without Discord lol.

 

[Zoda]

Did some test with League of legends.. and as far I can say.. the gpu stay 25% - 35% usage the whole game and the clock not going even over 1000mhz.. fps in the range of 200 in the lane, and 150 fps during team fights, so for sure I can say you have excess of GPU for that game, CPU will be the most important element here, I can recommend overclock the hell out of it as noticed there was huge peformance difference between 4.2ghz, 4.5ghz and 4.8ghz.. at 4.8ghz the performance jumped to 300 fps and over 200 in team fights.. and even much more stability if you disable hyperthreading as there's always a single core in that gamin un the 80% - 100% usage while the rest are low usage, so for more performance in that game found turning HT off help a lot to frame stability..

VRAM not even touched the 800mb mark.. so forget about any "issue" mentioned above about VRAM.. on the other hand system RAM reached with only game opened the 6gb. So with browsers and other apps open you may find yourself in a situation where are running out of RAM (causing FPS issues)..

Your CPU is a nice overclocked and I can be sure 4.8ghz should be easily doable if you have a decent cooler.. I would start there to improve that game performance.

Thank you for testing the LoL usage, I was going to do that myself and wasn't sure if it was the GTX 970 GPU or if it was the CPU that was holding it back. I will try to overclock the CPU and see how it works out. Also, I do not have any programs running in the background.

I run League of Legends at max settings in every setting.

serpretetsky, my FPS dropped TO 80 fps in a big team fight. In laning phase it is still right around 120 fps.

Yeah so I am wondering if my FPS drop is due to some patches that they threw in the last few weeks because I never thought I would have noticeable lag in a low graphic game like LoL with this build.

 

[Araxie]

Thank you for testing the LoL usage, I was going to do that myself and wasn't sure if it was the GTX 970 GPU or if it was the CPU that was holding it back. I will try to overclock the CPU and see how it works out. Also, I do not have any programs running in the background.

I run League of Legends at max settings in every setting.

serpretetsky, my FPS dropped TO 80 fps in a big team fight. In laning phase it is still right around 120 fps.

Yeah so I am wondering if my FPS drop is due to some patches that they threw in the last few weeks because I never thought I would have noticeable lag in a low graphic game like LoL with this build.

they have added ton of stuff internally to the engine, according to my cousing he noticed a performanec degradation when they added the match recap (the aftermatch feature to watch a video of the entire game) so you have an online game engine that is recording what 10 guys are doing should have certain impact when is doing internally... other than that, just be sure that Vsync is disabled in the game options, if you want still some tearfree experience just enable adaptive Vsync in nvidia control panel, also one thing that noticed it help is in the nvidia control panel go to the league of legends profile go to the power management mode and change it to maximum performance so it will keep the GPU with a higher core and memory clock to avoid issues when the GPU don't downclock or upclock properly fast enough, which also can explain the drop you noticed to 80FPS I did noticed in lot of instances where the GPU clock was at 700mhz then for one second go up to 900mhz then for other second down 400mhz and so on in those brief periods a drop in FPS can occur, keeping the clock high will avoid this issues and will certainly help in those scenarios.

 

[Majinhoju]

I don't play league so my results may not apply to you, but upgrading from a 780 to a 1080 (on a 4670k cpu) was a huge jump in every game I play.

 

[Zoda]

they have added ton of stuff internally to the engine, according to my cousing he noticed a performanec degradation when they added the match recap (the aftermatch feature to watch a video of the entire game) so you have an online game engine that is recording what 10 guys are doing should have certain impact when is doing internally... other than that, just be sure that Vsync is disabled in the game options, if you want still some tearfree experience just enable adaptive Vsync in nvidia control panel, also one thing that noticed it help is in the nvidia control panel go to the league of legends profile go to the power management mode and change it to maximum performance so it will keep the GPU with a higher core and memory clock to avoid issues when the GPU don't downclock or upclock properly fast enough, which also can explain the drop you noticed to 80FPS I did noticed in lot of instances where the GPU clock was at 700mhz then for one second go up to 900mhz then for other second down 400mhz and so on in those brief periods a drop in FPS can occur, keeping the clock high will avoid this issues and will certainly help in those scenarios.

No wonder, I was like, there was no upgrade in visual graphics in the game but my FPS tanked during team fights. I knew something changed internally. League is not good at looking out for the performance of the game which is crucial. Hopefully they come out with an update that smooths it out better like they did in season 5. They increased the performance because the game was too laggy for people with lower end rigs. I will overclock my pc and try those settings you just mentioned and if the problem still persists I will look into another video card.

 

[Araxie]

No wonder, I was like, there was no upgrade in visual graphics in the game but my FPS tanked during team fights. I knew something changed internally. League is not good at looking out for the performance of the game which is crucial. Hopefully they come out with an update that smooths it out better like they did in season 5. They increased the performance because the game was too laggy for people with lower end rigs. I will overclock my pc and try those settings you just mentioned and if the problem still persists I will look into another video card.

Nice, keep us posted...

 

[Zoda]

So I overclocked my GPU and CPU and the FPS does not drop below 120 now thankfully. Riot has definitely got to work on their client's performance because other players have been experiencing the same issue. Like I said before, the graphics have not gotten any better so there is no reason my stock build should not be able to run it over 100 fps like it always has.

 

[Araxie]

So I overclocked my GPU and CPU and the FPS does not drop below 120 now thankfully. Riot has definitely got to work on their client's performance because other players have been experiencing the same issue. Like I said before, the graphics have not gotten any better so there is no reason my stock build should not be able to run it over 100 fps like it always has.

well they certainly has been changing few things here and there, I know shadows, lightings, effects, turrets and the map itself has been changed since when I was a LoL player..

and well, lets not forget that from time to time it's always good to just delete the game and re-download as the client get bloated overtime.

anyway, nice to see you fixed your issues.

 

[Zoda]

well they certainly has been changing few things here and there, I know shadows, lightings, effects, turrets and the map itself has been changed since when I was a LoL player..

View attachment 117077

and well, lets not forget that from time to time it's always good to just delete the game and re-download as the client get bloated overtime.

anyway, nice to see you fixed your issues.

Well so I tested it out for a week or so and I still get the drop in FPS. I think the game client is really crapping out and they are adding too many background processes.