What's my computer's bottleneck?

A

Apex

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 15, 2003
Messages
65
Current setup:

4 GB of Kingston 1066 RAM and 2 GB of 800 Mushkin RAM
e6550 oc'ed to 2.8
ATi HD 4870
Two 250 GB Baracuda's running Raid 0
Antec 500w
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R mobo


I'm having an issue with Adobe Lightroom 2 using a few of its features, it lags pretty frustratingly, so I went from a 8800GT to the new 4870, but it didn't fix it at all.

Then I installed and played Crysis today, I had to turn everything down and run at 1280x1024 resolution with no AA, 1680x1050 was unplayable. With Riva Tuner running up in the top left during the game, my card never got above 60 degrees with stock cooling, default clock settings, and auto fan control.

So, what's my bottleneck? Processor? Memory? Trying to figure out what to upgrade next. My guess is the mis-matched memory...
 
do you have AA enabled in the control panel? Overclocked the card too far? latest drivers? Can powersupply handle everything? custom config for crysis?

the memory shouldnt make that much of a difference. Did you re install the drivers correctly. At 1280 x 1024 you should be getting more than. Do you have any other games you can run?
 
CPU might be a bottleneck with Lightroom but not Crysis, at least according to this review:
http://www.guru3d.com/article/cpu-scaling-in-games-with-quad-core-processors/9

Using the X6800 as a close approximation to your OC'd E6550 CPU, it provided the same FPS as the QX9770 at 3.2Ghz at 1600x1200. At 1280x1024, the performance was also pretty negligible.So Crysis wise, you're not CPU bottlenecked, at least according to the above review.

Though just for curiosity's sake: What model Antec 500W PSU do you have? Though more than likely the cause isn't related to the PSU but just curious.

And it definitely can't be a memory problem either since higher speed RAM don't benefit C2D systems that much.
 
I would definitely say your CPU. But to be sure, run the program and check your task manager. Are both cores maxed? If so, grab a q6600 on the cheap, clock it to 3ghz.
 
Wich features of Lightroom 2?

I could give them a try to see if they are just "slow" by nature...
 
Just remembered that Lightroom 2 takes advantage of having a 64bit Operating system also.
 
Ok, a few things I should add:

- Yes, I'm running Vista Ultimate 64 bit.

- No other programs running in the background besides riva tuner and rocket dock.

- AA - no, it's set so that the program decides.

- I should try re-installing the drivers? I guess I could.

- NO overclocking on the card at all. If anything, I've gone in and turned up the fan speed. It never gets above 60 degrees during game play.

- Yes I run other games, HL2 and COD4 at full settings no problem.

- About Lightroom 2 - I, like a lot of people out there apparently, have a problem with severe lag while using the selective adjustment brush. It works nice and fast at first as I paint over what I want to mask off, but after about 5 or 6 seconds of doing that it suddenly gets more and more laggy to the point where as I bring the mouse back over to the control panel, it's still showing the masking tool, then a few seconds later it goes back to the regular mouse icon like it should. It just lags like a MOTHER, did the SAME exact thing with my 8800gt.

- This is my power supply - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371007 I know it's kind of a rinky-dink ps, but I originally built this computer about a year ago to process photos (I do wedding photos), so I wasn't going for all-out gaming standards. But, it's been working great and has the two outputs for PCI-e cards. If I need to get a stronger one then I will.



I'm thinking more that it is the cpu. I KNOW the card should be doing better than this.
 
Danny Bui said:
And it definitely can't be a memory problem either since higher speed RAM don't benefit C2D systems that much.
Click to expand...

Raap said:
Any improvement if you take out the 2GB Mushkin RAM?
Click to expand...


Yep, just leave the RAM in, but check the timings with CPUz. When I populate all the slots in my G35 chipset, it struggles real bad with the timings. I went from 3-5-4-15 to 5-5-5-15 when I added my second set of DIMMS.
 
What is your page file size? Increase the min/max and also I would get another hard drive to seperate the page file from everything else.
 
Push that 6550 a little more. I have the exact same proc and I can get mine over 3ghz with stock cooling. I am over 3.4 with my AC 9 cooler.
 
lloose said:
Push that 6550 a little more. I have the exact same proc and I can get mine over 3ghz with stock cooling. I am over 3.4 with my AC 9 cooler.
Click to expand...



Ok, should I bump up the voltage? What to? I think I remember not being able to get it over 3 GHz, it wouldn't even make it to the Vista loading screen before freezing.
 
Apex said:
Ok, should I bump up the voltage? What to? I think I remember not being able to get it over 3 GHz, it wouldn't even make it to the Vista loading screen before freezing.
Click to expand...

Max voltage: 1.5V
Max temps: Around 65C

So as long as you stay at and under those max settings, you'll be fine.
 
Danny Bui said:
Max voltage: 1.5V
Max temps: Around 65C

So as long as you stay at and under those max settings, you'll be fine.
Click to expand...

Well I have the voltage at just over 1.35, FSB at 429 which gives me 3.01 GHz or so. Running stable at 31 degrees C according to Core Temp v 0.99.3. So, that's better. :)


Oh and I did yank out the sticks of Mushkin memory and set the two sticks of Kingston to 5-5-5-15, and at a ratio of 5:6 which gives them about 1024 MHz.

I'm gonna go play crysis and see if it's any better. Lightroom 2 is no better, tho, already tried that :(

Thanks everybody for your help so far, I really appreciate it!
 
Apex said:
Well I have the voltage at just over 1.35, FSB at 429 which gives me 3.01 GHz or so. Running stable at 31 degrees C according to Core Temp v 0.99.3. So, that's better. :)
Click to expand...

Is that at load or just idle? If idle, have you done any stress testing with Orthos, OCCT or Prime 95? If no stress testing, start doing them. Any of the three programs I mentioned are good stress testing apps.
 
Danny Bui said:
Is that at load or just idle? If idle, have you done any stress testing with Orthos, OCCT or Prime 95? If no stress testing, start doing them. Any of the three programs I mentioned are good stress testing apps.
Click to expand...



Oh sorry, no that's idle. It would be a lot less if I didn't have my tv tuner card installed, that thing literally raised the temp of the CPU by over 10 degrees. I used to idle in the low 20's :(

But yea I'll have to stress test it. I haven't seen it getting above 50 degrees while plowing through Lightroom converting RAW files to JPEG's from my 1D (both cores @ 100% for about 5 minutes).
 
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