Are my Mobo+CPU bottlenecking my GC?

ojgbrown · 8 Jun 2011 at 11:55

I have an Asus M4A78-VM mobo, Phenom II X2 550 BE CPU and a HD 5770 1GB.

The motherboard does not let me unlock the additional cores on the CPU nor does it like overclocking and in any case I only have the stock cooler so the CPU is running at stock settings i.e. two cores and 3.10ghz.

The Graphics card is overclocked fine to 900/1350 and runs stable but I still feel like it is not performing as it should. I know it is no longer the mid to high end card it was when it first launched but it really seems to be struggling at the moment and I was wondering if the CPU was hampering it.

Reaper 392 · 8 Jun 2011 at 13:28

with a two core processor it is possible that the CPU is the bottleneck for all the games you are playing. most games these days are console ports, so are designed to run on 3 cores.

heres the kind of FPS you can expect from your card with no CPU or mobo bottlenecking at various resolutions:
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/172

ojgbrown · 8 Jun 2011 at 14:07

Thanks for the response.

Looking at that I would say that you could shave 5-8fps off what I should be getting on a given game which would support the theory that the CPU is an issue.

I am considering a new build probably around September/October time once Bulldozer is launched and the overall picture becomes clear-although it will still most likely be an i5-2500k build.

In the meantime what would be a good cheap upgrade that would give a good jump in performance, stop the bottleneck and not break the bank? I can get £30 for my 550 so perhaps an X4 955 at around £75 meaning a £45 net spend?

Any advice on the subject is much appreciated.

Blue160 · 8 Jun 2011 at 14:13

Any Phenom II X4 would be a good upgrade. Since you are thinking of a full upgrade in the near future it might be better to wait and save your money towards that though.

ojgbrown · 8 Jun 2011 at 14:17

yes im aware of that, and will only do an upgrade if I can get a good price-possibly even second hand just to tie me over for the next 4 months or so.

dimention · 8 Jun 2011 at 15:18

well i play crysis 1 on a core 2 duo e8400 (3.0 ghz)

with a 5830 ...

and max out crysis 1 (which i think is harder than warhead)
on 1680X1050 and get 50-70 fps

i do know my gpu is bottlenecked by my cpu coz it nver uses 90% of gpu lol..

buttttt.. if i was to use lower 1.. i wouldent get as high fps with the grpahic details and resolution i now use

Reaper 392 · 8 Jun 2011 at 15:43

dimention said:
well i play crysis 1 on a core 2 duo e8400 (3.0 ghz)

with a 5830 ...

and max out crysis 1 (which i think is harder than warhead)
on 1680X1050 and get 50-70 fps

i do know my gpu is bottlenecked by my cpu coz it nver uses 90% of gpu lol..

buttttt.. if i was to use lower 1.. i wouldent get as high fps with the grpahic details and resolution i now use

wow, my GTX 460 768MB with a Phenom II X4 955 gets 30-50 FPS @1360x768 res on a custom config that gives better FPS than everything at very high while not reducing graphics.

sooo, with a faster graphics card, a better CPU, and lower graphics i get less FPS. something is wrong here

dimention · 8 Jun 2011 at 16:04

Reaper 392 said:
wow, my GTX 460 768MB with a Phenom II X4 955 gets 30-50 FPS @1360x768 res on a custom config that gives better FPS than everything at very high while not reducing graphics.

sooo, with a faster graphics card, a better CPU, and lower graphics i get less FPS. something is wrong here

ok ive re-checked... and i got a bit mixed up.. i was drunk when i tested.. same high settings but resolution was 1024X768.. lol... getting 40-60 fps

the 1680X1050 was in bf:bc2 on max settings but i get 120-200 fps on that lol

ok found out in crysis i can go to 1440X1050 and get same fps
as lower res

i need to get a better cppu ... for bf3

LiamJ · 8 Jun 2011 at 16:31

My 550 bottlenecks my 6850 considerably, with the GPU only being able to use on average 70% power. However, my card is quite a bit more powerful, so the bottleneck with a 5770 is probably minimal.