Bottleneck?

Trampstar · 24 Jul 2015 at 18:16

Hi! New to these parts, after some advice. Very happy with my current PC, but Im just trying to see where my next potential bottleneck might occur. I game a fair bit on it, and am running most things at ultra 1080p, but I'm not 100% on where my next upgrade should be focused. Here's my spec :

i7 3770
8gb Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz
128gb SSD Samsung Evo 830
Sapphire R9 280X 3GB

I know they are pretty much the key areas, whats gonna bottleneck me first?!

Cheers in advance.

RJC · 24 Jul 2015 at 18:28

Hello and welcome

I would look updating the GPU, the rest is ok.

Oh, is your CPU k series - I would overclock

mickyflinn · 24 Jul 2015 at 19:58

What motherboard do you have ? crossfire with another 280x maybe depending if your psu is adequate.

Trampstar · 24 Jul 2015 at 20:12

Ive got a Gigabyte GA-Z77-DS3H.

The processor isn't a K series, its served me well. But I'm not sure whether its still adequate for gaming or not. Im going to be moving the best parts from a Zalman Z9+, to a NZXT H440, thinking about slinging a 980ti in with it, just didnt want to do that if the Processor would hamstring that.

Digital X · 24 Jul 2015 at 20:21

Your processor is more than fine for gaming, a 980ti (in my opinion) would be a fantastic upgrade, but a bit overkill for 1080p.

As you can see in my sig, I'm running a lesser processor and not bottlenecking at all

even at 4K.

Trampstar · 26 Jul 2015 at 11:52

Thanks for your responses, looking at grabbing either the Fury X or a 980ti. I'm siding with the Fury X simply because the case I'm getting (NZXT H440) doesnt have the best airflow. So I'll water cool the processor and the GPU comes stock water cooled.

Any opinions on NZXT Gear? or the case itself?

TONY · 26 Jul 2015 at 12:43

Running the same cpu as you at 4.5ghz with a 980ti and the cpu is nowhere near the point where it would bottleneck the gpu, I don't think it would cause much of a bottleneck if I was running two 980ti gpu's.

Trampstar · 2 Dec 2015 at 17:17

I took the advice and upgraded to a MSI 6G 980ti.

However, Im still not getting mind blowing performance on GTA 5 (MSAA x8 granted), and even hit fps spikes on Fallout 4 in built up areas?

Is this normal for my setup?

Ledz · 2 Dec 2015 at 17:22

Gta v is notoriously hard to play on ultra. Do you have your games on a ssd or a secondary hdd?

Not bring a 'k' cpu I take it its only running stock 3.4ghz?

snips86x · 2 Dec 2015 at 17:22

Are you running MSI Afterburner? You can add GPU & CPU usage into the OSD and that will give you an idea as to the percentage of GPU being used.

Trampstar · 2 Dec 2015 at 20:24

snips86x said:
Are you running MSI Afterburner? You can add GPU & CPU usage into the OSD and that will give you an idea as to the percentage of GPU being used.

Yes, running Afterburner. In fallout Im only using 40-50% of my GPU, but Im getting FPS drops down to 40fps in some areas. As you can see here http://imgur.com/EuxyJ7d

Trampstar · 2 Dec 2015 at 20:34

Ledz said:
Gta v is notoriously hard to play on ultra. Do you have your games on a ssd or a secondary hdd?

Not bring a 'k' cpu I take it its only running stock 3.4ghz?

GTA is on a HDD, and Fallout is on an SSD.

My processor is a non-K 3770. But looking at the Afterburner stats, my processor doesnt really break a sweat.

Just paranoid this 980ti is a dud.

Trampstar · 4 Dec 2015 at 14:56

Is anyone else having big FPS drops on Fallout with more than capable hardware? Only in cities really, and in some random areas.

Cat_J · 4 Dec 2015 at 19:56

Can you run some tests and post up your peak temperatures, you already said you have air flow issues if its overheating it'll throttle back.