CPU bottleneck ?`

jonnyp1993 · 12 Nov 2013 at 19:12

hi guys, just been playing BF4 and i think my GPu is bottlenecking my CPU

FX-6300 @ 4.6
XFX 7950 @ stock (900/1375)

Temps after 3 hours of play are: CPU: 45c, GPU 66c

Task manager is saying 60-80% CPU usage, and GPU is @ 99%

can someone confirm that i am getting bottleneck on my CPU ?

do i need to clock my card back up ?

i get decent FPS at stock hence why i dropped it backed down.

any help would be good

thanks

ALXAndy · 12 Nov 2013 at 19:42

No bottle neck. BF4 spreads the load over a CPU and I see around 80% use on eight cores using a FX 8320. Looks good to me.

jonnyp1993 · 12 Nov 2013 at 19:43

ok andy, thank you

, makes more sence now!

jonny

Panos · 12 Nov 2013 at 20:49

Try to overclock the 7950 to 1000 at least. If not 1100/1550.
Needs to stretch it's legs. (and hoping you use 13.11 beta 9.2)

Even at those speeds my 7950 works @ 99% with BF4 and the FX8350@5193 around 70%

Ofc if you have everything max, it will be 99% even if you have SLI GTX780 overclocked. (and 1080p@120hz or bigger monitor)

Also either raise the fan speed manually, or create a profile using MSI Afterburner to get to 90-100% fan speed above 60C, to avoid any throttling.

Calin Banc · 13 Nov 2013 at 06:27

The card doesn't throttle above 60*C, what are you talking about?

Skynet5 · 14 Nov 2013 at 06:59

Interesting. The question you normally hear is, is my CPU bottlenecking my GPU.

I suppose this is a valid question...

jonnyp1993 · 16 Nov 2013 at 16:00

Well, i have clocked it to 1100/1500.

and now my cpu is 70-90%, and my GPu is 80% ish, so i dunno what its doing now

but the good thing is, since iv clocked my gpu, it only tops out at 55c :/, which is strange because @ stock it was 66c lol

wierd!

thanks for the tips/help

gpuerrilla · 16 Nov 2013 at 16:12

ALXAndy said:
No bottle neck. BF4 spreads the load over a CPU and I see around 80% use on eight cores using a FX 8320. Looks good to me.

Same for me. With upping my graphics settings my CPU load is the same as Andy's and ironically the cards max out when displaying the score at the end.

Martini1991 · 16 Nov 2013 at 16:15

jonnyp1993 said:
Well, i have clocked it to 1100/1500.

and now my cpu is 70-90%, and my GPu is 80% ish, so i dunno what its doing now

but the good thing is, since iv clocked my gpu, it only tops out at 55c :/, which is strange because @ stock it was 66c lol

wierd!

thanks for the tips/help

80% GPU usage is bottlenecked.
As your GPU has more room to spread its legs, your CPU's struggling to bottom it out.

Is yours a GHZ one? Might just be throttling, as your OP results are a GPU bottleneck.

almighty15 · 16 Nov 2013 at 16:23

Martini1991 said:
80% GPU usage is bottlenecked.
As your GPU has more room to spread its legs, your CPU's struggling to bottom it out.

Is yours a GHZ one? Might just be throttling, as your OP results are a GPU bottleneck.

It wouldn't reduce its utilisation if it's throttles, it'll still be at 99% but just at a different clock rate then the 1100Mhz it's supposed to run at.

Martini1991 · 16 Nov 2013 at 16:24

almighty15 said:
It wouldn't reduce its utilisation if it's throttles, it'll still be at 99% but just at a different clock rate then the 1100Mhz it's supposed to run at.

Oddly, I know how it works, so I haven't a clue why I said that.

When I can throttle my R9 it'll still say it's 100%.

I'm just losing my mind.

gpuerrilla · 16 Nov 2013 at 17:56

Some of us don't know what bottlenecks are.

Avenged7Fold · 16 Nov 2013 at 18:24

Turn the CPUs overclock down to 4GHz and see if the 80% load on the GPU changes. If it gets lower, then at least you definitely know its the CPU bottlenecking the OC'd card. If that's the case, all you can really do is either upgrade to an 8 core fx or aim for 5GHz on the OC and see if it helps.

medseven · 17 Nov 2013 at 13:40

Just to help out I took this...

I don't think your CPU should bottleneck. This was after 25 minutes on 64 player Shanghai map. I see this as the GPU being used to its full capacity and the CPU doing everything its asked of with no little than 13% spare! I might be wrong though!

On a side note I don't think this game performs aswell as it could, I don't think its optimized as well as most high budget games on release but maybe that time was spent with Mantle. And if true could make mantle look better than it is by not being as optimized as it could in the first place.

Martini1991 · 17 Nov 2013 at 13:44

Unless you've got Vsync on, if your 7970 isn't being maxed out constantly, it's a bottleneck.

The OP's results in the first post are the GPU being the bottleneck, his second results are the CPU being the bottleneck.

A CPU doesn't have to be 100% usage to be a bottleneck, it may never be able to get to 100%, but what the CPU can give the game may be getting entirely maxed out.

medseven · 17 Nov 2013 at 13:47

I see so there must be something funny going on when the OP overclocks his GPU.

Martini1991 · 17 Nov 2013 at 13:50

Not really, the GPU now has more spring in its step, so needs more CPU grunt to push it further.
Don't forget just how lowly clocked none GHZ 7950's were, and how much they have left in the tank.

BurntProc · 17 Nov 2013 at 14:12

I don't have BF4, but on BF3 the FX and 7970 are pretty balanced (with vsync on). Around 75% if my fps drops below 60, my GPU usage spikes to 100% (so GPU bottlenecks), but sometimes GPU usage drops to 80-90% (indicating CPU).

Given you're a fx6300, it's probably a case that it's the CPU. However, it's not necessarily just raw CPU clock speed that is required, it may be you need to crank the FSB up instead of the multiplier.

teppic · 17 Nov 2013 at 14:12

The 7950 at 900MHz is like <insert car analogy>.

I don't think any can't manage at least 1GHz. Push the memory up too.

I think your board is one of the cheaper ones, if I remember, so you might not get above 4.6GHz on the 6300, but make sure it's not throttling.

almighty15 · 17 Nov 2013 at 15:20

medseven said:
Just to help out I took this...

I don't think your CPU should bottleneck. This was after 25 minutes on 64 player Shanghai map. I see this as the GPU being used to its full capacity and the CPU doing everything its asked of with no little than 13% spare! I might be wrong though!

On a side note I don't think this game performs aswell as it could, I don't think its optimized as well as most high budget games on release but maybe that time was spent with Mantle. And if true could make mantle look better than it is by not being as optimized as it could in the first place.

The average load on your GPU is 68% so your CPU limited, if you wasn't your average GPU load would be 99% or there abouts.