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Does FX8350 really not cut it anymore ?

cortex69

cortex69

cortex69

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4 Jul 2014
Posts
7
I have FX8350 @ 4.5GHz bundled with GTX970 G1 and 16GB 1866MHz. I can feel the CPU is starting to become a bottleneck on newer games. CPU usage is 50-70% while GPU is 80-100%, 100% hitting most of the time. I believe that's bottlenecking if I am not mistaken !

What CPU, even used, do you recommend till I get a new PC in 2017-early 2018 ? I want it to be cost efficient. Would something like i5 2500k do or should I head higher ? I am fan of overclocking and will especially need this for dolphin and pcsx2
 
That sounds like your GPU is working hard so no, not bottlenecking. It's when your GPU doesn't ever go near 100% that would indicate something else is holding you back. It'll vary a lot depending on game though as many games only use a couple of threads on the CPU and also the total amount of work being done by each will vary widely.
 
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cortex69 said:
I have FX8350 @ 4.5GHz bundled with GTX970 G1 and 16GB 1866MHz. I can feel the CPU is starting to become a bottleneck on newer games. CPU usage is 50-70% while GPU is 80-100%, 100% hitting most of the time. I believe that's bottlenecking if I am not mistaken !
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Other way around. If the GPU were running low and the CPU was very high, that would show the CPU was bottlenecking. It's whichever is maxed out (90-100%) that is the bottleneck.

I have an FX-8350. You would probably see some small gains if you updated it to a modern Intel chip but given the cost of replacing motherboard, processor and possibly buying DDR4 RAM, I would say if you want better you should be looking at spending the money on a new GPU than on the CPU. You have to have a VERY good GPU before an FX-8350 becomes the bottleneck. So spend money there, first is my advice. You say you are getting a new PC in 2017. I would honestly wait till the Summer and see what AMDs new line-up is like and then maybe just get a GPU for now.
 
cortex69 said:
I have FX8350 @ 4.5GHz bundled with GTX970 G1 and 16GB 1866MHz. I can feel the CPU is starting to become a bottleneck on newer games. CPU usage is 50-70% while GPU is 80-100%, 100% hitting most of the time. I believe that's bottlenecking if I am not mistaken !

What CPU, even used, do you recommend till I get a new PC in 2017-early 2018 ? I want it to be cost efficient. Would something like i5 2500k do or should I head higher ? I am fan of overclocking and will especially need this for dolphin and pcsx2
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No point buying 2nd hand stuff out of warranty at this point, unless you enjoy taking risks.

A cheap Skylake setup would give you the best gaming performance if your using one GPU. I5 6600K. You could go for the 6700k if you want it to last longer.
 
David Bisset and h4rm0ny are correct. Your CPU isn't bottlenecking that GTX970 by the looks of it. Rather it's the GTX970 that's bottlenecking your gaming performance.
 
What resolution are you running? What minimum fps are you seeing? Any big drops?
I just upgraded from an amd 8320 to my sig and my minimums went from 30s upto 60s, iam running an overclocked 980ti though at 3440x1440.
Dolphin and psx rely mainly on cpu not gpu so an upgrade will defo see some improvements any recent intel chip around 4ghz will be a massive improvement eg i5 6400 overclocked or if your feeling flush a i7 6700k
 
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Just because total CPU usage is 50-70 doesn't mean dismal AMD single core performance isn't affecting minimum frame rates.

But if you are always getting 90-100 on GPU usage then, yeah, this needs attention first.

In practice you should do what all most of us are currently doing. Wait till July for the biggest leap in manufacturing process technology AMD will have had in the last decade. Then buy a whole new system. Even if you end up buying Intel/Nvidia, their pricing/new products will have to adjust to AMD's new offerings.

Keep what you have for now unless there is a desperate need to run current games maxed out.
 
It never really cut it to begin with, the highly threaded future which AMD envisaged where IPC is unimportant hasn't materialised.

The fact that monitor resolutions ramped up to 1440P/4K so quickly and GPU's had hit a bit of a wall due to manufacturing processes being stuck at 28nm did AMD a lot of favours hiding their CPU's shortcomings (due to GPU bottlenecks).

I think when the new 14nm GPU's are released we'll see a big jump in GPU performance and AMD's weak cores will be exposed even more due to substantially reduced GPU bottlenecks.
 
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Firstly your set up is fine.
secondly my pal runs a 6300 @ 4.2 with 280x and max's games on 1080. so your set up is fine.
The GPU should be at 80-100% all the time, this is what your system is doing so that is fine

What resolution are you trying to game at?

Other than watching numbers on a chat and miss reading them, why do you feel you need to upgrade?
 
Dolphin and psx2 massively benefit from intel chips that are haswell or newer.

A 2500k would be a poor choice for that, an overclocked skylake i3 / pentium, or an overclocked haswell aniversary pentium k would be much much better.

For other games, it would probably be worth shelling out the extra for a overclockable haswell / broadwell / skylake i5 though over the pentiums / i3s.
 
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cortex69 said:
I have FX8350 @ 4.5GHz bundled with GTX970 G1 and 16GB 1866MHz. I can feel the CPU is starting to become a bottleneck on newer games. CPU usage is 50-70% while GPU is 80-100%, 100% hitting most of the time. I believe that's bottlenecking if I am not mistaken !

What CPU, even used, do you recommend till I get a new PC in 2017-early 2018 ? I want it to be cost efficient. Would something like i5 2500k do or should I head higher ? I am fan of overclocking and will especially need this for dolphin and pcsx2
Click to expand...

What game and res? Because any res above 1080p and the GTX970 cannot cut it running out of steam.
 
As others have said, not really a bottleneck. Honestly at this stage even if it was a bit of a bottleneck I'd be waiting for Zen. Not necessarily to buy Zen but to see what happens. Nothing interesting has happened in CPU for years. Zen if it's good could be the best option, or best value or it could be competitive enough to make Intel adjust their pricing potentially. If it flops then you get whatever is next. By most accounts Zen has a very good shot of at least offering much more competitive pricing for current high level CPU performance by getting near it but cheaper.

It's also possible, if not maybe likely that we'll see games with DX12 become standard throughout this year and CPU requirements actually go down for a couple of years before they start pushing upwards again.
 
Strange 'advise' from some folk but seconding the comments from DM, Panos and P4Clock. The FX isnt going to last forever but swiping at it being the culprit in this scenario sounds like misinformed judgements.

In the shorter term get a better GPU and when Zen's out weigh up your system 'upgrade' for your budget then.
 
What motherboard have you got?

VRMs could be throttling the CPU performance, although if the gfx card is solid 100% then its the problem.
 
When i ran dolphin on my amd 8320 i was getting suttering and sound dropouts, since upgrading to a 5820k it runs full speed no sound problems at 4x resolution aa x4 etc so a definite improvement.
 
My 8320 is still effortlessly cutting it. So should your 8350.

I've tried convincing myself many times that it's upgrade time but there's no game out there (and I have them all) that don't play at max settings with no hiccups.
 
danoliver1 said:
When i ran dolphin on my amd 8320 i was getting suttering and sound dropouts, since upgrading to a 5820k it runs full speed no sound problems at 4x resolution aa x4 etc so a definite improvement.
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regulus said:
My 8320 is still effortlessly cutting it. So should your 8350.

I've tried convincing myself many times that it's upgrade time but there's no game out there (and I have them all) that don't play at max settings with no hiccups.
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Which is more likely to mean the 5820k is benefiting from the fresh install of windows, better configuration, driver and patch differences. ;)
 
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