Help Identifying weak link

cereal3

cereal3

cereal3

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Joined
21 Jun 2011
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217
Location
UK
Hi, been a long time since I upgraded anything on my PC aside from getting a 144hz monitor, I mainly play League of Legends and CS, the latter of which my PC has no problem running at 144+ FPS, but I'd like to achieve the same 144+ fps in League. Both the GPU and CPU I have are pretty dated but I'd like to remedy the problem by upgrading whichever one is bottlenecking the other before replacing both, to see if it will run acceptably without a double upgrade.

I've run some logging using HWinfo and Afterburner and I get 90-100 fps on average, though in heavy action it can drop as low as 20-25fps. While running at around 90fps, afterburner shows the GPU usage to be only around 35-45% while core usage hits around 75% on one or two of the cores. Changing graphics settings from low to high doesn't cause much FPS variance until AA is applied, so I suspect it's the CPU bottlenecking. The game runs at around 155 FPS before units start spawning into the game, also leading me to believe that it is the CPU that is the problem.

I'm running an AM3+ compatible board so was also wondering (if my conclusion above is true) if it is worth upgrading to a Piledriver CPU or ditching the board and getting an i5.

If anyone running a Piledriver CPU plays League it'd be very helpful if you could tell me the FPS you get.

Cheers

System Specs:
hcCWxV9.png
 
Well, you should upgrade the graphics card first, but after you do so, the CPU will be bottlenecking the GPU until you upgrade the CPU. But with that said, the performance will still be far greater, it will just improve further once you continue the upgrade path and change the CPU!

What is your budget for the first stage of the upgrade? :)

And can we get your full system specs please? You might be able to upgrade to an FX CPU for example, depending on what motherboard you have. And the GPU you pick may depend on the PSU you have.
 
Swap that CPU for A FX6300 or greater and switch out the GFX card?

Acme all the info is in that pic,

8GB RAM
970A-UD3P
7750 card.

Just PSU is unknown.
 
What is your budget for the first stage of the upgrade?
Click to expand...
Not actually sure, could spend a lot if needed, was originally looking to downsize to mini-itx with a 4790k, new board new case/cooling, which would be around £350-400, but thought that if I could do it cheaper with a new CPU then that might be a better option.

And can we get your full system specs please? You might be able to upgrade to an FX CPU for example, depending on what motherboard you have.
Click to expand...

The image above includes the motherboard model : Gigabyte 970A-UD3P

Swap that CPU for A FX6300 or greater and switch out the GFX card?
Click to expand...

Yeah, thing is I'm not sure if the graphics are really holding it back, the card may be **** but league isn't exactly the most demanding game graphically, I just don't wanna blow money on an unnecessary upgrade or buy an 8320 only to find it still doesn't achieve 144+

Just PSU is unknown.
Click to expand...

Oops, knew I'd forget something, PSU is an OCZ 500W ModXstream-Pro and the case is a Fractal Define R3
 
League will be mainly CPU dependent I would have thought (as with most MMOs like WoW), so stulid's suggestion of going for a 6300 or even 8320 is a good idea. Whether that'll get 144FPS+ is a different matter...
 
Ah sorry, I thought the image only showed the GPU and CPU, I just skimmed over it. :p
 
cereal3 said:
Yeah, thing is I'm not sure if the graphics are really holding it back, the card may be **** but league isn't exactly the most demanding game graphically, I just don't wanna blow money on an unnecessary upgrade or buy an 8320 only to find it still doesn't achieve 144+



Oops, knew I'd forget something, PSU is an OCZ 500W ModXstream-Pro and the case is a Fractal Define R3
Click to expand...



http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/league-of-legends-performance-benchmark,review-32692-8.html

Theres a whole host of GFX card and even CPU benchmarks.

Your 955BE is only 200Mhz slower than the 965BE listed, so I wouldn't concentrate on that, instead do a GFX card swap first.

Do you have an SSD?
 
Your 955BE is only 200Mhz slower than the 965BE listed, so I wouldn't concentrate on that, instead do a GFX card swap first.

Do you have an SSD?
Click to expand...

No SSD, though the game is on a secondary drive to windows and usually loads fastest out of the 10 players loading into a game.

Also my CPU has a little OC so it's actually 500Mhz faster :p

Buying any modern or a few year old high end gpu will be a massive upgrade. The 7750 is crap tbh
Click to expand...

Yeah, the whole system is pretty old, just trying to figure out if I could get away with replacing a single part or just getting both new.
 
stulid said:
GFX card and SSD I reckon would be sweat as a nut.

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI AMD ATI Radeon 7950 BE 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card **REFURB 90 DAY WARRANTY** (R7950-3GD5 BE) £99.95
1 x SK Hynix 128GB SSD SH910A SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive (HFS128G32MNB-2201A) £44.99
Total : £154.54 (includes shipping : £8.00).



That review shows how as the res is increased the weak GFX cards get left behind.
Click to expand...

Well you read my mind because I was planning to get one of those anyway I think, at that price. :D

SSD would be nice, but I think I'll hold off getting getting one, I know how fast they can be as my friend has one, but with Win8 it loads fast enough for me at the moment.

I guess my PSU will cope with the 7950 well enough then?
 
PSU should be ok, check it has two PCI-E connectors (2 x 6pin I think it is) as the card may not come with a mole-PCI-E adapter being a refurb.

And you should not be using a molex to PCi-E adapter anyway as thats naff.
 
stulid said:
PSU should be ok, check it has two PCI-E connectors (2 x 6pin I think it is) as the card may not come with a mole-PCI-E adapter being a refurb.

And you should not be using a molex to PCi-E adapter anyway as thats naff.
Click to expand...

Yep yep, PSU has 2 PCI-E.

Thanks for the help guys, I'll give the 7950 a shot
 
Lol came here to say what stulid has already said.

buy that 7950 refurb :)

SSDs for me are only amazing for general pc use in windows. once your games (eg for me far cry 4 atm) has initially loaded you never see any difference as its all loaded to ram without notice. but if you do a lot of normal pc stuff (like most people) get one as they are awesome and only 50quid
 
Try lowering the resolution and seeing if you can hit 144fps @ 720p or something like that. If you can, buy a new GPU. If you still can't, it's likely the CPU letting you down.

Alternatively, use something like MSI Afterburner with the graph view and check what's going on during the points where your fps dips. For example, if the GPU usage is low but the CPU is maxed out, then it points to a bottleneck.
From what you've written already, my bet would be on the GPU needing an upgrade.
 
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