is my CPU bottlenecking?

[almoststew1990]

I recently upgraded to an ATI 7870 from a 4890. I expected the frame rate at 'max settings' at 1920*1080 to increase massively in games such as metro and GTA IV, but I have gone from 30 to 50 or so in both games- lower than the review benchmarks suggested. So I am wondering if my CPU is limiting my performance. I have an i7 860 (1155 socket) clocked at 3.3GHz (stock is 2.8). So is my processor's age beginning to show?

ASUS P4P55D- EVO
i7 860
4Gb 1666MHz
500GB 7200RPM
Sapphire ATI 7870

Thanks!

 

[Azen]

What was your previous card and what were you getting from that?

 

[Marine-RX179]

Try to clock your i7 860 to 4.0GHz (if you got a good CPU cooler).

In some games, they use less than 4 cores, so having higher clock would help getting more out of the graphic card.

Metro2033 is quite CPU demanding from what I recall, and GTA IV is just poorly coded, and use insane amount of CPU power...so even with a capable PC you will still see frame rate dips quite freqently...but with the CPU faster should definitely help.

 

[Orcvader]

What was your previous card and what were you getting from that?

He said he moved form a 4890, and jumped from 30 fps to 50 fps.

I believe GTA IV is more CPU dependant, so see if you can overclock your i7 a little higher.

Could also try the 12.5 beta drivers, they seem to give the best performance for the 7870 so far.

 

[almoststew1990]

Cheers for the replies guys. My cooler is a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus CPU Cooler (OCUK no longer sell it, so: http://www.coolermaster.co.uk/product.php?product_id=6603). I only have the one pull fan on it at the moment, should I get a second for push + pull? Will this be a good enough cooler or should I invest £40-50 on a really good cooler to get a better overclock?

 

[Orcvader]

What temps are you getting on max load at the moment?

 

[almoststew1990]

In the low 60s I believe, I am away from my desktop for a while so I can't tell you exactly! It was never a cause for concern when I was testing in Prime95, I don't think it reached 70.

 

[Gripen90]

I don't think there's anything wrong. You still got a massive 20FPS boost in Metro2033 and that's one GPU dependent game also.
Take a look here. They use a Core i7 3960x and with HD7870 they reach around 60FPS.
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/AMD-Radeon-HD-7870-and-7850-GPU-Previews/?page=8

 

[Freddie1980]

I recently upgraded to an ATI 7870 from a 4890. I expected the frame rate at 'max settings' at 1920*1080 to increase massively in games such as metro and GTA IV, but I have gone from 30 to 50 or so in both games- lower than the review benchmarks suggested. So I am wondering if my CPU is limiting my performance. I have an i7 860 (1155 socket) clocked at 3.3GHz (stock is 2.8). So is my processor's age beginning to show?

ASUS P4P55D- EVO
i7 860
4Gb 1666MHz
500GB 7200RPM
Sapphire ATI 7870

Thanks!

30 to 50 FPS is a HUGE increase.