Is this a CPU bottleneck?

[TallmanMikeUK]

Hi Guys,

As per the title; these two pictures show my CPU utilisation over the indicated periods of time whilst playing Battlefield 1. CPU usage is consistently in the mid-high 90% range, the big dips being round / server changes. I've recently been considering a GPU upgrade but I've begun thinking that the potential performance increase would be bottle-necked by the CPU.

Currently running Phenom X6 1100tBE OC @ 3.8ghz





Do you guys reckon this is a bottleneck and, if so, what would be a sensible upgrade with plenty of headroom?

Thanks

 

[africanos23]

What resolution and settings, also what GPU are you running?

My guess is BF1 is hammering the CPU (I see higher temps than most games), Witcher 3 also hammers the CPU on lower resolutions.

 

[HeX]

Looks like your CPU is running flat out, so yeah bottle neck for sure.

 

[TallmanMikeUK]

What resolution and settings, also what GPU are you running?

This is 1080 and everything on low bar mesh quality (for draw distance) and particle quality, which are both on high. The GPU is a Gigabyte Windforce Radeon 7850; it shows 300 core / 150 mem which I think was an OC I did a while back.

 

[HeX]

What GPU? By the look of it you should be able to turn on some more eye candy without taking a hit as your GPU is being held back anyway...

 

[AllBodies]

A Phenom X6 1100tBE OC @ 3.8ghz will basically bottleneck any modern game now, at 1920x1080 and below.

Depending on your budget, the most 'sensible' thing to do is probably to wait for the Ryzen 6 core chips in a month ish. You'll be able to get one of those plus a B350 mobo for less than £350.

If you want current full-tilt game performance, you need an i7 7700k. But there's no room for growth there. It'll run any game that uses 4 or less cores as fast as possible, and then be overtaken by 6+ core chips in the near-ish future when game devs finally start supporting more cores en-masse.

 

[koooowweeee]

That GPU needs upgrading. It wasn't that good when it came out

 

[AiiR]

That's Phenom architecture, it definitely doesn't cut it in 2017 unless you're playing indie games.