Need advice on cpu & mobo upgrade

richy85

richy85

richy85

Associate
Joined
30 Dec 2013
Posts
19
Hey guys. Just wondering if I could get some advice?

Currently running an i7 3770k on an asrock z68 extrem3 gen3 along with a gtx970 AMP Extreme edition and 16gb dominator 2800mhz ram.
Can play most games fine although a few are running like crap... The other thing is also that I've been getting into twitch streaming which combined with some games that are already performing poorly, such as DayZ, I'm finding that my processor is struggling a bit. (My AMP Extreme gtx970 seems to be holding up fine though)

The question is... What to go for?

Do I need to go for a processor with a faster clock speed which I've heard favours poorly optimised games like DayZ better - yeah I know its still in alpha and might improve in future builds - such as the i7 4790k or go for one of the octa or hex cores with a lower clock but more cores?

Currently in dayz with all settings on bare minimum (and the cfg files edited to further nerf the gfx) I'm getting maybe 10-15fps max if I am lucky in cities and towns.
Also Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R - Lost Alpha mod which are really bloated are really running like crap to the point that running a twitch stream as well is just making them unplayable, or only just being barely playable at a level that makes them look horrendous on minimum gfx.

I know some people will suggest running a capture card and a separate PC to manage my streams but I dont have the space for another pc.

Price point for upgrading isn't a huge issue... to a point...
Under or around 500 would be ideal.

Also I wouldn't mind a mobo that would be able to support a potential future upgrade to a second AMP extreme gtx970 card - they are quite large and need a fair bit of space.
Also, what is the smallest decent case I could get away with two of those big cards in? I had a hard time finding my current case to fit my current card in but unfortunately its design prohibits a second.

thanks.

Richy.
 
Hi and welcome :)

The first thing to do is overclock the CPU. That'll give you some effectively free performance.

I have to be honest though, that PC should be capable of playing games without many issues. Things like DayZ will perform poorly with any CPU really, unless you start turning settings down. Like you said, it's in alpha so you have to expect issues. That said 10fps-15fps sounds too low

If you really want to spend money I'd advise a 5820K build, simply because you want to stream too. The alternative is either the 4790K, a good CPU but on a dying socket type now and likely not much better than what you have now, or a Skylake i7 build. The Skylake i7s are not very well priced though.

Also consider a decent SSD which will speed things up. As far as the GPU goes I'd prefer to sell the 970 and buy a single 980ti. Some games perform horribly on SLI configs, sometimes worse than a single card. It's not worth the effort in my opinion.

What PSU do you currently have by the way?
 
Hi thanks for the response.
I'm running a corsair (not sure what model) 850W PSU. It's one of the better model sthough, as I can remember spending a bit of £ on it.

I do also have an SSD :)

yeah I know the 4790k is getting on a bit now but a few people I've seen streaming use it and seem to do ok on full settings with it.
I've seen people using much worse cards than my 970 but using the 4790k and were playing dayz on full graphics with very reasonable FPS (50-60 in open spaces and around 30-35 or so in towns).
Even without OBS running to stream twitch I cannot even contemplate running DayZ on full settings. Even on minimum I'm usually sub-30fps, especially in towns/cities.

I'm not sure upgrading my 970 would help much though, considering according to my monitor it is not even being maxed out in most cases, in fact in dayz rarely even achieves more than 50-60% utilisation at most.
Fair enough on the SLI configuration though. If Needs be I will probably consider the 980ti, but it seems to me my CPU is the crux of my issue?

I did consider a skylake build, but as you say the price point is a little bit of an issue for me right now. Some of the 6 and 8 cores are on a better price level, but I have no knowledge of them at all and how they stack up against faster quads or how they perform with games that barely run properly on duals and quads?

But as you say, I'm not on a bad setup but for some reason I just don't have the oompf I need.


Just put my 3770k up to 4.6ghz with a tiny voltage increase. Will stress test it and see how she fares and see if I get much gain at all tomorrow.
Don't hold out much hope for any major gains however.
 
Last edited:
I'd also be checking for the usual malaware / running processes that may be taking up resources, although you may have already done that.

Seems odd as the CPU you have isn't far away at all from the 4790K..
 
I had to declock to 4.4ghz as was getting some memory errors but is stable now but doesn't seem to have changed much performance wise .

Running DayZ bare minimum gfx with nothing else running my cpu is around 3/4 loaded and my gpu is around 30%
Only getting 20-30 fps if I am lucky, still running below or around 20fps in most cases with absolute base minimum graphics with everything disabled for low and render distances pulled right back in the cfg files.



I'm running a clean install of windows 7 and adware/crapware etc is never an issue for me anyway as I run scheduled clean/sweeps of my pc often - plus i don't go around clicking dodgy links and porn ;)

I'm just frustrated more than anything that people with lower powered rigs are managing to run the game on reasonable settings with better FPS than me, plus streaming at the same time.
 
Last edited:
First of all, you're running games that are optimized like a P.O.S. so no matter what hardware you buy you'll have trouble - it's up to the devs, not you, to make it better.

Second, are you streaming with QuickSync on? That will help a lot.

Third, are you running everything from a single HDD? If so, that's a big problem as well.

Lastly, make sure there are no power management settings holding you back.
 
In the nvidia control panel everythings set to either app controlled, off or performance bias.
the game settings are as such:



Although I also have the view distances and detail levels further turned down in the games .cfg files.
I've tried playing about with the settings but it's just useless, anything above minimum and its like playing a slide show.

I'm purely just running the game itself (and windows) from my SSD. Everything else on my pc is installed onto other drives.

And yes I know its poorly optimised and in pre-alpha.
But how is it that many people manage to play it with worse hardware on decent settings yet I can't?
this is the thing that's p***ing me off >:-|
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom