Okay wtf, where's my bottleneck?

spleenharvester

spleenharvester

spleenharvester

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Alright, dunno if anybody remembers but I had a lot of performance issues which were tracked down (supposedly) to a GPU bottleneck.

So I buy a new card - a HIS 4870 512Mb - and there's still very little improvement. In Far Cry 2 it struggles with High settings, as did my 8800GTX with roughly the same performance and slowdown. Both cards alongside my 7900GS can play it fine on medium so there's clearly some bottleneck going on here.

I bought a new HDD - a Samsung F3 500Gb - next to no improvement (twice as fast as my old HDD though :D), though I can't help but notice it's being thrashed a lot in-game(s).

So yeah, back to square 1, where's my problem here? Other people I've asked can run the game with my card on Very High/Ultra High without issue. It's the rig in my sig. Could it be my CPU?

If I can't find what's wrong here I'm actually gonna go crazy ;)

Cheers people
 
I had the exact same CPU, a 1gb 8800gt and had the exact same issues with FC2
Upgraded to a Phenom II x4 and problems dissapeared ;)

I realize now bloody awful the 5000+ was for gaming
 
Try to unlock the CPU if your motherboard supports it- as mentioned, there's 2 extra cores and even an L3 cache kicking about in there.

If you can't, upgrade to an Athlon II or Phenom II X4.
 
^ Just checked and your board has the bios for it (may need to update)...

Set the Advanced Clock Calibration in the bios to auto... restart and if windows boots check CPUz see what it reads... theres a chance you will unlock the L3 cache and locked cores or one or the other...

If windows doesn't boot clear cmos and enter bios, or if it hangs at post enter bios add a little voltage to VCore and Core Voltage and try again... just if it doesnt boot dont keep adding more and more voltage thinking it will get it to!
 
danceforfreedom said:
^ Just checked and your board has the bios for it (may need to update)...

Set the Advanced Clock Calibration in the bios to auto... restart and if windows boots check CPUz see what it reads... theres a chance you will unlock the L3 cache and locked cores or one or the other...

If windows doesn't boot clear cmos and enter bios, or if it hangs at post enter bios add a little voltage to VCore and Core Voltage and try again... just if it doesnt boot dont keep adding more and more voltage thinking it will get it to!
Click to expand...

+1

Although I really don't think there should be a bottleneck in that system - HD4870's run fine with dual cores :confused:
 
I had shocking performance in games for a while until I realised my RAM wan't set up in duel channel. I, and many others on the forum, thought that it shouldn't have made much of an impact in games however I put the modules in the correct spot et viola- framerates went from an unplayable 20-30 to 60 FPS on highest settings in game. I see you have 3Gb so you will be running your ram in single channel.
 
Looked into that, only the newer 5000+'s that run at 2.2GHz by default can unlock :( Mine's one of the older chips.

So basically, I'm stuck for choice: either the Phenom II X2 550, an Athlon II X4 or a low-end Phenom II X4. Which should I go for? Apparently the 550 is the best choice, though I don't have ACC.

@Above - can you use unidentical sticks in dual channel? Might give that a shot :)
 
Go for the 550 for now, or a low end X4 if you're willing to overclock. Yes, you can use unidentical sticks in dual channel, providing there is only 2 or 4 sticks. What RAM do you have at the moment?
 
Try overclocking your current 5000+, I myself have got one to around 3Ghz with the stock cooler, see if that helps?
 
Orcvader said:
Go for the 550 for now, or a low end X4 if you're willing to overclock. Yes, you can use unidentical sticks in dual channel, providing there is only 2 or 4 sticks. What RAM do you have at the moment?
Click to expand...

I'm leaning towards the 550 right now I think, and Kingston ValueRAM 1gb/667mhz (KVR667D2N5/1G) and Corsair ValueSelect VS667somethingorother.

simbady said:
Try overclocking your current 5000+, I myself have got one to around 3Ghz with the stock cooler, see if that helps?
Click to expand...

OC'ed it to 3Ghz, has definitely helped a bit :) must be the CPU then.
 
I'd go for an Athlon II X4 645, or the 630 would give you the same performance for £13 less if you know how to overclock.

The X2 555 overclocks better and easier, but I'd really recommend against it if you won't be able to unlock those extra two cores. A lot of games will struggle now purely on the dual core issue- a good dual core can handle it for now, but you really need to go for a quad core if you want this processor to last you a good couple of years.
 
hybrid572 said:
I'd go for an Athlon II X4 645, or the 630 would give you the same performance for £13 less if you know how to overclock.

The X2 555 overclocks better and easier, but I'd really recommend against it if you won't be able to unlock those extra two cores. A lot of games will struggle now purely on the dual core issue- a good dual core can handle it for now, but you really need to go for a quad core if you want this processor to last you a good couple of years.
Click to expand...

On the basis of this, the X3 445 is considered to be the best sub-£80 for gaming, and is still one of the best up to £100.

Right balance of cores, speed, and ofc price.
 
Nice, the X3 445 is £24 cheaper than the X4 645- the X4's 36% more expensive for that one extra core. That said, I'd be tempted to spend the extra £11 for the X4 630, just to have that extra core as games start to require it more and more.
 
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