Problem with new 670's

SkodaMart · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:04

Rusty0611 said:
and decided it wasn't worth it.

I kind of saw that one coming!

If he removes one of his graphics cards, that should push his GPU useage nearer to 100% (and its free!!)

SkodaMart · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:06

JamesM said:
Haha thought I might see that image.

My plan all along was to see whether it made any obvious performance increase over my 3570k and the fact that it doesn't, means I can simply return and save my money for something else.

If I hadn't of tried it then I would have been left wondering "was there more performance available to me" when the answer is, no, not with an 3770k.

Fair, do's - You are not the first and you won't be the last to buy something you didn't really need and then return it.

At least curiosity has been satisfied.

Kaapstad · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:09

JamesM said:
Haha thought I might see that image.

My plan all along was to see whether it made any obvious performance increase over my 3570k and the fact that it doesn't, means I can simply return and save my money for something else.

If I hadn't of tried it then I would have been left wondering "was there more performance available to me" when the answer is, no, not with an 3770k.

I am sorry it did not give the performance you were looking for.

This is a pic of GPU usage for mine in sli running BF3 @1600p

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/membf3.jpg/

Rusty0611 · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:15

Kaapstad said:
I am sorry it did not give the performance you were looking for.

This is a pic of GPU usage for mine in sli running BF3 @1600p

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/29/membf3.jpg/

I did say as well originally it'll only be a 5% bump at the max over a clocked i5 but it is always worth trying with the DSR there if you're curious

Kaapstad · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:20

Rusty0611 said:
I did say as well originally it'll only be a 5% bump at the max over a clocked i5 but it is always worth trying with the DSR there if you're curious

+1

Rusty611 on 3 screens do you get constant high usage or are there any dips like JamesM discribed @1080p

SkodaMart · 17 Oct 2012 at 15:37

I will admit I am surprised to see that an i5 @ 4.6 GHz is limited in anything, however 670 GTX SLi is some serious rendering power.
It is also interesting to see that the i7 is starting to show some advantages over the i5 in gaming.

What would be interesting is how much difference an overclock makes in a CPU limited game such as BF3.
Overclocked vs stock.

Rusty0611 · 17 Oct 2012 at 16:00

Kaapstad said:
+1

Rusty611 on 3 screens do you get constant high usage or are there any dips like JamesM discribed @1080p

90% at the lowest unless the server stutters at which point it'll drop.

Averaging about 95% but flits between that and 99%.

Marine-RX179 · 17 Oct 2012 at 16:01

Well, I'll address GW2 only. I play the game, and the overall CPU usage NEVER gone above 75%, so it would suggest the game would only scale with up to 3 cores.

You'd thought a new high profile games like GW2 would use 4 cores or above, but no...it for some reason decided to join the league of "refuse to use more than 3 cores mmos" out there. I can't really recall any mmo that use 4 cores or above out there...except FF (but the game sucked apparently).

Kaapstad · 17 Oct 2012 at 16:15

SkodaMart said:
I will admit I am surprised to see that an i5 @ 4.6 GHz is limited in anything, however 670 GTX SLi is some serious rendering power.
It is also interesting to see that the i7 is starting to show some advantages over the i5 in gaming.

What would be interesting is how much difference an overclock makes in a CPU limited game such as BF3.
Overclocked vs stock.

In the pic I posted earlier the CPU is running @4.0ghz. For games I don't go any higher

whyscotty · 17 Oct 2012 at 16:59

JamesM said:
Thought i'd update received the i7 and installed.

First impressions are yes it does make things smoother and yes minimum FPS has increased. After clocking it to 4.6GHz and having a few rounds of BF3 the FPS didn't drop below the 90s so that's an improvement. Also on a plus point the CPU happily ran at 2200Mhz memory and 4.6Ghz only needed 1.3v so was rather impressed with that.

I didn't expect miracles and the GPU usage was still hovering around the 60-95% mark which i'll put down to using 1080p as a resolution.

I've decided i'll still be DSRing the i7 purely because it wasn't a huge jump in performance for the cost.

Just ran BF3 on single monitor using 2 cards and I got
around 65-90% Gpu usage

As you said sli on 1080 resolution doesn't push the cards,
hence lower Gpu usage

Atleast you now know its not worth upgrading

Rusty0611 · 17 Oct 2012 at 17:09

Indeed. The game does throttle back a little with SLI and only single 1080p.

I believe each time I've had a minimum FPS reading my usage has been high on both cards though so at least I know when I hit a minimum both cards are doing all they can to bump that minimum as high as possible.

With an i5, I'd hit a marginally lower minimum as both GPU's can only be 85% utilised. I don't have a problem personally with the cards calming down a little bit if I've got well over 120 FPS. It's if they're relaxing when I've only got 60 FPS then I'd be annoyed.

I wouldn't have gone SLI with a single screen though - SLI is only for multi-monitor IMO.

BluSky · 17 Oct 2012 at 17:12

Yeah in day to day usage the 3770k wont feel any faster than the 3570, and the difference in games is negligible. Only reason to buy it is if you are doing something that will put those 4 extra threads to use.

Rusty0611 · 17 Oct 2012 at 17:27

BluSky said:
Only reason to buy it is if you are doing something that will put those 4 extra threads to use.

Like BF3?

I jest of course.

snakegb · 17 Oct 2012 at 21:54

hi all,

right,

tested both 670's both work fine with single monitor 1920 x 1080 getting 180-250 fps on both

now here is something thats interesting and maybe the issue!!

after testing i put my system back together and now i have no windows boot drive
after further testing looks like my OCZ SSD drive has died, ive check it on both my system and another pc it lights up with red & green light but wont detect in the bios,

OMG am having a bad week :eek:

JamesM · 18 Oct 2012 at 09:18

Sounds very odd?

Ahh even though I've requested a RMA I still can't decide what to do. Put the 3570 back in afterwards and it really does struggle with two 670s. It's not a case of the fps just slowing down but the system actually lags/stutters when it hits 30fps which I really can't be doing with.

I don't want to get rid of the 2nd 670 as I will end up with a larger monitor (+resolution) at some point in the future so it will be beneficial. I've got 14 days, i'll see how I get on running it for that bit longer and then hopefully make a decision.

Doesn't help that the 3770k is a better clocker than my 3570 either.

Anyway sorry for taking over the thread but thank you for the advise everyone!

SkodaMart · 18 Oct 2012 at 09:24

@JamesM

If i were you I would keep the i7 this is based on the fact that you are seeing an improvement over your i5.
New games releases may continue to utilse more than 4 cores.
I really think an i7 3770k + 670 SLi is going to last a long time, you will get bored of it before you actually need to upgrade.

This is based on selling your i5 3570k as it is worth good money on eBay or the MM.

OptimaLnrg · 18 Oct 2012 at 09:35

snakegb said:
hi all,

right,

tested both 670's both work fine with single monitor 1920 x 1080 getting 180-250 fps on both

now here is something thats interesting and maybe the issue!!

after testing i put my system back together and now i have no windows boot drive
after further testing looks like my OCZ SSD drive has died, ive check it on both my system and another pc it lights up with red & green light but wont detect in the bios,

OMG am having a bad week

My ocz agility 3 would randomly disappear if i'd been adding/removing other sata drives on my z68 board (asus). Took some fiddling but has worked fine since.

snakegb · 18 Oct 2012 at 12:46

OptimaLnrg said:
My ocz agility 3 would randomly disappear if i'd been adding/removing other sata drives on my z68 board (asus). Took some fiddling but has worked fine since.

Just returned it to *NO COMPETITORS* and got a replacement thats better its sata 3 , corsair so should be great.

Rusty0611 · 18 Oct 2012 at 12:52

JamesM said:
Sounds very odd?

Ahh even though I've requested a RMA I still can't decide what to do. Put the 3570 back in afterwards and it really does struggle with two 670s. It's not a case of the fps just slowing down but the system actually lags/stutters when it hits 30fps which I really can't be doing with.

I don't want to get rid of the 2nd 670 as I will end up with a larger monitor (+resolution) at some point in the future so it will be beneficial. I've got 14 days, i'll see how I get on running it for that bit longer and then hopefully make a decision.

Doesn't help that the 3770k is a better clocker than my 3570 either.

Anyway sorry for taking over the thread but thank you for the advise everyone!

If you've got a good clocker I'd keep it. Bear in mind though that above 4.6 GHz the heat really becomes an issue.

You can recoup £140 easily by selling the i5 I'd say. With that the net cost is around £100 for a slightly smoother experience and HT if any applications you use, use it.

SkodaMart · 18 Oct 2012 at 12:55

Rusty0611 said:
If you've got a good clocker I'd keep it. Bear in mind though that above 4.6 GHz the heat really becomes an issue.

You can recoup £140 easily by selling the i5 I'd say. With that the net cost is around £100 for a slightly smoother experience and HT if any applications you use, use it.

We agree at last!!