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Suggestions on next upgrade to reduce lag

munwin92

munwin92

munwin92

Associate
Joined
1 Dec 2013
Posts
16
Location
Durham
Type|Item|Price
:----|:----|:----
**CPU** | [AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor]
**Motherboard** | [Gigabyte GA-78LMT-S2P Micro ATX AM3+ Motherboard]
**Memory** | [Samsung 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory]
**Memory** | [Samsung 4GB (1 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory]
**Storage** | [Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive]
**Video Card** | [Asus GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card]
**Power Supply** | [OCZ ZT 650W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply]
**Optical Drive** | [Asus DRW-24B3ST/BLK/G/AS DVD/CD Writer]
**Operating System** | [Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)]
**Monitor** | [Asus VG248QE 144Hz 24.0" Monitor]
| | **Total**
Please also remove competitor prices. Thank you.




Hi Guys, this is my current system which I have had just over a year that I have also upgraded my graphics card in.

I have recently been playing a few games and noticed that I am getting lag at certain points of the games but not consistently and as I have just received AC4 and BF4 for Christmas, I also notice lag in these games too and I wondered if there would be any specific hardware from those listed above which maybe need upgrading. I have been looking at maybe upgrading to a 780 or a 780ti so that could be something I do depending on any advice!

I have tried to add all of the parts into this but for certain things like my RAM & HDD for example, I can't find the exact models so I've tried to find something very similar. Thanks guys!


Thanks
Matt
 
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What graphics settings are you running at? A GTX 680 should be able to run BF4 with few hiccups
 
Thanks for the replies, I've removed the links and apologise - I had included them in an old reddit post and copy and pasted

For my BF4 settings I have:
Graphic Quality - custom
Texture quality - high
Texture filtering - high
Lighting Quality - high
Effects Quality - medium
Post Processing Quality - high
Mesh - Medium
Terrain Quality - high
Terrain Decor - medium
Antialiasing deferred - off
Antialiasing post - medium
Ambient Occlusion - SSAO

What do you mean with my CPU? It never appears maxed out in task manager (sorry new to this) would I be better off upgrading motherboard?
 
Your motherboard VRAM's won't be able to cope with the power draw of the FX83 and it's throttling, resulting in your CPU running slower.

That'd be my guess.
 
Thanks lads, so if I was to maybe upgrade the motherboard to something like this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-502-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

Or one of these so I could SLI my card:


http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-576-AS&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-349-GI&groupid=701&catid=1903&subcat=2046

Would this, as well as an SSD which I am to buy, increase the performance of my PC a fair amount?
 
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The M5a97 evo r2.0 is a good board for the money.

Yeah I'd get an SSD, best pc upgrade I have done!
 
Vote goes to the Sabertooth if you have the cash. Great board and VRMs will never throttle under any normal overclock.

The UD3 has problems depending on which revision you get. Problems are also throttling related, so it might do you no good to get it.

Asus evo is okay but the Sabertooth is better.
 
Champion, thanks lads! So are we to say then that once a new motherboard is in, it should allow my CPU to work better and help with reducing any visual lag/jittering etc? :)
 
That is IF the VRMs are the core of your problems. Download HWmonitor and run a stress test like prime95. If hw monitor shows very high VRMs temps, then it is likely clocking the CPU down.

I would run hwmonitor and core temp to show you temperatures of your VRMs and CPU. Prime95 will put the PC under load so you can see what temps you might reach if you were pushing it really hard.

Given your components and lack of aftermarket cooler, i would guess that the motherboard is throttling your CPU because either the VRMs are too hot or the CPU is too hot. Post the temperatures/screenshot when you run prime95 and i am sure someone here will give you the answer you are looking for.
 
Hey, thanks for the reply! I'm just in the process of running the tests now as I've not had time the past couple of days, on average how long should I run the test for or should it stop after a certain point?

I'm running Core temp, HW Monitor and Prime 95 like you suggested, thanks :D
 
XD1pyOd.jpg


Hi again, these are the results of the stress test after around 8 hours... I hope I have uploaded this right! I've resized it to fit with the forum rules

Any feedback appreciated!

Matt
 
That is a useful screenshot. You only needed to run them until temperatures would level out but this screen will do nicely.

It looks like Martini was spot on with his prediction. It is the motherboard, as the CPU is on a lower level of multiplier (it is x14 instead of x20 or whatever stock is). This is usually due to a component overheating and so the CPU is throttled to lower voltages and temperatures to prevent damage. You never really saw this with VRM temps very often until the fx range came out, as many boards that people used with these were simply not designed to take these power hungry chips.

Core temperature and HW monitor show low socket and core temperatures, so the culprit is the VRMs/MOSFETs of your motherboard. Not surprising as your board has 4+1 power phasing and no heatsink on the VRMs. A few 4+1 boards handle the CPU just fine under stock speeds but these are usually mid range Asus boards.

Since you are choosing between a 780 and 780 ti, i will assume that budget is not a huge issue, as the performance gained from choosing another board will be massive, just because you are not being throttled, and a new board wont cost much. A 780ti is overkill for your set up and i will doubt you will notice a real life difference between the two on a single monitor (no difference really, as you are currently bottlenecked by the motherboards throttling).

I suggest you grab yourself:

A 780 or a non reference 290/290x

and on of the following motherboards. If you wont overclock, then grab the cheapest of the three but if you overclock, the better the board, the easier it is to gain that magic 5 Ghz (which is very possible for these 8350's).

YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 AMD 990FX (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £139.99
1 x Asus M5A99X PRO R2.0 AMD 990X (Socket AM3+) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Asus M5A97 EVO R2.0 AMD 970 (Socket AM3+) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
Total : £349.57 (includes shipping : £8.00).




I see you have a M-atx board currently, if you cannot accommodate the larger boards above, the only board i can think of that wont throttle all that much is this one:

Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD 760G (Socket AM3+) DDR3 MicroATX Motherboard

I own one and have put the same CPU you have, in it to run some tests. It wont throttle all the time but still enough to make things laggy under load. Rather than choose this small board, it would be better to get a lower power CPU with less cores like a 6300 or buy a case to fit one of the larger boards i have linked above. Though the board above wont throttle as much compare to other boards int eh price range, i found mine delivered unstable power to the CPU, which is arguably worse that throttling, as components are more at risk.

Would avoid most Asrock and MSI boards when choosing for fx chips, as they have a terrible track record when it comes down to throttling or exploding VRMs.
 
*edit, saw you have a 680 already*

TBH, best to see how the PC performs once the motherboard is replaced. If that is not enough grunt, i doubt the 780 will be a massive improvement. Replace the PSU with something better and grab a second 680 if you still find it laggy with the new motherboard.
 
Thats great thanks for the reply, I'm starting to understand it a bit more now. I have been looking at the Sabertooth 990FX card originally based on the feedback of some other users but like you said I am unsure if this will fit in my current case. I have the ANtec 300 Three Hundred Gaming Case:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-101-AN&groupid=2362&catid=160

So I am unsure if it will fit in or not, don't suppose you have any idea of how I could tell? I do see that my case takes standard ATX motherboard and as the M5A99X Pro R2.0 says it is an ATX card but the sabertooth doesn't, thats where I am getting a bit confused.

I bought my current 680 (ASUS) thinking it would fit the same as my MSI one had, but I had to make some adjustments to my case :(

Also I noted that you mentioned temps could be an issue because I have no aftermarket cooler, could you make any recommendations? Thanks so much for your help! :)
 
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