Upgrade Feasible or Processor Bottle Neck?

[actionstan]

Hello All, 

 

I currently am running the system in my sig:

 

Visiontek Radeon 5870

Phenom II Black Edition Quad Core 3.2ghz

4gb Gskill DDR3 1600mhz Ram (2x2)

Asus 790x MotherBoard

x2 640gb 7200 rpm Harddrives

750 Watt Corsair Power Supply

 

 

I was thinking of dropping the PowerColor 5870 and picking up a card in the 150-200 dollar range, maybe a R9 270x/R9 280/R9 280x/R9 285 with at least 3-4gb ddr5 ram. 

 

I just wonder if it will be to much of a bottle neck coming from my processor? It seems like Battlefield 4 pretty much keeps it running at 90% when I watch it.. 

If you don't think it will be to much of a bottle neck, can you recommend the best video card for 150-200? 

 

Thanks all!

Edited November 21, 2014 by actionstan

[IVIYTH0S]

What resolution are you playing at? I don't think your Phenom II will hold back a 280x really, do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler you could overclock it to like 3.8ghz or higher?

[actionstan]

What resolution are you playing at? I don't think your Phenom II will hold back a 280x really, do you have an aftermarket CPU cooler you could overclock it to like 3.8ghz or higher?

 

Right now I am playing at 1600x900, I may be upgrading to a 1080p monitor soon though. I have tried a lot to overclock my CPU, even with proper cooling I have had issues keeping it stable, I have a Noctua NH-D14 cooler currently. 

Edited November 21, 2014 by actionstan

[DanTheGamer11]

What GPU usage are you getting on BF4(tried it out in origin gametime)? I have a X6 Phenom and had bottlenecking in BF4(little fps difference between high and low settings, pretty much same gpu usage) with a 7950

Edited November 21, 2014 by DanTheGamer11

[IVIYTH0S]

Raising the resolution will transplant stress off the CPU and put it more on the GPU

[actionstan]

What GPU usage are you getting on BF4(tried it out in origin gametime)? I have a X6 Phenom and had bottlenecking in BF4(little fps difference between high and low settings, pretty much same gpu usage) with a 7950

 

I am not sure about GPU usage, can you recommend a good way to monitor this in game I will test it out. 

 

Raising the resolution will transplant stress off the CPU and put it more on the GPU

Thats a good thing, and you had asked about overclocking earlier, this weekend I fiddled around with it, and got it to 3.6 so far it seems to be perfectly stable. I have a little room to go higher heat wise, its pretty finicky, but I will see if I can get higher.  

Edited November 24, 2014 by actionstan

[IVIYTH0S]

 

What GPU usage are you getting on BF4(tried it out in origin gametime)? I have a X6 Phenom and had bottlenecking in BF4(little fps difference between high and low settings, pretty much same gpu usage) with a 7950

 

I am not sure about GPU usage, can you recommend a good way to monitor this in game I will test it out. 

 

Raising the resolution will transplant stress off the CPU and put it more on the GPU

Thats a good thing, and you had asked about overclocking earlier, this weekend I fiddled around with it, and got it to 3.6 so far it seems to be perfectly stable. I have a little room to go higher heat wise, its pretty finicky, but I will see if I can get higher.  

 

You can use an overclocking program like MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU usage

 

Every bit helps, I'd squeeze all you can out of it (especially running a D14, you should do QUITE well).

 

After your new OC's as high as you can go and stable I'd go find a used 7970/280X and be set

[TimeMachine]

You can also use Gpu Shark to get the info.  And the DH-14 is the best air cooler you can get! 

[slick2500]

 

 

What GPU usage are you getting on BF4(tried it out in origin gametime)? I have a X6 Phenom and had bottlenecking in BF4(little fps difference between high and low settings, pretty much same gpu usage) with a 7950

 

I am not sure about GPU usage, can you recommend a good way to monitor this in game I will test it out. 

 

Raising the resolution will transplant stress off the CPU and put it more on the GPU

Thats a good thing, and you had asked about overclocking earlier, this weekend I fiddled around with it, and got it to 3.6 so far it seems to be perfectly stable. I have a little room to go higher heat wise, its pretty finicky, but I will see if I can get higher.  

 

You can use an overclocking program like MSI Afterburner to monitor GPU usage

 

Every bit helps, I'd squeeze all you can out of it (especially running a D14, you should do QUITE well).

 

After your new OC's as high as you can go and stable I'd go find a used 7970/280X and be set

 

Right now there is an issue with Battlefield 4 and MSI Afterburner, the game gets stuck on the loading screen for some people, me included.

[actionstan]

Alright, so.. I used MSI Afterburner and played a few games last night. I tried BattleField 4, and also Left4Dead 2. 

 

It does appear the CPU is my biggest bottle neck right now, and that my GPU isn't being all that taxed.. 

 

In BF4 I was seeing CPU utilization of 90%+ even when overclocked to 3.6ghz. GPU usage was ranging between 60%-70%. (Medium settings in graphics) 

 

In L4D2 it was a similar experience, CPU utilization was approximately 80%ish.. and GPU usage was 40-50%. (Max graphical settings. 

 

I am assuming this means my CPU will be the biggest culprit going forward.. I am actually a little surprised by this. I think at this point its time to start saving my pennies for a partially new build(CPU/MOBO/VID Card). With my current board I think my CPU upgrade path is a little limited. That being said.. it will probably be better for me to wait until I have the extra cash, or actually run into a game that is unplayable even on low settings.. As mentioned above, I will be upgrading to a 23 inch 1080p monitor so I will definitely recheck these numbers once this happens. 

 

Thanks for your help guys! 

Edited November 25, 2014 by actionstan

[IVIYTH0S]

Did you bump up BF4 to higher settings to see if the GPU gets more loaded or not?

[cchalogamer]

Alright, so.. I used MSI Afterburner and played a few games last night. I tried BattleField 4, and also Left4Dead 2. 

 

It does appear the CPU is my biggest bottle neck right now, and that my GPU isn't being all that taxed.. 

 

In BF4 I was seeing CPU utilization of 90%+ even when overclocked to 3.6ghz. GPU usage was ranging between 60%-70%. (Medium settings in graphics) 

 

In L4D2 it was a similar experience, CPU utilization was approximately 80%ish.. and GPU usage was 40-50%. (Max graphical settings. 

 

I am assuming this means my CPU will be the biggest culprit going forward.. I am actually a little surprised by this. I think at this point its time to start saving my pennies for a partially new build(CPU/MOBO/VID Card). With my current board I think my CPU upgrade path is a little limited. That being said.. it will probably be better for me to wait until I have the extra cash, or actually run into a game that is unplayable even on low settings.. As mentioned above, I will be upgrading to a 23 inch 1080p monitor so I will definitely recheck these numbers once this happens. 

 

Thanks for your help guys! 

The BF4 numbers don't add up at ALL in my experience.  Take a look at this. An older AMD quad can nearly keep up with the big boys when feeding the R9 290...the 5870 should be easy.  Based on how my 6950 ran BF4 though my guess is the card is the issue.   

 

Source games are a tougher animal to figure out for me.  I've had wildly variable numbers across many systems, but if it's running over 60 (and that should be reasonably easy with L4D2) I just don't worry about it anymore.