Whats Bottlenecking my performance?

C

Cerv

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So here's my beef. I've recently replaced about 90% of the components in my PC to keep up with the times, and I'd like to be able to run BF3 well. I bought a second 6850 GPU to run CrossfireX the day before BF3 came out, and was getting garbage performance. I understand that there are driver issues, but some people are claiming they are getting 100+ fps with dual 6850's with settings on high, or a mix of high and ultra, uncluding AAx2 and 4.

I struggle to keep a constant 40fps at medium with no AA, so here's my current build.

AMD Athlon II X4 635 (95W) Quad Core Socket AM3, 2.9GHz, 2Mb Cache, 1800MHz HT

Asus M4A78-E Mobo

4GB DDR3 667MHz (Kingston)

XFX Radeon 6850 1GB DDR3 GPU clocked to 815MHz Memory clocked to 1060MhZ
X
Asus Radeon 6850 1GB DDR3 GPU clocked to 815MHz Memory clocked to 1060MhZ

When I upgraded my CPU last year, I thought the quad core 635 was a steal, but after some recent research, I've found that the 4 cores was deceiving and that the CPU actually isn't that great.


I've also been running dual monitors, one 24" and one 19". Is it possible that because my GPU's have to display at 2 different resolutions that it could be impacting performance? I've been using just the 24" one for the past day or so to see if it helps, but there's no noticeable difference in gaming performance.

Halp!
 
Cerv said:
When I upgraded my CPU last year, I thought the quad core 635 was a steal, but after some recent research, I've found that the 4 cores was deceiving and that the CPU actually isn't that great.
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That's the key part. For the price the Athlon X4 is excellent, but it's just not fast enough to keep up with the newer Intel CPUs. Considering that all the Battlefield games tend to be very CPU-intensive, I'd say that's what's holding you back. Picking up something like a Phenom II 955 would probably be the cheapest worthwhile upgrade, but an i5 2500k will be a noticeable improvement over the 955 (though obviously more expensive since you'll also need a new motherboard).

Also, make sure that your Crossfire is both enabled and that you have the latest drivers and CAP from AMD.

And for purchasing next time, keep in mind that four cores is exactly that: four cores. If they're slow cores, then you have a slow four-core processor.
 
Dual monitors shouldn't really have any performance impacts on your GPU's.

It's most likely the CPU. The problem with Athlon II's are the lower caches compared to Phenom II's and even the lack of L3 cache. So, that makes even the regular Phenom I's slightly faster clock for clock.
 
I notice your processor is a HT, not sure if that is meaning HyperThreading or HyperTransport with the amd but someone else in the division seemed to be having the same sort of issue. Check this post out for their fix to it, have a feeling it might apply to your situation.

http://www.edge-gamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189598

It's not the display/dual monitor. I'm running dual different sizes on a single GTX260 med/low settings and have no fps issues.
 
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Actually I don't think it's the CPU based on the information you gave.

I think it's your Motherboard.

I looked it up on the ASUS website (I also have an ASUS mobo and AMD chip) and you are running DDR3 memory in a board that only supports DDR2. The CPU supports faster memory and bus speeds then what you are allowing it to run. You also have an integrated Radeon HD3300 GPU on the MoBo. This board only supports running at 2 x PCIe 2.0 at x8 while the single card runs at x16. Combined with the onboard graphics, I am not sure if the board can handle the information pipeline properly. might want to do some more research.

The chip really isn't that bad. Of course it isn't the fastest or best, but I believe your bottleneck lies in the base of your computer. Upgrading to a newer mobo would be cheap, plus the new 990FX mobo's are saweet and some are loaded for under $200 bucks. I run a Phenom x6 right now, and yes, an i7 will run rings around it . . . for twice the price. That and to be honest, I'm gaming on BF3 right now at 60fps ultra settings . . . with web pages open. I don't think most people would notice the difference.

Oh, and you didn't post your power supply or operating system, that info can help.
 
frost889 said:
Actually I don't think it's the CPU based on the information you gave.

I think it's your Motherboard.

I looked it up on the ASUS website (I also have an ASUS mobo and AMD chip) and you are running DDR3 memory in a board that only supports DDR2. The CPU supports faster memory and bus speeds then what you are allowing it to run. You also have an integrated Radeon HD3300 GPU on the MoBo. This board only supports running at 2 x PCIe 2.0 at x8 while the single card runs at x16. Combined with the onboard graphics, I am not sure if the board can handle the information pipeline properly. might want to do some more research.

The chip really isn't that bad. Of course it isn't the fastest or best, but I believe your bottleneck lies in the base of your computer. Upgrading to a newer mobo would be cheap, plus the new 990FX mobo's are saweet and some are loaded for under $200 bucks. I run a Phenom x6 right now, and yes, an i7 will run rings around it . . . for twice the price. That and to be honest, I'm gaming on BF3 right now at 60fps ultra settings . . . with web pages open. I don't think most people would notice the difference.

Oh, and you didn't post your power supply or operating system, that info can help.
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Didn't think of that, but DDR3 doesn't come in 667MHz flavor. So either there's an error there or he is running DDR2. Also, I don't believe a DDR3 DIMM would even fit in a DDR2 slot. It looks like the gap in the middle moved.

Also, x8/x8 is plenty for 2x6850s. I'm doing it right now with absolutely no issues at all. And if he has the onboard graphics disabled, it makes no difference.
 
I can assure you that 667mhz ddr3 does exist. I did leave out a T at the end of my mobo model. M4A78T-E. and i can also assure you it supports only ddr3.

At any rate. just picked up a Phenom II x6 1090. It most certainly was my cpu. now i'm rocking mostly high settings.with a.few ultras and my fps is locked at 60 (vsync on)
 
It's not the CPU... Bf3 is all graphics cards... CPU barely plays a role, a quad core is fine ..

You want proof I'll edit this later I'm at work
 
Ill i changed is the cpu and my fps locked at 60 on high. Where as before i swapped cpu's i could barely get 40 with nothing happening. i didnt change anything else.
 
Cerv said:
Ill i changed is the cpu and my fps locked at 60 on high. Where as before i swapped cpu's i could barely get 40 with nothing happening. i didnt change anything else.
Click to expand...

then the cpu must have been defective man... or just a really slow quadcore...glad its all working out for yea ;)
 
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