970 possible problems

[Mister_Cliche]

So a few days ago I made a thread asking if my AMD FX-8350(4.26Ghz running a stock cooler) was bottlenecking my new GTX 970 ASUS Strix. The general public agreed that my 970 was indeed NOT being bottlenecked by my CPU, however most said ditch the stock cooler and go with hxxxi series cooler, which I plan on doing.

So if it is indeed NOT my CPU bottlenecking, why has my performance not been drastically changed? I was expecting to be running everything on Ultra with absolutely NO dips in framerate. That's not the case. 

My PCs specs are listed below -

CPU: AMD FX-8350 ( 4.26ghz )
GPU: ASUS GTX 970 Strix ( Factory OC )
PSU: 700w
RAM: 8GBs
HDD: 1TB
SSD: None

Now, I upgraded from a 660ti to 970 for the more graphically intense games coming out later. But the games that I usually play with framerate average below -
 

660ti        970

BF4                                        55-60       50-60                              (heard this was from CPU but I don't know)
ACU                                       30-40         40-40                             Awful optimization
FC4                                        55-60        50-60                             Could have been better I heard
FC3                                        50-60           60                                I don't know, ran fine
AMRA 3                                  20-21          20-22                           Awful, I don't know how people get 60FPS
Witcher 2                                30-32           35-35                          Heard people got 60FPS no problem with Ubersampling off, so I tried that, still 35 both off and on
The Crew                                55-60           60                               Game runs fine on both cards, not a single problem

Dragon Age: Inquisition          57-60           55-60                          Ran at 60 until I went to the first open area, then dropped to the 50s
Star Citizen                             45-60              58-60                       No real problems other than ingame bugs
Minecraft (with shaders)         45-60              45-50                       I think this is a CPU problem? I don't know.


Oh, not to mention - I wasn't using 1080p but rather 1400x900. If anything, the performance should have been way better than what it was. I know I should have either gotten an Intel i5 with the 370$ I spent on Strix, but I didn't think the 8350 would bottleneck if that's even the problem. Ventilation could be a problem, but then again, I don't know. I do know it's usually hot in my room anyways, and having my computer on playing games makes it worse. I currently have a Corsair 300R case with the stock 2 fans that came with it. Sitting on a small table to the right of me, by the wall. 

I ran Unigine 4.0 Valley and got a score of 3055 on Ultra with 1400x900.

Yes I know my monitor is worthless, but it works. 


Question is -

Why am I not getting 60fps easily with this card? Is it my PSU? My heating? My CPU? Or is it because the card isn't OC? Any response is great, thank you.
 

[georgeghazi]

I have a 970 Strix with a i5-3570k. i'll benchmark some of those games as soon as i can and get back to you. I just ran the valley benchmark at 1400x900 at ultra with x8 AA I got a score of 3142. all stock clocks.

[nhatduy1611]

So a few days ago I made a thread asking if my AMD FX-8350(4.26Ghz running a stock cooler) was bottlenecking my new GTX 970 ASUS Strix. The general public agreed that my 970 was indeed NOT being bottlenecked by my CPU, however most said ditch the stock cooler and go with hxxxi series cooler, which I plan on doing.

So if it is indeed NOT my CPU bottlenecking, why has my performance not been drastically changed? I was expecting to be running everything on Ultra with absolutely NO dips in framerate. That's not the case. 

My PCs specs are listed below -

CPU: AMD FX-8350 ( 4.26ghz )

GPU: ASUS GTX 970 Strix ( Factory OC )

PSU: 700w

RAM: 8GBs

HDD: 1TB

SSD: None

Now, I upgraded from a 660ti to 970 for the more graphically intense games coming out later. But the games that I usually play with framerate average below -

 

660ti        970

BF4                                        55-60       50-60                              (heard this was from CPU but I don't know)

ACU                                       30-40         40-40                             Awful optimization

FC4                                        55-60        50-60                             Could have been better I heard

FC3                                        50-60           60                                I don't know, ran fine

AMRA 3                                  20-21          20-22                           Awful, I don't know how people get 60FPS

Witcher 2                                30-32           35-35                          Heard people got 60FPS no problem with Ubersampling off, so I tried that, still 35 both off and on

The Crew                                55-60           60                               Game runs fine on both cards, not a single problem

Dragon Age: Inquisition          57-60           55-60                          Ran at 60 until I went to the first open area, then dropped to the 50s

Star Citizen                             45-60              58-60                       No real problems other than ingame bugs

Minecraft (with shaders)         45-60              45-50                       I think this is a CPU problem? I don't know.

Oh, not to mention - I wasn't using 1080p but rather 1400x900. If anything, the performance should have been way better than what it was. I know I should have either gotten an Intel i5 with the 370$ I spent on Strix, but I didn't think the 8350 would bottleneck if that's even the problem. Ventilation could be a problem, but then again, I don't know. I do know it's usually hot in my room anyways, and having my computer on playing games makes it worse. I currently have a Corsair 300R case with the stock 2 fans that came with it. Sitting on a small table to the right of me, by the wall. 

I ran Unigine 4.0 Valley and got a score of 3055 on Ultra with 1400x900.

Yes I know my monitor is worthless, but it works. 

Question is -

Why am I not getting 60fps easily with this card? Is it my PSU? My heating? My CPU? Or is it because the card isn't OC? Any response is great, thank you.

 

I ran valley benchmark at 1400x900 a minute ago my score is 3404 on ultra x8 aa. My avg fps is 81.4 min fps is 22.7 and max fps is 150.1. Recently i been only playing Dragon Age: Inquisition but even at 1080p max out i always got 60 fps and it never dip down.

[Faceman]

@Mister_Cliche

 

Whoever told you that your 8350 was not going to bottleneck a 970 is very badly misinformed. Can you please send a link to that thread?  I'm fairly certain this community warned you that it would bottleneck, outside of a select few who refuse to face facts.

 

Some of those games should be running better, but in games like MineCraft, Witcher, ARMA, you're going to get bad results on an FX processor.  Then those other games, are going to be bottlenecked by the 8350 because of its poor architecture and IPC.  Overclocking it won't solve the problem, its a mere stopgap, and a bad one at that. 

 

The FX8 is a mid-range CPU, and should only be paired with mid-range GPUs.  Even then, its still going to limit you in 1 out of 5 games because those games demand strong cores, not many weak ones.

 

Also, what motherboard are you using?  You could be experiencing throttling.

[Dr_FiStCaKe]

I would say it more a power issue with this motherboard throttling his CPU then the CPU itself. I have 2 Gigabyte 970 G1's running SLI and I use an 8350 and I get killer FPS. BF4 with a mix of ultra to low setting ( I do not give a crap about how pretty the grass/ trees look, I am here to shot ppl. But I have a 8 + 2 phase Motherboard. So I get good clean power to The CPU. Runs fine. Yeah Intel does beat me with maybe 10-15 more frames. But I am still beating people on the scoreboard. Plus I still have money left over. 

[Mister_Cliche]

@Mister_Cliche

 

Whoever told you that your 8350 was not going to bottleneck a 970 is very badly misinformed. Can you please send a link to that thread?  I'm fairly certain this community warned you that it would bottleneck, outside of a select few who refuse to face facts.

 

Some of those games should be running better, but in games like MineCraft, Witcher, ARMA, you're going to get bad results on an FX processor.  Then those other games, are going to be bottlenecked by the 8350 because of its poor architecture and IPC.  Overclocking it won't solve the problem, its a mere stopgap, and a bad one at that. 

 

The FX8 is a mid-range CPU, and should only be paired with mid-range GPUs.  Even then, its still going to limit you in 1 out of 5 games because those games demand strong cores, not many weak ones.

 

Also, what motherboard are you using?  You could be experiencing throttling.

I don't remember what Motherboard I bought, I do remember it's an MSI though. 

It's probably throttling. 

 

[Faceman]

I would say it more a power issue with this motherboard throttling his CPU then the CPU itself. I have 2 Gigabyte 970 G1's running SLI and I use an 8350 and I get killer FPS. BF4 with a mix of ultra to low setting ( I do not give a crap about how pretty the grass/ trees look, I am here to shot ppl. But I have a 8 + 2 phase Motherboard. So I get good clean power to The CPU. Runs fine. Yeah Intel does beat me with maybe 10-15 more frames. But I am still beating people on the scoreboard. Plus I still have money left over. 

Check your GPU load bro beans.

 

Also, you ended up spending more money than a locked i5 would have been, and getting worse performance because the setup is bottlenecking.  Maybe not as bad in BF4, but in other games, yea.

[Faceman]

I don't remember what Motherboard I bought, I do remember it's an MSI though. 

It's probably throttling. 

 

Please find out.  Go into CPU-Z and it should tell you.

[SpecTre12345]

How did you install the card, did you do a clean install of fresh drivers using Display Driver Uninstaller first?

 

Uninstall your current drivers (make sure you have the newest drivers already downloaded to your computer though). Restart. Make sure Windows Update DOES NOT automatically install drivers for you (you can do this by unplugging internet for a moment). Run Display Driver Uninstaller, Basically Select Both NVIDIA and AMD and select "Uninstall Current and Previous Drivers, DO NOT RESTART."  Then restart after you do both AMD and NVIDIA removal. Install New Drivers after restarted (the ones you have downloaded already). Restart Computer. Plug in internet again, make sure Windows Update doesn't try to install an older version of the drivers (if you see it appears in Windows Update just hide it). 

 

See if that changes anything.