Will my CPU Limit the 970?

[Skwoad]

I would not mind putting in the time to overclock just a cpu. I don't feel like overclocking ram for I have no idea what im doing. 

So from what I've read, the 920 will bottleneck the gpu in certain games.

I play mostly

-League Of legends and Dota 2,

-Battlefield 4,

-CsGo,

-Variety of Indi games,

-Borderlands 2 + TPS,

So at this point I'm either going to go ahead and buy the 970, or buy a new mobo + the 4690k. I should be able to get some decent overclocks with that and my Noctua DH-14.

[Skwoad]

Just a quick question, slightly off topic- 

With the noctua cooler's backplate, It has 3 options, LGA 1366, 1156 and 775.

Would an LGA 1150 fit into the 1156?

[Lotus]

I would not mind putting in the time to overclock just a cpu. I don't feel like overclocking ram for I have no idea what im doing. 

So from what I've read, the 920 will bottleneck the gpu in certain games.

I play mostly

-League Of legends and Dota 2,

-Battlefield 4,

-CsGo,

-Variety of Indi games,

-Borderlands 2 + TPS,

So at this point I'm either going to go ahead and buy the 970, or buy a new mobo + the 4690k. I should be able to get some decent overclocks with that and my Noctua DH-14.

Most of those games aren't demanding either in CPU or GPU. What specifically is causing you problems and making you want to get new gear? Is it Borderlands 2?

[Skwoad]

Most of those games aren't demanding either in CPU or GPU. What specifically is causing you problems and making you want to get new gear? Is it Borderlands 2?

League, CsGO and the indi games are fine.

Borderlands runs dips into 30 on ultra, and battlefield 4 runs on high around 50ish I think.

With Dota 2, I have a really weird issue that seems to be driver related. Pulling it back to an earlier driver from last year fixed most of the issues, but caused other issues in newer games. It's like fps stuttering? That's the best way i can describe it...

[Fate]

League, CsGO and the indi games are fine.

Borderlands runs dips into 30 on ultra, and battlefield 4 runs on high around 50ish I think.

With Dota 2, I have a really weird issue that seems to be driver related. Pulling it back to an earlier driver from last year fixed most of the issues, but caused other issues in newer games. It's like fps stuttering? That's the best way i can describe it...

Whats your GPU usage while playing BF4? My minimum fps is 69 and average is 90 while at 1080p high in BF4 with only an R9 270 (7870). 

That was on a ~30-40 player server though, might be different with 64.

[Lotus]

Well, while it won't let you hit 60fps avg, you can get close with an i7-920 in Borderlands 2. With an OC you could probably make it work, but you don't need a GTX 970 to do it either. Honestly, it just sounds like you need to OC your CPU and not buy any new hardware. Perhaps also turn down MSAA and turn off FXAA in Borderlands 2.

[Skwoad]

Whats your GPU usage while playing BF4? My minimum fps is 69 and average is 90 while at 1080p high in BF4 with only an R9 270 (7870). 

That was on a ~30-40 player server though, might be different with 64.

I'm not sure what the usage is, I dont often look at it.

One thing that is a little strange is that my gpu at both idle and under load sits at 60*, it never really changes even when I manually set the fans up to 50%+.

[Skwoad]

Well, while it won't let you hit 60fps avg, you can get close with an i7-920 in Borderlands 2. With an OC you could probably make it work, but you don't need a GTX 970 to do it either. Honestly, it just sounds like you need to OC your CPU and not buy any new hardware. Perhaps also turn down MSAA and turn off FXAA in Borderlands 2.

I don't really want to overclock the 920 simply because of the nature of baseclock overclocking. 

You say don't buy any new hardware what-so ever? If anything NEEDS upgrading its either cpu or psu. (in that order).

I just though the 970 would provide some decent increase in fps. 

But bottom line, 

Would it be better to upgrade cpu or gpu in my case? I can post the rest of the system specs if needed.

[Lotus]

Honestly, neither, but if you have to choose, I'd probably pick the CPU, but that's just me because I don't mind turning some settings like AA down so long as I don't have to turn others like texture detail, render distance, and stuff like that.

 

Really, you'll be fine OC'ing it. It's usually not a problem. What I did was since most of my non-CPU multipliers were 8x, and could be turned down to 6x, I increased my BCLK by 8/6 [135 x (8 / 6)] = 180, and turned those multipliers (memory, uncore, etc) down from 8 to 6, which effectively kept everything the same except for the CPU. It's not perfect, but it works for me. I did have to turn my CPU voltage up to 1.3 and made sure to turn off the stupid voltage stuff that you always want off (adaptive voltage, etc). It was rather easy, and you have a better cooler than I do so it should be doable too unless you just lost the silicone lottery. As I said, unless you somehow put too much voltage into your CPU (almost certainly not going to happen), worst case scenario you just remove the CMOS battery and voila, you're back to stock settings even if you couldn't boot. No harm no foul.

[Skwoad]

Honestly, neither, but if you have to choose, I'd probably pick the CPU, but that's just me because I don't mind turning some settings like AA down so long as I don't have to turn others like texture detail, render distance, and stuff like that.

 

Really, you'll be fine OC'ing it. It's usually not a problem. What I did was since most of my non-CPU multipliers were 8x, and could be turned down to 6x, I increased my BCLK by 8/6 [135 x (8 / 6)] = 180, and turned those multipliers (memory, uncore, etc) down from 8 to 6, which effectively kept everything the same except for the CPU. It's not perfect, but it works for me. I did have to turn my CPU voltage up to 1.3 and made sure to turn off the stupid voltage stuff that you always want off (adaptive voltage, etc). It was rather easy, and you have a better cooler than I do so it should be doable too unless you just lost the silicone lottery. As I said, unless you somehow put too much voltage into your CPU (almost certainly not going to happen), worst case scenario you just remove the CMOS battery and voila, you're back to stock settings even if you couldn't boot. No harm no foul.

Ok, thanks for the advice.

I just jumped into some battlefield 4 to have a look at Gpu usage and fps.

http://gyazo.com/2e105e5757707f7695fe2182aa5e158f

^ That is the GPU usage, and I must say, I am quite surprised. I didn't think it would have been getting limited like this.

I also did a fraps benchmark : Min: 34 Max: 61 Avg: 48.8. This was on high settings on Dawnbreaker with no anti aliasing.

So I assume even the 7950 is being limited by the 920...

So I guess untill i get 100% utilization out of this card I wont be upgrading anytime soon...

Would it be anything else apart from the cpu? Or is it 100% the reason?