CPU bottleneck? I need advices

[Sibanak]

Hi, first i'll start with my rig : 

 

• Motherboard: Asus Crosshair Formula IV
• CPU : AMD Phenom X6 1100t 3.3 ghz base clock, overclocked to 3.9ghz
• 8 GB G Skills 1600
• NVidia Geforce GTX 980
• 1440p Monitor

I had a radeon 6970 last week and I just upgraded to the 980 thinking I would be able to run pretty much any game without problems. I definitely got better performances in a lot of games but there are some games that doesn't run very well. For exemple, in DayZ all my graphics are at very low/low and it's hard to get past 35 fps. Also, I bought Metal Gear Ground Zero recently and sometimes my fps is at 40-45. Maybe I overestimate the gtx 980 but I feel like I should be able to hit 60 fps easily in most games. My framerate in battlefield 4 is really good though, always above 60 fps.

 

So, since I am stuck with a motherboard that only supports amd processor, would the FX-6300 be a good upgrade to the 1100T? Or should I just buy a new motherboard/processor to get an intel processor?

 

Also, I saw on some forums that a lot of people got to overclock the 1100t to 4ghz easily(some even got to 4.5) but I cant get past 3.9 ghz, everytime I run prime95, it fails after two minutes and my voltage is at 1.55. Maybe i'm doing something wrong and getting to 4.2ghz would help me get better performances?

 

Thanks for your help.

 

[soaringchicken]

I would upgrade to intel

[i_build_nanosuits]

 

So, since I am stuck with a motherboard that only supports amd processor, would the FX-6300 be a good upgrade to the 1100T? Or should I just buy a new motherboard/processor to get an intel processor?

no it's not, your phenom is stronger than the FX CPU's when it comes to gaming, you'll have to buy at least a core i5 and a new motherboard if you want to get the performance out of your new beastly GPU.

In fact if you want to max out the GPU in just about every games out there you'll need an unlocked i5 and idealy an unlocked i7...

[Sibanak]

Thanks everyone,

 

 

no it's not, your phenom is stronger than the FX CPU's when it comes to gaming, you'll have to buy at least a core i5 and a new motherboard if you want to get the performance out of your new beastly GPU.

In fact if you want to max out the GPU in just about every games out there you'll need an unlocked i5 and idealy an unlocked i7...

 

thanks for your advice, would you mind explaining to me why the 1100t is better than the fx-6300 for gaming? Thanks!

[i_build_nanosuits]

Thanks everyone,

 

 

 

thanks for your advice, would you mind explaining to me why the 1100t is better than the fx-6300 for gaming? Thanks!

because believe it or not your phenom chip has higher IPC (instructions per clock) therefore if you can bring it in the ballpark of any FX in terms of frequencies it will perform better.

Piledriver and bulldozer architecture was a step back from AMD in terms of raw per core performance and this is crucial to gaming...they tricked the architecture using long pipelines in order to be able to reach high frequencies and have 4.0ghz and 5.0ghz CPU's that would be appealing to customers but the performance is just not there (this of course is the whole thing in a nut shell theres a lot more to it but that's all you have to know about this.)

 

Modern haswell CPU's from intel gets almost twice the performance per core when compaired to an AMD CPU running at the same clockspeed, therefore they are MUCH better gaming chips.

Also games typicaly won't fully use multi-core CPU's and the AMD FX are based on ''modules'' or what they call CMT and the ''8 core'' and ''6 core'' CPU's are really only 4 modules and 3 modules...as opposed to your phenom which is a ''real'' 6 core CPU.

[Sibanak]

because believe it or not your phenom chip has higher IPC (instructions per clock) therefore if you can bring it in the ballpark of any FX in terms of frequencies it will perform better.

Piledriver and bulldozer architecture was a step back from AMD in terms of raw per core performance and this is crucial to gaming...they tricked the architecture using long pipelines in order to be able to reach high frequencies and have 4.0ghz and 5.0ghz CPU's that would be appealing to customers but the performance is just not there (this of course is the whole thing in a nut shell theres a lot more to it but that's all you have to know about this.)

 

Modern haswell CPU's from intel gets almost twice the performance per core when compaired to an AMD CPU running at the same clockspeed, therefore they are MUCH better gaming chips.

 

Alright, thank you very much everyone.

[ForsakenLive]

Is it better to forget everything and go with a z97 board and a 4690K? Yes, it has better performance, specially in the gaming area.

Is AMD useless and will perform poorly and bottleneck everything? Not at all. People has the misconception of what is bottlenecking (which is not a good term to begin with); basically you need a CPU that can keep the card fed and doesn't slow down image rendering with poor processing on CPU intensive games.

 

 

There are several benchmarks all around the web that show this same result (I can find 780ti's and 1440p if you really want, it's basically the same here, these GPUs are scaling well on BF4). Truth is most games are GPU bound, few are that put the CPU to the test; and still the AMD parts are ok and don't hold back GPUs by a considerable amount on these scenarios (even in dual or triple GPU scenarios).

 

I'm not fanboying or just going against people's opinion; I'm just saying that for $150 you can get a solution that is affordable and will work for you now with your setup without issues; which is completely viable as long as you OC it.

On the other hand if you are not short of money and can afford the $325+ investment in a 1150 config, then go ahead, it's going to turn out better in the longer run.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Alright, thank you very much everyone.

how often do you upgrade your CPU and what kind of games do you play?

[i_build_nanosuits]

Is it better to forget everything and go with a z97 board and a 4690K? Yes, it has better performance, specially in the gaming area.

Is AMD useless and will perform poorly and bottleneck everything? Not at all. People has the misconception of what is bottlenecking (which is not a good term to begin with); basically you need a CPU that can keep the card fed and doesn't slow down image rendering with poor processing on CPU intensive games.

 

 

 

this chart is BATTLEFIELD 4 SINGLE PLAYER MODE which is not CPU intensive AT ALL and would run a potato...that's why the CPU's performed the same in this test...and BF4 is an AMD optimised title it's one of the VERY FEW games that run's on the AMD CPU almost just as good as on the intels.

 

As soon as you'll launch something more intensive that require the CPU to fast process a ton of instructions for the game to run properly the AMD CPU's just tanks real hard.

 

i can show you tons and tons of graphs to prove my point but i'd rather not as it would be a waste of time the internet is full of that garbage and i owned an FX @ 4.6ghz and i know how it play games and it's no match for even a GTX 780 at 1080p and the OP is running a GTX 980!

 

here for example a new game: assassin's creed unity...as you can see even a core i3 outperform the FX-9590...and an old low end sandy bridge core i3-2100 perform nearly as good as the FX-8350:

 

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/assassin-s-creed-unity-test-gpu.html

 

...and this game is highly multi-threaded and use all the threads of the FX 8 core CPU'S, here's the load distribution on this:

 

[Sibanak]

how often do you upgrade your CPU and what kind of games do you play?

 

Well, I bought this rig in 2011 so it's been almost 4 years now. Right now I'm playing some early access survival games such as DayZ, H1Z1 and smash on dolphin emulator(which I run without any frame drops, but I can't stream it(using OBS), it shows that I have 60 fps but I definitly don't feel like its 60 fps). I also play some indie games sometimes. However I'm probably going to play GTA V a lot when it comes out, this and Metal Gear Solid V if it comes out one day. I just want to make the right choice.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Well, I bought this rig in 2011 so it's been almost 4 years now. Right now I'm playing some early access survival games such as DayZ, H1Z1 and smash on dolphin emulator(which I run without any frame drops, but I can't stream it(using OBS), it shows that I have 60 fps but I definitly don't feel like its 60 fps). I also play some indie games sometimes. However I'm probably going to play GTA V a lot when it comes out, this and Metal Gear Solid V if it comes out one day. I just want to make the right choice.

this answers my question, you don't upgrade often and you stream contents....the i7 would benefit you a lot in the long run, if you can afford the i7-4790K and a Z97 motherboard you'd be golden...it's somewhat a hefty price tag (nothing compaired to your GTX 980 though IMHO) but you would have a VERY good CPU in hands for years to come.

 

Do you happen to leave near a micro-center? are you in the US? can you drive to one if it's worth it? (cause it is worth at least a 1hr drive IMHO they have VERY good deals...)

[Sibanak]

Is it better to forget everything and go with a z97 board and a 4690K? Yes, it has better performance, specially in the gaming area.

Is AMD useless and will perform poorly and bottleneck everything? Not at all. People has the misconception of what is bottlenecking (which is not a good term to begin with); basically you need a CPU that can keep the card fed and doesn't slow down image rendering with poor processing on CPU intensive games.

 

 

There are several benchmarks all around the web that show this same result (I can find 780ti's and 1440p if you really want, it's basically the same here, these GPUs are scaling well on BF4). Truth is most games are GPU bound, few are that put the CPU to the test; and still the AMD parts are ok and don't hold back GPUs by a considerable amount on these scenarios (even in dual or triple GPU scenarios).

 

I'm not fanboying or just going against people's opinion; I'm just saying that for $150 you can get a solution that is affordable and will work for you now with your setup without issues; which is completely viable as long as you OC it.

On the other hand if you are not short of money and can afford the $325+ investment in a 1150 config, then go ahead, it's going to turn out better in the longer run.

 

Thank you for trying to help me, I appreciate it. The reason why I was talking about the "AMD bottleneck" is because when I have google chrome open  + a game running, I see my CPU between 90 and 97 percent of usage and when it's at that high percent, I'm always between 25 and 40 fps in my game.

[Sibanak]

this answers my question, you don't upgrade often and you stream contents....the i7 would benefit you a lot in the long run, if you can afford the i7-4790K and a Z97 motherboard you'd be golden...it's somewhat a hefty price tag (nothing compaired to your GTX 980 though IMHO) but you would have a VERY good CPU in hands for years to come.

 

Do you happen to leave near a micro-center? are you in the US? can you drive to one if it's worth it? (cause it is worth at least a 1hr drive IMHO they have VERY good deals...)

 

Thanks for your advice, I live in canada though. I buy most of my stuff online usually on NCIX or newegg.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Thanks for your advice, I live in canada though. I buy most of my stuff online usually on NCIX or newegg.

alright, look for a Z97 motherboard that has the features you need and core i5-4690K for gaming is a good CPU and if you can afford the i7-4790K it would help with your streaming and in some games as well and it should last you and give you better performance for a little longer period of time than an i5 would...the i5 is still a beast though so if you have to, go for this one it won't limit the GTX 980 in current games.

[Sibanak]

alright, look for a Z97 motherboard that has the features you need and core i5-4690K for gaming is a good CPU and if you can afford the i7-4790K it would help with your streaming and in some games as well and it should last you and give you better performance for a little longer period of time than an i5 would...the i5 is still a beast though so if you have to, go for this one it won't limit the GTX 980 in current games.

 

Alright, thanks a lot for your help man.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Alright, thanks a lot for your help man.

do not overspend on your motherboard it won't affect your overclocking experience or anything like that with intel CPU's...you might get better sound chips (useless for gamers because in-game sound are crappy compressed audio) and better aestetics but thats about it.

Do you need to support SLI?

[Sibanak]

do not overspend on your motherboard it won't affect your overclocking experience or anything like that with intel CPU's...you might get better sound chips (useless for gamers because in-game sound are crappy compressed audio) and better aestetics but thats about it.

Do you need to support SLI?

 

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't notice the new post. I think I do want to support SLI because if I ever need to upgrade my graphic card, I probably will just buy another one(another 980). At the moment though I'm not sure if I should go with a z97 or wait a bit until the lga 2011-3 boards get cheaper. Tell me if I'm wrong but the 4xxx intel series are the last to use the lga 1150 socket? What if someday I want to upgrade my cpu(let's say in 4 years since it took me 4 years to realize that I need to change my current cpu) and I can't find any cpu that fits in my motherboard? I would probably have to change my board again, but maybe in 4 years the lga 2011-3 will still exist? Im speculating to be honest, I dont know shit but I just don't want to be stuck in the same situation again. What do you think?

[WaitForMeImOnDialUp]

dayz is a game that runs like crap just like all arma games. that said...if you could go to a 4690k that would be ideal..theres no sense into buying fx series now that new intel is close to price and better performing.

[i_build_nanosuits]

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't notice the new post. I think I do want to support SLI because if I ever need to upgrade my graphic card, I probably will just buy another one(another 980). At the moment though I'm not sure if I should go with a z97 or wait a bit until the lga 2011-3 boards get cheaper. Tell me if I'm wrong but the 4xxx intel series are the last to use the lga 1150 socket? What if someday I want to upgrade my cpu(let's say in 4 years since it took me 4 years to realize that I need to change my current cpu) and I can't find any cpu that fits in my motherboard? I would probably have to change my board again, but maybe in 4 years the lga 2011-3 will still exist? Im speculating to be honest, I dont know shit but I just don't want to be stuck in the same situation again. What do you think?

no motherboard can realisticaly support a ''worthy'' cpu upgrade on the same socket after 4 years have passed honestly...you'll most likely need a board upgrade after that long even if you go on x99 platform honestly...that's just how it works....

[Sibanak]

no motherboard can realisticaly support a ''worthy'' cpu upgrade on the same socket after 4 years have passed honestly...you'll most likely need a board upgrade after that long even if you go on x99 platform honestly...that's just how it works....

 

Just a quick update(probably my last one). I want to say thank you, I bought a 4790k and an Asus z97-A motherboard last week and I had time to use it this week-end and oh man... Everything is so much better now. I can do so many things at the same time without stuttering.  I don't regret my decision. Thanks!

[i_build_nanosuits]

Just a quick update(probably my last one). I want to say thank you, I bought a 4790k and an Asus z97-A motherboard last week and I had time to use it this week-end and oh man... Everything is so much better now. I can do so many things at the same time without stuttering.  I don't regret my decision. Thanks!

you're welcome!

you made the right thing, now you're all set on CPU side for a while...i assume that CPU will still be rocking games on maximum settings in 3 years from now, maybe even further than that.