System Bottlenecking Issue (Help Appreciated)

[MrLewisMHarris]

Pretext:

 

I advised my friend building a low-end gaming PC 2 years ago. It consisted of a low-power AMD APU, GTX 660, generic mobo, hdd, cd drive that fit the bill, and a Corsair 600W 80+ Bronze PSU.

 

This build was strictly for gaming purposes (originally) and was decent, pulling around 45fps on high on most games at the time of purchase.

 

Recently my friend started streaming to Twitch from the same PC from which he is playing, resulting in extremely bad gaming performance due to the rubbish old CPU.

 

He complains to me and I think also secretly blames me for the bad performance, so I told him the best thing for him to do would be to upgrade CPU and PSU, and since he has AMD he had to upgrade his mobo too.

 

He ended up looking on loads of different forums, all advising him to buy an i7 4790k, because its "great for streamers and youtubers" and a like motherboard to put it in.

 

So he did it without consent from me (although it is his money so I don't really want to debate it with him) and then complains to me that he still isn't getting good performance. He says he recently brought COD: Blops III and it runs "like shit, it's unplayable" (which I'll presume is less than 30fps). I don't have anymore info.

 

I tried to explain it to him but he really doesn't get it, and is now taking advice from someone oversees (USA) who has told him to "Just buy a new graphics card and it'll be fine" which is the total opposite.

 

tl;dr: friend got a low-end PC, and put some high-end parts in it expecting to make it 1000% better, didn't work due **something**

 

 

The Big Question(s)

 

Am I right to assume it is the 600 Watt Corsair Power supply that is causing the CPU and GPU to bottleneck, thus producing worse performance?

 

Is there any software which I could use which would tell me things like how much power the CPU, GPU, Mobo, etc. Is getting? along with either an in-game overlay, and/or a log file (or graph) showing the performance over time so I can play a game that lags to see what is causing it.

 

 

 

Thanks to whoever reads and responds, sorry its so long. Also, I'm writing a 1600 page novel if anyone would like to read it, it'll be out on amazon in 15 minutes.

 

[Kobathor]

That PSU will never bottleneck anything.

 

The problem is the GPU, it's old and bad by today's standards. I think the best game it would play is BF4, which is two years old.

I'd tell him to save up a bit and get a 390/X (390X preferred,) and a new PSU. Or, save up even more and get a 980ti.

[zyntaxable]

If the PSU weren't strong enough the pc wouldn't even power on. It is probably his GPU that isn't very strong.

[Monarch]

Video card is the bottleneck, not the PSU. If the PC wasn't getting enough power it would shut down.

[Samfisher]

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/352924-gta-v-pc-tweak-guide/#entry4810752

 

If you are technically adapt as you seem you are, you will know what to do with this short guide for you to find what the bottleneck is.

[MrLewisMHarris]

 

If the PSU weren't strong enough the pc wouldn't even power on. It is probably his GPU that isn't very strong.

 

This statement is untrue and misleading.

 

Maybe I wasn't being specific enough. I'm not saying it isn't enough to turn on whatsoever, just when the system demands more than 80% PSU utilization, it is asking for more than the power supply can... supply.

 

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/352924-gta-v-pc-tweak-guide/#entry4810752

 

If you are technically adapt as you seem you are, you will know what to do with this short guide for you to find what the bottleneck is.

 

Thanks! This is more than I need to diagnose this issue.

 

 

Video card is the bottleneck, not the PSU. If the PC wasn't getting enough power it would shut down.

 

As with Zyntaxable's post, this is untrue.

[Samfisher]

This statement is untrue and misleading.

 

Maybe I wasn't being specific enough. I'm not saying it isn't enough to turn on whatsoever, just when the system demands more than 80% PSU utilization, it is asking for more than the power supply can... supply.

If it's asking for more than it can receive, it will also shut down Or burn your PC along with it more likely.

 

Thanks! This is more than I need to diagnose this issue.

 

Do note if you want to see CPU temps, you'll need to pair it with HWInfo.

[Monarch]

This statement is untrue and misleading.

 

Maybe I wasn't being specific enough. I'm not saying it isn't enough to turn on whatsoever, just when the system demands more than 80% PSU utilization, it is asking for more than the power supply can... supply.

 

As with Zyntaxable's post, this is untrue.

 

I didn't say you wouldn't be able to turn on your PC. zyntaxable said that. If the PC needed more power than the PSU can supply the PSU would shut down itself and the whole system.

[MrLewisMHarris]

If it's asking for more than it can receive, it will also shut down Or burn your PC along with it more likely.

 

 

Do note if you want to see CPU clock speeds, you'll need to pair it with HWInfo.

 

What do you mean "burn your PC along with it"?

[Samfisher]

What do you mean "burn your PC along with it"?

 

If it's a crappy PSU, and you force it to go over what it can provide, it will either catch fire, or shock everything in the PC.

[OAcesync]

This statement is untrue and misleading.

 

Maybe I wasn't being specific enough. I'm not saying it isn't enough to turn on whatsoever, just when the system demands more than 80% PSU utilization, it is asking for more than the power supply can... supply.

Like we all said that a PSU can't bottleneck fps because if you overload it, if it's decent the PC will just shut down due to safety measure put in place or it could just burn or fry itself.

Either way the GPU is the clear problem and BO3 PC is a glitchy game anyways so I way try a different stable game to determine performance

[MrLewisMHarris]

Like we all said that a PSU can't bottleneck fps because if you overload it, if it's decent the PC will just shut down due to safety measure put in place or it could just burn or fry itself.

Either way the GPU is the clear problem and BO3 PC is a glitchy game anyways so I way try a different stable game to determine performance

 

Its not just BO3. He says he gets poor performance in most game, he says, so I will have to go and check what the problem is ASAP.