i3-4150 w/ GTX 970 - Is this a bottleneck or card issue?

[KingOfTime]

To bottleneck or to not bottleneck?

 

I'm a noob with diagnosing GPU/CPU related problems. Problem is, I've never owned a GPU strong enough to make me question my (crappy?) CPU that may not be powering it.

 

I'm having an issue with my setup (i3-4150 w/ EVGA 970 FTW). I know that this low end dual core isn't technically enough for it when you look at the specs, hence the reason why I have money saved up for an i5-4690k just in case that's the issue. In Valley Benchmark, my CPU sits at around 50% usage and my GPU has no problem with hitting the 100% mark @ 52 degrees for 5 mins of testing. When I'm in a game however, my i3 is in the 85-100% usage, with my 970 only hitting 60% max. I've only tested this in games where the 970 is usually below 100fps: GTA 5 and Fallout 4 with v-sync off. Obviously, it results in terrible performance (compared to what I was expecting after paying $520cdn).

 

Based on those numbers in those situations, I think it's a bottleneck issue but I need a second or tenth opinion because I've seen some threads of 970's that have usage problems due to hardware failures. Hoping this isn't the case.

 

 

Sorry for the essay but I figure more is better.

 

Specs on system:

- MSI B85M-G43 Motherboard

- i3-4150 (2 x 3.5ghz), looking to get 4690k if needed

- EVGA GTX 970 4GB FTW

- 8GB Crucial 1600mhz RAM

- EVGA SuperNova 750G2 750W Power Supply

[Razarza]

GTA 5 and FO4 will take advantage of more cores, so for those games your i3 is bottlenecking your 970.

 

Edit - If you are going to upgrade to a 4690k you will need a z97 (z87 will also do if the BIOS is updated for Haswell refresh) if you are wanting to overclock it, otherwise just get a 4690 or a lower tier i5.

[Dakkottadavviss]

My Firestrike scores went from 7500 to 11000 just by swapping my CPU from an i3 to a 2500k. Most games I noticed at least a 15% increase in performance. An i3 with a 970 is pretty much slightly better than an i5 with a 960.

I would seriously recommend you getting an i5 if you want to play games from the past 3 years at high settings.

[cragger89]

Yes, the i3 will be bottle necking the GPU on certain games, I observed bottle necking with my i3 4160 when I first upgraded to an HD7870, the next upgrade to a GTX 780Ti showed even more bottlenecking. Only CPU intensive games admittedly, but GTA V ran pretty badly compared to the performance I observed when I tested the 780Ti and HD7870 in my i5 3550 work PC.

 

Upgraded to an i5 4460 and everything was fine.

[ybriK]

I'd advise you either get a 4440 or 4460 instead of the 4690K unless you plan to upgrade your motherboard in the near future and get decent water/air cooling for overclocking.

 

You will probably need a BIOS update for the Haswell Refresh i5-4460, unless your motherboard is shipped with the latest BIOS during purchase.

http://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/B85M-G43.html#support-cpu

[KingOfTime]

I'd advise you either get a 4440 or 4460 instead of the 4690K unless you plan to upgrade your motherboard in the near future and get decent water/air cooling for overclocking.

 

You will probably need a BIOS update for the Haswell Refresh i5-4460, unless your motherboard is shipped with the latest BIOS during purchase.

http://www.msi.com/product/motherboard/support/B85M-G43.html#support-cpu

Quick question though: I want the 4690k more-so for the turbo clock that the "k" chips have, not really to actually over-clock it from factory setting. Will B85 still support Turbo even if I want 4690k??