Amd FX 8320 problems

[iSliz]

Good day guys!

First of all sorry for my (possibly) bad English, I'm not a native speaker. 

I have a problem with my CPU. I would call myself a PC noob because I've built my first gaming PC half a year ago and I've never really been into PC gaming.

Anyway, here's my rig:

 

Msi 970a-g43 motherboard

Amd FX 8320 (3.5 ghz)

Evga Gtx 970 (SC)

2 x 8 gb HyperX DDR3 Memory

550 W Ultron Silent Force UN-550s 

 

Now recently I've read a lot about 'bottlenecking' - some people say my CPU does bottleneck, others say that's BS. In fact, I'm mainly playing Battlefield 4 on 1080p. And with the stock settings of my CPU (with amd turbo core activated) I was getting a lot of fps drops on maps like Shanghai. Now I've disabled turbo core and overclocked it to 4.2 ghz and I'm still having the same results. It's usually at 70-80 fps and then it drops to 40. Both my graphics card and my CPU are getting a max temperatures of around 55 degrees celsius which is pretty decent. 

What would you guys recommend me to do? Should I overclock to 4.4 or even 4.5 ghz? I've read a lot of forum discussions and everybody is telling something different. Again, I'm a PC noob and those answers make me very insecure.

And another question: if I overclock to 4.4 ghz in my BIOS, can I leave the CPU voltage on 'auto'?

Thanks for your attention and your time! 

Have a good day!

 

[Dabombinable]

Check the GPU load, if its not 100% then yes, it is bottlenecking your GTX 970. And those frame drops are typical of FX ****.

[iSliz]

According to the GPU Tweak monitor it's around 70-80%. But when I turn up the resolution scale in BF4 the load is 100%

[Streetguru]

14 minutes ago, iSliz said:

Good day guys!

First of all sorry for my (possibly) bad English, I'm not a native speaker.

You're probably hitting a CPU bottleneck of some kind, you may want to upgrade to an i5 of some kind, or just hold out another year for all the new stuff to come out.

 

Also can you even really OC on that board? it's probably not really recommended on a 970 board

[Morgan MLGman]

1. It's probably the CPU, 3,5gHz is not a good score
2. you need a better board to overclock unless you want to fry your current one

[Nena Trinity]

Nah it wont bottle in Battlefield! Just games like Arma, DayZ & other dual-core optimized only games...

[iSliz]

Guys I've probably figured out where the problem is. I don't know how to solve it though. It's not the game. I have reset my bios to default and then I disabled all of the AMD and energy saving features  . Then I ran prime95 and monitored the CPU with HWMonitor and the Windows task manager. After the CPU has reached 60, sometimes 62 or 63 degrees Celsius it underclocks automatically to 1.4ghz. With turbo core enabled as well as disabled. Is that normal? I've ordered some new thermal paste. If that doesn't work i might buy a simple watercooling set.

[Guest]

You cannot leave voltage control on auto - it's likely sending far too much and thermal throttling your cpu. 

 

The FX series is known for frame drops - an even bigger down fall than it's bad IPC IMO. 

 

I am running 4.7 @ 1.440 (actually runs at 1.432) and stay at ~55c under full load with an aftermarket cooler. 

 

You probably need to stay on stock voltage if you don't have an aftermarket cooler (you can still up clock the frequency a bit on stock voltage). 

[brandishwar]

Are you using the stock cooler? If so, change it out for something better. The stock AMD cooler isn't all that great, especially if you live in a warmer part of the world. An AIO will certainly help, or you can try to find a better air cooler -- there's a pretty good selection out there.

[ApolloX75]

I have experience with the MSI 970A G43 and it's a terrible board for overclocking, doesn't matter if it's a Phenom II or an FX 8320. The VRM setup is terrible and that's likely one of the sources of your frame drops.

 

Changing out the stock cooler is an excellent step towards fixing the problem. However you will need to address the overheating VRMs around the CPU socket sooner or later. A new board with actual effective heatsinks and a strong setup (6+2 min.) is the most efficient solution. But simply adding a fan to circulate air around the socket will work reasonably well as a quick fix.

[iSliz]

I'm using the Artic Freezer 7 rev 2 - i think the temperatures are alright...I live in Germany, the temperatures are pretty low right now and I'm even leaving my windows open to get some cool air into the room. I just ran prime95 again and then the cpu usage dropped again at only 59 degrees...I need to find out what's causing this throttle 

[ApolloX75]

1 minute ago, iSliz said:

I'm using the Artic Freezer 7 rev 2 - i think the temperatures are alright...I live in Germany, the temperatures are pretty low right now and I'm even leaving my windows open to get some cool air into the room. I just ran prime95 again and then the cpu usage dropped again at only 59 degrees...I need to find out what's causing this throttle 

If CPU is dropping and it's not hitting it's thermal limit then that's definitely the voltage regulators on the motherboard hitting their thermal limits.

 

Freezer 7 is a decent cooler for AMD so there's no problem there at least.

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, iSliz said:

I'm using the Artic Freezer 7 rev 2 - i think the temperatures are alright...I live in Germany, the temperatures are pretty low right now and I'm even leaving my windows open to get some cool air into the room. I just ran prime95 again and then the cpu usage dropped again at only 59 degrees...I need to find out what's causing this throttle 

Just because your CPU temp is okay, doesn't mean your VRM temperatures are. 

 

Like apollo has mentioned. 

[Jahramika]

I had issues to like this in the past and always comes down to the motherboard lack of ability to deliver the correct Voltage you want but always overheats the VRM. Since I have a custom water cooling I got a DYI VRM Block from Heatkiller and solved all my issues.

[iSliz]

Thanks for all the replies. Now I'm sure that it's the Motherboard. I was running prime95 again and watched the temperatures of the mainboard. One temp. climbed up to 100C and that's when the CPU throttles. Any recommendations for a nice new motherboard? Should be around $100 or 100€ and be able to do some slight overclocking in the future when my hardware has aged. Thanks so much for your help guys!

[Majestic]

Why oh why are motherboard manuf. so disingenuous about their FX supported list.

[iSliz]

2 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Why oh why are motherboard manuf. so disingenuous about their FX supported list.

Yep. There's a fat "1 second overclocking" sticker on the box and it can't even deliver the regular performance...

[Majestic]

2 minutes ago, iSliz said:

Yep. There's a fat "1 second overclocking" sticker on the box and it can't even deliver the regular performance...

TBH OP, blame MSI and tell them to refund it. You can clearly demonstrate the CPU isn't stable and their support list sucks. I did the same with Corsair when they listed the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G on the HG10 support list, when it clearly wasn't. I can send the unit back for a full refund..

 

This is their fault tbh. And then ask for a MSI 970 Gaming in return or something.

[iSliz]

3 minutes ago, Majestic said:

TBH OP, blame MSI and tell them to refund it. You can clearly demonstrate the CPU isn't stable and their support list sucks. I did the same with Corsair when they listed the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G on the HG10 support list, when it clearly wasn't. I can send the unit back for a full refund..

 

This is their fault tbh. And then ask for a MSI 970 Gaming in return or something.

I think I'll do that. The funny thing is: when I built the PC back in summer I ordered the board and it didn't even work at all, the PC just wouldn't boot. And then I got a refund. I should've picked another one...but I didn't know anything about PCs back then...but you learn from your mistakes

[Majestic]

2 minutes ago, iSliz said:

I think I'll do that. The funny thing is: when I built the PC back in summer I ordered the board and it didn't even work at all, the PC just wouldn't boot. And then I got a refund. I should've picked another one...but I didn't know anything about PCs back then...but you learn from your mistakes

Make sure you add some sort of screenshot of the test, where you can visibly see it throttle.

[Prysin]

9 minutes ago, Majestic said:

TBH OP, blame MSI and tell them to refund it. You can clearly demonstrate the CPU isn't stable and their support list sucks. I did the same with Corsair when they listed the MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4G on the HG10 support list, when it clearly wasn't. I can send the unit back for a full refund..

 

This is their fault tbh. And then ask for a MSI 970 Gaming in return or something.

No, just no..

 

NEVER touch MSIs AMD motherboards. Even if it is the only option, you are better off making your own mobo then use those firetraps. Most of their boards, even some of their 990FX boards are NOT up to snuff in the VRM department.

Their caps and chockes are of the lowest possible quality, they have ZERO VRM protection (no emergency shutdown or CPU throttling). And their customer service seems to be shit going by user reviews.

[Majestic]

It will be easier to convince them to swap out the board than it will be to give him a full cash refund. 

You can try ofcourse.

[iSliz]

Yeah I'll try. If they don't take it back it's not that bad. I still have a almost new GTX 750ti which I can sell for 100 bucks. From that money I'll buy a Gigabyte MB

[Jahramika]

1 hour ago, iSliz said:

Thanks for all the replies. Now I'm sure that it's the Motherboard. I was running prime95 again and watched the temperatures of the mainboard. One temp. climbed up to 100C and that's when the CPU throttles. Any recommendations for a nice new motherboard? Should be around $100 or 100€ and be able to do some slight overclocking in the future when my hardware has aged. Thanks so much for your help guys!

AMD CPUs do draw a lot of juice but the motherboard guys always skimp.

[iSliz]

UPDATE:

I bought a new motherboard (Asus M5A99X Evo R2.0). The vcore temp is now alright but I'm still getting these annoying FPS drops. I'm really desperate by now and I don't know what to do anymore. I played BF4 with standard Bios settings and Turbo Core enabled. Lag. Disabled Turbo Core, ran at 3.5 ghz, then 4.0 ghz and even 4.1 ghz and it still lags...(4.2 ghz is too much because of temperatures so 4.1 is the highest i want to go). 

I reinstalled the game, reinstalled directx, unparked cores and still no change. For people who see this thread for the first time here is my rig:

asus m5a99x evo r2.0

550 w ultron power supply

evga gtx 970 sc

amd fx 8320

If you guys want me to I can upload some gameplay with the ingame performance overlay graphs for cpu and gpu. Maybe anyone can see what's the problem. There are heavy spikes when lag occurs. I can also enable msi afterburner for the video if you want me to.