Bottleneck, anyone?

[Teddicus]

Hey guys, I was wondering if there was a bottleneck issue between my GPU and my CPU. I'm a YouTuber and I've been having a lot of complications while recording with fraps. I use Studio One 3 by PreSonus to record my mic and I run the mic through a USB audio interface. It all used to work wonders until I upgraded my RAM to 32 gigs. So after tons of research, I'm thinking I have some sort of bottleneck that's messing up mah flo! (yeah I went there :P) Here are my specs.

 

Operating System
    Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
    AMD FX-6300 
    Vishera 32nm Technology
RAM
    32.0GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 803MHz (10-10-10-27)
Motherboard
    Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. GA-78LMT-USB3 (Socket M2)   
Graphics
    Hanns.G Hi221 (1680x1050@61Hz)
    NS-20EM50A13 (1600x900@60Hz)
    4095MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 (EVGA) 
Storage
    111GB SanDisk SDSSDA120G ATA Device (SSD)
    931GB Western Digital WDC WD10 EZEX-00BN5A0 SATA Disk Device (SATA)
    2794GB Seagate ST3000DM 001-1CH166 SATA Disk Device (SATA) 
    931GB Western Digital WD My Passport 0830 USB Device (USB (SATA))  
Optical Drives
    HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH24NSB0
Audio
    VIA HD Audio(Win 10)

 

I'd appreciate all the help I could get. Thanks

[Majestic]

Nah, the GT 740 isn't really a gaming grade card. 32GB on a FX-6300 seems rather wasteful though.

[vorticalbox]

Seeing as the only change is the RAM i would take it all out and try them one at a time to see if any problems happen.

[WereCat]

Recording with FRAPS is really taxing on your CPU and FX6300 is not really good to handle FRAPS + games at the same time (assuming you are recording games with it). I would suggest switching from FRAPS to OBS and while you will get somewhat lower quality of recordings than FRAPS (since FRAPS is recording is RAW) it will not be noticable at all on your YT videos as they tend to be converted to even lower quality anyways. OBS can be also set in multiple ways so that it works better with your hardware (and the recorded files from OBS take a LOT less space on your HDD compared to FRAPS).

As well GT740 is not particulary good card for gaming but since you play on pretty low resolution it should be good enough for medium settings in most games so that shouldnt be really that much of an issue but upgrade would definitely help.

 

EDIT:

To answer your question.

There really isnt any bottleneck. The issue is that your hardware is weak but using the right software should fix it.

I really recommend not using FRAPS and switch to OBS instead. There are also a lot of online guides how to set it up properly. And it is free software easy to use once it is set up.

[Clonzoo]

Shouldn't be a bottleneck issue but as Majestic said the GT 740 is not a gaming grade card. And 32 gigs is overkill but since this started happening once you upgraded you ram there might be an underlying issue there with not utilizing the dual channel, or your ram is faulty in some way or another. I would first check if it does actually record that you indeed have 32 gigs, and if it does then take out and rearrange them possibly or just go back to your old config and sell the ram or something, since that is the only change it can't be anything else.

[Teddicus]

I guess I did forget to mention that I record in 1080p/60fps (30 at the moment cause my PC tends to freeze during recording). I also record music in my DAW as well. I've tweaked the RAM speeds to and from the defaults and everything seems to work fine until I'm recording gameplay. The GT-740 was actually an upgrade as well but that didn't cause any problems however I didn't see any improvements when I installed. That was the main concern about bottlenecks. But reading all of the above, I'm starting to think there's a few other problems as well. Thoughts on the proper hardware I should look into?

[typographie]

30 minutes ago, Teddicus said:

I guess I did forget to mention that I record in 1080p/60fps (30 at the moment cause my PC tends to freeze during recording). I also record music in my DAW as well. I've tweaked the RAM speeds to and from the defaults and everything seems to work fine until I'm recording gameplay. The GT-740 was actually an upgrade as well but that didn't cause any problems however I didn't see any improvements when I installed. That was the main concern about bottlenecks. But reading all of the above, I'm starting to think there's a few other problems as well. Thoughts on the proper hardware I should look into?

What card did you have before the GT 740? What were your expectations from the upgrade? A video card upgrade may improve your frame rate in games (though as was said earlier, the 740 is going to get you rather low-end performance in today's games), but a video card won't do much to help FRAPS. FRAPS recording is primarily dependent on the performance of your CPU, RAM, and the disk you're writing to.

 

What are the details of your RAM "tweaking?" What settings did you try? The fact that you have no issues until you start recording doesn't necessarily mean anything—unstable components often only show themselves when stressed. Try setting it back to default and see if your PC still freezes when you record.

[Teddicus]

5 hours ago, typographie said:

What card did you have before the GT 740? What were your expectations from the upgrade? A video card upgrade may improve your frame rate in games (though as was said earlier, the 740 is going to get you rather low-end performance in today's games), but a video card won't do much to help FRAPS. FRAPS recording is primarily dependent on the performance of your CPU, RAM, and the disk you're writing to.

 

What are the details of your RAM "tweaking?" What settings did you try? The fact that you have no issues until you start recording doesn't necessarily mean anything—unstable components often only show themselves when stressed. Try setting it back to default and see if your PC still freezes when you record.

the tweaking I did was lower the speeds from (i think) 11, 11, 11, 28 to 10, 10, 10, 27 in the bios. they're set to default again but the freezing still persists. I was able to record games like I Am Bread and Goat Simulator before and now 2D games have problems. I'll try your suggestions and get back you ya

[Teddicus]

Alright, so I removed the newest RAM and swapped back to the old GPU (GT 640) and the system didnt even boot past the gray letters (idk what those screens are called :P). I have everything back to how it was earlier and it booted and its working but I think what I learned from all of this is that I need to upgrade my CPU. What do you all think?

[Tech Deals]

32 minutes ago, Teddicus said:

Alright, so I removed the newest RAM and swapped back to the old GPU (GT 640) and the system didnt even boot past the gray letters (idk what those screens are called :P). I have everything back to how it was earlier and it booted and its working but I think what I learned from all of this is that I need to upgrade my CPU. What do you all think?

What do you need the video card for?

 

The GT 740 is really, well, it has little reason to exist.  The 750 TI is double the performance for, what $20 more?

 

As for a CPU, Intel is currently top dog here, but depending on what you're doing and what you want to spend, it may not make a massive difference.

 

The i5-6500 installed in a H170 motherboard is the value option.  The i5-6600k installed in a Z170 board with a H60 liquid cooler is the performance option (be sure to overclock).

 

Anything less wouldn't be an upgrade.