Poor gaming performance - Is my cpu THAT bad?

[deWaardt]

So about half a year ago I built this PC, 1 and a half month ago I bought a GTX 950 to go with it.

 

Specs:
Asrock FM2A88M-hd+ rev 2.0

AMD Athlon ii x4 860k

NVidia GTX 950

12GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

Now I am not satisfied with the performance.

I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to get 1080p60fps at ultra settings, but maybe medium or so.

Now, Bf4 on the lowest preset goes 50 to 60fps, very often dropping to 40 and even to 30fps, while maxing all 4 CPU cores out at 100%.

 

GTA V, pretty much low to medium settings, can't hold a 60fps. Averaging 50fps

It very often drops to like 45 fps, and 40fps when driving very fast on the highway near the north of the map.

 

My CPU is overclocked to 4.2ghz btw.

 

I already tried removing one of the ram dimms, running with 8gb to see if the mixed RAM size caused an issue, but it didn't improve anything.

My temps rarely go above 60 degrees, so that probably isn't it.

 

Is there anything I can try, or is my CPU really that poor?

 

[HeyKitty]

Your GPU is pretty crap. That may be your problem.

[Herman Mcpootis]

Use msi afterburner's on-screen display to check your cpu and gpu temps, and clock speed, see if the temps are too high or if the clock speeds are unusually low. Also, use it to check your cpu and gpu usage while gaming, see which component is bottlenecking.

[themctipers]

Your CPU is really that poor

 

[GER_T4IGA]

Your GPU is lowest level of lowest. Your CPU is probably not the bottleneck for it. the 950 is not a bad card, it is just that it is the bottom of the line for gaming. Below that come only laptops.

[Herman Mcpootis]

I'd consider the gtx 950 to be the second lowest tier of gaming graphics cards currently, with the gtx 750ti/r7 260x as the lowest. The gtx 950 isn't that good, but i didn't expect it to be so bad either. Might be thermal throttling or a crappy driver at work.

[Moonzy]

4 minutes ago, GER_T4IGA said:

Your GPU is lowest level of lowest.

the gtx 950 is a decent gpu

 

im suspecting OP is facing cpu bottlenecking issues since GTA V is heavy on the cpu side of things

[GreezyJeezy]

8 minutes ago, GER_T4IGA said:

Your GPU is lowest level of lowest. Your CPU is probably not the bottleneck for it. the 950 is not a bad card, it is just that it is the bottom of the line for gaming. Below that come only laptops.

Nah that's the 260

[Sir Asvald]

14 minutes ago, deWaardt said:

So about half a year ago I built this PC, 1 and a half month ago I bought a GTX 950 to go with it.

 

Specs:
Asrock FM2A88M-hd+ rev 2.0

AMD Athlon ii x4 860k

NVidia GTX 950

12GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

Now I am not satisfied with the performance.

I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to get 1080p60fps at ultra settings, but maybe medium or so.

Now, Bf4 on the lowest preset goes 50 to 60fps, very often dropping to 40 and even to 30fps, while maxing all 4 CPU cores out at 100%.

 

GTA V, pretty much low to medium settings, can't hold a 60fps. Averaging 50fps

It very often drops to like 45 fps, and 40fps when driving very fast on the highway near the north of the map.

 

My CPU is overclocked to 4.2ghz btw.

 

I already tried removing one of the ram dimms, running with 8gb to see if the mixed RAM size caused an issue, but it didn't improve anything.

My temps rarely go above 60 degrees, so that probably isn't it.

 

Is there anything I can try, or is my CPU really that poor?

 

What is your GPU Usage? Because your CPU is at 100% meaning there's a bottlenecking between your CPU and GPU. Also what are your GPU temps, also have you OC'ed your GPU?

[Aereldor]

The Athlon x4 860k is actually fairly capable, and since games don't hit the CPU all that hard and the GTX 950 will be at its limits even at 1080p, the bottleneck is unlikely to be your CPU.

 

Fire up MSI Afterburner and keep an eye on CPU and GPU usage. If your CPU doesn't get close to 100% usage often, then it isn't the problem.

[Mcmole]

I just upgraded from a Phenom X4 840, To a I5 6600K.... both with a GTX 960 , Now I'm seeing 60FPS maxed on basically every game, where as before I could not even get 45 on med to high and sometimes dropped as low as 25 FPS... I can almost 100% say it will be that CPU.

[deWaardt]

6 minutes ago, Abdul201588 said:

What is your GPU Usage? Because your CPU is at 100% meaning there's a bottlenecking between your CPU and GPU. Also what are your GPU temps, also have you OC'ed your GPU?

 

4 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

The Athlon x4 860k is actually fairly capable, and since games don't hit the CPU all that hard and the GTX 950 will be at its limits even at 1080p, the bottleneck is unlikely to be your CPU.

 

Fire up MSI Afterburner and keep an eye on CPU and GPU usage. If your CPU doesn't get close to 100% usage often, then it isn't the problem.

My CPU is at 100% nearly all the time, GPU hovers around 60/70% and runs between 40 en 50 degrees.

 

Yes, my CPU is overclocked.

I clearly stated that in the OP.

[Herman Mcpootis]

1 minute ago, Mcmole said:

I just upgraded from a Phenom X4 840, To a I5 6600K.... both with a GTX 960 , Now I'm seeing 60FPS maxed on basically every game, where as before I could not even get 45 on med to high and sometimes dropped as low as 25 FPS... I can almost 100% say it will be that CPU.

You're using a different graphics card with a MUCH older cpu thats several generations behind. how is this supposed to be accurate?

[Aereldor]

1 minute ago, deWaardt said:

My CPU is at 100% nearly all the time, GPU hovers around 60/70% and runs between 40 en 50 degrees.

It's a CPU bottleneck for sure, then. However, I'm interested in which exact titles you're seeing these numbers with.

[Mcmole]

2 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

You're using a different graphics card with a MUCH older cpu thats several generations behind. how is this supposed to be accurate?

If you bothered to look at benchmarks you would see that the 840 isn't all that much slower when it comes to single core performance or when it comes to overall core performance, which is what matters most when gaming. He also has a similar (albeit slower GPU)...I was just relating my experience with similar performing hardware and what a CPU upgrade did to my system. After playing around with a 950 in other systems I know how strong the card is. and I know how strong my 960 is. Am I not allowed to express my knowledge and let him know what i think "in my opinion" what the bottleneck is.

 

Also, it looks to be confirmed.

 

" My CPU is at 100% nearly all the time, GPU hovers around 60/70% and runs between 40 en 50 degrees. "

 

So.... Yea. Not saying I was right. But....

[deWaardt]

9 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

It's a CPU bottleneck for sure, then. However, I'm interested in which exact titles you're seeing these numbers with.

I clearly states that in the OP as well.

Do you guys even read?

2 minutes ago, Mcmole said:

If you bothered to look at benchmarks you would see that the 840 isn't all that much slower when it comes to single core performance or when it comes to overall core performance, which is what matters most when gaming. He also has a similar (albeit slower GPU)...I was just relating my experience with similar performing hardware and what a CPU upgrade did to my system. After playing around with a 950 in other systems I know how strong the card is. and I know how strong my 960 is. Am I not allowed to express my knowledge and let him know what i think "in my opinion" what the bottleneck is.

 

Also, it looks to be confirmed.

 

" My CPU is at 100% nearly all the time, GPU hovers around 60/70% and runs between 40 en 50 degrees. "

 

So.... Yea. Not saying I was right. But....

I don't know if there could possibly be a software issue or incorrect BIOS setting that is causing poor performance, but I'm kinda losing hope.

[Ords]

I run my Asus GTX 950 (oc edition) on a 4670K oced to 4.0ghz, 8gb(4x2) ram and it runs GTA V on high settings(some are medium) 1080p 60fps constant. Are you using the oc edition?

[Herman Mcpootis]

2 minutes ago, deWaardt said:

I clearly states that in the OP as well.

Do you guys even read?

 

Don't have to be rude; we're just trying to help.

2 minutes ago, deWaardt said:

I don't know if there could possibly be a software issue or incorrect BIOS setting that is causing poor performance, but I'm kinda losing hope.

Maybe try to reinstall your drivers and see if it helps. Also check to see if the cpu clock speed is unusually low during gaming(for some reason).

[Mcmole]

Sadly man, There isn't much hope. AMD's current line-up is a dying bread... Its single core performance is pretty bad in comparison to Intel ATM...

And there entire lineup is about to be stopped and re-geared for ZEN. So I would start saving up for that or look at what Intel has to offer maybe even have a look at the last gen, and that was it will be cheaper and you can carry over your DDR3....

 

All I can cay is I know your pain...

[MagnusGrønstad]

41 minutes ago, deWaardt said:

So about half a year ago I built this PC, 1 and a half month ago I bought a GTX 950 to go with it.

 

Specs:
Asrock FM2A88M-hd+ rev 2.0

AMD Athlon ii x4 860k

NVidia GTX 950

12GB of DDR3 RAM.

 

Now I am not satisfied with the performance.

I knew from the beginning I wasn't going to get 1080p60fps at ultra settings, but maybe medium or so.

Now, Bf4 on the lowest preset goes 50 to 60fps, very often dropping to 40 and even to 30fps, while maxing all 4 CPU cores out at 100%.

 

GTA V, pretty much low to medium settings, can't hold a 60fps. Averaging 50fps

It very often drops to like 45 fps, and 40fps when driving very fast on the highway near the north of the map.

 

My CPU is overclocked to 4.2ghz btw.

 

I already tried removing one of the ram dimms, running with 8gb to see if the mixed RAM size caused an issue, but it didn't improve anything.

My temps rarely go above 60 degrees, so that probably isn't it.

 

Is there anything I can try, or is my CPU really that poor?

 

 

I have nearly the same specs, except 8GB of RAM. and I run BF4 on 60-80 FPS on lowest  at 1080p.
and I even run everything on stock. so I have no idea what's wrong with your rig ... 0.o

[Herman Mcpootis]

This benchmark is using a gtx 960 and an r9 285, so it may not be the most accurate. But it does suggest that the x4 860k is actually capable of handling a gtx 950.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1017-best-budget-gaming-cpu/page3.html

With the gtx 960/r9 285, battlefield 4 was at almost 60fps at ultra. With the gtx 950, it should be at around ~10-15fps less, so its very odd that your system can't even do that at low settings.

[Mr.Meerkat]

18 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

You're using a different graphics card with a MUCH older cpu thats several generations behind. how is this supposed to be accurate?

It may be older by a few gens but AMD hasn't upped their CPU game for a while now so they actually preform pretty similar...

 

20 minutes ago, Mcmole said:

I just upgraded from a Phenom X4 840, To a I5 6600K.... both with a GTX 960 , Now I'm seeing 60FPS maxed on basically every game, where as before I could not even get 45 on med to high and sometimes dropped as low as 25 FPS... I can almost 100% say it will be that CPU.

Hehe nice exaggeration, the 960 is not nearly powerful enough to push 1080p ultra (or whatever the highest settings are) 60fps stable on quite a lot of the triple A games...

 

 

[Ords]

Have you checked your drivers?

[deWaardt]

7 minutes ago, herman mcpootis said:

Don't have to be rude; we're just trying to help.

Maybe try to reinstall your drivers and see if it helps. Also check to see if the cpu clock speed is unusually low during gaming(for some reason).

I guess I'll just start with reinstalling Windows, clean install all drivers and games, and reset BIOS to default.

9 minutes ago, Ords said:

I run my Asus GTX 950 (oc edition) on a 4670K oced to 4.0ghz, 8gb(4x2) ram and it runs GTA V on high settings(some are medium) 1080p 60fps constant. Are you using the oc edition?

Yes, I have the OC edition. Boosts to around 1500mhz on a good load.

3 minutes ago, MagnusGrønstad said:

 

I have nearly the same specs, except 8GB of RAM. and I run BF4 on 60-80 FPS on lowest  at 1080p.
and I even run everything on stock. so I have no idea what's wrong with your rig ... 0.o

I have no idea.

I'm gonna completely reset my PC and do a fresh start and see what happens.

[Mcmole]

10 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

It may be older by a few gens but AMD hasn't upped their CPU game for a while now so they actually preform pretty similar...

 

Hehe nice exaggeration, the 960 is not nearly powerful enough to push 1080p ultra (or whatever the highest settings are) 60fps stable on quite a lot of the triple A games...

 

 

When you have a 28% Overclock on the CPU and a 18% overclock on the 960...It is.

https://www.game-debate.com/gaming-pc/index.php?r_id=545697&cpu=Core%20i5-6600K%203.5GHz&gpu=GeForce%20GTX%20960%20MSI%20Gaming%202GB%20Edition&ram=16GB#gamingPCReport

PROOF these are with stock numbers basically all above 60FPS on Ultra/High Settings. (the ones that aren't are High 50's and with my overclock I hit a stable 60). So check your faces before you call people out with your shit.