Why does my I5 4460 bottleneck my gtx 970?

[Silvanor]

Hey guys,

I have a Intel core i5-4460 cpu (base clock: 3.20GHz) and a Msi gtx 970.

When i was playing battlefield recently i noticed that my fps was lower than i saw in the benchmarks. So i was wondering, Why do i get so much lower fps (around 50 average i think) then everyone else with a gtx 970

So i checked my cpu usage and my gpu usage when i was gaming and i saw that my cpu was at 99% and my gpu at around 60%. So that's pretty shitty right?

Well I went and googled a bit and tried to find out if my cpu would bottleneck my gpu but every forum i found everyone says that it's no problem and the cpu should handle itself.

Well.... in my case it doesn't and i'm wondering why. 

Could anyone help me figure out what's going on?

Thanks in advance

Greetings,

Silvanor

[Matias_Chambers]

welp, i5's get maxed out in many games nowadays which results in them bottlenecking. 

[Matias_Chambers]

When the CPU is at 100% it can't provide data fast enough for the GPU which results in a bottleneck. And CPU's can bottleneck even when they aren't at 100% btw. 

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, Matias_Chambers said:

welp, i5's get maxed out in many games nowadays which results in them bottlenecking. 

It still shouldn't be that much of a bottleneck: http://www.techspot.com/review/1267-battlefield-1-benchmarks/page4.html

 

@Silvanor is anything else running on the system? Do you have performance issues in any other games (what other demanding games do you play)? Also are you running in DX11 or DX12?

[ShrDc]

Battlefield has proven to be very cpu intensive, maxing the usage of most i5s, so it's normal

[Matias_Chambers]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

It still shouldn't be that much of a bottleneck: http://www.techspot.com/review/1267-battlefield-1-benchmarks/page4.html

 

@Silvanor is anything else running on the system? Do you have performance issues in any other games (what other demanding games do you play)?

Yeah, he might have something else running in the background taking up the CPU. 

[HoiDaniel]

Just now, Thread212 said:

Which battlefield u are playing? BF 4 is CPU intensive so no wonder if its maxed out.

and make sure u look the cpu load at idle.

This makes no sense, because an idle i5 shouldn't be hitting more than 20%.

 

However, BF1 is a very CPU intense game as mentioned earlier which causes the GPU usage to be held back.

[Silvanor]

1 minute ago, Thread212 said:

Which battlefield u are playing? BF 4 is CPU intensive so no wonder if its maxed out.

and make sure u look the cpu load at idle.

I'm playing battlefield 1. At idle my cpu is at around 12%

[Matias_Chambers]

Check Task Manager and make sure you don't have anything else than your game taking up a lot of CPU. 

[Silvanor]

1 minute ago, Matias_Chambers said:

Yeah, he might have something else running in the background taking up the CPU. 

I carefully looked at that but battlefield is the only application that uses my cpu more than 2% The rest is very low

[Silvanor]

1 minute ago, Matias_Chambers said:

Check Task Manager and make sure you don't have anything else than your game taking up a lot of CPU. 

Nope nothing else, I checked

[Gonio]

For some (even with CPU's that should be ok) in Battlefield there are issues that are caused by a CPU bottleneck during multiplayer. Some have it, others don't. So it might have more to do with the game then the actual CPU being the bottleneck (despite it showing as the bottleneck, hope you understand how I mean that).

 

Is all updated to latest drivers? Try and flip some settings like the DX mode and wasn't there also a (V)RAM usage option? Don't play it myself, but have seen many reporting this issue with even better suited CPU's, so atleast you are not only one.

[Silvanor]

1 minute ago, Gonio said:

For some (even with CPU's that should be ok) in Battlefield there are issues that are caused by a CPU bottleneck during multiplayer. Some have it, others don't. So it might have more to do with the game then the actual CPU being the bottleneck (despite it showing as the bottleneck, hope you understand how I mean that).

 

Is all updated to latest drivers? Try and flip some settings like the DX mode and wasn't there also a (V)RAM usage option? Don't play it myself, but have seen many reporting this issue with even better suited CPU's, so atleast you are not only one.

I'll check now with a few other games and see if there my cpu usage is high as well. I'll report soon.

[Matias_Chambers]

13 minutes ago, Silvanor said:

I'm playing battlefield 1. At idle my cpu is at around 12%

Then that is normal. Even people with 6700K's will have problems if you have a lot of stuff running in the background. 

[Silvanor]

11 minutes ago, Silvanor said:

I'll check now with a few other games and see if there my cpu usage is high as well. I'll report soon.

I checked overwatch and rocketleague,

Overwatch CPU at 99% but GPU also at 99%

Rocketleague CPU and GPU 70~80%

[Gonio]

Rocketleague? Isn't that the racing game on my old Commodore 64 . Not sure but Rocketleague isn't that demanding if I am correct?

 

For the BF1 and overwatch it doens't seem odd still, your CPU is obviously not the highest clocked with 3.4 max turbo.

Still would say to tinker a bit with gamesettings. If you can still play smooth overall, I would just go with the flow even if you don't get 100% potential. But it might hint on saving up for better CPU if you plan to play more new games in the future.

[Silvanor]

1 hour ago, Gonio said:

Rocketleague? Isn't that the racing game on my old Commodore 64 . Not sure but Rocketleague isn't that demanding if I am correct?

 

For the BF1 and overwatch it doens't seem odd still, your CPU is obviously not the highest clocked with 3.4 max turbo.

Still would say to tinker a bit with gamesettings. If you can still play smooth overall, I would just go with the flow even if you don't get 100% potential. But it might hint on saving up for better CPU if you plan to play more new games in the future.

Haha ye rocket league is pretty easy to run but i was still curious. Okay, I'll look up the most cpu intensive settings and tweak them a bit. Is it worth upgrading to a new cpu now? Or can i better wait. I will probably upgrade my whole pc in 1.5 years. I have a LGA1150 socket. Any not too expensive cpu what would be good for 1.5 years?

[Gonio]

Well if you can get a cheap unlocked ( if your mobo supports it) and possible higher tier CPU (second hand)  for the 1150 platform that would be a good option. But since you plan a upgrade in a few years don't spend way to much on it. With some luck you can find a nice deal since many upgraded Skylake. If that is not a option but can still life with how it runs, just wait.

 

With a proper CPU your current platform should still be sufficient enough. But go unlocked next build. Even if no pro OCer, having a unlocked CPU now could have saved you the dosh to spend, since a simple OC is not that hard to do, and gives you some more useable lifespan to sit and wait out that 2-3 years before actual platform upgrade.

 

Situation of more costly now, but cheaper in the long run.

[Shreyas1996]

Battlefield has more destruction, particle effects, complex geometry. CPU is responsible to calculate that, so an i5 will be a bottleneck.