Is my CPU a problem?

[caddi daddi]

ajay57, I see your point.
2 issues with $100 boards and 6-8 core cpu's, the first is you just can't get a lot from the processor on it and the second is you will just need to replace it next year when you want to upgrade, be it cpu or video.

 

[Ajay57]

caddi daddi i have the greatest respect for the GUY'S in the AMD Section, but i try my best to say to new OP's asking about AMD Mobo's to reconmend the best possible with VRM' Mosfets etc. To make sure this kind of thing does not happen so often, i even check my advice with Trents and RGone by PM. To make sure its a correct as possible and accurate as well, as you can see it makes me shake my head when cheap AMD Mobo's are offered only later to be found wanting. Best Regards AJ.

 

[Hicksimus]

It's just one of those days for me...the highlight so far was turning off power to one room in my house(finding out it's actually 15A for the whole lower floor) and then getting shocked bad enough to numb my whole right arm...in a room with the power off(including the outlets) !

That in mind, I think you guys are out of touch. Does Wafflebutt strike you as somebody going for an extreme overclock? I've seen nothing to suggest it. But what I have seen is a 990FXA-UD3 for about $100(on sale as I noted) and for damn near anybody that's a solid mobo. Plus there are similar Intel mobos. If I thought he wanted to take an 8350 over 5GHz I'd certainly say something else but given his current computer and his questions I don't get how we've escalated to needing a $300 mobo, or a $400 graphics card.

I get your philosophy and I admit I'm grumpy atm but seriously, sometimes you have to keep in mind that you are enthusiasts.

As for you, Wafflebutt...this thread isn't about what we want it's just us taking stabs at what you may want, the more you tell us the better. Just keep in mind that many of us are enthusiasts and that makes us prone to recommending stretching your horizons no matter what your price point is. I've just learned to temper mine with some previous sales experience.

 

[caddi daddi]

look, I have the asus m5a97r2, I have tried my 4170 in it, it sucked.....
my 965 is happy in it at 3.8, good combo.
I have an asrock fatlady 990fx pro, 6300 in it, solid $160 board, good combo
the m5a97 will nedd to be replaced if i plan an upgrade, $120 down the tubes.
sabertooth (I have one) would have been better.

the more ideas we put out here gives the op more to look at and why to look at it.
m5a97, weak power phasing, weak cooling.
asrock fatlady, poor bios. good cooling, very good power.
crosshair-v- formula has it's own issues and costs.
sabertooth the same as the crosshair.

 

[Ajay57]

Hicksimus my friend i hope your OK with the electric shock you got! But let me try for the last time here. This nothing to do about me or you, this is to do about recommended better boards for AMD CPU's? The other day i had a member from Canada asking about AMD boards etc, other members said in the thread no don't buy that its OTT. Only just the other day he PM me saying thanks Ajay i bought that Mobo UD7 you said its working fantastic with my FX6300 CPU. The point here is if he decides in 2 years time he can still use that board to up grade again to a FX 8--- RANGE without having to rebuild his whole set up? Best Regards AJ.

 

[RGone]

Just CrapOLa. How in the heck can I agree with AJ, Hicksimus and freeken caddi daddi? This just does not compute in my old brain cells.

I think the situation stems from the OP and how any OP seems to ask an open-ended question. The questions as posed just are too too far reaching. Too perhaps all-encompassing.

Is my CPU a problem? << Is the thread Title.

Is my CPU the problem when I have this situation? >> I usually play modern games on medium, games like Far Cry 3 on medium and Max Payne 3 on high (only to find fps drops in some large areas, like the swamp) Chivalry Medieval Warfare runs pretty smooth on high, that is of course when theres 20 players on a server. I may have to turn down the graphics if there are 50 players total in one server.

Now were that the question without OP going off to changing to Thuban when we all know in the Usa the good Thuban 1090Ts and 1100Ts are long gone. So the OP actually asked if his FX-410 as configured is A / THE problem.

I often think we get into TMI (too much info) when we reply to a very broad question. That is why I believe I can concur in principal with all three. IE: AJ, Hicksimus and caddi daddi. Dang it.

 

[Hicksimus]

That's why I didn't say M5A97. My point is that in AMD terms he can get something like the 990FXA-UD3 and other competitors boards with comparable features(M5A99X EVO if I have to elaborate) and be quite well off for anything except pushing the limits. I tell people their VRM's are the issue frequently, but what I'm saying here is that you don't need to buy a Dodge Viper for the occasional casual track day unless you want to.

The same goes for Intel motherboards, I bet he can drop $60 and not notice the difference and I'd bet he can drop another $60 and not know unless he pushes beyond 4.5Ghz at which point the VRM on something like the Z77A-G43 will start to feel the pressure.

As for Ajay, I really do get the point in buying nice motherboards(I read far too many in depth reviews on them). But I'm still at the point of being realistic. Is the 990FXA-UD3 really that bad with an 8 core such as the 8350 though? I pushed my FX-6100 up to where it had more power draw than the 8350 in the preceding graph and all was well. I can't imagine AMD going back to bulldozer consumption and I could swear I heard something about DDR4 next year which I'm guessing means the UD7 is a bit obsolete.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2012/11/06/amd-fx-8350-review/7

 

[Ajay57]

Well sorry to the OP that's me done for today bye for now! AJ.

 

[Hicksimus]

Don't run away! I'm having fun here because I'm having an argument where I'm agreeing with others but they don't get it and they want what I said to mean something else.

Anyway Waffle asked if he should GPU first then CPU/Mobo later. Are you at sub 100% GPU usage in the games you mentioned?

 

[Wafflebutt]

Don't run away! I'm having fun here because I'm having an argument where I'm agreeing with others but they don't get it and they want what I said to mean something else.

Anyway Waffle asked if he should GPU first then CPU/Mobo later. Are you at sub 100% GPU usage in the games you mentioned?

Nope, 82% was my max (I think)

 

[Black C5 Z06]

Nope, 82% was my max (I think)

Then that means CPU first.

 

[Hicksimus]

In general terms that's likely to be a CPU bottleneck, though other things can cause sub 100% utilization in games. You can try making sure V-sync or any other form of frame rate cap is off. I've also heard that sometimes it's driver related. However, because you are on Bulldozer I'd be fairly(not entirely) confident in it being a CPU bottleneck.

I checked out Max Payne benchmarks and it looked like for whatever loop was used that your CPU wouldn't cause problems. However, if your GPU use drops off in the swamps when your FPS does that's very likely your processor holding things up. When the processor really holds things up a more powerful GPU is held up waiting on the CPU so it's not particularly useful, though you can frequently have higher settings with the same FPS.

Far Cry 3 has a noticeable bottleneck(can result in less than 50fps) on the 4170 and that is clocked much higher than yours so I'm sure that you'll get higher settings and better FPS most of the time(as in better average FPS) with a 7950, but if your performance is like mine then driving will still slow you down.

As for Chivalry, I have no idea. There's probably a joke in there somewhere.

 

[Black C5 Z06]

In general terms that's likely to be a CPU bottleneck, though other things can cause sub 100% utilization in games. You can try making sure V-sync or any other form of frame rate cap is off. I've also heard that sometimes it's driver related. However, because you are on Bulldozer I'd be fairly(not entirely) confident in it being a CPU bottleneck.

I checked out Max Payne benchmarks and it looked like for whatever loop was used that your CPU wouldn't cause problems. However, if your GPU use drops off in the swamps when your FPS does that's very likely your processor holding things up. When the processor really holds things up a more powerful GPU is held up waiting on the CPU so it's not particularly useful, though you can frequently have higher settings with the same FPS.

Far Cry 3 has a noticeable bottleneck(can result in less than 50fps) on the 4170 and that is clocked much higher than yours so I'm sure that you'll get higher settings and better FPS most of the time(as in better average FPS) with a 7950, but if your performance is like mine then driving will still slow you down.

As for Chivalry, I have no idea. There's probably a joke in there somewhere.

Yeah, the 6870 is still a wonderful card IMHO. It's no top tier, but it is a *great* little card. I sold my 6950 to a friend on a quad core Athlon II and he's trucking away at pretty good quality on BF3.

It's not so much the OP's clocks or anything, it's the CPU architecture.

 

[Wafflebutt]

Hmm, never noticed driving in Far Cry 3 slowed me down.

As the Max Payne 3, I tried maxing out (only leaving MSAA to 2x due to my 1GB memory) it ran as smooth as the high settings. It's the certain areas that makes my fps drop (The boat escape and the fight between the police and gang members in urban areas)

I'll see if I can get the i5-3570K and ASUS P8Z77-V PRO at once, they cost 252 dollars and 297 USD. So it may take a while.

 

[RGone]

it's the CPU architecture.

That is likely good diagnostics. One FPU for each module.

 

[Black C5 Z06]

What does everyone think about a mATX board for him? Could still get a kick@ss board, but less, and I doubt he'll ever be needing to crossfire.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131830

 

[Wafflebutt]

IF I was short on money, would Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 + FX-6300 do? Just about how much difference are they compared to i5-3570K + ASUS P8Z77-V PRO?

 

[Black C5 Z06]

IF I was short on money, would Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 + FX-6300 do? Just about how much difference are they compared to i5-3570K + ASUS P8Z77-V PRO?

It really is no comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=701


In the future, you'd be *much* happier with the i5.

 

[Hicksimus]

You'd do fine with them but I'll try to keep it simple.

The 6300 is a nice chip, think of it as your chip but having 2 additional cores and slightly (~15%) better performance per core at any given speed and it does so on about the same amount of power as you use now.

More recent/well-made games will perform well on it, the more cores they use the better off you will usually be(assuming they are used well).

What you lose by not going Intel is performance per core. Simply put, there are times when the Intel processor will offer roughly 30-70% better performance per core at similar frequencies to the 6300. Got a game like Skyrim/World of Tanks/Company of Heroes? Those tend to do wayyy better on Intel because they aren't using many cores BUT they are also CPU bottlenecked with most current gaming quality video cards.

With that board you will be able to overclock that chip a long way, so if you grab that setup and a good processor heatsink then you can aim for a nice overclock and it will be a really nice upgrade.

Edit: I'll give you an idea. In Company of Heroes last night I was playing with 1 friend using an fx-6100(stock), 1 friend using an i5 3570(stock) and myself on a 1045T(3.7GHz). At the end of the game it reported our average FPS...the Intel set 37FPS, my 1045T set 18.5 and the 6100 set 13. Because the game uses 1 core the only way to get something smooth is Intel. Alternatively, we all get visually similar FPS in BF3(usually 50 or above) though if we all run stock CPU the 3570 is still a bit ahead. So sometimes the difference is tiny, sometimes the difference can be huge.

 

[Hicksimus]

It really is no comparison.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/699?vs=701


In the future, you'd be *much* happier with the i5.

This is it in a nutshell. Plus at the moment I see an i5 3570k with a Z77A-GD65(with mail in rebate) for about $70 more than an FX-6300 with the 990FXA-UD3(with mail in rebate). You have to decide if that link justifies $70, but if you really can't then see what I said above.