My weakest link... where is it?

[slowcaveman]

Hello and let me thank you for your help in advanced for looking. My issue comes from a "new old stock" build.

Little background before specs.

My OC for the cpu is very stable and burnt in. With zero failures, the gains were tested and proven in games as far as FPS and general gameplay as well as timing program startups. My GPU is stock out of the box cooler and all for now. My fsb is OC to only 203 from 200 so very minamal. All my CPU OC is done by unlocked multiplier and my CPU does have a very nice cooler. Ram timings have been left stock do to many failed OCs on my part.

Issue:

When I play Wow or D3 my GPU setting must be on middle settings or else my FPS drop to under 30. Talking to about 8 other players with the same GPU and game latencies, they all have no problems running max setting and never dropping below 60 FPS when standing right by me ( 60 being the max with V sync). I dont know if its my gpu being kinda slow from the factory or maybe my overall rig. Ive tried to find my weak link, but no luck. Now most of the others running the same card are using a "newer" Cpu I-3 and I-5 some are using older amd without issues. I'm completely lost so here I am. Thanks again. Please let me know if I can provide any more info.

CPU Amd phnom 2 quad core 965 --- Oc 4.2
Gpu Gtx 550 TI oc edition
Ram corsair vengance 1600 ddr3 timings are 10-10-10-27-39 one stick 8g ---- was thinking about buying two fours for dual channel setup... Advice???
Power supply is 750 antec gaming PSU
Mother board is a gigabyte GA-970A-D3

Hope I got it all. Thanks

 

[madman7]

A different video card wouldn't hurt. Maybe a GTX 560 or 560TI. Check this link to see how much faster a GTX 560 is.
http://www.hwcompare.com/10975/geforce-gtx-550-ti-vs-geforce-gtx-560/
Dual channel memory would help too. No need to run the memory at 1600. The memory controller in the 965 is geared for 1333 memory. At 1333, the memory can run with lower timings. I run my memory at 1333 at 9-9-9-25-34 with a 985 OC to 4.1. Hope this helps.

 

[Knufire]

Grab another single 8GB stick, or sell the 8GB stick and grab 2 fours, dual channel is better. I'd say a new video card though, the Phenom II X4s, especially at 4GHz and above, are quite capable gamers.

 

[Mjolnir]

What resolution are you running at? What's your actual temperatures whilst gaming on the Quad at 4.2ghz? 4.2ghz is a fairly hefty OC for those chips. I'd perhaps wonder if its downclocking itself (throttling) while you're playing games if your temps are too high?

Otherwise; your graphics card is what's holding you back. your CPU should be plenty. But depends on your resolution.

Another stick of RAM can't hurt; but frankly won't help your FPS much.

A GTX 550 Ti runs very well at 1680x1050 resolutions and below. Anything above that it starts to show its a lower-end card.

 

[slowcaveman]

Right now playing for 3 hrs my temps are


As per Speed fan
Core -41c
Gpu -65c
Temp 1- 36c
Temp 2- 39c
Temp 3- 50c
with the todays temp of being 75f ish n the room

Im running 2 monitors 1- 21" LG at 1920 x 1080 , one 18 acer at 1440 x 960

Playing in windowed Full screen and nothing in the other besides a internet browser when waiting.

Cpu never gets taxed by games, all cores are always under 40%
usally one core is about 60 with one other at 20-30 ish

Right now im playing wow 2 internet browsers open speed fan and using 27-16-43-35% of all cores with 3 out of 8 gb mem used. With the temps above

I just dont understand how others with same card can play NP with the same card.

 

[Knufire]

I think you usually want to keep a Phenom II X4 under 55C (core), and that's under a Prime95 load.

 

[Mjolnir]

Temps look fine.

Don't run windowed full screen. Just try normal full screen. And if you're running games at 1080p; that's probably why. Are your friends playing at 1080p as well? a GTX 550 Ti isn't really an ideal card for 1080p..

 

[slowcaveman]

Ill upgrade my ram and try to buy a tighter timing setup, should I stick to the 1600 or as mentioned above move it down to the 1333 for the 965 phenom? Ram is the one thing I dont totally understand. I know the basics but seems like there is such a fine line and not a huge reward. My temps never really change much, my cpu under stressing never reached over 50c and that was about 2 hours of burn in using Sisoftwares "burn in" tool that maxed my cpu out at 90% for 2-3 min timers off and on durring the overall time. Today at the temp above my comp has been on all day, did a 4 hr virus scan, then played wow for 3 hrs. So the temp should never really get much higher for what I do. I've locked my bios from changing my settings as per temps and down time. So I'm pretty sure it cant throttle down, unless there is another way to do it, but my tools never show it changing. The overall computer runs very nice, fast smooth, and errorless. Maybe I just wasted $106 on a crappy gpu. The rebate was what won the deal $40 rebate off a 150 card. Now I know why...

Is there anyway my $100 MOB would limit my GPU, or CPU? I know its not the best but it works so far...

Sorry guys this is only my second OC computer and Im still learning every day. Thanks again

 

[Mjolnir]

It won't limit either now.

It's your graphics card. Your friends are probably running lower resolutions than you... Like I said; its not the most powerful card for 1080p. Should run everything fine at Medium settings for 99% of games though.

Sticking to 1600 won't hurt.

 

[scrambler]

The 550Ti can overclock to 560 levels. 1100 Core is what I was able to get my card to.

I'd say unless the jump is significant, don't bother. In your case, I'd say anything 570 and above would be worth it. 560Ti would also work, but I just wouldn't consider it a enough of a jump. For example, I went with a 550Ti and then jumped up to a 7950 later on.

 

[slowcaveman]

Update:

removed my stock Gpu heatsink and fansetup replaced with a older zalman fan that i had laying around and updated to thermal compound...

Gpu dropped to a low 34C from 65 lol

Since doing this the video seems to run a little smoother and crisper could be in my mind but not sure. I messed up and didnt do a benchmark right before. I also ran down and upgrade my ddr3 to 2 4gb G skill ripjaws 8-8-8-24 t2 in dual channel mode. Now the question is can I OC the gpu more than the stock factory oc... Any guesses Nvidia's OC is core 981- Shaders 1962- snd memory 2257

 

[storm-chaser]

Update:

removed my stock Gpu heatsink and fansetup replaced with a older zalman fan that i had laying around and updated to thermal compound...

Gpu dropped to a low 34C from 65 lol

Since doing this the video seems to run a little smoother and crisper could be in my mind but not sure. I messed up and didnt do a benchmark right before. I also ran down and upgrade my ddr3 to 2 4gb G skill ripjaws 8-8-8-24 t2 in dual channel mode. Now the question is can I OC the gpu more than the stock factory oc... Any guesses Nvidia's OC is core 981- Shaders 1962- snd memory 2257

SSD drive? If your board supports 6GB/s I highly recommend upgrading, simply to eliminate that bottleneck.

Your BIOS DRAM settings should have DCT0 and DCT1 == enable both. You want to run both of these at identical timing settings for a true 128bit bus. Try tightening the timings even more on the memory.

 

[Foopsz]

Buy a GTX 560 Ti You can get them for around 160 to 180 if you look good enough thats about the only thing you need to upgrade and maybe dual channel ram.

 

[slowcaveman]

OK so a two months later... I buy a gtx 670 ftw edition. Same issues playing wow im still on getting 50 - 36 fps in cities on the second lowest video setting. When in 25 man raids or even 10 man for the matter i can't turn y graphics upto ultra or even half up. Im using the same gear as above and starting to wonder if my Mobo is not allowing enough bandwith for the gpu it says it running at x16 when i open GPUID, but im once again running out of ideas. OH and since then I've also upgrade to a SSD intel 560 for a boot and game drive.

 

[slowcaveman]

i noticed my Mobo is not listed so here are my specs again

Amd Phenom 2, 4 core 965 @ 4.1 with a 20 multiplier
Gigabyte GA-970a-d3 Reve 1.1 using f7 bios from 10-13-2011
Ram, 2 4gig ddr3 dual channel in the right slots,
8/8/8/24/34/2t Gskill pc3-12800 model f3-12800cl8-4gbxm
CPU cooler coolermaster V8
PSU antec 750w "Gaming PSU"
Case Coolmaster full HAF

 

[Johan45]

I don't play the MMORPG's but could it be your internet connection slowing you down ? If you're playing with 10 - 25 team mates that's alot of info to pass back and forth to keep everything synced

 

[Dlaw]

I game on medium-high settings with "mostly" 60FPS or more, lowest I've seen is 24 FPS, but that was in Dark Souls, and it's capped there.

Was your 550 a reference board?

 

[Hicksimus]

WoW is something I haven't played in years so I can't comment on how well it deals with processors. A good first step would be to grab GPU-z and check your GPU Load while you are in these low FPS areas. Less than 100% is usually not good, it's frequently caused by a CPU bottleneck or V-Sync/other frame rate caps.

 

[dtrunk]

post screen shots of cpuz; cpu/memory/spd tabs. this will give us an idea of your OC and if that is limiting you.

 

[slowcaveman]

Thanks for the replay I will post pics tonight once I get home, anything else I should include?