1070 is Bottlenecking?

[clntbstwood]

Hello, I recently upgraded from a gtx 660 to a gtx 1070 8GB OC. I've been running Battlefield 1 and Forza Horizon 3 on my system and I haven't been getting a consistently good frame rate - it dips (on BF1) from 60 to 45/50 whenever things get sticky... I've been monitoring the GPU utilisation on HWMonitor and it's seems to stay below 70/80%. I believe that it should hang in the high 90s most of if not all the time? Forza horizon on the other hand has trouble performing in the 50/60s on medium to high settings and also doesn't have 100% utilisation (eventhough it's a high demanding game I think it still shouldn't perform this badly) . Saying all this I do have a few theories as to what the problem might be...

Here are my specs:
i5-4670k 3.4ghz
8GB ram 1600MHz
450w PSU
MSI H81M-E34

I do believe the problem relies on either the power supply or the CPU?.

 

[Rahul_Ignited]

Some games are more CPU-bound and will utilize the CPU more and some games are GPU-bound are will stress the GPU more. If you can Overclock your 4670K to like 4.4GHz (which is a super easy target) then it would perform even better as your CPU is a powerful quad-core.

Just to be sure make sure not too much programs are running in the background (you can check it via Task Manager) as some programs use a fair bit of CPU and/or RAM that slows things down.

One great example of CPU, GPU bound and a balanced game is-

My friend has a rig with an i7 6950X and a pair of TITAN XP (W/ HB SLI Bridge)

In games like Witcher 3, the GPU utilization is like 90-99% on both while the CPU doesn't even exceed 20-26%
In City skylines 4 Cores were pushed to 96-100% use while the first GPU hovered under 35-46% while the second GPU was not doing anything at all.
In GTA 5 and Dying Light, the CPU was like 45-52% in use while both the cards were about 75-87% in use indicating a healthy use of both

 

[clntbstwood]

Some games are more CPU-bound and will utilize the CPU more and some games are GPU-bound are will stress the GPU more. If you can Overclock your 4670K to like 4.4GHz (which is a super easy target) then it would perform even better as your CPU is a powerful quad-core.

Just to be sure make sure not too much programs are running in the background (you can check it via Task Manager) as some programs use a fair bit of CPU and/or RAM that slows things down.

One great example of CPU, GPU bound and a balanced game is-

My friend has a rig with an i7 6950X and a pair of TITAN XP (W/ HB SLI Bridge)

In games like Witcher 3, the GPU utilization is like 90-99% on both while the CPU doesn't even exceed 20-26%
In City skylines 4 Cores were pushed to 96-100% use while the first GPU hovered under 35-46% while the second GPU was not doing anything at all.
In GTA 5 and Dying Light, the CPU was like 45-52% in use while both the cards were about 75-87% in use indicating a healthy use of both

I'll try that, thanks! But would overclocking my CPU add a significant amount to the overall power consumption? I'm essentially just concerned about the low wattage PSU I have and I don't want to risk anything.

 

[Pkai92]

Just to make sure, did you uninstall your old Gpu's drivers and made a clean install of the drivers for your new Gpu?

 

[clntbstwood]

Just to make sure, did you uninstall your old Gpu's drivers and made a clean install of the drivers for your new Gpu?

I did, yes.

 

[Pkai92]

What is your cpu usage while gaming ? Also check your Ram usage.

 

[clntbstwood]

What is your cpu usage while gaming ? Also check your Ram usage.

My CPU usage is 100% and the ram hangs in the 70-80s so I believe it's the CPU causing this issue. One thing to add is that I realised I don't have the 'k' edition of my CPU so does that mean I can only overclock it to 4GHz? And would that be enough to prevent the bottlenecking?

 

[synphul]

Even an i5 6600k has some struggle with bf1, it's the game. I7's run a bit better. You might get to 4ghz if you're lucky but with a non k cpu and h series motherboard there's not much to be done. To increase cpu performance means a better cpu, unlocked cpu, solid cooler, z series motherboard. With a 1070 and an overclocked cpu you'll probably want a decent psu in the 500-550w range. 450w may be pushing it a bit especially if it's a lower tier psu.

 

[Pkai92]

I don't think that it is recommended to overclock a Non-K cpu. There are certain Cpus for that ( K version ) and a Z-series
Motherboard that can handle the overclocking. Most probably it is a bottleneck caused by your Cpu especially if you play Cpu intensive games. Personally, i don't play BF1 but i do know that it is a Cpu intensive game. Check the minimum requirements needed from BF's official website: https://www.battlefield.com/games/battlefield-1/tech

Anyway, you can download malware bytes just to check if there are some viruses/malware that are eating up your Cpu. Also, check your motherboard if it has " slow mode " switch. But as i said, most probably your Cpu is bottlenecking the Gpu.