Am I CPU bound?

[Killadey]

Hi there guys, I'm thinking that my CPU may be holding back my GPU in some games.

My current specs;

-Win 7 64
-Zalman Z3+ case
-M5a78L-m/usb-3
-Phenom II 955
- 2 x 4Gs ram (669.6 mhz)
-Gigabyte GTX 950 (single fan)
-2 x 5400 rpm HDDs
-1440x900 60hz monitor
-OCZ ModXstream 500w PSU

-Cool and quiet enabled, balanced power scheme (tried on high perf), NVCP is set to performance. No OC, or other advanced bios setting played with.

I wanted to test this for myself, so I fired up Far Cry 4 and went to a village (this is where I'm getting big frame drops from 58 fps (locked by Dxtory) down to around 30 fps).

OpenHWM tells me;

CPU;
3200 mhz
#1 80% load
#2-#4 around 50% each
Temp 52c

GPU;
Load - 70%
Memory - 50%
Temp 60c

Does 80% average (peaking at 90%) load on a core constitute being CPU bound? I notice with some other games (Alien Isolation for one) my GPU goes to max, albeit this is when my CPU usage is pretty low.

I wanted to rule out Struggling PSU so I found a way to get my CPU and GPU to go full tilt, which involved playing a 4k video on youtube whilst running FurMark (GPU was at 99%, CPU wavered around 95-98 total load), so it seems my PSU is giving enough juice?

So could it just be my processor is starting to show its age?
I even get big frame drops playing Team Fortress 2 on bot mode (for my Son)
Haven't tried multiplayer thou, maybe it's just dodgy A.I code?

Bad Company 2 MP plays like butter.
Mad Max played like butter until I got ambushed by a bunch of guys with molatovs, thought maybe it was all the fire FX, but once i killed the guys, my frames got back to normal, meanwhile the fires are still raging.

So if it is my CPU, what would you do?

1 - Buy aftermarket cooler + VRM sinks and OC right away.
2 - Save up for a Fx 8320 or 6300 maybe in a few months
3 - Save up for Intel Mobo and CPU in 6-12 months

Money is tight, so It takes a while to save up.

Sorry for big post, but more info is better right? Saves people from asking the same old questions over and over?

Thanks for reading,
Cheers!

 

[clutchc]

The old Phenom should be well matched with the GTX 950. HWM is showing no CPU bottleneck and the GPU is doing about the same. There's still some CPU headroom there. Now if you were to jump into a multiplayer game, there would probably be some CPU bottleneck.

If your board supports the FX 8350 or even the Fx6350*, you will see some improvement. But not sure how much until you were to upgrade to a faster card.

*Asus website is slow for me today or I would have researched the CPU support list myself

 

[Outlander_04]

Overclocking a little too see if there is a difference would be my first step.
Buy a cooler you can reuse on a future build and the cost is minimized

 

[jakegroves]

I would more say 99% is your component being fully throttled.

If a component is holding back your system we call it bottlenecking.

In games you get CPU intensive games and you get GPU intensive games or balanced games. For example when I play gta5, I will be at 99% GPU usage and my CPU only 20-25% ... yes I got a good CPU but I could play watchdogs and it will be very heavy on the CPU compared to gta5.

You got a low-end GPU gtx 950, and farcry4 is a pretty demanding game.
But you should be able to play 1080p farcry4 on high settings at 30fps ... and make sure u got AA off you will get a 15fps boost approx. on 1080p ... but you are on 900p so it is strange ... as you got a bit of a gap for it to start being a bottleneck

If you were to get an fx 8320 or 6300 you would need a cooler as the stock ones are crap 😛

I would probably go for intel mobo, i5 4690k and a msi gaming z97 gaming 3/5 board

 

[geofelt]

Here is another way to decide what you need:
a) Run YOUR games, but lower your resolution and eye candy.
If your FPS increases, it indicates that your cpu is strong enough to drive a better graphics configuration.
If your FPS stays the same, you are likely more cpu limited.

b) Limit your cpu, either by reducing the OC, or, in windows power management, limit the maximum cpu% to something like 70%.
Go to control panel/power options/change plan settings/change advanced power settings/processor power management/maximum processor state/
This will simulate what a lack of cpu power will do.
Conversely what a 30% improvement in core speed might do.

You should also experiment with removing one core. You can do this in the windows msconfig boot advanced options option. set the number of processors to less than you have.
This will tell you how sensitive your games are to the benefits of many cores.

If your FPS drops significantly, it is an indicator that your cpu is the limiting factor, and a cpu upgrade is in order.

It is possible that both tests are positive, indicating that you have a well balanced system, and both cpu and gpu need to be upgraded to get better gaming FPS.

On your options:

1. VRM heatsinks is a cheap option which you might try regardless.
2. FX-6 and 8 have slow cores, and since most games, do not use more than 2-3, I think you would do no better there.
2. If you go intel, go Skylake.
1. Prices for cpu, z170 motherboard and ddr4 ram are almost precisely the same.
2. 6600K has an estimated 5-10% performance improvement per clock over haswell.
3. 14nm runs cooler, you get a decent overclock without the need for exotic cooling.
4. The Z170 chipset permits the use of much faster ssd devices on the horizon. Samsung 950 pro for example:
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/ssd950pro/overview.html

 

[Killadey]

Thanks for your input guys. I'm confused though, if neither my GPU or CPU are at max, then why not?
At least one of the two should be at 100% right?

With Far Cry 4 I use SMAA, it makes no impact on frame rates, in fact, a number of the settings have minimal impact on frame rates for me.

Btw I would never play an fps at less than my monitors refresh rate, under 50 fps is completely unplayable for me. With a mouse and KB at least. I used to play BFBC2 on the PS3, so i aint no FPS snob or anything.

Concerning my Motherboards BIOS, there is an update for my board, but the release note says it's to add FX-xxxx support, so i haven't bothered to update. Would it be worth updating?

Thanks again!

Edit - Just seen Geofelt's post. Thanks buddy, that's some great info. It is actually familiar, I think I have read that testing method before, probably on here, maybe from you? Cant believe I forgot that.

Cheers

 

[geofelt]

A game can be cpu limited and still show only 25% cpu busy.
That happens when the game is single threaded. If, for example, you have a quad core cpu and you see each thread 25% busy, it is almost a sure sign that you have a cpu limited single threaded game.
What you see is windows distributing the load evenly over the available threads.

And... do not update the bios unless you NEED to. A failed bios update can permanently brick your motherboard.