Am I Missing Something?

Brandon Singer

Honorable
May 4, 2013
16
0
10,510
First off, here's my specs:

AMD Phenom II x4 965 Black Edition 3.4GHz
8GB RAM
GeForce 660 Ti

Shouldn't I be getting 60 fps constantly with no problems in most games? (even with shadows on?)

I've had problems in Guild Wars 2 (but I don't play it anymore so idc), but right now I'm playing Neverwinter (which seems to have "worse" graphics than GW2) and I'm having the same issues.

Barely ever getting 60 constant frames and I have to turn off shadows or I'm getting 30 and below.

Is there a better CPU than this Phenom? All the benchmark tests have shown the phenom to be winning from this site http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/102?vs=699

Someone please help me out here? Please don't troll me by saying "GO INTEL GG" cause I don't have the money to buy a new motherboard and etc...

Thanks in advance for those who help!

EDIT: A little more information, my CPU usually runs at 50-55C (and sometimes it goes to 60C but barely ever I don't see it usually going up here) when I'm playing games, even LoL. I don't think this is an issue but just including this as more information if it would help.
 
Run Afterburner and check your GPU usage. If you are running at 99% GPU usage in that particular game, then you have no bottleneck. If you are running at less than 99% GPU usage, particularly if its closer to 50% or less in that particular game, then you have a CPU bottleneck.Also it depends on your monitor res rather you should be getting 60 fps in almost all games if it's 1080p then no there are many games you cannot play on ultra and get a steaty 60 fps.
 
Games VARY.
In more CPU-dependent games that CPU will be the main bottleneck.

It's still a half-decent CPU and in more GPU-demanding games a better CPU might not make a huge difference so I personally wouldn't upgrade. If you do, I'd wait for something like a 6 or 8-core CPU with a noticeable improvement over the FX-8350 (if compatible with your motherboard).

*I suspect you don't actually have a problem. CPU's tend to either work perfectly or just crash. In theory it could be a software issue but I doubt that too.

I have no recommendations, except to look for a BENCHMARK online that you can actually repeat:
- same game (preferably a built-in benchmark like Metro 2033's)
- same benchmark settings
- same CPU (same clock speeds)
- same graphics card

Generic benchmarks are another option such as 3DMark if you can reliably compare things.

Other:
SHADOWS are a graphics feature so that's more due to your graphics card. You still need to TWEAK all the main graphic settings if you wish to maintain 60FPS.

*I don't have GW2, but I do have a better GPU and CPU, and while I can play most games at the HIGHEST at 60FPS/1080p, I do have to TWEAK some of them. Again, tweak ALL of your settings while running FRAPS to achieve a little over 60FPS if you want a constant 60FPS when you turn VSYNC back on. (Shadows, AA, resolution etc... there's an optimal combo).
 
As photonboy suggested try tweaking your graphics settings. I've had to for some of the games I play and I'm running an i5 3570k (stock), 16GB DDR3 1600 (I know over kill), and an AMD 7870 XT. Keep in mind that Neverwinter is only in Open Beta so there's bound to be bugs, and it's a Perfect World game, same guys who handle STO.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RiL-v6BlZA

Similar build. Video is a little crappy but he gives his game SETTINGS and describes his FPS well enough for a rough comparison.

Click "SHOW MORE" below the video.

OTHER:
Video issues aside, what's your personal opinion of GW2?

OTHER:
Did you know you can DOWNLOAD VIDEOS from Youtube quite easily using "Flash Video Downloader"?

Click the blue "Download" down-arrow below the video, and choose the HIGHEST quality (top choice) then CLOSE the page if you wish but keep Firefox open.
 


I had big hopes for GW2 but they fell extremely short. It's a very casual game, not worth the $60 bucks IMO, I'm having A LOT more fun with Neverwinter, and that game is F2P even though I slapped $60 bucks for the Founder pack, that's how much I like it!