AMD CPU Optimization

[SM125]

I've had an A10-6800k for a year and with some good ram it has been perfect for what i've needed, but with the desire for new and upcoming games, yesterday I ditched the iGPU and bought an XFX R9 280.

In cpu bound games such as skyrim (max settings, 1080) im getting 40-60fps in open places and forests, however if I look at a village im getting a max of 21fps. Surely this is the weak A10 coming in to play, but whilst messing around with things I noticed some strange things.

First, overlocking from 4.3 to 4.8 didnt have any effect on fps, which if indeed it was the cpu holding the fps back, would have surely improved?

Secondly, in my bios, I noticed "Power policy mode" was set to "Battery Save", is it ok to change this to high performance or would it be unnoticeable anyway?

So, if anyone could give me an idea on what would be effective and beneficial to change such as; Core C6 state, Turbo, Cool n Quiet, SVM mode etc. that would be greatly appreciated!

 

[johnnyb105]

Have you tried any other games with this setup??? I have the 6600 and a radeon 7950 my fps never drop that low are you using a factory cooler or a aftermarket? you can turn cool and quiet off your cpu may be getting hot and then throttle back because of the standard heatsink from amd is crap. please provide more specs thanks...

 

[johnnyb105]

BTW a radeon 7950 is the same card as you have the r 280 is just rebranded from a 7950.

 

[SM125]

Ive tried a few other games such as Farcry 3 Blood Dragon and that ran maxed out at 40+fps. All drivers are latest too.

 

[SM125]

My cpu cooler is a Corsair H80i which keeps my cpu below 40c at all times by the way.

 

[johnnyb105]

wow you shouldn't have any issues what is the rest of your system??? specs please

 

[SM125]

I know ): This is why i'm confused.

A10-6800k
Corsair H80i
XFX R9 280 (non x)
HyperX Fury 2x4GB 1866
WD Green 2TB
EVGA 500B 500w

 

[SM125]

Motherboard is MSI A88x G41, forgot to add!

 

[johnnyb105]

Have you went into the bios and changed any settings on your apu??? for a overclock and what settings did you change?

Im wondering if your green drive is a part of your problem those drives are made for survalance and stuff not a mainstream drive for gaming ect maybe im wrong but those are like business class for vid cameras ect.

 

[SM125]

I disabled the iGpu to make sure it was only using the 280 and when I overclocked I disabled turbo and changed the mutilplier to 46 or 47. Last night I tested a few newer games such as Tomb Raider, Sniper Elite 3 and Dirt 3, these all ran almost maxed out above 65fps. I'm confused why skyrim keeps having mad fps drops in towns.

 

[SM125]

As for the hdd, my friend had the same drive and never noticed anything out of the ordinary.