[SOLVED] Bottleneck issue?

[Badmaw]

Hello everyone i just got a new gt 1030 2gb gddr5, my cpu is q9400 2.67 GHZ and 4 gb ddr2 ram.
To test my gpu i ran a few games and iam completely confused. In Borderlands 2 iam getting a max fps of 50 and 27 min.
and in GTA IV 26 min and 40 max both at highest settings.
I have watched many benchmark videos on youtube using the same gpu and q9400 and they seem to get atleast 30 or 40 more fps than me. If i get 30 they get 60 or even 70. And many times my cpu usage goes 100% and game freezes randomly. These problems dont occur to those with the same or even weaker hardware than mine. Iam confused.
Anyhelp will be appreciated.

 

[sizzling]

Don’t believe everything on YouTube. There are a lot of fake or misleading videos. I also expect 4gb RAM isn’t helping. You really want a minimum of 8gb. Not having enough RAM can increase cpu workload as the system will be caching to the HDD/SSD a lot more.

 

[Badmaw]

Don’t believe everything on YouTube. There are a lot of fake or misleading videos. I also expect 4gb RAM isn’t helping. You really want a minimum of 8gb. Not having enough RAM can increase cpu workload as the system will be caching to the HDD/SSD a lot more.

I ran msi afterburner and it shows that my cpu is used between 70%-87%
rarely even 100%. While my gpu is only between 30%-45% and ram is 3500mb

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfEmCFdorc

in this video hes using almost the same pc but his q9400 usage is only 60% and gpu usage is 75+% and ram usage is similar to mine, and not everyone is lying.

 

[sizzling]

I ran msi afterburner and it shows that my cpu is used between 70%-87%
rarely even 100%. While my gpu is only between 30%-45% and ram is 3500mb

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVfEmCFdorc

in this video hes using almost the same pc but his q9400 usage is only 60% and gpu usage is 75+% and ram usage is similar to mine, and not everyone is lying.

It’s clear in that video he has more than 4gb RAM, both the first and last games are using more than 4gb. Your system might only be using 3.5gb of RAM but Windows is very good at preventing your RAM going to 100% and crashing the system, instead it will cache to the main drive.

Total cpu usage is also not that helpful. You really need to see what each core is doing. It only takes 1 core at 100% to limit performance, most games are poor at evenly distributing the load across all cores and instead 1-2 take more load than others.

 

[Badmaw]

It’s clear in that video he has more than 4gb RAM, both the first and last games are using more than 4gb. Your system might only be using 3.5gb of RAM but Windows is very good at preventing your RAM going to 100% and crashing the system, instead it will cache to the main drive.

Total cpu usage is also not that helpful. You really need to see what each core is doing. It only takes 1 core at 100% to limit performance, most games are poor at evenly distributing the load across all cores and instead 1-2 take more load than others.

Ok so while playing the game i used task manager to stop all other process and the game started using only 2800 mb of ram. So ram isnt the issue in this case, all 4 cpus are between 77% to 99% or 100% so cpu seems to bottleneck but i still have 1 question.
Why my gpu usage always stays below 50% while for others it stays at 88& or 90% even when their cpu bottlenecks. So they can play heavier games at a better fps while my gpu does not even try.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXUWe3OUZW8

He has a q8400 worse than mine, higher ram but the game is using 3.5 GB, and gtx 750ti better than 1030 so shouldnt he be getting more bottlenecked? yet his gpu and cpu both are working at a better rate even at a higher resolution (while recording)!

 

[sizzling]

Ok so while playing the game i used task manager to stop all other process and the game started using only 2800 mb of ram. So ram isnt the issue in this case, all 4 cpus are between 77% to 99% or 100% so cpu seems to bottleneck but i still have 1 question.
Why my gpu usage always stays below 50% while for others it stays at 88& or 90% even when their cpu bottlenecks. So they can play heavier games at a better fps while my gpu does not even try.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXUWe3OUZW8

He has a q8400 worse than mine, higher ram but the game is using 3.5 GB, and gtx 750ti better than 1030 so shouldnt he be getting more bottlenecked? yet his gpu and cpu both are working at a better rate even at a higher resolution (while recording)!

RAM is difficult to measure as Windows controls if caching to the main drive will be used. This can happen long before you get to 90% RAM usage and can have a significant impact on performance. What is your HDD usage while in game?

It is clear you have a cpu bottleneck, cpu cores near or at 100% with gpu usage much lower. I am not familiar with the old ‘Core’ ranges but could these reviews be overclocking?

 

[Third-Eye]

Ok so while playing the game i used task manager to stop all other process and the game started using only 2800 mb of ram. So ram isnt the issue in this case, all 4 cpus are between 77% to 99% or 100% so cpu seems to bottleneck but i still have 1 question.
Why my gpu usage always stays below 50% while for others it stays at 88& or 90% even when their cpu bottlenecks. So they can play heavier games at a better fps while my gpu does not even try.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXUWe3OUZW8

He has a q8400 worse than mine, higher ram but the game is using 3.5 GB, and gtx 750ti better than 1030 so shouldnt he be getting more bottlenecked? yet his gpu and cpu both are working at a better rate even at a higher resolution (while recording)!

If you look at the video description on youtube, it says the person was running 8GB of ram in 4x2GB dual channel mode.

*System is a Lenovo H210 (stock PSU)
-Replaced Motherboard with theThinkcentre M58 64Y9766 ($25 from eBay)
CPU: Core 2 Quad Intel Q8400 2.66ghz
GPU: Zotac GTX 750 TI 2gb gddr5 ($60 from Aliexpress)
Ram: Samsung 8gb ddr3 1066mhz (4x2gb)
OS: Win10, game was recorded with Elgato Game Capture HD (external recorder)
Res: 1080p high settings

Also, both videos you linked show those computers are running a GTX 750ti, which is a much faster card than the GT 1030. The last thing is the overlay for fps, cpu and ram is showing how much ram is being used by the game, not how much the system has available.

The issue was already resolved from what I can tell. Increase your ram to 8GB and try to get 2x4GB or 4x2GB DDR2 1066 or 1333mhz if you can afford it. You could also try buying a new or used lga775 motherboard that has ddr3 slots, like an MSI P43 C1 or some other brand using the P43 or P45 chipset. You might actually be better off buying a used motherboard with ddr3 memory and i5 2500k or i7 2600k from ebay.