Bottleneck or bad card?

[joepro8011]

I just upgraded from a hd 5770 to a hd 6870, you would think I would see a world of a difference. Not really. A few frames, yes, but not a whole lot. I ran the RE5 benchmark on high settings with 1680 x 1050 and only got about 40fps average. I've seen people hit 120fps average with the 6870. Granted, they're using a much better CPU than I am. I have an Athlon II x4 620, but I've also seen people hit 40fps+ with FRAPS on and 1080p with my CPU and with a less equivalent GTX 460. Is it my CPU? Or did I get a bad card? If so I'm gonna upgrade to the Phenom II X4 975. Thanks.
Specs:
Windows 7 64 bit
ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO Motherboard
AMD Athlon II x4 620 @ 2.6 (3.1 OC)
8 GB RAM DDR3
XFX HD 6870
700 watt PSU

 

[Sam777]

yes.you should upgrade your cpu.

 

[kemperkipie]

Before you start upgrading stuff, check if your GPU is running at full power.
I personally like to use HWinfo64 which shows me the temp, GPU load and clock speeds of my card.

If you monitor those while you run the test, see if the clocks are running at the speeds they should, and see what GPU load you get (should get 100%)

Also the program lets you monitor you CPU temps and CPU load, also check those. If CPU gets 100% as well, even during a normal game you play, your CPU would be the bottleneck. But first see what your GPU does, and report that to us please

 

[Temile]

Run 3DMark and compare the results to published reviews.

 

[joepro8011]

Okay, so I took your advice and monitored my CPU and GPU usage. I only could do it for RE5 benchmark, I couldn't view it with 3DMark. I tried logging but I couldn't figure it out. With the RE5 benchmark, my CPU usage didn't even go above 45%. My GPU usage stayed mostly in the 80's topping out at 95% once in a while, and the lowest was 79%. What's going on here? I ran 3DMark and got
P3685 3DMarks
Graphics Score
4157
Physics Score
2887
Combined Score
2568
Here's the link http://3dmark.com/3dm11/3762192
My frames were horrible in 3DMark, didn't even go above 25.
Please help me out.

 

[joepro8011]

Oh, forgot to add. I'm running on 12.6 beta drivers, but I was running 12.4 before, and got the same results in the benchmark.

 

[Temile]

That's an expected 3DMark11 GPU score for the 6870 (3DMark fps are supposed to be low, its a real stress test). I don't know why your RE5 benchmark is only 40fps. I've got a 5870 lying around, I'll run some tests when I get home see what I get. If you want to play with more benchmarks, try the new Sniper Elite 2 one. There's a thread about it here:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/page-358987_33_50.html

 

[Temile]

Just ran RE5 on a 5670 and was getting 90+ fps. Try the Sniper Elite 2 bench. At least one person at that thread has a 6870, so you should be able to compare. His numbers:

Average FPS: 42.3
Minimum FPS: 14.8
Maximum FPS: 263.9

 

[joepro8011]

I ran Sniper Elite and got:
Average FPS: 44.7
Minimum FPS: 7.6
Maximum FPS: 137.2
So that seems normal. Out of curiosity I also downloaded the RE5 benchmark from a third party and ran it. I got an average 122fps! Damn, it must be the installation of my game then because I was using the in-game benchmark. I wonder why it was doing that. Maybe I screwed the settings up somewhere, I'll have to look. I'll definitely be upgrading my CPU soon though.

 

[Temile]

126fps with a 5870 (which is a slightly faster if older card than a 6870) at 1680x1050 resolution. But that's on a i7 960. From what I can find, RE5 is more cpu intensive than most games. How did you measure CPU usage when running the benchmark? If you used Process Manager on your quad core CPU and got 45% that probably means 1 core at 100% and another core at 80% and two cores idling. Since your 3DMark gpu score is reasonable, I would say your 6870 is fine and your cpu is bottlenecking you on some games. Try the Sniper benchmark just out of curiosity.

 

[stanistheman]

That cpu is pretty out of date. upgrade maybie? to like a phenom or go for a intel mobo and i3

 

[kemperkipie]

Graphics Card
AMD Radeon HD 6870
Vendor
Pineview Industries Ltd.
# of cards
1
SLI / CrossFire
Off
Memory
1024 MB
Core clock
100 MHz
Memory clock
150 MHz
Driver name
Driver version
8.980.0.0
Driver status
Not FM Approved

This is what i see in your 3d mark results!
Core clock
100 MHz
Memory clock
150 MHz

That explains why it runs too slow.. somehow your GPU doesnt reach the normal clock speeds.. Or am i reading it wrong?

 

[Temile]

3DMark sometimes get those numbers wrong and when it does seems to put in minimum 100 and 150. The results seem fine, and they defiinitely wouldn't if the gpu was running at those speeds.

 

[joepro8011]

hd 5870 is a stronger card, so that explains why you're getting better frames. But I ran a few more tests. With 3dmark my gpu load was at 99%-100% but Ghost Recon my frames weren't that great, so I checked and it doesn't break 84%. I don't know about other games but I'm sure it's the same. I'll have to check when I get home. I also heard the newer cards don't hit 100% unless MSAA is enabled. Is that true?