Bottleneck or ram issue?

[Vadamo]

So I built a rig, here are the specs:

Core 2 Extreme 2.66Ghz Kentsfield
6Gb Ram
GTX 960 2gb GDDR5

Now, GTA V runs on High settings and seems playable but has the occasional spike or some lag.

Is ram the reason it could be lagging? Or is it a possible bottleneck?

I used to use a AMD A8-5600 with my GTX 960 but switched to the C2E because I prefer Intel.

 

[Bakua]

Shouldn't be a bottleneck, check your CPU and GPU usage and check your temps.

 

[photonboy]

1) The Intel CPU you switched to is slower than the AMD so it's very possible that's your bottleneck.

At stock settings the AMD you had was 30% faster than that Intel CPU.

2) Lack of VRAM (you have 2GB) is another source of bottleneck. It depends on what settings you chose.

3) System RAM a bottleneck?
Not likely.

Summary:
Your performance drops are likely due to the CPU or lack of video memory. You might be CPU limited for most of the game, but occasionally running out of Video memory.

You can use a utility to monitor your VRAM usage. If it's not hitting close to 2048MB when those drops happen then it's your CPU.

You can lower the graphics settings, especially anti-aliasing to reduce video memory usage to prove where the issue is, however other than TWEAKING the game for the smoothest experience i'm not sure what else to suggest.

 

[photonboy]

Shouldn't be a bottleneck, check your CPU and GPU usage and check your temps.

There is always a bottleneck in the system. It's generally:
a) CPU
b) GPU
c) system or video memory, or
d) artificial cap like VSYNC (i.e. capped to 60FPS on 60Hz monitor)

The GPU he has is much better than the CPU.

He can open Task Manager to observe CPU and system memory utilization (run the game for a few minutes with TM running in the background).

TM-> Performance-> CPU (who all four graphs)
*analysis: if even ONE of the graphs is near 100% it's a CPU bottleneck. It's hard to analyze though because the main thread of code can JUMP from core to core thus appearing like no core is being fully used despite a CPU bottlenck

TM->Performance->Memory
*unless you see the system memory running out this is not the issue. (don't have web browsers running when running a game. It eats up both memory and CPU cycles)

 

[Vadamo]

So I switched back to my AMD A8 mobo and the performance was way better. So I guess the Core 2 Extreme isn't able to handle it.

GTA V: Constant 50-60 FPS
Counter Strike GO: 60-70 FPS

Settings for both games are high(GTA V has some settings on very high though)

With the Core 2 Extreme
GTA V: 10-20 FPS
Counter Strike GO: 20-30 FPS

 

[Bakua]

Shouldn't be a bottleneck, check your CPU and GPU usage and check your temps.

There is always a bottleneck in the system. It's generally:
a) CPU
b) GPU
c) system or video memory, or
d) artificial cap like VSYNC (i.e. capped to 60FPS on 60Hz monitor)

The GPU he has is much better than the CPU.

He can open Task Manager to observe CPU and system memory utilization (run the game for a few minutes with TM running in the background).

TM-> Performance-> CPU (who all four graphs)
*analysis: if even ONE of the graphs is near 100% it's a CPU bottleneck. It's hard to analyze though because the main thread of code can JUMP from core to core thus appearing like no core is being fully used despite a CPU bottlenck

TM->Performance->Memory
*unless you see the system memory running out this is not the issue. (don't have web browsers running when running a game. It eats up both memory and CPU cycles)

I'm aware of how bottlenecks work.