Can anybody help me with my GTX 970 bottlenecking?

[Geeksire]

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have been on these forums (count 8 years) since this community help me build my first computer. Nevertheless, I have a question regarding bottleneck issues with a GTX 970 I bought a few days ago. GPU works great but when I play, for instance, Battlefield 1: CPU usage is at 100%, low fps playing on low settings, and even downgrading to Direct X 11 still doesn't help.

I looked online and it was the first time I heard about bottle necking on GPU's was a thing. So, I researched and found out that my CPU and RAM could be a contributing factor to the bottle necking effect it is having on my build:

Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD3H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
CPU: Intel i5, 2500k Sandy Bridge 3.3 Ghz
RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600

With this being said, should I upgrade my CPU to a i7-2600k (I have read this can help with the bottle necking problems) or is there another solution to this problem?

Thanks for everything

 

[SubaruWRX244]

The upgrade would help the bottle necking but your still spending money on an outdated platform. I would personally apply an overclock on the CPU since it's a K variant. Leaving it at stock isn't the best idea. What is your cooler?

 

[Geeksire]

The cooler is CORSAIR Hydro Series H100 using two fans to pull from inside the tower (Push Pull Configuration). I was thinking of OC to 3.7Ghz. Would that be the best option?

 

[mdd1963]

An 8 year old 4c/4t equipped CPU will indeed be kept quite busy on BF1, a very demanding game; unless you can get a truly great price on a 2600k, however, I'd be hesitant to dump more money into a rig of that age...(16 GB of RAM is more than enough assuming you don't have too many resource-intensive things running in the background)

 

[photonboy]

You've basically answered your own question, but to be clear when the CPU can't keep up (and it varies by the game and within the game) which it obviously can't because it's running 100% then the graphics card sits waiting at times for data.

BTW, a CPU can be the botteneck even if it's not 100% used since a game may not be able to fully use all the cores. For example STARCRAFT 2 can only use two cores (threads really I guess).

Anyway with a complete CPU bottleneck upgrading roughly gives you the proportionate performance you gain. Assuming same architecture and core/thread count then gaining 10% moves you from say 50FPS to 55FPS.

Now the i7 is adding some hyper-threading which at the same frequency can add a theoretical 40% or so performance boost but how much of that the game can use may be somewhere been ALL AND NONE.

Is your i5-2500K overclocked?

If your CPU cooler is adequate (not stock) then in-game frequency is probably running about 3.5GHz and 4.5GHz is possible depending on the CPU, PSU, mobo and cooler. Sometimes more. Sometimes less.

That might get you up to 25% or so boost in some games. The i7-2600K at the same frequency would be either the same or HIGHER depending on the game and whether it can utilize some of the extra threads (think of Hyperthreading as adding an extra core that runs at 40% or so of the speed of the main core... in reality it's the same core which toggles between two different software threads so the hyperthread sneaks in during wait times that new data is making its way to the same core on the 1st thread of code).

BATTLEFIELD 1 probably can use the extra hyperthreads partially... thus you might get as high as a 50% FPS boost with an i7-2600K overclocked to 4.5GHz but I'm guessing. Educated guess though.

*If you can find an i7-2600K for cheap then maybe that's a good deal for you. I've given you a ROUGH idea of what to expect. If you need a good CPU cooler though start there and overclock your current CPU.

 

[Geeksire]

You've basically answered your own question, but to be clear when the CPU can't keep up (and it varies by the game and within the game) which it obviously can't because it's running 100% then the graphics card sits waiting at times for data.

BTW, a CPU can be the botteneck even if it's not 100% used since a game may not be able to fully use all the cores. For example STARCRAFT 2 can only use two cores (threads really I guess).

Anyway with a complete CPU bottleneck upgrading roughly gives you the proportionate performance you gain. Assuming same architecture and core/thread count then gaining 10% moves you from say 50FPS to 55FPS.

Now the i7 is adding some hyper-threading which at the same frequency can add a theoretical 40% or so performance boost but how much of that the game can use may be somewhere been ALL AND NONE.

Is your i5-2500K overclocked?

If your CPU cooler is adequate (not stock) then in-game frequency is probably running about 3.5GHz and 4.5GHz is possible depending on the CPU, PSU, mobo and cooler. Sometimes more. Sometimes less.

That might get you up to 25% or so boost in some games. The i7-2600K at the same frequency would be either the same or HIGHER depending on the game and whether it can utilize some of the extra threads (think of Hyperthreading as adding an extra core that runs at 40% or so of the speed of the main core... in reality it's the same core which toggles between two different software threads so the hyperthread sneaks in during wait times that new data is making its way to the same core on the 1st thread of code).

BATTLEFIELD 1 probably can use the extra hyperthreads partially... thus you might get as high as a 50% FPS boost with an i7-2600K overclocked to 4.5GHz but I'm guessing. Educated guess though.

*If you can find an i7-2600K for cheap then maybe that's a good deal for you. I've given you a ROUGH idea of what to expect. If you need a good CPU cooler though start there and overclock your current CPU.

Sounds like a plan. It sounds like if I want to get up to date with the current games I REALLY need to upgrade my whole set: motherboard, ram, and cpu. I've been cheap and happy with Low settings but I guess down the road I'll have to put the money to buy the components. (I'm keeping the GTX 970. It was a steal from my friend selling it for $80 : ) )

Thanks for all your help. I'll OC a little and take it from there.

 

[photonboy]

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2867-intel-i7-2600k-2017-benchmark-vs-7700k-1700-more?showall=1

Great video and article.

On the gaming page in GTAV it jumped 25% at a 4.7GHz overclock (the i7-2600K). Would vary by GPU and resolution too.

Now GTAV really likes fast CORES but not necessarily four cores plus hyperthreading fully loaded. So some games may do a bit better than 25% such as some shooters.

In BF1 I know DX12 causes stuttering. I don't know if they ever fixed that so DX11 may be the best choice and not a "downgrade" at all. Anyway:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2673-battlefield-1-cpu-benchmark-dx11-vs-dx12-i5-i7-fx/page-2

Performance appears pretty good even with weaker CPU's. The i5-6400 would be identical to the i5-2500K once you overclock that to roughly 4.2 to 4.4GHz (for gaming at least)... so I don't know what "LOW FPS" you are getting but it seems to me an i5-2500K with GTX970 should do better than low FPS on low settings. Assuming all cores loaded and frequency is about 3.5GHz then that's normal so yes a bottleneck to the GPU but a low FPS? I don't get it based on the above numbers (again a better GPU likely but the better the GPU the more proportionately it eats up the CPU cycles as you increase graphic settings.. draw calls basically... so you should be capable of a big chunk of what a GTX970 can do.

I also want to throw this in since a relatively weak CPU still does great with these games:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1039-ten-years-intel-cpu-compared/page5.html

Anyway, again the CPU at 100% says it is definitely the bottleneck... it's really hard to guess what performance you'll gain by overclocking and/or getting an i7-2600K instead but obviously the i7 with 4.4GHz or so overclock is the best option.

UPDATE: you support the i7-3770K

Anyway, the COST needs to be low or else you should just save up for a new system completely. At this point something like an R5-2600 (or wait for R5-3600) is the best value but unfortunately you need the motherboard and 2x8GB 3000MHz DDR4 kit (or whatever is suggested for the CPU/motherboard... Zen 2 may handle higher).

So $100 for both used CPU and cooler is the maximum I'd personally spend. I think an R5-2600 (6c/12t) is $165USD. A half decent mobo about $90 and 16GB DDR4 is... oh wait it's $350USD roughly. I did a link already:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Pzdpmq

 

[Geeksire]

https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/2867-intel-i7-2600k-2017-benchmark-vs-7700k-1700-more?showall=1

Great video and article.

On the gaming page in GTAV it jumped 25% at a 4.7GHz overclock (the i7-2600K). Would vary by GPU and resolution too.

Now GTAV really likes fast CORES but not necessarily four cores plus hyperthreading fully loaded. So some games may do a bit better than 25% such as some shooters.

In BF1 I know DX12 causes stuttering. I don't know if they ever fixed that so DX11 may be the best choice and not a "downgrade" at all. Anyway:
https://www.gamersnexus.net/game-bench/2673-battlefield-1-cpu-benchmark-dx11-vs-dx12-i5-i7-fx/page-2

Performance appears pretty good even with weaker CPU's. The i5-6400 would be identical to the i5-2500K once you overclock that to roughly 4.2 to 4.4GHz (for gaming at least).

I also want to throw this in since a relatively weak CPU still does great with these games:
https://www.techspot.com/article/1039-ten-years-intel-cpu-compared/page5.html

Anyway, again the CPU at 100% says it is definitely the bottleneck... it's really hard to guess what performance you'll gain by overclocking and/or getting an i7-2600K instead but obviously the i7 with 4.4GHz or so overclock is the best option.

UPDATE: you support the i7-3770K

Anyway, the COST needs to be low or else you should just save up for a new system completely. At this point something like an R5-2600 (or wait for R5-3600) is the best value but unfortunately you need the motherboard and 2x8GB 3000MHz DDR4 kit (or whatever is suggested for the CPU/motherboard... Zen 2 may handle higher).

So $100 for both used CPU and cooler is the maximum I'd personally spend. I think an R5-2600 (6c/12t) is $165USD. A half decent mobo about $90 and 16GB DDR4 is... oh wait it's $350USD roughly. I did a link already:
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Pzdpmq

Thanks for doing this photonboy. I'll check this out and in the future buy these components. (I was really thinking of getting myself a hi-end graphics card but the GTX 970 sits just fine with me. If it's for bargain, I'll buy it : D) Thanks again!

 

[photonboy]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAacendLC7k

Watch that. Does it match your results?

If not and the CPU frequency and core count is correct in Task Manager then that just leaves the graphics card either being NOT a GTX970 or else running a much lower frequency.

Unfortunately I don't see the game resolution but there are other videos (this is BF1 Beta at 1920x1080but it's still doing great though note the i5-2500K is at 4.4GHz which again I think might add 25% or so FPS):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4I1QvF48JU

Having said that MORE PEOPLE probably overloads the CPU a lot so if your average FPS is a lot higher than the FPS when more people are around then a higher frequency and hyperthreading addition in this game should help by likely 25 to 40% as a guess.

 

[photonboy]

*High end graphics card is the last thing you should get right now. You should replace the core PC (mobo + CPU + DDR4 memory)... again if you can wait I'd go with Ryzen 2 (i.e. R5-3600) or possibly Intel depending on value.

Zen 2 should bring AMD close to what Intel can do. If Intel launches their new architecture (not the incremental tweaks from 2000 series and up) we could see a boost but the price may not justify it for most people especially if in most situations the bottleneck is no longer the CPU.

My very educated estimate for Zen2 is 10% minimum over Zen+/2000 series (Zen+ is 2000.. confusing huh?) plus the frequency boost. That should get you to roughly 20% higher out-of-box typically (not higher FPS necessarily just that amount per core).

Anyway, at this point I think an R5-3600 is likely to be very, very popular CPU to build around if the price is right. Should be at most $200USD to make sense so maybe $400 for the core parts then at some point upgrade to say an 8GB Graphics card that is GTX1080 or higher performance.