[SOLVED] go for better display or better hardware

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Hello everyone

I mainly play csgo and ocassionally some singleplayer games but focus is at csgo
i have the following setup
Motherboard : Asrock H81 VG4 R3.0
CPU : i5 4460 (stock cooler)
GPU : R9 280x DCU II TOP
Storage : Toshiba 500GB
RAM : 8 GB Hyperx 1600MHz 1 stick
PSU : Evga 600w 80+ White

Like in headline i was wondering will i benefit more from upgrading to better hardware or monitor . i currently use a CRT monitor and been using it for a while tbh since i got to play games...ingame i get average framerate about 200 (2-3 maps as low as 200 others 240+) but with dips to 140ish on some maps..these were for competitive match , in crowded/public servers i get mby 20-30 less on average but playable....even tho i have decent fps i feel something aint right mby from fps drops mby from lack of hz it feels like microstutter especially when spraying , i cant "feel the game" like i use to in 1.6 ...i have to mention i bought a new MOBO 8 months ago and since it was the same manfacturer i didnt install the drivers beforehand from CD , system just applied the old ones i guess (Asrock H81 DGS R2.0 old one) but system wise i didnt find any errors or problems worth mentioning
i intended to upgrade my storage to SSD (860EVO to be exact) in following month and i heard for some people it resolved stutter problem
and monitor wise i was considering nothing less then 144hz display...so my question is will i get the upper hand by upgrading CPU or monitor with ofc storage upgrade

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you are using a CRT monitor, then a newer 1080p monitor should probably be the first order of business. IDK about 144hz though.

What is the model of your current monitor? What resolution is it? Going to 1080p on your current hardware may seriously diminish your FPS with the graphics card and CPU you currently have, so I wouldn't just get too trigger happy about moving on anything until you seriously consider what the impact is going to be.

Higher end hardware probably isn't very helpful if you have a very old, low resolution monitor, and a higher resolution high refresh rate monitor isn't very helpful if you have low end or older hardware.

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

If you are using a CRT monitor, then a newer 1080p monitor should probably be the first order of business. IDK about 144hz though.

What is the model of your current monitor? What resolution is it? Going to 1080p on your current hardware may seriously diminish your FPS with the graphics card and CPU you currently have, so I wouldn't just get too trigger happy about moving on anything until you seriously consider what the impact is going to be.

Higher end hardware probably isn't very helpful if you have a very old, low resolution monitor, and a higher resolution high refresh rate monitor isn't very helpful if you have low end or older hardware.

SyncMaster 753s res 1024x768 85Hz , i aim to play csgo with same video settings all on low and the same resolution with gpu scaling to stretch it , i should have same fps give or take 10 fps yeah ? and i dont really care for other games because i mainly play pugs in csgo

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you are going to continue to play at that same resolution, and nothing is wrong with the monitor, then there's not much reason to upgrade anything unless you feel like you need more FPS OR you simply want the higher refresh rate for smoother visuals. If so, then probably any monitor that is 120 or 144hz should work fine because they are all going to look terrible stretched out.

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

my main goal is to remove stuttering or whatever it is that is affecting my gameplay so i was hoping someone with similar issues would come out with suggestions or infos to mby identify source of the problem...i am aware it will look worse but thats not issue for me while im not affected by micro lags and stutter ofc if new monitor resolves that issue and you cant get good visuals in csgo quality wise anyway mby slight improvement....its nothing wrong with the monitor i just wanna know if the upgrade to mby i5 7th or 8th gen will remove issues i have or the fps i get now is enough for that 144 hz display which may result in solving the issue or it is something third i didnt take under consideration and may be the problem after all

 

[Darkbreeze]

A monitor isn't going to affect lags or stuttering. That is a product of the hardware that drives it or the drivers/software.

All the monitor does is display what the hardware sends it. If the problem is graphical in nature, then it might be the hardware. Stuttering is not graphical in nature, per se.

Tearing however could be related to the refresh rate, when either high or low, but tearing is not stuttering or lag. If you have issues with stuttering I'd recommend doing all of the following.

If there are any steps listed here that you have not already done, it would be advisable to do so if for no other reason than to be able to say you've already done it and eliminate that possibility.



First,

make sure your motherboard has the MOST recent BIOS version installed. If it does not, then update. This solves a high number of issues even in cases where the release that is newer than yours makes no mention of improving graphics card or other hardware compatibility. They do not list every change they have made when they post a new BIOS release.


Second,

go to the product page for your motherboard on the manufacturer website. Download and install the latest driver versions for the chipset, storage controllers, audio and network adapters. Do not skip installing a newer driver just because you think it is not relevant to the problem you are having. The drivers for one device can often affect ALL other devices and a questionable driver release can cause instability in the OS itself. They don't release new drivers just for fun. If there is a new driver release for a component, there is a good reason for it. The same goes for BIOS updates.


IF you have other hardware installed or attached to the system that are not a part of the systems covered by the motherboard drivers, then go to the support page for THAT component and check to see if there are newer drivers available for that as well. If there are, install them.


Third,

Make sure your memory is running at the correct advertised speed in the BIOS. This may require that you set the memory to run at the XMP profile settings. Also, make sure you have the memory installed in the correct slots and that they are running in dual channel which you can check by installing CPU-Z and checking the Memory tab. For all modern motherboards that are dual channel memory architectures, from the last ten years at least, if you have two sticks installed they should be in the A2 (Called DDR4_1 on some boards) or B2 (Called DDR4_2 on some boards) which are ALWAYS the SECOND and FOURTH slots over from the CPU socket, counting TOWARDS the edge of the motherboard EXCEPT on boards that only have two memory slots total. In that case, if you have two modules it's not rocket science, but if you have only one, then install it in the A1 or DDR4_1 slot.


Fourth,

Make sure the problem is not just a bad cable or the wrong cable IF this is a no display issue. If it is NOT related to a lack of display signal, then skip to the next step.

This happens a lot. Try a different cable or a different TYPE of cable. Sometimes there can be issues with the monitor or card not supporting a specific specification such as HDMI 1.4 vs HDMI 2.0, or even an HDMI output stops working but the Displayport or DVI output still works fine on the graphics card. Always worth checking the cable and trying other cables because cables get run over, bent, bent pins or simply were cheap quality to begin with and something as simple as trying a different cable or different monitor might be all that is required to solve your issue.


The last thing we want to look at,

for now anyhow, is the graphics card drivers. Regardless of whether you "already installed the newest drivers" for your graphics card or not, it is OFTEN a good idea to do a CLEAN install of the graphics card drivers. Just installing over the old drivers OR trying to use what Nvidia and AMD consider a clean install is not good enough and does not usually give the same result as using the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. This has a very high success rate and is always worth a shot.


If you have had both Nvidia and AMD cards installed at any point on that operating system then you will want to run the DDU twice. Once for the old card drivers (ie, Nvidia or AMD) and again for the currently installed graphics card drivers (ie, AMD or Nvidia). So if you had an Nvidia card at some point in the past, run it first for Nvidia and then after that is complete, run it again for AMD if you currently have an AMD card installed.

Clean install guide using the DDU​

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

i downloaded all the drivers and it says only repair or change the drivers for all so i think they are fine (storage lan audio) and by chipset i dont get it , should be this : https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28182/Chipset-INF-Utility?product=1145 ?
anyway when i got to bios page and the bios i have is the latest except the beta one , should i install it ?
everything else is in order new video drivers too just to resolve the bios and chipset matter

for the first part of response i will be honest with you i havent expirienced any of those earlier so i cant tell whether its tearing or stuttering but it usually occurs during fast aiming and fast flick swiping (like its bluring the image) so its usually movement wise problem.... it should point out to tearing right ? but as most of us i google'd these problems and ended up with stuttering so thats what i wrote in topic but myb i should've wrote tearing too

 

[Darkbreeze]

Going to invite somebody else in to try and help you. I have some other things I have to take care of but I'll check back in later.

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Going to invite somebody else in to try and help you. I have some other things I have to take care of but I'll check back in later.

Fair enough , thank you for your patience so far man , appreciate it

 

[Karadjgne]

Well, if I was to upgrade anything, it'd be the monitor first. Older crt's suffered from horrific input lag, almost as bad as a TV. Monitors of that generation were great for what they were, but that was when framerates never got to the 300ish possible with new pc's. You'd be doing good to get over 100fps with sli/cf. So input lag could possibly be factor in the stutters occurring during extreme fast action, like rapid fire or mouse scrolls.

As to resolution, you are currently at 1024x768. That's a 4:3 pillbox resolution. And supported by CSGO. Newer 1080p (1920x1080) is also supported by CSGO, native. There's no way to 'stretch' anything, 4:3 is not 16:9 or a derivative. Trying to stretch a 4:3 to fit a 16:9 results in one of 2 things. Either the screen, and everything in it gets stretched wide sideways (everybody looks like Stewie with that football shaped head) or the top/bottom of the screen gets cut off. Best bet is to just allow the game to natively play at its native resolution.

The cpu is what sets fps. Not the gpu. The gpu only has to put on screen whatever pre-rendered frames the cpu sends it, according to resolution and details. With a suffient gpu, changing from low to ultra has almost no affect on fps whatsoever. If your cpu is able to pre-render 200fps, then that's exactly what gets sent to the gpu. After that, it's on the gpu to match it, or not.

An R9 280x is quite capable of 200-240fps in 1024x768 or 1920x1080, makes no difference. The i5 is capable of 200-240fps.

I play CSGO with i7-3770K and gtx970. 1920x1080, 300fps, ultra.

Since your i5 has better IPC than my i7, but my i7 is OC 4.6GHz, I'll still get more fps, CSGO only uses 2 threads, and no more.

Start with a decent 1080p monitor, your choice of 60Hz or 144Hz.

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

yea i thought my setup is ok for csgo and what you said pretty much everyting is spot on , i think from the competitive standpoint 144hz would be better option rn for i play mainly csgo and other things like 3D modelling and everyday use of pc , and one more question about the monitor , can i use freesync with nvidia gpu because my friend abroad will send me his nvidia gpu (1070 i guess) for i was considering AOC 2590PX or something of that sort

 

[Karadjgne]

Nvidia has finally started updating its drivers for freesync use of its adaptive v-sync. However, it's still only on certain monitor models, although getting bigger list daily.
https://us.aoc.com/en/news/g-sync-compatible

So I'd say yes, it's good.

 

[BLAST FROM THE PAST]

Thank you guys for your assistance and advices , will do the upgrade till august i hope
Cheers !