Question good gpu for around $500 AUD

[derstroyer56]

I'm currently going through a troubled time as I currently have an AMD Rx 470 4gb and it is totally rubbish and I keep on getting crashes with new games and frame drops I currently have an intel core i5 7400 3.00GHz and 8Gb DDR4 ram and was wondering what is the best GPU for about $500 AUD to match this with ease and run AAA games on high-ultra with 80-100 frames and no frame drops.

 

[Obakasama]

Are you certain the graphics card is to blame? FPS drops aren't necessarily limited to the graphics card; the CPU can also contribute to this. Personally I would suggest ruling out software issues first before spending money on new hardware. Do you use any hardware monitor while gaming?

For no frame drops... that is perhaps unrealistic. Simply because there are enough threads of those with the best components still experiencing frame drops in their games.

 

[derstroyer56]

Are you certain the graphics card is to blame? FPS drops aren't necessarily limited to the graphics card; the CPU can also contribute to this. Personally I would suggest ruling out software issues first before spending money on new hardware. Do you use any hardware monitor while gaming?

For no frame drops... that is perhaps unrealistic. Simply because there are enough threads of those with the best components still experiencing frame drops in their games.

I’m pretty sure it’s the gpu as my cpu isn’t thermal throttling and it’s relatively decent when I do a benchmark. But when I benchmark my cpu get below to low average I’m wondering if it is software but I don’t think so
the Only software that I think could do this would be my Radeon relive I will get my anti virus to see if any malware software is stopping my gpu but I’m not sure
But what I mean for frame drops is on my gpu I get 90frames for a solid minute then for 30seconds I will get 20-30frames and then it goes up

 

[Obakasama]

Hm... ruling out virus and malware is a wise decision.

I would suggest using some hardware monitor to check whether your CPU is actually running at the correct multipliers. Occasionally some users find their CPUs aren't running at the correct clockspeeds.

Easier while gaming if you use MSI Afterburner (or similar) to monitor certain values as (hopefully) it will show how the hardware acts when those frame rates drop. I suggest CPU (all core/threads), GPU and RAM usages and frequencies; CPU and GPU temperature; fps and frametimes; and page file. Also perhaps note if there are any particular background processes which may run too; some games are more sensitive to open windows than others.

Let's see if we can get any particular info which seems to indicate something wrong and proceed from there.

 

[derstroyer56]

Hm... ruling out virus and malware is a wise decision.

I would suggest using some hardware monitor to check whether your CPU is actually running at the correct multipliers. Occasionally some users find their CPUs aren't running at the correct clockspeeds.

Easier while gaming if you use MSI Afterburner (or similar) to monitor certain values as (hopefully) it will show how the hardware acts when those frame rates drop. I suggest CPU (all core/threads), GPU and RAM usages and frequencies; CPU and GPU temperature; fps and frametimes; and page file. Also perhaps note if there are any particular background processes which may run too; some games are more sensitive to open windows than others.

Let's see if we can get any particular info which seems to indicate something wrong and proceed from there.

ok so I did some benchmarking but from what I saw the GPU usage memory and clock speed stayed the same whilst I ran cod mw remarsted. the CPU usage varied from 80-100 but didn't change as the frame drops. the only outlier was my ram that went from 1750 to 300 every time it dropped I don't know what factor this plays but everything else is normal the only backround proccess where discord msi after burner steam skype origin. the fps of the frame drops where at 75 capped then would go to 17-15. if this doesnt help i can give you some more benchmarking results.

 

[derstroyer56]

ok so I did some benchmarking but from what I saw the GPU usage memory and clock speed stayed the same whilst I ran cod mw remarsted. the CPU usage varied from 80-100 but didn't change as the frame drops. the only outlier was my ram that went from 1750 to 300 every time it dropped I don't know what factor this plays but everything else is normal the only backround proccess where discord msi after burner steam skype origin. the fps of the frame drops where at 75 capped then would go to 17-15. if this doesnt help i can give you some more benchmarking results.

another thing i found is the gpu load drops to 0 when the gpu memory drops to 300

 

[Obakasama]

So RAM frequency dropping, and does this correspond to the GPU frequency and VRAM drop?

Thinking perhaps checking whether those are working properly. Personally thinking of MemTest for the RAM to see if it's not faulty. Also have a feeling about PSU for some reason; what brand and model PSU do you have?

 

[derstroyer56]

I have a cougar six 650w 80plus power supply and the gpu usage drops to zero and so does the vram not ram when the frames drop I don’t know if the gpu is overheating and is trying to cool but it only gets to about 75c

 

[Obakasama]

Googling around suggests the RX 470 at 75c is too hot for certain brands (Asus was the main culprit at the time it seems); even thermal throttling at 70c. Since these are the same GPU I would expect similar behaviour from yours too.

I can't seem to find much info on that PSU, but from one of the current PSU tier lists Cougar branded ones don't seem to be well thought of (at least from a heavy gaming perspective). https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/1045610-new-psu-tier-list/

Not much more I can add, but I would suggest seeing if the voltage readings from the motherboard are within acceptable variance for the PSU. Usually should be found in BIOS or using something like HWiNFO. This is just to rule out whether fluctuations could be a potential cause.

 

[derstroyer56]

How do I check the acceptable variance for the psu as I don’t know what to look for in the bios

 

[Obakasama]

For reference (scroll down to the first table under the Measuring Voltage section): https://www.tomshardware.co.uk/power-supply-protection-calculate-consumption,review-32356-6.html

Figures outside of this range may indicate a problem with the PSU (or, I suppose, the power delivery of the motherboard). I'm pretty sure the old JonnyGuru site had tolerances as +/- 5% for the 3V and 5V readings, and 10% for the 12V reading.

 

[derstroyer56]

I went on my bios and saw under the voltages tab that for 3.3v I was getting 3.376v and for 5v I was getting 5v and for 12v i got 12.192v does this help?

 

[Obakasama]

Those are within the tolerance range I mentioned and linked to in the previous post.

 

[derstroyer56]

So the psu isn’t the problem