Question How do I reach 240+ Frames (upgrade advice)

Jun 9, 2019
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TL;DR: NEED 300 FPS WHICH RYZEN CPU SHOULD I GET, OR DO I HAVE A BOTTLENECK SOMEWHERE?
Hello I would like to give some backstory as to my needs for this build.

I am a senior in college studying game design and a Varsity Esports player for my college's Overwatch team. I currently have a 240hz monitor and have now saved enough to get the cpu to pair with it. As it stands I am running 100-120 on all low settings with my build.

Build:
Windows 10 64b version 1903
Corsair CX600 PSU
GTX 1080ti
Ryzen 5 2600
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI
222gb SSD with 12.9 free

Peripherals:
Alienware aw2518hf 240hz monitor
Benq xl2411z 144hz monitor
60hz asus monitor

Corsair k70rgb rapidfire
Logitech g502
Blue Snowball

Overwatch Settings
Render Scale: 75%
Texture Quality: Low
Texture Filtering Quality: Low
Local Fog Detail: Low
Dynamic Reflections: Off
Shadow Detail: Off
Model Detail: Low
Effects Detail: Low
Lighting Quality: Low
Antialias Quality:Off
Refraction Quality: Low
Screenshot Quality: 1xresolution
Local Reflections: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off

My goal is to run Overwatch consistently as close to 300fps as possible
additionally a cpu upgrade would help with game development.
I'm looking into upgrading to a ryzen 3rd gen processor such as the ryzen 7 3800x or ryzen 9 3900x. Would the 3900x be overkill?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. If you can see any bottlenecks please let me know as well.
 
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The FIRST thing you should do, is upgrade that power supply. The older green label CX models are absolute turds. If you've been using that with that 1080 TI for long then not only are you extremely fortunate that it's still operational but you're also lucky (Hopefully) that nothing has been damaged and you'd be wise to replace it with a quality unit before anything IS damaged. They are prone to early failure, often, and I know of at least three instances MYSELF where one of those CX600 units have torched a motherboard (x2) and a graphics card. Get it out of that system, if you care about that hardware. Seriously.

The newer gray label CX units, while still not what we'd call "quality" or premium, are at least better by a long shot than those older models with the green CX on the black label. I still don't recommend them unless it's ABSOLUTELY a necessity that you do so, but at least they don't die in droves or kill hardware. At least not that I've seen so far. They are not however in any wise a good match for the rest of your system. Click the spoiler below for recommendations on a quality replacement. I'd recommend that you look at 650-750w models. If you decide to go with the 3800x or 3900x I'd probably lean that recommendation towards the 750w end of the spectrum due to the 105w TDP of those processors alone.

Let's start with a couple of the biggest PSU misconceptions out there.

First, that if a power supply has a lot of watts it must be good. Nope. That's wrong.

It's also very much untrue to try and say that if a unit carries a certain brand name then it has to be good. Again, wrong.

There are plenty of 750-1000w units out there that I wouldn't trust to power a string of LED lights and might in fact be a much worse choice than a unit with a significantly lower listed capacity.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, how many watts or amps it says it can support is irrelevant.

Higher 80plus certification doesn't mean anything, UNLESS it is a PSU platform that we already know is good anyhow. For example, a Seasonic Prime platinum unit is going to be a better product than a Seasonic Prime Gold unit, because we already know the Prime platform is very good, and platinum efficiency along with it shows there are some improvements internally to account for the higher efficiency.

In a case like that, it might be worth it. It's likely the unit will create less heat, it will probably have better performance in regard to ripple, noise and voltage regulation. It might shave a few pennies, or dollars, off the electric bill over the course of a year.

Other than that, it is not going to perform any better than the same platform with Gold efficiency. On the other hand, just because a unit has Titanium 80plus ratings doesn't mean the unit is any good at all. For example, there are Raidmax units with Titanium efficiency and I wouldn't trust one of those to power a light bulb. There are a lot of units like this out there.

If the platform isn't good to begin with, whether or not it has an 80plus certification is irrelevant.

Whatever you do, don't EVER buy a power supply based on whether it has RGB or lighting, or looks like it might be a quality unit. Some of the biggest hunks of junk out there look just as good as a Seasonic Prime Ultra Titanium, but I assure you, they are not. So far there are very few very good units out there that have RGB built in. Maybe one or two models, but rest assured you'll be be paying for the lighting, not for the quality of the power supply.

I don't know what country you reside in, and I know that sometimes it's hard to come by good units in some regions, but when possible, when it comes time to get that PSU, I'd stick to the following if you can.

Seasonic. Seasonic isn't just a brand, they are a PSU manufacturer, unlike many of the PSU brands you see they make their own power supply platforms AND a great many of the very good PSU models out there from other brands like Antec, Corsair and older XFX are made by Seasonic.

Just about anything made by Seasonic is good quality for the most part. There are really no bad Seasonic units and only a very few that are even somewhat mediocre. They do make a few less-good quality OEM style units, but mostly those are not going to be units you come across at most vendors, and they are still not bad. Also, the S12II and M12II 520 and 620w units are older, group regulated models. At one time they were among the best units you could buy. Now, they are outdated and not as good as almost any other Seasonic models. They are however still better than a LOT of newer designs by other manufacturers.

The Seasonic 520w and 620w S12II/M12II units CAN be used on newer Intel platforms, if you turn off C6/C7 in the bios, but I'd really recommend a newer platform whenever possible. Prices are usually pretty good on those though, so sometimes it's worth accepting the lack of DC-DC on the internal platform. Higher capacity versions of the High current gamer are not based on that platform, so they are fine. Those being the 750w and higher versions.

Most common currently, in order of preference, would be the Seasonic Focus series, then Focus plus, then Prime, then Prime ultra. It's worth mentioning that there are generally Gold, Platinum and Titanium versions within each, or most, of those series, but that does not necessarily mean that a Focus plus Platinum is necessarily better than a Prime Gold. It only means that it scored better in the 80plus efficiency testing, not that the platform is better.

Again, don't let yourself get tangled up in the idea that a higher 80plus rating specifically means that it is a better unit than another one with a lower rating, unless you know that it is a good platform from the start. All these Focus and Prime units are pretty good so you can somewhat focus on the 80plus rating when deciding which of them to choose.

Super Flower. Super Flower is another PSU manufacturer. They are like Seasonic and they make power supplies for a variety of other companies, like EVGA. Super Flower units are usually pretty good. I'd stick to the Leadex, Leadex II and Golden Green models.They also make most of the good units sold by EVGA like the G2, G3, P2 and T2 models.

Super Flower doesn't have a very broad availability for the units with their own brand name on them, and are not available in a lot of countries but for those where there is availability you want to look at the Leadex and Leadex II models. The Golden green platform is fairly decent too but is getting rather long in the tooth as a platform AND I've seen some reviews indicating a few shortcomings on units based on this platform.

Even so, it's a great deal better than a lot of other platforms out there so you could certainly do worse than a Golden green model. Units based on the Leadex and Leadex II platforms are much better though.

Corsair. The CX and CXm units are ok as a budget option, but I do not recommend pairing them with gaming cards. The newer 2017 models of CX and CXm are better than the older ones, but still not what we'd call terrific, so if it specifically says 2017 model, or it has a capacity other than an even 100, like 550w, 650w, 750w, etc., then it's likely at least better than those older ones. Aside from that, any of the TX, RMx, RMi, RM, HX, HXi, AX or AXi units are good. Those are listed from good to best, with the best being the AX and AXi units.

Antec. The True power classic units are made by Seasonic, and are very good, but are not modular. The High current gamer 520w and 620w, or any other PSU you see on the market that is 520w or 620w, are also made by Seasonic, based on the S12II and M12II platform for modern versions, and are pretty good units but again they are an older platform that is group regulated so if you go with a Haswell or newer Intel configuration you will want to avoid those because they do not support the C6/C7 Intel low power states.

The Antec High current gamer 750w and 850w units are very good and are not the older design, which came in 520w and 620w capacities and were good for back then but again, are an aging Seasonic platform that is not the best choice most of the time these days. Occasionally, these older units MIGHT be the best unit available and you could do worse than one of them, but a newer DC-DC platform is desirable when possible if it doesn't mean sacrificing quality elsewhere in the platform. There are however older and newer HCG models, so exact model number will likely be a factor if choosing one of these however both the older models and the newer models are good.

Antec Edge units are ok too, but reviews indicate that they have noisy fan profiles. I'd only choose this model if it is on sale or the aesthetics match up with your color scheme or design. Still a good power supply but maybe a little aggressive on the fan profile. This may have been cured on newer Edge models so reading professional tear down reviews is still the best idea.

Antec Earthwatts Gold units are very good also.

BeQuiet. BeQuiet does have a few decent models, BUT, you must be VERY selective about which of their models you put your trust in. From model to model their are huge differences in both quality and performance, even with the same series. If you cannot find a review for a BeQuiet unit on HardOCP, JonnyGuru or Tom's hardware that SPECIFICALLY says it is a very good unit, and does not have any significant issues in the "cons" category, I would avoid it. In fact, I'd probably avoid it anyhow unless there is a very great sale on one that has good reviews, because their units are generally more expensive than MUCH better units from Antec, Seasonic, EVGA and Corsair.

EVGA. They have BOTH good and not very good models.

Not very good are the W1, N1, B1, B3 (Most models failed testing), BQ, BR, BT and G1 NEX models.

Good models are the B2, G2, G2L, G3, GQ, P2 and T2 models.

FSP. They used to be very mediocre, and are a PSU manufacturer like Seasonic and Super Flower, although not as well trusted based on historical performance. Currently the FSP Hydro G and Hydro X units are pretty good.

I would avoid Thermaltake and Cooler Master.

They do have a few good units, but most of the models they sell are either poor or mediocre, and the ones they have that ARE good are usually way overpriced.

This is just ONE example of why I say that. Very new and modern CM unit. One of the worst scores ever seen on JonnyGuru for a well known brand name product. Doesn't look to be much better than a Raidmax unit. Sad.

Cooler Master Masterwatt Lite 600W review

And most of the models I have linked to the reviews of at the following link are at least good, with most of them being fantastic.

Power supply discussion thread

The Powerspec units sold my Microcenter are a mixed bag. Some of them are fairly decent using the same platform as the Sirfa High power astro lite platform, so not total dumpster fire type units, but not particularly good either, and some of their units are simply garbage and should be listed below in the DO NOT USE category, but I'm leaving them out because there are really no reviews of them and since there are a few units from them that are ok-ish, I'm giving them a "use at your own discretion but buy a better model if you can" grade.

A gray label CX or CXm unit would probably be an upgrade from one of those Powerspec models, without any doubt.

Certainly there ARE some good units out there that you won't see above among those I've listed, but they are few and far between, much as a hidden nugget of gold you find in a crevice among otherwise ordinary rocks and don't EVER assume a unit is good just because of the brand.

If you cannot find an IN DEPTH, REPUTABLE review on Tom's hardware, JonnyGuru, HardOCP, Hardware secrets (Old reviews by Gabe Torres), Kitguru (Only Aris reviews), TechPowerUP, SilentPC crew or a similar site that does much more than simply a review of the unboxing and basic tests that don't include reliable results for ripple, noise, voltage regulation and a complete teardown of the unit including identification of the internal platform, then the unit is a big fat question mark.

I recommend not trusting such units as companies generally always send out review samples of any unit they feel is going to get a good review, and don't send them out if they know they are going to get hammered by the reviewer. No review usually equals poor quality. Usually.


Other models that should never be trusted OR USED AT ALL, under any circumstances, include

Acbell, A-Top, AK Power, Alpine, Apevia, Apex (Supercase/Allied), Artic, Ace, Aerocool (There might be one model worth using, but I'd still avoid them.), Aspire (Turbocase), Atadc, Atrix, Broadway com corp, Chieftech, Circle, CIT, Coolmax, Deer, Diablotek, Dynapower, Dynex, Eagletech, Enlight, Eurotech, Evo labs, EZ cool, Feedtek, Foxconn, G7, HEC/Compucase Orion, HEDY, High power, iBall, iStar computer co., Jeantec, JPac, Just PC, Kolink, LC Power, Linkworld electronics, Logisys, Macron, MSI, NmediaPC, Norwood Micro (CompUSA), Okia, Powercool, Powmax, Pulsepower, Q-tec, Raidmax, Rave, Rocketfish, Segotep, SFC, Sharkoon, Shuttle, Skyhawk, Spire, Startech, Storm, Sumvision, Tesla, Trust, Ultra, Wintech, Winpower, Xilence (Until I see a reputable review of a model showing different), xTreme (Cyberpower), Youngbear and Zebronics.

In truth, a 3700x is probably more than enough even if you are multitasking with recording or streaming software, among other possible multitasking projects, because it's not going to take advantage of anything beyond six cores anyhow, leaving two other cores free and clear for other assignments. The 3800x and 3900x might have, on paper, slightly faster maximum boost clocks, but in reality these are all going to offer about the same single core performance give or take a small amount so paying a ton more for a bunch of threads your primary target game won't even use is senseless unless you plan to do some serious heavy multitasking, then maybe the extra cores COULD possibly be helpful but honestly I find it hard to recommend anything beyond the 3700x for your use case.
 
TL;DR: NEED 300 FPS WHICH RYZEN CPU SHOULD I GET, OR DO I HAVE A BOTTLENECK SOMEWHERE?
Hello I would like to give some backstory as to my needs for this build.

I am a senior in college studying game design and a Varsity Esports player for my college's Overwatch team. I currently have a 240hz monitor and have now saved enough to get the cpu to pair with it. As it stands I am running 80-100fps on all low settings with my build.

Build:
Windows 10 64b version 1903
Corsair CX600 PSU
GTX 1080ti
Ryzen 5 2600
CORSAIR Vengeance RGB 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 3000MHz
GIGABYTE B450 AORUS PRO WIFI
222gb SSD with 12.9 free

Peripherals:
Alienware aw2518hf 240hz monitor
Benq xl2411z 144hz monitor
60hz asus monitor

Corsair k70rgb rapidfire
Logitech g502
Blue Snowball

Overwatch Settings
Render Scale: 75%
Texture Quality: Low
Texture Filtering Quality: Low
Local Fog Detail: Low
Dynamic Reflections: Off
Shadow Detail: Off
Model Detail: Low
Effects Detail: Low
Lighting Quality: Low
Antialias Quality:Off
Refraction Quality: Low
Screenshot Quality: 1xresolution
Local Reflections: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off

My goal is to run Overwatch consistently as close to 300fps as possible
additionally a cpu upgrade would help with game development.
I'm looking into upgrading to a ryzen 3rd gen processor such as the ryzen 7 3800x or ryzen 9 3900x. Would the 3900x be overkill?
Any thoughts would be appreciated. If you can see any bottlenecks please let me know as well.
You must be doing something wrong because I’m hitting around 100 with the same CPU, a RTX 2060S and everything on epic at 1440p
 
Jun 9, 2019
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10
You must be doing something wrong because I’m hitting around 100 with the same CPU, a RTX 2060S and everything on epic at 1440p


I've run DDU and upgraded to the latest drivers and get like 20 more fps now. The question still remains on the best way to get a consistent 240+ fps.
 
I've run DDU and upgraded to the latest drivers and get like 20 more fps now. The question still remains on the best way to get a consistent 240+ fps.

Once you start trying for framerates that high you very quickly get CPU limited. Basically you need the fastest gaming CPU possible (which is usually Intel eg. 9900k with overclock, though an R7 3800x is probably your next best choice if you want to stick with AMD) paired with some fairly fast RAM eg. 3200-3600MHz dual channel kit with as low a CAS latency as possible. Even then, you may not consistently hit 240FPS in all circumstances. If your monitor has Gsync or Freesync, make use of that feature, as it will eliminate tearing when you drop below 240FPS.
 
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An R7 3800x isn't going to give you any more FPS, legitimately, and to a level worth the extra cost, than the 3700x. Not on Overwatch. Those extra threads will go unused and they have the exact same cores, so there is nothing there really that offers an advantage in this scenario that I can see. Same for the 9900k. A 9700k with it's 8 cores is going to be just as good because two more cores is not going to translate to additional FPS in overwatch.
 

OllympianGamer

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Checking the Ram list for your motherboard if you do go with a Ryzen 3000 you can go up to 3600mhz ram, you could also put a water block on your 1080ti. Getting every last bit of performance out of your build will require you to fine tune the voltages and thermals.
 
"9700k with it's 8 cores is going to be just as good because two more cores is not going to translate to additional FPS "

Two more cores than what? (Every processor mentioned above is an 8 core CPU...) :)

Ok, that SHOULD have said two more threads, not two more cores. You people and your semantics. Really, it doesn't even matter if it WAS two more cores versus two more threads. The end result would be the same because if the game can't make use of more than six threads and you have an 8 core CPU, and you are not multitasking to a significant degree, then you are already past the point of a 100% diminished return anyhow.