I can't tell if my CPU is causing a bottleneck in my games

[JCat]

Hey friends,

I have been noticing frame drops and stutters in most of the newer games I bought and was wondering if it its because of my CPU, GPU, or if its just normal. So far Battlefront 2 and COD WWII have noticeable drops in performance.

I also feel like I should add this detail. My CPU is water cooled, and was previously OC'd to 4.9GHz using AI Suite 3. I recently did a complete clean install to remove some malware and when I tried to have it auto OC again it only could get it to 3.9GHz.

To me, it sounds like the CPU is worn out or something. Either that, or the CPU isn't getting enough power to go any higher, which shouldn't be the case. Before it was 4.9 with the same hardware. Can either of these be what is causing my games to freeze up for about 1 second randomly? In multiplayer its hard to tell if it's lag or my system. I would appreciate your thoughts on how to fix this. Is upgrading the only fix? Thanks.

Full specs:
Intel Core i7-4770k @3.50
ASUS Z87-A (16GB DDR3 RAM)
GTX 1080 FTW2 (modestly OC'd)
750W Corsair PSU
1 exhaust fan, 3 intakes, with the radiator being cooled by an intake fan.

 

[clutchc]

At what screen resolution and vert. refresh rate do you game? That CPU should be fine with the GTX 1080.
Does this only happen when gaming online on busy servers? Or in offline single player mode as well?

 

[JCat]

At what screen resolution and vert. refresh rate do you game? That CPU should be fine with the GTX 1080.
Does this only happen when gaming online on busy servers? Or in offline single player mode as well?

Thanks for the response. The screen resolution I game at is 1440p at 60fps. And this happens every time at the start of a multiplayer match on BF2. Massive dips in fps when we are all running toward whatever the first objective is, the frame stuttering is so bad I usually die. It could be the game is badly made too, idk. But in single player, in the middle of missions it will freeze for a second and then catch itself back up. Happens not too often, maybe twice in 3 hours, but enough to warrant a post.

For COD its kind of the same deal but I'm only playing single player and the same freezing happens.
In Overwatch it happens only during intense team fights, but rarely.

 

[clutchc]

There's nothing in your system listing above that would indicate a performance issue. I suspect either software conflicts or malware running in the background. Or any other stuff you may have running when Win starts that is hogging clock cycles. Have you run CCleaner lately?

 

[JCat]

There's nothing in your system listing above that would indicate a performance issue. I suspect either software conflicts or malware running in the background. Or any other stuff you may have running when Win starts that is hogging clock cycles. Have you run CCleaner lately?

I just ran CCleaner and it didn't help. My clean install of windows removed the malware I was dealing with. Malwarebytes confirmed that. And nothing besides Origin or Steam is ever running when I play. I have the minimum amount of programs on there for that reason (just game clients and chrome are installed besides Malwarebytes and CCleaner).

I think it might actually just be the games theirselves

 

[clutchc]

That is narrowing it down some, yes. I too suspect the games are the problem. And/or the server load. But the single player problem has me scratching my head. If it was just the server, it wouldn't show up in single player.

Why don't you try OC'ing the CPU again and see if you notice any difference. But this time, don't use auto OC. Raise the multi manually in BIOS as far as you can go w/o any voltage increase, and still remain stable. Basically a test, not that you should need to OC.

 

[Rexper]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from JCat : "Can't tell if my CPU is the bottleneck in my system."

Hey friends,

I have been noticing frame drops and stutters in most of the newer games I bought and was wondering if it its because of my CPU, GPU, or if its just normal. So far Battlefront 2 and COD WWII have noticeable drops in performance.

I also feel like I should add this detail. My CPU is water cooled, and was previously OC'd to 4.9GHz using AI Suite 3. I recently did a complete clean install to remove some malware and when I tried to have it auto OC again it only could get it to 3.9GHz.

To me, it sounds like the CPU is worn out or something. Can this be what is causing my games to freeze up for about 1 second randomly? In multiplayer its hard to tell if it's lag or my system. I would appreciate your thoughts on how to fix this. Is upgrading the only fix? Thanks.

Full specs:
Intel Core i7-4770k @3.50
ASUS Z87-A (16GB DDR3 RAM)
GTX 1080 FTW2 (modestly OC'd)
750W Corsair PSU
1 exhaust fan, 3 intakes, with the radiator being cooled by an intake fan.

Even fully functioning 4770 would be some bottleneck for that GPU, some OC would help though.

Even fully functioning 4770 would be some bottleneck for that GPU, some OC would help though.

I managed to get it to OC to 4.6GHz

There is zero way for us to know what your bottleneck is.

Really the only person who can check is yourself. Check your per-core usage an GPU usage while gaming. Whichever is near 100% is the limiting factor.

 

[JCat]

That is narrowing it down some, yes. I too suspect the games are the problem. And/or the server load. But the single player problem has me scratching my head. If it was just the server, it wouldn't show up in single player.

Why don't you try OC'ing the CPU again and see if you notice any difference. But this time, don't use auto OC. Raise the multi manually in BIOS as far as you can go w/o any voltage increase, and still remain stable. Basically a test, not that you should need to OC.

Ok so this basically fixed everything. I manually OC'd back to 4.6GHz and these issues have pretty much gone away.

 

[clutchc]

That is narrowing it down some, yes. I too suspect the games are the problem. And/or the server load. But the single player problem has me scratching my head. If it was just the server, it wouldn't show up in single player.

Why don't you try OC'ing the CPU again and see if you notice any difference. But this time, don't use auto OC. Raise the multi manually in BIOS as far as you can go w/o any voltage increase, and still remain stable. Basically a test, not that you should need to OC.

Ok so this basically fixed everything. I manually OC'd back to 4.6GHz and these issues have pretty much gone away.

So, you're saying it appears to be the "auto OC" that was causing the issues?