m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
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I just spent a lot of my savings on a GTX 1070. I previously had a GTX 970. Saddest thing is I'm getting exactly similar performance as the GTX 970 because in most games my CPU is utilized 100% (1080p). 😕 Could be the RAM too but I'm confused. I'm seeing all these videos with GTX 1070s giving monster performance on YT. :cautious:

My setup:
  • i5 6500
  • 8GB of TeamGroup RAM (2133Mhz)
  • Gigabyte G1.Sniper B7 mobo
  • MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X
What would you suggest me do to fix this issue?

My options at the moment (Still unable to afford) :
  • Get an i7 6700
  • Get a Z170 mobo and OC my i5 6500 (would my current RAM be an issue?)
  • Get an i5 6th gen "K" processor (then i'll need a new mobo too right?)
What would be the best option to choose from here? I'm never doing any upgrade again without consulting here.
 
Solution
First of all i have to say that i really appreciate the support i got from T's H community. So here's the verdict.

I'm so glad i did my own research and took time to do a proper debugging/hardware benchmark instead of rushing into a unnecessary purchase. My processor wasn't bottlenecking my GPU at all. It was my single channel 8GB RAM. Just got my new 8GB RAM and the performance increase throughout the PC is unbelievable. Running dual channel seriously took the load off of my i5 6500. Now it's running lightly with around 30 - 40% increase in gaming performance. Believe me when i say this, I'm seeing 20 - 30 FPS increments in some games. OMG. Even with being kind of a hardcore developer for more than 12 years, i never knew how much of a...

Impu7se

Commendable
Feb 13, 2019
169
13
1,615
Your cpu is probabbly bottlenecking(doesn’t have enough perfomance for a certain component/not balanced) w/ your gpu. So to fix that you should 1. Clock your cpu(optional)
2. Upgrade your cpu.
Also you said you have 8 gb of ram you should up that to 16.(Choose exactly the same model) But first the cpu.
 

m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
10
1
525
Your cpu is probabbly bottlenecking(id underpowered for a certain component/not balanced) w/ your gpu. So to fix that you should 1. Clock your cpu(optional)
2. Upgrade your cpu.
Also you said you have 8 gb of ram you should up that to 16.(Choose exactly the same model) But first the cpu.

Thanks for the response. But I'm unable to change the clock on this mobo. I'm pretty much ball and chained with the current setup.
 
Non "K" cpu's are not overclockable, Atm, the only option is to upgrade the cpu, but the prices for an i7 6700 or 7700 are quite unrealistic at ~$250. At that price point, it'd probably be better to switch over to a new platform like a lga1151(300 series) or am4 ryzen.

"K" cpu's are just a different model that is overclockable, not a different generation, yes your board supports 6th and 7th gen "K" cpu's.

Side note: My bud has the same setup as you, albeit with 16gb ram, and the bottleneck isnt that severe.
 

m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
10
1
525
Non "K" cpu's are not overclockable, Atm, the only option is to upgrade the cpu, but the prices for an i7 6700 or 7700 are quite unrealistic at ~$250. At that price point, it'd probably be better to switch over to a new platform like a lga1151(300 series) or am4 ryzen.

"K" cpu's are just a different model that is overclockable, not a different generation, yes your board supports 6th and 7th gen "K" cpu's.

Side note: My bud has the same setup as you, albeit with 16gb ram, and the bottleneck isnt that severe.

Thank you for the wisdom and the side not about your friend's rig. But correct me if I'm wrong, aren't non "k" CPUs heavily overclockable now with custom bios on Z170 mobos (Asrock)?

 

uguv

Distinguished
On certain boards, with certain BIOS versions, you can overclock skylake non-K CPUs by bumping the BCLK. This has side effects of overclocking the memory and can cause issues. I wouldn't bother trying it. I'd bump your ram up to 16gb first, using an identical stick as @Impu7se mentioned above.
 

m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
10
1
525
On certain boards, with certain BIOS versions, you can overclock skylake non-K CPUs by bumping the BCLK. This has side effects of overclocking the memory and can cause issues. I wouldn't bother trying it. I'd bump your ram up to 16gb first, using an identical stick as @Impu7se mentioned above.

Hi, thanks for the response. I'm thinking the same. What i wanna do since I'm on a tight budget is to get the PC to the store and test a RAM on it since it's much easier. That might be the easiest first step of the diagnosis.
 

Impu7se

Commendable
Feb 13, 2019
169
13
1,615
Non "K" cpu's are not overclockable, Atm, the only option is to upgrade the cpu, but the prices for an i7 6700 or 7700 are quite unrealistic at ~$250. At that price point, it'd probably be better to switch over to a new platform like a lga1151(300 series) or am4 ryzen.

"K" cpu's are just a different model that is overclockable, not a different generation, yes your board supports 6th and 7th gen "K" cpu's.

Side note: My bud has the same setup as you, albeit with 16gb ram, and the bottleneck isnt that severe.
Yea sorry didn’t notice that it was non k model.
 
Thank you for the wisdom and the side not about your friend's rig. But correct me if I'm wrong, aren't non "k" CPUs heavily overclockable now with custom bios on Z170 mobos (Asrock)?


Yes, one can overclock with a base clock overclock, however one would need to roll back to a bios update predating whenever intel decided to nix bclk. And with ram being only 2133, the likelihood of the ram keeping up with the cpu overclock well past stock boost speeds of 3.6ghz, seems a bit doubtful, unless your ram is very good, and you, very lucky.
 
1080P frame rates while gaming in several games would indeed be limited by a 6500, especially in newer games thriving on cores and threads.

Alas, the 7700K runs right at $400 on Amazon, and a 6700 at an unbalanced/ stupid $429, so, a 9600K and new mainboard might be both faster and less expensive.
 

m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
10
1
525
Yes, one can overclock with a base clock overclock, however one would need to roll back to a bios update predating whenever intel decided to nix bclk. And with ram being only 2133, the likelihood of the ram keeping up with the cpu overclock well past stock boost speeds of 3.6ghz, seems a bit doubtful, unless your ram is very good, and you, very lucky.

That's what i thought. RAM would definitely be an issue.


1080P frame rates while gaming in several games would indeed be limited by a 6500, especially in newer games thriving on cores and threads.

Alas, the 7700K runs right at $400 on Amazon, and a 6700 at an unbalanced/ stupid $429, so, a 9600K and new mainboard might be both faster and less expensive.

I see. Unfortunately it's impossible for me to get both inside my budget. The reason i asked about that specific processor is somebody agreed to swap my processor + $120 for a i7 6700. It does seem like the cheapest option for me to solve this for now.
 

m4heshd

Prominent
Mar 18, 2019
10
1
525
First of all i have to say that i really appreciate the support i got from T's H community. So here's the verdict.

I'm so glad i did my own research and took time to do a proper debugging/hardware benchmark instead of rushing into a unnecessary purchase. My processor wasn't bottlenecking my GPU at all. It was my single channel 8GB RAM. Just got my new 8GB RAM and the performance increase throughout the PC is unbelievable. Running dual channel seriously took the load off of my i5 6500. Now it's running lightly with around 30 - 40% increase in gaming performance. Believe me when i say this, I'm seeing 20 - 30 FPS increments in some games. OMG. Even with being kind of a hardcore developer for more than 12 years, i never knew how much of a role "Multi-channel memory architecture" played in overall hardware performance. This was one hell of a lesson. I really hope this thread would help somebody with a similar confusing issue before taking a regrettable decision. Other than gaming, video rendering, compiling, compressing and many other tasks show significant improvements in performance. Well.. i finally got what i wanted with spending just around $70 and with a memory capacity upgrade too. ☺ Posting this as a new reply instead of editing the last one just for the sake of notifications and reach.
 
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